Friday, September 7, 1945
DETROIT JEWISH CHRONICLE and The Legal Chronicle
Page Two
The Fighting at the Toebbens
and Shulz's Workshops
An Episode of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising
By SHALOM GRAJEK
(The writer of this report is
one of the acting leaders of the
young generation of the Poale-
Zion (Z.S.) Party in Poland. He
was already active before the war,
but in the wartime he proved
most effective for the un d er-
groundwork of the Party. In all
the years of the Nazi occupation
he has been secretary of the Par-
ty in the underground and active
in the Jewish National Committee
too. He took part in the battles
and after the distaster he con-
tinued the underground Pa r t y-
work at the Aryan-side. At the
end of 1944 we lost contact with
him. On February 27, 1945, the
Lublin Radio broadcast that he
was saved and is staying there.)
Anxiety reigned all through the
night of April 19, 1943. People
lay awake hearing the noise of
passing motor c a r s, marching
troops and the echo of firing.
What could it signify? Was it a
new purge we were facing? But
this could not be possible! Con-
scription of skilled workers had
hardly begun a few days ago.
Three days ago notices had been
posted everywhere stating t h a t
the transferring of people to the
working camps had been stopped.
They were urging a more inten-
sive work as orders of the Rus-
tungskommando could not suffer
delay.
The street presented a terrible
sight at dawn. The walls of the
Ghetto were surrounded by gen-
darmes and all the posts had been
reinforced with S.S. men. Nobody
could leave the Ghetto. All passes
were cancelled.
People run frantically about the
streets. I try to ring up the cen-
tral Ghetto but the telephone is
out of order. We see nothing ex-
cept the Ghetto surrounded by
gendarmes with their rifles ready
for action. We hear distant sounds
of shots and detonations. They
are coming from the central
Ghetto. G e r m a n foremen, our
"bosses" have in the meantime
arrived in the area of the work-
shops and they begin to assure us
that the purge is directed against
the "wild" elements of the Ghet-
to and not against us, the "pro-
ductive" ones. Nobody, however,
believes this.
Our first task is to mobilize our
Combat Groups and to occupy op-
erating posts. In our workshop at
76 Leszno St. the group com-
manded by Eliezer G.* is occupy-
ing positions behind the f r on t
windows of the third floor.
Through the garret we maintain
contact with David's group at 67
Novolipie St. and Heniek's (He-
noch Guttman-Dror) at 74 Lesz-
no St. Lilith (Lilka Zimek-Dror)
is acting as a runner between the
groups. We can see clearly from
our position all the movements of
troops heading for the Central
Ghetto t h r o ugh Zelazna S t
Swartz (Meier-"Bund"), runner
of the Area Commander, is being
given instructions for the follow-
ing groups: under Shloime's (per-
haps Schlorno Winogron - Hasho-
mer Hazair) command at 41 No-
volipki St. — area; un-
der Benjamin's (Benjamin's Wald-
Dror) command at 36 Leszno St.,
Season's Greetings to
All Our Friends
Toebben's area; Rozovski's (Well-
wel - "Bund") at 6/8 Smocza St.
- Rorych's area ; Majerovitch's
(Marek-Poale Zion - Z.S.) at 31
Novolipie St., Schultz's area and
Julek's (this seems to be a mis-
take porbably Jurek Gruenspan,
of the Jewish Communists is
meant) at 66 Nov olipie St.,
Schultz's area. He soon returns
reporting that the orders have
been carried out and relates the
reports of some group command-
ers. One of them refers to two
persons who have been arrested
by us on a charge of cooperating
with the Gestapo. The sentence of
death has not yet been passed;
however the Area Commander has
given an order to execute them
immediately, in view of the seri-
ousness of the situation. Schwartz
returns half an hour later report-
ing that the order has been car-
ried out.
*One of t he leadert of "Gordonla" who
played an important role III the under-
ground movement and In the prepara-
tions of the Rising. By means of Aryan
pa pert; he often travelled in the prov-
I line for purposes of the movement.
After the disaster of the Ghetto Rising
he lived on the Aryan-side of Warsaw,
together with anothe, comrade, Malkiel
Lusternik, a young poet. They were giv-
en away and the Gestapo came to seize
them. ImsternIk was killed but Eliezer
G. succeeded in escaping. Since then
we have had no news of him.
At about noon we receive the
first news of the fighting in the
Central Ghetto. They conic from
German sources. G. Schultz, own-
er of the factory, told us that
Jews are not behaving properly.
He was told by the gendarmes re-
turning from the Ghetto that they
had encountered a stiff resistance
suffering 200 casualties. The Ger-
mans left the Central Ghetto later
in the afternoon. We got in touch
by telephone with other groups re-
maining there. They told us about
their great successes in the first
fights.
The order to commence to fight
was given by the Area Command-
er next morning. It was an action
of solidarity with the groups fight-
ing inside the Central Ghetto. Our
first attack started at about 1 p.m.
A squad of gendarmes was march-
ing along Leszno St. at that time
making for the Ghetto. The group
of the house at 94 Leszno St. at-
tacked them as they were ap-
proaching the junction of Leszno-
Zelazna. Two well aimed bombs
did the work. The Germans fled,
leaving their dead behind. The
group at 67 Novolipie St. had in-
stalled a land mine under the
guard house in Smocza St. two
weeks before. As the Germ a n s
came we connected the fuses. How
great was however our despair
when the mine failed to explode.
The boys were gnashing their
teeth, the girls were almost in
tears. Still, what could be done
when the battery had come off and
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there was • no current. Then the
group attacked, in their frenzy,
with bombs. The result was most
unexpected - 30 Germans killed.
The Germans began transporting
their troops in lorries, ha ving
found out that the "productive"
Ghetto was not a healthy place
for them even on the central
grounds of the "Aryan" side.
The situation of the Jews re-
maining in the quarter of work-
shops became clear at about 4 o'-
clock. A proclamation was issued
on behalf of the owners of the
workshops in which they stated
that all the Jewish workers would
be transferred to Labour camps
at Trawniki and Poniatow, in or-
der to enable the German indus-
try to continue work without any
obstruction. After that publica-
tion people were allowed to move
freely in order to make necessary
preparations f or the departure.
This gave the Area Command an
opportunity to i n s p e c t all the
groups. Sentries consisting of sin-
gle Germans and Latvians were
posted, just before evening, out-
side each gate in order to secure
the s u c c e s s of the next day's
transport. As we had only a few
rifles, some groups went out in
order to get them from the Lat-
vians. They were su cc essf ul,
bringing 5 rifles. The Germans
and the Latvians refrained from
any reprisals so as not to provoke
bigger clashes.
Those leaving of their own will
were marched off at 7 o'clock; all
other Jews still remaining in the
ara of workshops becoming there-
fore illegal. Our groups kept a
look out. The first German forma-
tion which soon appeared was re-
ceived with g r e n a des which
wrought havoc among them. The
Germans did not beat back as if
intending to continue the volun-
tary conscription to the labour
camps. At the same time other
c o m b a t units were attacking
smaller groups of Germans and
Latvians. T h r e e combat groups
were posted at the junction of
Novolipie - Leszno streets in order
to intercept Germans p a s s i n g
t h r o u g h the neutral zone. A t
about 10 o'clock a detachment of
German troops was marching in
the direction of the Central Ghet-
to. It was attacked by a heavy and
accurate fire by all the three
groups causing many dead and
wounded. Szymon Heller, our best
shot, particularly distinguished
(,Contipued
pag4 3).,
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