20th Anniversary of Bialystok Revolt
(Continued from Page 1)
furniture factory and in a num-
acceptance. Hit back and fight ber of other large buildings. A
to your last breith. Fight with number of Germans were killed
• your teeth and your nails; fight or wounded. After some 24
with knives and axes; use any hours, the German commander
kind of iron you can lay your called in tanks to support his
hands on and also any inflam- troops. The first tank to enter
mable material you can find. the ghetto was blown up by a
Make the enemy pay with blood hand-made mine. The fighting
for blood . . . Let us lie in wait then spread from buildings to
for the enemy, kill him when the streets, and the Germans
he approaches, disarm him . . . had to call in aircraft, to fly
If need be, let us die in dignity. low and shoot up the Jewish
People who die a hero's death positions. Gradually, however,
are never dead . . . We must German armor began to tell. A
not sell our lives cheaply, and bitter engagement took place
we might also avenge those of between the Germans and a
our brethren already done to Jewish unit commanded by
death . . . If you have to leave Marek Kramarcz. When the sit-
your homes, or your places of uation of this unit had become
work, set fire to them. Destroy desperate, a girl by the name of
the factories you work in. Let Regina Wiernik blew up a build-
the murderers not inherit any- ing with a hand-made bomb and
thing . .. We call upon Jewish buried under it a number of
youth to take an example from German soldiers.
the heroes and martyrs of our
The battles lasted a week.
history and to come out and When
it was all over, there was
fight . . . One day tyranny will still a strong
pocket of Jewish
be wiped off the face of the resistance
in a reinforced cellar.
earth and a better world will By that time,
ghetto hos-
emerge. This is the future we pital, which had the
tended
the Jew-
shall be fighting for . . . Do not ish wounded as far as the
die a cowardly death . . . If you available to the doctors means
and
survive, get out and join the nurses permitted, was demol-
partisans, but take your arms ished
by the Germans. But the
with you. You may be able to fighters
in the cellar fought on.
take some arms from the Ger- There were
other, smaller groups
mans in the ghetto. Be strong." who
to the last, the final
It is strange that this remark- battle fought
having been fought on
able document was never trans- Aug. 30,
1943. A few of the
lated into English. If it were, ghetto fighters,
who had their
perhaps Raoul Hilberg and
under a well, were
Hanna Arendt would not have stronghold
taken prisoners. They marched
written what they did, though I to
their execution singing battle
doubt it. For, self-hatred is not songs.
an affliction which yields to fact
From the available documents
or reasonable argument.
The first shot in the revolt it appears that of the two com-
was fired on Aug. 16, 1943, at manders—neither of them sur-
8 o'clock in the morning. An vived—Moskowicz was a muni-
SS battalion led by a high rank- tions expert and Tenenbaum-
ing officer marched into the Tomaroff a strategist.
Those who survived the bat-
ghetto. A shot was heard and
the officer fell dead. The bullet tles of the ghetto and managed
had been fired by a young
Jewish girl. The SS returned the
fire, and by 10 o'clock German
motorized units were called in.
They took up positions opposite
the house of the Council of the
ghetto. By that time, a large
textile factory was set on fire
by the Jewish fighters. This was
a signal to the population out-
side the ghetto that the revolt
had started.
Fighting soon broke out all
over the ghetto. Shoemakers,
under the command of Nach-
mann and Zelman Peltzer, barri-
caded themselves in a large shoe
factory and fought a great and
skillful battle against a German
unit. There was fighting in a
to get away with their arms
soon joined the partisans. One
of the remarkable feats of the -
revolt was the manufacture in
the ghetto of 5,000 hand gre-
nades. A quantity of small arms
was taken from the Germans
during various attacks on Ger-
man stores, in preparation for
the revolt. Some arms were
smuggled in from outside.
The official story of the revolt
in the Ghetto of Bialystok was
written by Prof. B. Mark. There
are also eye-witness accounts by
Marek Buch, a participant in
the revolt, Marilla Ruszicka,
another participant, and several
others.
A moving relic of the Bialy-
stok epic is a poem by Shlomo
Burstein, a local poet who fell
during the revolt, and one stanza
reads:
. . . "No one sees my pain
Invisible my tears remain" .. .
The story of the revolt in the
Ghetto of Bialystok ought to be
made compulsory reading in
Jewish schools.
S. African Zionists
Seek to Restore
Ties with Israel
JOHANNESBURG, (JTA) —
The South African Zionist Fed-
eration declared in a report
prepared for the 28th national
conference that South African
Jews continued to regard their
fund-raising efforts for Zionist
causes "as their sacred duty"
despite recent government sus-
pension of special concessions
on the transfer of funds to
Israel.
It was indicated that restora-
tion of the cordial relations
which once existed between
South Africa and Israel would
be the dominant concern of the
convention. The suspension of
concessions followed Israel's
vote in United Nations General
Assemblies in 1961 and 1962
with countries censuring South
Africa for its apartheid pol-
icies.
The concessions were granted
by the South African Treasury
in 1950 permitting Jews to
KAPLAN BROS.
transfer to Israel an amount in
cash fixed every six months and
permitting also the export of
goods "in surplus against pay-
ment in local currency."
ION
ANDS
raster
ONLY
Strictly
Kosher
Meats and
Poultry
Rosh Hashanah starts at sundown Wednesday, September 18.
Please shop early to avoid disappointment.
FOR YOUR HOLIDAY CONVENIENCE:
CLEANED AND KOSHERED FROZEN TURKEYS
READY FOR YOUR OVEN
(All Sizes)
$
From
$395
George Ohrenstein
18229 WYOMING
WE DELIVER — UN 1-4770
Member Detroit Kosher
Meat Dealers Association
Certified Master Watchmaker
and Jeweler
18963 Livernois
UN 1-8184
Open Thursday to 9 P.M.
African Troops
Trained in Israel
Return to Homeland
(Direct JTA Teletype Wire
to The Jewish News)
KAMPALA, Uganda — Nine-
teen Uganda soldiers returned
to Uganda Tuesday from inten-
sive training in Israel which
qualified them as army officers
and military plane pilots.
Fifteen of the trainees took
courses in military command
and the others underwent train-
ing as pilots. They were in
Israel from January until last
week. Eight of the army officer
candidates also were trained as
parachutists and made five
jumps including one at night
during the three week course.
The trainees previously had
all been clerks and teachers.
They will undergo additional
military training in Uganda be-
fore joining the country's armed
forces. The parachute trainees
wore on arrival here the wing
insignia they won in Israel.
* * *
DAR ES SALAAM, Tangan-
yika—Six Tanganyikans return-
ed here Tuesday from Israel
fully trained as military police.
Fifteen others returned trained
in all military skills. Four stu-
dents from Kenya also were re-
ported to have returned from
training in Israel with full
qualifications as pilots.
F.T.I.
So much style— at such a
low price. And so practical
too, for it's a comfortable
expansion style!
STAINLESS STEEL
MEN'S WATCHBANDS
Come in for Your Free
New Year Calendar.
495
New home, vacation, retirement ... whatever your plans—save for them
at American Savings and earn a full 4% dividend per year (the highest
rate on insured savings in Michigan). Stop in at the American Savings
office near you, or call for postage-paid, save-by-mail envelopes.
AMERICAN SAVINGS
MICHIGAN'S LARGEST STATE CHARTERED SAVINGS AND LOAN INSTITUTION
MAIN OFFICE: WOODWARD AT CONGRESS
SAVE FOR THAT SUNNY .DAY... THE AMERICAN WAY