The Germans reoccupied Bialystok on July 27, 1941. Two days later, the military commander of the town summoned the Chief Rabbi of the city, Dr. Gedaliah Rosenmann, and the head of the Jewish community council, Efraim Barasz, and ordered them to establish a Judenrat. On August 1, 50,000 Jews were confined in the ghetto area, a newly developed non-Jewish neighborhood that was split into two parts, east and west, divided by the Biala River. There were 2 gates in the ghetto, and a third gate was eventually added. The Judenrat had its offices at 32 Kupiecka, and most of the departmental offices, dealing with the ghettoΓÇÖs day-to-day affairs, were housed there as well.
