Two additional Jews fell victim to the Nazis in subsequent days, while many others were imprisoned in a transit camp established within the premises of Primary School No.

Over the two-year Soviet occupation, the Jewish population in Białystok swelled to approximately 50,000, mainly due to the influx of refugees from the German-occupied zones.

For example, in the initial days of the German-Soviet war, the Einsatzgruppen executed Jewish men en masse, often without differentiating whether they were Communist Party members or state employees.

[15][b] The 221st Division's war diary on June 27 recorded that during the combing of the city and the accompanying skirmishes, "many houses caught fire, including the synagogue."

[17] The Police Battalion 309's war diary entries from June 27 and 28 mentioned the Great Synagogue catching fire due to "anti-tank gun shelling," leading to the blaze extending to the market square and the city's southern sector.

While one company attempted to douse the flames, the other two patrolled the city, "taking care of order and security", "teaching a lesson" to looters, recovering looted property and – "with the help of Jews" – clearing up the corpses that littered the streets.

[17] A subsequent report prepared by the Abwehr for the German press exaggeratedly detailed "raging street fighting," claiming the 221st Division commander personally led an assault on the municipal government headquarters and highlighted snipers purportedly hidding in the Great Synagogue and "targeting our scouts from behind".

[19][20] The embellished descriptions of street fights aimed to mask the significant atrocities committed by the Germans that day, especially the fact that also some Wehrmacht soldiers participated in these actions.

Former policemen interrogated in the 1960s and 1970s testified that their initial orders were to round up Soviet remnants and 'anti-German elements,' particularly Jewish men capable of carrying weapons.

[23] Gerlach, though, contends that some policemen's testimonies about a clear order to murder Jews, purportedly received personally from Adolf Hitler by the battalion, were part of their trial strategy.

[21] The most significant massacre occurred at the Great Synagogue, where German policemen herded hundreds of captured Jews alongside several others seeking refuge there.

[18] A Pole named Józef Bartoszko (a Shabbos goy), risking his life, opened the synagogue's back door, allowing a dozen[41][42] to thirty[31] Jews to escape.

[47] Despite the chaotic and arbitrary nature of these atrocities, German authorities didn't hold the policemen accountable or take any disciplinary actions.

Most likely, influenced by the events of the previous day, he issued a written order to "shoot civilians only if they resist, either on the spot or in remote locations, and without any witnesses."

"[22] Meanwhile, an Ortskommandantur was established in Białystok, while the Feldkommandantur 683, commanded by Colonel Percy Baron von Ascheberg, was entrusted with maintaining order in the city itself.

[48][49] One of the Germans' initial orders to the Judenrat was to provide a significant amount of blankets, pillows, fur coats, skins, and a contingent of forced laborers.

[46] On June 30, at the command of the 221st Security Division, a work brigade comprising Jews was formed to dismantle all monuments to Stalin and Lenin in the city.

[56][57] On the same day, the Judenrat, at the Nazis' request, issued an order mandating that all Jews aged 14 and older wear armbands displaying a blue Star of David or a yellow badge on their right arm.

[61] However, Jürgen Matthäus did not rule out that Himmler merely approved the prior actions of the SS and police, which his subordinates interpreted as a signal to proceed with further killings.

"[62][63] By July 11, the commander of Police Regiment Centre, Col. Max Montua [de], acting on behalf of SS-Gruppenführer Erich von dem Bach-Zelewski, issued detailed guidelines for the extermination action.

Police Battalion 316 members guarded the execution site, encircling it, as the victims, organized into smaller groups, were led to trenches previously dug by the Red Army.

[32] At one juncture, Bach-Zelewski appeared, encouraging the members of the firing squad by emphasizing their role "in the war against global Jewish Bolshevism and International Judaism."

Rabbi Rosenmann was coerced at gunpoint to sign a statement alleging that the retreating Soviets had set fire to the Great Synagogue and Szulhojf, which the Germans purportedly extinguished.

However, upon delivering the contribution, the city's military governor declared that it could only prevent future 'actions,' alleging that those arrested on July 12 had already been sent for forced labor in Germany.

[70] By July 26, the German authorities mandated that Białystok's Jews relocate to the designated ghetto area north of Kościuszko Square within five days.

One shows the building of the Great Synagogue, the other has an inscription in Polish, English and Hebrew:[77] Our splendid sanctuary fell victim to the flames on June 27, 1941.

2000 Jews were burnt alive in it by the German Nazi murderers.Białystok 1995.The victims of the "Black Friday" are also commemorated by a plaque on the wall of the building at Suraska 1 Street.

[79] Three former members of Police Battalion 322 faced trial in Freiburg in 1963 for involvement in mass murders of Jews in Białystok, Baranavichy, Minsk and Mogilev.

[80] Hans Graalfs of Einsatzkommando 8 was sentenced in 1964 by the regional court in Kiel to three years in prison for aiding the murder of 760 Jews in Białystok and in other places.

By the judgment of March 12, 1968, three defendants: Rolf-Joachim Buchs, Wilhelm Schaffrath and Friedrich Rondholz, were found guilty of murder and sentenced to life imprisonment.