• The Underground of Poland--and a Jew Who Looked Aryan By PAUL BERNSTEIN One day during the first year of the Nazi occupation of Poland, Jacob Celemensky was waiting in a line in Krakow to get the travel- ing documents required of Jews. He overheard one man say to an- other behind him, "What is that Gentile doing in this line?" This gave Celemensky an idea. "I have a good face for an Aryan," he said. During the next four years, Cele- mensky passed himself off as an Aryan, traveling from Jewish ghetto to ghetto in the guise of a gas and electricity bill collector from city halls. Because of his fea- tures, he received little attention from the German and Polish guards at the ghetto entrances, but from 1940 until 1944, he was able to smuggle into the ghettos money, forged documents, arms, food and the ingredients for Molotov cock- tails. Another important commodity Celemensky brought the people of the ghettos was news—news of the war (often surpressed by the Pol- ish Occupied Government), news of Jews in other places in Europe and news of the activities of the Jewish Polish underground with whom Celemensky had connections. Here recently to spur interest in a Yizkor book he is writing, Cel- emensky described his war exper- iences for The Jewish News. Traveling under the name Cheslav, Celemensky visited 24 cities in Poland, as well as sev- eral concentration camps. Dur- ing each visit, in order to make his appearance believable to the Nazis, he stayed two or three days at a time to complete his business as a bill collector. His identity was known by one man at each stop, for it Was unwise to be known by too many people. This man would serve as a contact to Celemensky and to the other Aryan-looking Jews who worked with him. parachute into the forests surround- ing the Polish cities where it would be picked up by the Jewish under- ground who hid in the dense woods. Celemensky was well known to these youths, and the money was transmitted through him to the ghettos. Born in Gombin, Poland, Cele- mensky worked as a tailor until the Nazis overran the country in September 1939. By that time, he was active in the national tailors union in Poland. When he first em- barked upon his underground ac- tivities, he established contact with the Socialist Party in Krakow, who continued to aid him until he threw off his disguise in August 1944 in order to take part in the last great Jewish rebellion in Poland. He spent the last eight months of the war in a concentration camp for Poles until its liberation by the United States Army May 1, 1945. Three years later he migrated to the United States, where he now works as a tailor, his original oc- cupation, in New York. In 1963, Celemensky published gives the town of Lublin, site of name of the paper, containing Jew- ish literature, news and inspira- tional works, had to be changed with each issue to escape detec- tion. They were usually mimeo- graphed and published either in Polish or Yiddish. During the time of the ghettos, Celemensky said, it was consid- ered unwise in the Jewish com- munity for a Jew to kill a German the- sealed "Jewish Reservation" during the first three months of the war. One Saturday during syna- gogue serivices, the Nazis came to Lublin to collect Jewish laborers, The Gombiner Society has a one of whom responded by strang- house in Tel Aviv and has es- ling a German soldier in a fit of tablished a free loan society. At rage. The result was the massacre one time, the Detroit chapter of all the Jews of Lublin. had more than 100 members, but Celemensky refuses to give with no one to replace those who credit to the claim of the present have died, membership has Polish government that the War- dwindled locally to 15. Sidney saw ghetto uprising of April-May Guyer is local secretary. 1943 was a Polish rebellion rath- Jacob Celemensky is still active, er than a Jewish rebellion. They currently on a world tour as a re- (the Poles) didn't help us at all. sult of his works with the< Combi- They helped themselves." Before the war started, there were 300,000 Jews in Warsaw. By the time of the uprising, the Jew- ish population had dwindled to ners. Besides the Yizkor book, re is active in a tailors union, and has just had his first book translated into English in hopes of publishing his war experiences for the bene- 50,000. Celemensky was instrumen- fit of those who do not speak tal in smuggling supplies to such Yiddish. ghetto youth leaders as Mordecai Anielewich and Dr. Edelmann, two of the uprising's chief architects. Celemensky helped 80 survivors of the uprising escape from the ghetto by means of an under- ground tunnel. Among the 40 Jews who lived in Warsaw by the end of Mart Is — - IN AMERICA U.S. SAVINGS BONDS, NEW FREEDOM SHARES 25% OFF FASHION JEWELRY UP TO 50% OFF HUGH CONNOLLY & SON LOBBY GENERAL MOTORS BLDG. ESTABLISHED 1890 TR 2-1121 VACATION SPECTACULAR!! FM11 %IA ENTIRE 1 , 1111.1; OF t):\ E ■ 1-1)It ctIt ZEN"; TR tvEl. CIA It %A► Btu H LIFT TIME::: *It) ItitiNt. 