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BIALYGen

Bialystok Region Jewish Genealogy Group


PUBLICATIONS

A Bibliography of books and other publications on the BIALYGen Region, 

including short synopsis where available

 

Most of the articles and other presentations on Jews in the towns and villages of the Bialystok region, as elsewhere in Europe, were written since 1945 and describe the Nazi annihilation of these communities and the Jewish life that existed before the Holocaust.  For the genealogists, these Memorial or Yizkor books are important as an historic portrait before and during the Holocaust and as source of possible family names.  The bibliography listed below comes mainly from two excellent sources—the US Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM) and the Library of Congress (LC).  Additional articles can be found on various websites, most notably Ada Holtzman's Zchor website for Bialystok, Ciechanowiec and Janow (Sokolski) and Tilford Bartman's Zabludow website. Major Yizkor Books are also listed on JewishGen Yizkor Book website and more details can be found under the Yizkor Book section of this website. 

 

If you know of additional written or video sources for the Bialystok region, please send the information to Sidney Zabludoff.  For those familiar with these publications, we would appreciate a short synopsis that can be added to the material below as well as a list of names in these publications that can be placed on this website.

 

This bibliography is organized by Town and then alphabetically by author. Please use the index below to navigate to your town of interest.

 

BialyGen Region Bialystok Bielsk Podlaski
Bransk Ciechanowiec Dabrowa Bialostocka
Drohiczyn Goniadz Grodek
Krynki Michalowo Orla
Siemiatycze Sokolka Suchowola
Suprasl Tykocin Wasilkow
Zabludow Videos

   

Bialystok Region

 

Blachetta-Madajczyk, Petra:  I shall live-Jewish cemeteries of Poland, 2000.

Subject: Includes Bialystok region. (LC and USHMM)

 

Frank, Herman (editor):  Series of books, Tales of Jews in Bialystok and Region, 1951-. (LC)

Wisniewski, Tomasz: Jewish Bialystok and Surroundings in Eastern Poland, 1998. (LC and USHMM)

 

Wisniewski, Tomasz and Grajter, A.: Records of the Jewish Cemeteries. (USHMM)

 

Wisniewski, Tomasz:  Heartland of the Jewish Life - Synagogues and Jewish Communities in the Bialystok Region, 1992. (LC and USHMM)

 

Wisniewski, Tomasz: Bialystok w starej poctowce, 1990. 

Subject: Bialystok in old postcards

 

Return to Index

 

Bialystok

 

Abramowicz, Zofia: Slownik Etymologiczny Nazwisk zydyw Bialostockich, 2003.

Subject:  Etymology of Jewish names in Bialystok.  (USHMM)

 

Anders, Freja; Kutscher, Hauke-Hendrik; Stroll, Katrin:  Bialystok in Bielefeld, 2003.

Subject:  Holocaust in Bialystok (USHMM)

 

Bender, Sara:  Yehude Byalistok be-Milhemet ha-“Olam ha-Sheniyah, 1939-1943, Tel Aviv, 1997. Published also as Phd thesis in 1994.

Subject:  History and Holocaust in Bialystok. (LC)

 

Berkner, S.S.:  Zhiznr I borrba belostokskogo getto, 2001

Subject:  Life in Bialystok Ghetto (LC).

 

Bialystoker Center, New York: The Bialystoker Memorial Book, Bialystoker Center, New York, 1982. Subject: Yizkor Book (USHMM)

 

Bielsky-Bell, Lillian:  Oral History, USHMM, 1992

  

Blumental, Nachman:  Darko shel Yudentrat: te’udot mi-geto Bialistok, Jerusalem. 1962. (LC)

Subject:  Jewish Ghetto Councils in Bialystok. (LC and USHMM) 

 

Bornstein-Bielicka, Chasia: Ahat mi-me’atim: darkah shel lohemet umehanekhet, 1939-1947, Grodno 2003.

Subject:  Jewish resistance in Bialystok ghetto. (LC)

 

Datner, Szymon:  Walka I zeglada bialostiego ghetta, 1946.

Subject:  Life in Bialystok Ghetto. (LC and USHMM)

 

Dobronski, Adam:  Jews of Bialystok, 1993. 

Subject: Jewish History (LC and USHMM)

 

Elman, Joseph:  Oral History, USHMM, 1998.

