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August 09, 1963 - Image 32

Resource type:
Text
Publication:
The Detroit Jewish News, 1963-08-09

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Story of the Harlan' and the Resistance

their relief, that they waited. What consolation! The ghetto expressed the hope that Kruk's
Thus, while there were isolated inmates saw the approach of other accounts of life in the
cases of resistance, the entire doom for the Germans,' and in ghetto may yet be located in
ghetto population went to its the process they were them- Vilna.
selves doomed!
doom.
Herman Kruk, who was direc-
The literature dealing with their significance and when
This is the sad story of tens tor of the Grosser Library in
In
the
Lodz
Ghetto,
"the
indi-
the great catastrophe, with the their subjects were presented
of thousands who perished, Warsaw, escaped from there
20th century "khurban" that re- in a frankly unfavorable light. vidual's initiative was com- whose Judenaelteste kept them upon the arrival of the Germans
pletely curbed" and "Rumkow- under a bureaucratic heel,
sulted from Nazi insanities, is
Referring to discovered
and went to Vilna where he re-
al one determined who
far from complete. From time diaries and eyewitnesses' testi- ski
should obtain work and bread." whose hopes for redemption mained and recorded his experi-
to time, a new volume appears, monies written in the ghetto,
prevented them from resisting,
supplementing the available Trunk says "there is surprising In that sphere, private property who went to their doom and ences. His faithful accounts of
records, assuring an eventual unanimity among the authors. was confiscated ("national- whose plight is part of the ghetto life appeared on 757
ized"), smuggling was suppress-
typed and handwritten pages.
completeness of the accounts of
Some of the material included ed, trading prohibited. Any pro- khurban.
The YIVO volume states in re-
* * *
the great crime; keeping the in his volume is composed of
lation to this historic document:
memory of the martyrs alive; documents gathered by Israeli tests could be directed only to `Vilna Ghetto Diary'
Rumkowski. This was unlike
The diary was dictated to
retaining the warning for action police for the Eichmann trial.
other ghettos where protests
Mrs. Mendelsund Kowarsky
against any possible repetition
Describing the creation of the could be directed to the ghetto Relates Struggle for
(now in New York) who
of the horrors.
ghetto, Trunk shows that there administrations.
typed it in three copies. One
Life, Jewish Values
Newest in the evaluative was a continuing belief that it
copy was buried in a tin can
With the collapse of the Rum-
works about the holocaust is was a "temporary measure"
YIVO's recent volume on ac-
"Ghetto Lodz," an historical ("zeitweilig massmitel"). He kowski monocracy in 1943, a tivities in the Vilna Ghetto, by in a bunker. Upon the libera-
and sociological study of the outlines the formation of the leading role was played in the Herman Kruk, published under tion of Vilna the Yiddish poet
Abraham Sutskever went in
events that transpired there, by ghetto organization and there ghetto by David Gertler, later
Isaiah Trunk, published by the emerges the figure of Morde- by Mark Klieger, "commanders the title "Togbukh fun Vilner search of this copy. The can
YIVO Institute for Jewish Re- chai Chaim Rumkowski, one of of the so-called Sonderkomman- Geto" — "Diary of the Vilna was found empty and scatter-
search (1048 5th, NY28), togeth- the Judenaelteste, and the rule do in Lodz . . . despite the fact Ghetto" — is part of the litera- ed pages of the manuscript
that the chief of the German ture that throws light on the were strewn throughout the
er with ,Yad Washem Martyrs' of a virtual monocracy.
events that transpired under
and Heroes' Memorial Authori-
In the conclusion to his Ghetto administration in Lodz, Nazi domination in an environ- bunker. These were gathered
ty, Jerusalem.
analyses of what had occur- Hans Biebow, had officially pro- ment in which Jews attempted and brought to New York,
totaling 380 pages. Part of the
This book may well be con- red and how the ghetto func- claimed their role as informers
to live as a cultural community. missing pages were completed
sidered a most definitive ac- tioned, the author shows that for the authorities."
Like the Lodz Ghetto; the from a fragment of the diary,
count available about the Lodz "for tactical reasons such a
With many skilled textile and
ghetto, the people who were monocracy was very conveni- metal workers, "the Lodz Ghet- Vilna encirclement also contain- of 130 pages, in the Archives
centered in it, the Nazis who ent for the occupation author- to with its great industrial po- ed people who were able to of Jerusalem. Other gaps had
ruled over it, the final disaster ities. The Nazi administration tential occupied a special place contribute towards the upkeep to be left unfilled."
that struck the victims.
in the occupied areas always in the calculations • of the di- of the Nazi's economy. Unlike
Now this book is available,
preferred to deal with one verse German administrative, the Lodz experiences, the in- in its Yiddish edition, as a rec-
Dr. Jacob Robinson, as di-
person
responsible
for
the
im-
SS
and
military
bureaus
and
carcerated
in
the
Vilna
enclo-
rector of Yad Washem, points
ord of the concerts, the cul-
