[1] About 50,000 Jews from the vicinity of Białystok and the surrounding region were confined into a small area of the city, which was turned into the district's capital.

Most inmates were put to work in the slave-labor enterprises for the German war effort, primarily in large textile, shoe and chemical companies operating inside and outside its boundaries.

[4] Białystok was overrun by the Wehrmacht on September 15, 1939, during the German invasion of Poland, and one week later handed over to the Red Army attacking from the East, in accordance with the German–Soviet Frontier Treaty.

[9] The first mass murder of Polish Jews was carried out during the so-called "Red Friday" of June 27, 1941,[4] claiming the lives of up to 2,200 victims.

[8] The Great Synagogue was splashed with petrol and set on fire with approximately 700,[8] up to 1,000 Jewish men locked in it; and burned down with a grenade thrown inside.

[9] The killings took place inside the homes of the Jewish neighborhood Chanajki [pl] and in the park, lasting until dark.

The next day, some 20–30 wagon-loads of dead bodies were taken to new mass graves dug up on German orders along Sosnowa Street outside the city center.

The official report submitted by his officers to General Johann Pflugbeil of the 221st Security Division (Wehrmacht), to which the battalion was subordinated, was falsified.

[4] It is estimated that over 3,000 Jews herded into the municipal stadium – visited by Erich von dem Bach-Zelewski himself – were taken away and killed in antitank trenches.

Himmler visited Białystok on June 30, 1941, during the formation of the District of Bialystok and pronounced that there was a high risk of Soviet guerilla activity in the area, with Jews being of course immediately suspected of helping them out.

The soup kitchens were set up, along with infirmaries, schools, Jewish Ghetto Police stations, bathhouses, and other amenities.

It was surrounded by a wooden wall topped by barbed wire, with three entrances manned by the Jewish Ghetto Police overseen by the Germans.

[2][4] In September 1941 the Nazi authorities proclaimed that the number of Jews in Białystok was too large, and ordered their partial deportation to nearby Prużany (now Pruzhany, Belarus).

[13] By January 18, 1942, the number of the Council officials (of all levels) had grown to 1,600 and up to 4,000 in June, mainly because of special bonuses and vouchers received for meat, legumes, jam, soap, flour and large amounts of coal for the winter.

[2] Faced with the final deportations, when all hope for survival was abandoned, the Jewish underground staged the Białystok Ghetto Uprising.

In the night of August 16, 1943, several hundred Polish Jews began an armed insurrection against the troops carrying out the liquidation of the ghetto.

[2] Only a few dozen Jews managed to escape and join various partisan groups, including Soviet ones, in the Białystok area.