Życie społeczno-religijne ludności żydowskiej powiatu bialskiego w latach 1944-1947
Social and religious life of Jewish community of Biała Podlaska poviat in the years 1944-1947

Summary/Abstract: After the liberation of Podlasie, the communist authorities pursued a policy that was friendly toward the Jewish population. However, officially proclaimed friendliness toward the Jews clashed with the actions of local bureaucrats. Documentation has survived that attests to an unfriendly attitude of the staff of the poviat administration in Biała Podlaska to the Jewish inhabitants of the poviat (district). The murders of Jews, the totally unwarranted interference of the bureaucrats in the internal affairs of the Jewish community, the attempts to discredit the elections of religious leaders were responsible for the fact that the Jewish population felt marginalized in social and political life. The policy pursued by local government officers led the few Jews who survived the Holocaust to leave the area. By 1950, most of the Jews from Biała poviat left to Poland’s western territories and some went to Palestine and to the United States. With this the shared history of Poles and Jews in south-eastern Podlasie came to an end.

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