plementation of its plans than became an object of rivalry sure often resisted, some' ac- tural activities, the struggles,
out in a preface that millions
with a collective representa- among them- when the time of quired weapons, police were the fights, the resistance, the
of human lives were affected
tion. It is easier to demoralize decision was at hand. These ex- shot and the Jews who were hope for survival that never
in the research activities on
one person and render him a plain in large measure the lon- imprisoned paid the price for materialized for the victims.
the catastrophe; that 100,000
supine and obedient instru- gevity of the Lodz Ghetto. It attempts to resist.
men had a direct hand in the
"Diary of the Vilna Ghetto"
ment. In the Lodz Ghetto was the last of the Eastern Eu-
process of Jewish destruction,
In the Vilna Ghetto there
these calculated tactics of the ropean ghettos, liquidated to- was a large library, there were also serves as a tribute to the
"including 60,000 murderers
author who belonged to a group
authorities concurred w i t h ward the end of August 1944,
decorated with the 'Iron Cross
Rumkowski's insatiable lust when there was only one other many cultural functions, there of men who- wrote down what
H Class' that was 'legally' _re-
for power, resulting in the ghetto left in the areas under was an attempt to give the chil- was happening so that there
served for 'front - fighters'
should be e v i d e n c e of the
odd phenomenon of a little German administration, namely dren a good education.
only;" that the tragedy will
There also were acts of dis- crimes — never to be forgot-
ghetto dictator, utterly sub- Theresienstadt."
continue to "challenge the re-
honesty resulting from the hor-
missive to-his superiors and
searchers not for years, but
The tragic end is summar- rors under which people lived. ten and to be remembered as
haughty and overbearing to-
a warning against their recur-
for centuries."
ized
in
all
its
depressing
reali-
Robberies resulted in punish- rence.
Thus, in the long-range proc- ward his 'subjects.' This is
ties:
"The
last
inhabitants
of
* * *
ments, there were some mur-
ess of gathering the facts about closely related to another phe-
the Lodz Ghetto, numbering
ders
and
there
were
hangings
the Nazi crimes, the accounts nomenon characteristic of the
Documented Bibliography
close to 70,000 persons, shar-
about the Lodz ghetto become Lodz Ghetto, namely hyper-
ed the fate of all Polish Jews. of Jews as punishment for loot-
YIVO's publications, issued
ing
and
for
abuses
against
other
part of an imperishable litera- organization, the amazing
But they were also granted a
jointly with the Yad Washem
complexity of the structure
ture describing the khurban.
small measure of consolation. ghetto inmates.
Martyrs' and Heroes' Memorial
of
the
Jewish
ghetto
adminis-
Published
with
a
preface,
Lodz, second largest Jewish
In August 1944 they could see
Authority, provide the back-
community in Poland, is de- tration. Like all dictatorships,
notes
and
explanations
by
Mor-
from the ghetto • bridge the
ground and basic facts needed
scribed by Trunk as having where every sector of com-
decai
W.
Bernstein,
this
reveal-
signs of the approaching doom
for the documentation of the
"struggled under the extreme munal or even private life is
of Hitler's gangster empire. ing work contains also a bio- Nazi atrocities.
conditions of a Nazi work ghetto regulated by a mighty bu-
graphical sketch of the author
Through
Zgierz
Street
and
for the maintenance of its physi- reaucracy, the Lodz Ghetto,
"Bibliography of Yid dish
Alexander Street, which form- by his half-brother Pinkhos
cal and spiritual existence for too, was enmeshed in a huge
ed the boundary of the ghetto, Schwartz. In this essay is de- Books on the Catastrophe and
network
of
departments,
bu-
well-nigh five years and which
columns of troops, function- scribed not only the diarist's Heroism," one of the jointly
lived during that period in the reaus and secretariats, with
aries, German civilians and life story but also some facts produced volumes, compiled by
constant shadow of ineluctable thousands of functionaries,
their aides from among the that were related about him by Philip Friedman and Joseph
governing e v e r y aspect of
extermination."
local
population were running people who had known him in Gar, contains the complete and
"The enormity- of the Nazi life."
in panic eastward. This sight the ghetto and who reported vitally needed list of documents.
Appearing in Yiddish, only
horror and the perfection of
undoubtedly made a little about his day-to-day accounts It is _a voluminous work with
Nazi perfidy w e r e unique," the preface, the foreword by Dr. easier their last journey—to he had recorded in a manu- data that staggers the imagina-
Robinson
and
the
conclusions
Trunk declares. The authentic-
Auschwitz."
script that has been lost. John tion. It lists the documents avail-
ity of the facts he had gathered printed in English chapters,
Hersey,
author of "The Wall," able in many languages.
This
concluding
assertion
is
for his book is upheld by vir- this 528-page volume is a re-
—P. S.
tue of the fact that "the Lodz vealing record that should be a sort of a shocking statement. had written about it. Schwartz
Ghetto has left behind it pos- made available to all who are
sibly the largest collection of concerned with what had hap-