 

Frank, Herman and Klementinowski, David: Khabatski, Zeydl: National and Political Movements among Jews in Bialystok, New York, 1951. (LC and USHMM)

 

Frank, Herman:  Selected Writings/Geklibene Shriftn, 1954.

Subject:  Jews in Bialystok history. (LC)

 

Gessen, Masha: Ester and Ruzya: How My Grandmothers Survived Hitler's War and Stalin's Peace, New York 2004.

Synopsis: During the War, Masha lived with her mother in the Siberian town of Biysk, where several thousand Bialystokers were deported. She writes of life there -- a relatively unknown chapter in Bialystok Jewish history. Masha's father, Jakub GOLDBERG, was in the Bialystok Ghetto and a member of the Judenrat. She writes about her grandfather's controversial role. The second part of her book deals with both her grandmothers' lives in the post-war Soviet Union. -- Judy Baston

 

Greenfield, Hana:  Oral History, USHMM, 1988

 

Grosman, Haikah:  Anshe ha mahteret, 1950 and 1965.

Subject:  Holocaust in Bialystok. (LC and USHMM)

 

Grossman, Haikah: The Underground Army - Fighters of the Bialystock Ghetto, 1987. 

Subject: Holocaust in Bialystok (LC and USHMM)

 

Gutman, Israel and Krakowski, Shmuel: Poles and Jews Under German Occupation Bialystock Ghetto

 

Herschberg, Abraham Samuel (1858-1940): Pinkos Bialystok, Volume 1-1949: Volume 2-1950.

Subject: Jews in Bialystok. (LC and USHMM) Now a JewishGen Yizkor Book Translation Project

 

Hindes L.:  My Childhood of the Pyaskes-My stories from the Bialystok 1882-1905, 1963. (LC)

 

Iwry, Samuel:  To wear the Dust of War:from Bialystok to Shanghai to the Promised Land, 2004. (LC and USHMM)

 

Jacob, Pat:  Hanahke.

Subject:  Holocaust in Bialystok and Hanahke Leven. (LC and USHMM)

 

Kizelstein, Shamay:  Testimony, USHMM.

Subject:  Experiences in Bialystok Ghetto.

 

Klarsfeld, Serge:  Documents concerning the destruction of the Jews of Grodno 1941-1944, 1985.

Subject:  Includes Bialystok Ghetto. (LC and USHMM)

 

Klebanow, David:  Oral History, USHMM, 1989

 

Klementinowski, David: Life and Annihilation of the Bialystok Ghetto, 1948.

Subject: Holocaust in Bialystok Ghetto (LC and USHMM)

 

Klibamski, Bronia:  Ari’adnski, 2002

Subject:  Personal narrative of Holocaust in Bialystok (LC)

 

Kot, Israel:  Khurbn Byalistok, 1947. (USHMM)

 

Levine, Jean (aka Parkman):  Testimony, USHMM.

Subject:  Experiences in Bialystok Ghetto.

 

Levy, Neil M.: The Last Rebbe in Bialystok

 

Lew, Sara:  From Bialystok to Brooklyn, Oral History, USHMM, no date

 

Liebermann, Aaron Samuel (1844-1880):  Writings in “Vpered”,1977.

Subject: Jews in politics and socialism, Bialystok and Vilnius. (LC and USHMM)

 

Lublini, Yaakov:  Sefer ha mishpahah, Tel Aviv, 1977. (LC)

Subject:  Juschinsky and Friedman families.

 

Mark, Bernard:  Ruch oporu w getcie, Jewish Historical Institute, Warsaw, 1952.

Also published  Tel Aviv, 1945 and Yiddish Historical Institute, 1959.

Subject:  Jewish resistance in Bialystok. (LC and USHMM)

 

Midler, Benjamin:  The Life of a Child Survivor from Bialystok, Poland: A True Story: Biography of a Thirteen Year Old Boy in the Ghettos and Concentration Camps During World War II, 1999. (USHMM)

 

Mielnicki, Michel:  Bialystok to Birkenau, the Holocaust Journey of Michel Mielnicki, 2000.

Subject:  Personal story of Holocaust. (LC and USHMM) (Also under Zabludow)

 

Mischkinsky, Bella:  Oral History, USHMM, 1995.

 

Mosak, Lonia:  Oral History, USHMM, 1990.

 

Nomberg-Przytk, Sara:  Kolomny Samsona, Lubin, 1966.

