 From the very beginning , the Nazis pursued a ruthless policy of pillage and removal of the non @-@ German population . The 56 @,@ 000 Jewish residents of the town were confined in a ghetto . On August 15 , 1943 , the Białystok Ghetto Uprising began , and several hundred Polish Jews and members of the Anti @-@ Fascist Military Organisation ( Polish : <unk> Organizacja <unk> ) started an armed struggle against the German troops who were carrying out the planned liquidation of the ghetto with deportations to the Treblinka extermination camp . 
