Białystok during World War II

Białystok during World War II endured two occupations and suffered extensive human and physical devastation. The war broke in September 1939, when Nazi Germany invaded Poland on the 1st of September followed by the Soviet Union on the 17th of September. At that time, Białystok was the capital of Białystok Voivodeship in the Second Polish Republic. The city changed hands several times during the war. Initially occupied by German forces in early September 1939, it was soon transferred to Soviet control when the Red Army entered on September 20, in line with the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact. The city, together with the surrounding territories was then annexed to the Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic and it became the capital of Belastok Region. During this period it passed through a massive Sovietization process which included installation of Soviet political system, nationalization of the economic sectors and adaptations of Soviet economic models, tight censorship and deportations to the Soviet Union. On June 1941, during Operation Barbarossa, the city was occupied again by the German Army and it became the capital of Bialystok District. The German occupation further continued severe repression and exploitation, culminating in the establishment of the Białystok Ghetto. Following a failed uprising in August 1943, the remaining Jewish population was deported to the Treblinka extermination camp. German repression and exploitation of the city continued but by 1944, following a series of losses in major battles, the front came closer to the city, when in July 1944, shortly before they retreated, the Germans set in fire large part of the city center. On July 27, 1944 the Soviets entered the city. While in the first days of the renewed Soviet occupation, it was uncertain whether the city would become part of Poland or the Soviet Union by the end of August it was decided by the Soviet Union to hand over the city to Poland. By the time the war ended in May 1945 Białystok had undergone a dramatic transformation with 80% of the city's buildings destroyed (especially in the city center), its industrial potential fell by 74%, its once thriving large jewish community vanished and the overall population fell from approximately 100,000 in 1938 to fewer than 50,000.