Subject:  Holocaust in Bialystok. (LC)

 

Nomberg-Przytk, Sara:  The Bialystok Ghetto: Tales of life and Death

 

Norwak, Felicja: Erinnerrungen einer Holocaust, Bialystok, 1991.

Subject:  Holocaust in Bialystok. (LC and USHMM)

 

Piortkowski, Chaim:  Testimony, USHMM.

Subject:  Experiences in Bialystok Ghetto

 

Pruzanski, Keila:  Sunshine and Shadows, 1995

Subject:  Experiences in Bialystok Ghetto (USHMM)

 

Rakovska, Pu’ah (1865-1955):  My Life as a Radical Jewish Women: Memoirs of a Zionist feminist in Poland, Indiana University Press, 2001 (translated from the Yiddish). (LC and USHMM)

Synopsis: Puah was born in Bialystok in 1865 into a very distinguished rabbinical family. The book tells of the horrific way in which women were treated and married off against their will at a young age. It also tells about the political movements, especially Zionism that were gaining hold in the late 1890s. I highly recommend the book! --- Fay Bussgang

 

Rapoport, Joshua:  Fragments from the Life of Y. Rapoport, Melbourne, 1967.

Subject:  Intellectual life in Bialystok. (LC)  

 

Rayzner, Refael: Annihilation of Bialystok Jewry, Melbourne, 1948.

Subject: Holocaust and Jews in Bialystok. (LC)

 

Samid, Yaacov:  Immortal Spirit: The Bialystok Hebrew Gymnasium, 1919-1939, 1991

Subject:  Middle and high schools. (USHMM)

 

Sauvage, Pierre:  Oral History, USHMM, 1990

 

Schuster, Bernard:  Schuster Family Papers, Testimony, USHMM, 1996.

Subject:  Fate of members of Jewish community of Bialystok and Jaisonowka.

 

Shapiro, Irene Hass: Testimony, USHMM.

Subject: Soviet and Nazi occupation of Bialystok.

 

Sheraton, Mimi: The Bialy Eaters

 

Shner-Nishmit, Sara:  Po’emah pedagogit aheret, Tel Aviv, 1996.

Subject:  The rescue of Bialystok survivors especially children. (LC)

 

Sohn, David: Bialystok Photo Album of a Renowned City and Its Jews the World Over, 1951. 

Subject: Yizkor Book (LC and USHMM)

 

Soltz, Shmuel:  850 days from the border to border during World War II, 1987 and 1988 (translated from Hebrew).

Subject:  A personal account of the Holocaust starting in Bialystok. (LC and USHMM)

Srole, Leo: The Rivke Family Verband and Marinker Descendants: Diamond Anniversary, 1985. (USHMM)

 

Szalmuk, Mira:  From Tragedy to Triumph, 1997.

Subject:  Biography. (USHMM)

 

Tanzer, Shirley Blum: The Ratner House, 1988.

Subject:  Ratner family, Jews in Bialystok. (USHMM)

 

Tenenbaum, Mordecai: Pages from Fire/Dapim min ha delekah, Tel Aviv 1947; also published by Yad Vashem 1984, also 1985 version.

Subject:  Personal account of Holocaust in Bialystok. (LC and USHMM)

 

Tenenbaum-Backer, Nina:  Man and Fighter/Adam veha-lohem, 1974.

Subject:  About Mordecai Tenenbaum. (LC and USHMM)

 

Tenenbaum-Backer, Nina:  Heroes of the Ghetto/Gibor ha-geta’ot, Tel Aviv, 1980.

Subject:  About Morecai Tennenbaum and other heroes of the Bialystok Ghetto. (LC and USHMM)

 

Trachtenberg, Leon:  Testimony, USHMM.

Subject:  Experiences in Bialystok Ghetto

 

Winer, Miriam: Memoirs, no date (USHMM)

Subject:  Holocaust

 

Wisniewski, Tomasz: The Linas Hatsedek Charitable Fraternity in Bialystok, 1885-1939.  See Polin: A Journal of Polish-Jewish Studies, volume 7, 1992. (USHMM)

 

Yad Vashem:  The Holocaust and the Death of the Bialystok Ghetto, 1968. (LC)

 

Zable, Arnold: Jewels and Ashes, New York 1991; also Australian edition 1991 and published in San Diego 1994.