documents on its existence." In pened and to historians seeking
contrast to other ghettos, "the the facts about the holocaust. It
Lodz Ghetto, like the city of is to be hoped, therefore, that
Lodz, was left intact by the Ger- this and similar volumes pub-
mans in their panic flight." lished in Yiddish by YIVO will
WASHINGTON (JTA) — The problem for Jews," Sheinkman tions for which he was testify-
The available documents were become available to readers in
National Community Relations noted that Jews are as fully em- ing consider an effective FEP
not destroyed, "were unearthed English and other languages.
_Sheinkman said it should:
The maps of the ghetto, the Advisory Council, representing ployed as the rest of the Ameri- law,
or found concealed in the walls
1) Create an anti-discrimination
and other accessible hiding numerous tables showing fac- six national Jewish organizations can people, and that "our prob- agency with responsibility for deal-
with employment discrimination
places." While considerable tual set-ups in the ghetto, the and 66 local Jewish community lems in the area of employment ing
on the basis of a broad approach,
damage was done "by the re- documents that follow each councils, urged Congress to en- discrimination are much less and not on the basis of complaints
individuals;
maining Polish population in chapter as substantiation of the act a comprehensive fair em- severe than those of the non- by 2) aggrieved
Contain "workable" enforce-
the search for hidden treasure," facts, combine to make this ployment practices law. The white minorities."
ment provisions, including the right
"For Negroes," he said, "job of the anti-discrimination agency to
and parts of the concealed ar- book a significant historical rec- measure was urged before the
obtain court injunctions to enforce
chives were thereby incidental- ord. The manner_ of work to Senate sub-committee on em- discrimination does mean econ- its orders, with the courts accept-
omic
deprivation,
of
the
most
ployment
and
manpower,
a
unit
ing findings of fact made by the
ly destroyed, and while the Ger- which the ghetto inmates were
mans destroyed their own ar- subjected, the confiscations, the of the Senate's Labor and Public serious kind. Congress can do agency;
3) Apply to both employers and
chives, "in sun, for the history financial accounts of the ghet- Welfare Committee, by Jacob something right now to effec- labor unions, and to apprenticeship
programs
as to all other aspects of
of the Lodz Ghetto there is to to's functions are among the Sheinkman, chairman of the ad- tively curb job discrimination," employment;
visory panel of the Jewish Labor he declared.
4) Cover employment agencies,
our disposition a comparatively various tabulations.
Experience with FEP laws in both public and private.
The ghetto population is de- Committee, one of the national
abundant collection of source
In addition to enforcement,
scribed in a table that shows affiliates of the NCRAC. He is almost half of the states in the
materials."
Trunk enumerates the main the various crafts divisions, also general counsel for the nation proves that the most re- Sheinkman recommended the
sources of the documents, the the men, women and children Amalgamated Clothing Workers liable and workable approach to law should provide for adequate
the solution of the problem of funds and manpower for surveys
authors of the revealing mate- slave laborers in the various of America.
Sheinkman -told the subcom- job discrimination is a strong of employment practices in
rials, the YIVO and other col- trades. There are also tables
lections in which they are now showing the deportations and mittee that all the constituent fair employment practices law, American industry, commerce
the places of origin of those organizations of the NCRAC are S h e i n k m an maintained. The and labor, much as the Mini-
incorporated.
who were sent to the Lodz convinced that equal opportunity most compelling single reason mum Wage Division surveys in-
While he discounts the
for Jews and a distinctive Jew- for the adoption of a federal dustrial compliance w i t h the
encampment.
credibility of Nazi documents
Most significant is the chap- ish group life are best assured law is that those states most in minimum wage law; and for edu-
because they were frequently
written "for the purpose of ter dealing with the resistance. in a society which accords equal- need of FEP are precisely the cational and informational pro-
deliberate deception and alibi," So much hope was retained that ity and justice to all, and in ones that do not have it and grams with the public in order
Trunk states that they can the detentions in the Lodz Ghet- which individual freedoms and show no sign of being willing to to overcome some of the defi-
ciencies which handicap mem-
adopt such laws, he added.
be used as more or less reli- to were temporary, that re- religious liberties are secure.
Outlining for the subcommit- bers of minority groups in quali-
While observing that employ-
able sources when they were demption would come soon, that
made without awareness of the Nazi downfall would bring ment discrimination is an "old tee what the Jewish organiza- fying for decent jobs.

Story of Lodz Ghetto Martyrology
Supplements `Khurban' Literature

Congress Urged by NCRAC to Enact
Comprehensive Fair Employment Laws

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