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 ROSH HASHONAH GREETINGS • P RIM BEAUTY SHOPPE 2615 CALVERT AVE. Fear ... terror ...bewilderment. The children of Europe have lived more 'than their years; they have seen enough to make them fearful and bewildered for a long time to come. Approximately 12,000 or- phaned Jewish children have been found in Belgium, France and parts of Holland; and more •er- f•inty will be found as liberation is LE SHONA TOVU TIKOSEVU ROSH HASHONAH GREETINGS TO YOU ALL UNIVERSAL SCRAP METALS CO. 4690 PAYS TO 6-4858 - NEW YEAR'S GREETINGS! DETROIT NUT COMPANY Manufacturers of STEEL BRASS AND BRONZE NUTS GROSS, INC. Cleaners and Dyers 10219 WOODWARD LA. 0261 HUBBARD AVE. and M.C.R.R. 428=t io ncii= 0 =10•-0=01==ocio TOwnsend 8-7600 O "A Fuel for Every Purpose" 1T HUMBOLDT ST. TY. MISTELE COAL COKE CO. DIRECT completed. They need food, cloth- ing, medicines, and homes badly. The Joint Distribution Committee national campaign for 816,570,000 is now underway through local wel- fare funds and independent drives to provide for these urgent needs. The fate of many thousands of Jewish children in Europe will be decided by this campaign. HEARTIEST GREETINGS FOR ROSH HASHONAH Rosh Hashonah Greetings—A Year of Happiness to All BUY FRESH-MINED FUEL O l'RE core 110 ° .500 OF *Ad \ iiiiA ' 0, FROM COVERED CARS TO YOU 0 MAIN OFFICE ORDER DEPARTMENT: PLAZA 8917 8731 JOS. CAMPAU HELP BACK THE ATTACK BUY MORE WAR BONDS J. D. C. CARES FOR JEWISH ORPHANS I PROGRESSIVE CLEANERS t DYERS TR. 2.2744 I 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)., 0 BEST WISHES FOR A JOYOUS ROSH HASHONAH! OLEN'S MEN'S SHOP • TIES • SHIRTS ARROW BEAU - BRUMMEL AMBASSADOk ARROW • COOPER UNDERWEAR • McGREGOR SPORTSWEAR • MALLORY HATS • HICKOK BELTS and SUSPENDERS • PAJAMAS • ROBES TO. 8-9022 9038 TWELFTH 0 0 1 Let's Do Our Share On the Home Front By Buying More and Bigger War Bonds • U 0 0 II 0 0 0 Roth Hashonah Greetings to Our Many Friends • 0 DEVLIN'S BAR 8 GRILL 0 V 543 WOODWARD AVE. CLIFFORD 4018 0 V ....0=0=.0=0=0=0=0=010