Subject:  Jews in Bialystok, social life and customs, Zabludowski family.  Zable travels from Australia to the Eastern European countryside of his parents to understand the present inner lives of those who, like his parents, survived the hatred but lost every trace of family.  Winner of top Australian literary awards. (LC and USHMM)

 

Zabludovsky, David: Past Years/Fargangene yorn, 1969, also published Bar Ilan University, 1996.

Subject:  Jews in Bialystok. (LC)   

 

Zabuski, Charles:  Needle and thread- a tale of survival from Bialystok to Paris, 1995.

Subject:  A personal history. (LC and USHMM)

 

Zissman, Sonia Heidocovsky:  Oral History, USHMM, 1995

 

Return to Index

 

Bielsk Podlaski

 

Lszczynski, Anatol:  Zydi ziemi bielskiej od polowy-1795, Jewish Historical Institute, Warsaw, 1980.

Subject:  Histroy of Jews of Bielsk Podlaski. (LC)  

 

Rabin, Haim (editor):  Bielsk-Podliask, Book is the Holy Memory of the Bielsk. Podliask Jews, 1975.  Subject: Yizkor Book (LC and USHMM)

 

Bransk

 

Cohen, Julius: Bransk Book of Memories, New York, 1948. (LC and USHMM)

 

Hoffman, Eva:  Shetl—The Life and death of a small town and the world of Polish Jews, 1997. (LC and USHMM)

 

Man, Elhanan: Ner le-Brainsk-Tragedyeh shel ‘ayarah Yehudit Yedu’ah be-Mizrah Eropah, 2001.

Subject:  Yizkor book. (LC and USHMM)

 

Return to Index

 

Ciechanowiec

 

Bloom, Yitzhak: A Shtetl in Poland, 1939/40

Yiddish with some photos. Based on the author's trip to Ciechanowiec just before WWII.

 

Chekhanov, Iri:  My town Ciechanowiec, Jerusalem, 1951

 

Gelber, Gary:  The Plisky family history, Whitestone, NY, 1988.

Subject:  Genealogy (LC).

 

Heler, Mosheh David: Dibarti ami im-libi, Tel Aviv, 1978.

Subject:  Biography, religious education, Zionists, intellectual life. (LC) 

 

Leoni, Eliezer: Tsihanovits, mehoz Bilalistok-Sefer’edut ve-zikaron, Tel Aviv, 1964

Subject:  Ciechanowiec memorial and records. (LC and USHMM)

 

Return to Index

  

Dabrowa (Bialostocka)

 

Nevins, Michael:  Dubrowa-a memorial to a shtetl,  Spring Valley, NY, 1982. (LC and USHMM); 2000 version, River Valley, NJ. (LC)

 

Return to Index

 

Drohiczyn

 

Langberg, Edwin:  Sara’s blessing, Lumberton, NJ, 2003

Subject:  Holocaust survivor personal narrative. (LC)

 

Stokfisz, David (editor):  Sefer Drohitshin, Tel Aviv, 1969. 

Subject: Yizkor Book (LC)

 

Return to Index

 

Goniadz

 

Artziel, Nehama: In memory of the life and destruction of the Jewish community of Goniadz, Ramat Gan, 1965.

 

Ben-Meir (Treshansky), J. (editor):  Our hometown-Goniadz, Tel Aviv, 1960.

 

Return to Index

 

Grodek

 

Simon (Shemen), M.:  Grodek-In memory of the Jewish Community, Tel Aviv, 1963.

 

Return to Index

 

Krynki

 

Rabin, Dov:  Pinkas Krinki, Tel Aviv, 1970. (LC and USHMM)

 

Soyfer, A.:  Krinki in ruins, 1948, Montevideo. (LC and USHMM)

 

Return to Index

 

Michalowo (Nezbodka)

 

Lyvne, Zipora: Ayarati Mikha’elovah, Tel Aviv, 1975.

Subject:  Social life and customs of Jews of Micalowo. (USHMM)

 

Return to Index

 

Orla

 

Sosna, Grzegorz:  Orla na Podlasiu, 1997.

Subject:  History of Orla.  (USHMM)

Return to Index

 

Siemiatycze

 

Kaploshnik, Mordekhai and Blumah:  Family Book, Israel, 1964.

Subject:  Biography.  (LC)

 

Tash, Eliezer:  Semiatych-its growth and destruction, Tel Aviv, 1965. (LC)

 

Weisman, Moishe:  From Brest to Siemiatycze, Ontario, CA, 1952.