101 IIIE t It tHO\ 4)1IFIt OF SIDNI:1-11II.I. \Olt (Copyright 1968, JTA Inc.) thing more than what the doctors mean by a new heart. He meant that the world would be filled by mercy and kindness instead of hostility and if science can make a breakthrough here, we would appreciate It. Put your many Mem your FAMOUS BRANDS the Jews of Gombin, the small town near Warsaw where he was born. By DAVID SCHWARTZ toms and then pull the handle and out will come a prescription and a ticket good for a set of china. The ringer is that we may push the wrong buttons and get cured of diphtheria when we have appendicitii. & ORCHESTRA LI 7-2770 FLATWARE NIA I:it HER iu-: rl t 11 t (.1.1)1ZHII man on the sixth floor would call which will make the process cheap out, "my Able is sick" and the enough for everybody. doctor would yell back, "Give him The Israeli daily, Maariv, writ- some castor oil and throw down a ing of the Washansky heart case, dollar:* says the prophet Ezekiel was the Today, a doctor doesn't visit first to predict the, possibility of his patients. Probably in the not the heart transplantation. In the too distant future, we won't visit book of Ezekiel, God is represented the doctor. We'll go to a comput- as saying "And I will give to you mg machine on the corner, push a new heart." Probably Ezekiel meant some- the buttons for our various symp- DICK STEIN STERLING SILVER rebellion when Jews of every sec- tion revolted with some Poles against the Nazis. At this time, Celemensky came to fight the Nazis in the Aryan section and was captured and sent to a con- centration camp. During his brief stay in the camp, he became secre- tary of an organization of concen- tration camp residents. Celemensky's current project, the Yizkor book, commemorates No More 'My Son, the Doctor' Today the Jewish young men and young women seem to be go- The world keeps going around ing in largely for physics and and around—in the same circle, chemistry, for research science. but all the time, it's changing too. Of couse, there is research in medicine too, but the fields of Take the Jewish mother. chemistry and physics appear Bernard G. Richards, who heads more rewarding in significant dis- the Jewish Information Bureau covery. and knows what's what, says we The other day, the newspapers are at the beginning of a new era were full of the story of Dr. Ar- with respect to the Jewish mother. thur Kornberg, a Jewish physicist The day, he says, when the in synthesizing the DNA, particles. Jewish mother said, "My son, the Most of us don't know what it's doctor," is gone forever. all about, but we are told that Today, the Jewish mother says, this is a great breakthrough in "My son, the physicist," (not the science, by which man may be physician). able to change hs whole being, Being a doctor conferred some to make geniuses of people and status, but the ambition to be one to cure many diseases. seems to have lost a good deal We hope so. It's nice to read of its zest. Maybe, because in about it anyway. the old days, you saw more of the A few weeks back, we beard doctor. He visited his patients or at least, called in the neighbor- that Prof. Abraham Kogan of the hood. Eddie Cantor used to tell Haifa Technion had achieved "a how the doctor would pass by the breakthrough" in desalination, a East Side tenements and the wo- means of de-salting sea water, Music the Stein•Way JANUARY SALE The Gombiner Society, consisting of former residents of the city, is dedicated to historical reminis- cences of Gombin and the com- Working with Celemensky were solider, simply because the Ger- memoration of the Jews who per- 1,500-2,000 young Jews, mostly mans would reprise with the killing ished during the war. women. Women were favored be- of 500 Jews. "It was hard," he cause they could look Aryan with said, "to kill Germans. This is why no physical characteristics to give the Jews waited so long before they them away. started open rebellion, as in War- Much of the money used in the saw. What was the use of killing operation came from the United one German when we would lose States, by the way of London. 500 Jews?" From there it was dropped by As an example, Celemensky Friday, January 5, 1968-27 Organized in 1936, the society has members in cities all over the world, including Detroit. The book will be published this year in Yid- dish, Hebrew and English. his story in Yiddish in a limited edition book. Besides his person- the rebellion was Dr. Edelman, al experiences, the book was a who lives in Warsaw today. collection of incidents and indi- In the summer of 1944, Polish vidual heroism of Polish Jews. Celemensky tells of the activi- Jews staged their last act of open ties of the Jewish underground in the forests of Poland and of his visits to boost the morale of Jews trapped in the ghettos through news of underground activities and successes, as well as through the distribution of newspapers. 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