Subject:  Autobiographical sketches. (LC)

 

--: Scroll of my life, privately published, no date.

 

Return to Index

 

Sokolka

 

Farber, Howard:  Memories of a Holocaust Survivor, 1994. (USHMM)

 

--: Book of Sokolka, Jerusalem, 1968.

Subject:  Yizkor book.  (USHMM)

Return to Index

Suchowola

 

Lazar, Simhah: Destruction of Suchowala: In memory of a Jewish Town between Bialystok and Grodno, 2000.  (LC and USHMM)

 

Mishkinski, Ester:  Book of Suchowala, Jerusalem, 1968.

Subject:  Yizkor Book (LC)

 

Steinberg, Hannah Pribulsky: Book of Suchowala, Jerusalem, 1957.

Subject:  Yizkor book.  (LC and USHMM)

 

--:  The Holocaust in Suchowala, Mexico City, 1947.  (USHMM)

 

---:Le-zehker kehilat Suchovolah, Tel Aviv, 1982. (USHMM)

 

Return to Index

 

Surpasl

 

Pat, Yaakov: Life and death in the Shadow of the Forest, Israel, 1991.

Subject: Holocaust and ethnic relations. (LC and USHMM)

 

Return to Index

 

Tykocin

 

Bar-Yuda, M. and Ben-Nachum, Z.: Book of Tiktin, Tel Aviv, 1959. (LC and USHMM)

 

Gawurin, Alexsander:  The History of Jews in Tykocin, 1522-1795, before 1939.

 

Halpern, Israel:  Pinkas Kehal Tiktin, Jerusalem, 1996-1999.

Subject:  Minutes of Jewish council in Tykocin 1621-1806

 

Kefitisah, Avraham:  Na’ar tsa ir me siah im ha-mavet, Tel Aviv, 1994.

Subject:  Personal narrative of Holocaust period.

 

Rofalewska, Ewa: List of Murdered Tykocin Jews on the 55th Anniversary of Extermination, 1996. (LC and USHMM)

 

Sacks, Chaim:  S’iz geven a mol, 1969.

Subject:  Jews of Tykocin. (LC)

 

--:  Tiktiner Historial Book, Chicago, 1949. (USHMM) 

 

Central Religious Authority,1831: Documents of the Government Commission relating to the Jewish Community in Tykocin, 1822-1869, Main Archives of Old Documents, Warsaw AGAD

 

Documents related to the Jewish Community in Tykocin, 19th century to 1915, State Archives in Lomza.

 

Return to Index

 

Wasilkow

 

Mendelewicz, Leon:  Wasilkower Memorial Book, Melbourne, 1990 (LC)

 

Nekritz, Jerome:  Gold/Nekritz Family History, USHMM microfilm, no date.

Subject:  Genealogy, history of town, holocaust.

 

Return to Index

Zabludow 

 

Krepliyak, Yaakov: Zabludover record book 1900-1925, New York, 1925.

 

Maroszek, Joseph:  Zabludow 15th-18th Century, 1994.

Subject:  Zabludow, law, charter grants and privileges. (LC)

 

Mielnicki, Michel:  Bialystok to Birkenau, the Holocaust Journey of Michel Mielnicki, 2000.

Subject:  Personal story of Holocaust. (LC and USHMM) (Also under Bialystok)

 

Tsesler, Shemuel; Reznik, Joseph; Chesler, Issac (editors):  Zabludowo Yiskor Book, Buenos Aires, 1961. (LC and USHMM)

 

Yots’e Zabludov be Yisrael (organization):  Pages from Yiskor book, Israel, 1987.

Subject:  Extracts from 1961 Yizkor book. (see above) (LC)  

 

Return to Index

 

Videos

Jewish Life in Bialystok, National Center of Jewish Film, Waltham, MA, 1989, originally produced in 1939. (USHMM)

 

Not like Sheep to Slaughter-the story of the Bialystok Ghetto, 1990 (USHMM)

  

Shetl, 1996, Produced by PBS/Frontline. (LC and USHMM)

 

Story of two Shetels-Bransk and Ejszyszki-an overview of Polish-Jewish relations in Northeast Poland during World War II, Produced by PBS/Frontline, 1998. (LC and USHMM)

 

Return to Index


 

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Last Updated on 31 March 2006.