Drama of Survival During Nazi Era in Poland 70th Anniversary of London Zionist Congress
By JOSEF FRAENKEL
News Special London
Gives Evidence of Resistance; 'The Bunker,' (Jewish Correspondent)
Bodenheimer and Johann
Kremenetzky addressed the dele-
Even before
gates on the Jewish National
JPS New Work, Is Account of Human Grit
Fund, and both suggested that
A great drama is recorded in
'the newest Jewish Publication
Society novel, "The Bunker" by
Charles Goldstein, translated from
the French by Esther Malkin.
It is the story of a man who,
with six others, survived the War-
saw Ghetto revolt, lived in hiding
in a bunker they created, and
went through agonies that were
part of an era of terror. Because
they were able to record this tale,
this novel is rightfully described
by William Glicksman, who wrote
an introduction defining the work,
as "a major contribution to the
history of the Holocaust."
Glicksman states about Gold-
stein's book that it is neither
a novel nor a memoir—because
it does•not contain fictitious and
imaginative elements and be-
cause it does not comprise
chronological entries. He calls
it "a witness—a testimony to
the suffering of man and to his
indomitable fight for dignity
and human worth in even the
most unbelievable, degrading
situations."
With the six other Jews, Charles
Goldstein was in the bunker from
September 1944 to January 1945.
Their survival is the result of a
determined will that is recorded
in this testimony—a record that
should be widely read because of
the great worth it attains as a
notable document.
The author—one of the seven
who created a life of courage and
dignity during the months they
were in the bunker—was born in
Poland. Be left for France in the
late 1920s and served in the French
Resistance during the world war.
He was arrested in June 1942, and
was sent to Auschwitz. He was as-
signed to clean up the Warsaw
Ghetto in October of 1943 and later
managed with the small group to
escape, into Number 8 Francisz-
kanska Street that was held by a
Jewish unit. Under it they built the
bunker. The building was burnt by
the Nazis. But they managed to
clean up the underground hideout
to carry on the existence of the
hounded.
One of the seven in the bunker
was a young girl. She was the
cook during these months, as the
men went foraging for food in the
destroyed buildings nearby. The
fears and the dangers, the con-
stant lookout for Germans pa-
trolling the area, the agonies oc-
casioned by the rats and the flies
—these are the elements in a
struggle for survival that portrays
the heroism of a group that defied
threats and emerged victorious
just as everything appeared
doomed. It was just as the last
bits of food were consumed, as
hunger began to destroy the last
vestiges of hope, that they learned
Russians had arrived, that Ger-
mans had fled from the Warsaw
area.
During the months in their hide-
out the group with Goldstein—all
are listed and described at the
beginning of the story—is visited
by others in the nearby hideouts
in the Warsaw underground canal
zones. From one they invited a
priest, Kazik, who was near death,
to join them. They nursed him
back to life and he survived
agonies of bunker life with them.
In an epilogue, the author de-
scribes what had happened to all
the surviving heroes of this touch-
ing story. All live normal lives.
In the course of his narrative,
Goldstein incorporates a recollec-
tion of life in Auschwitz before
being sent to Warsaw and before
the Warsaw Insurrection which
enabled the group and others to
escape.
It was when Goldstein and the
group from Auschwitz was ordered
to clean up Warsaw's streets, just
before the Insurrection, that they
saw the horrid sights of the dead,
the devastation, and then Gold-
stein records this incident:
48 Friday, August 7, 1970
—
Yiddish poet Morris Rosenfeld and
the Hebrew poet Joseph Massel.
The Russian delegates had a daily
the publication of news sheet in the Russian lan-
guage; it was the first Russian
the booklet "The Jewish State,"
Theodor Herzl visited London, in daily printed in England.
Two days before the opening
November 1895, where he ad-
of the Congress, on Saturday
dressed his first Zionist meeting
evening, Aug. 11, 1900, a mass
and published his first Zionist
meeting at the Great Assembly
article. He felt that Great Britain
Hall, Mile End, took place. About
would understand and sympathize
8,000 people came to listen to
with modern Zionism. He intended
Herzl, Max Nordau, Zangwill,
to convene the Second Zionist Con-
Haham
Moses Gaster, Prof.
gress (1898) in London, but the
"Only once did we discover
a living being—a young girl.
In Wolymnska Street, a platoon
of us Jews guarded by an SS
man went down into a cellar
which led into another cellar.
In the second cellar we sud-
denly saw a young girl, who
looked to us like something old English Hovevei Zion and the
wild and prehistoric. Near her new Zionist Societies were still
lay the body of a young man.
"The Germans ordered us to
take the corpse outside. They
took the girl off to the camp.
There they got her to calm down
and to wash herself; they also
gave her something to eat.
"When we came back to the
camp at lunchtime we were all
o -•ered to remain standing. The
girl was sitting on a chair near
the kitchen.
"The commandant went up to
her and said: "Here, in this
camp, Jews live. No harm is
done to them. They work and
they are fed. You too can stay
here and live. You will go short
of nothing. You only have to
tell us who helped you to sur-
vive until now. With whom are
you in contact? With someone
outside? Tell me, child."
"The girl looked at him with
an expression of pride. There
was a light on her face, as
though she was glowing from
within. She leaned up from her
chair and said with contempt
in her voice:
"I know your sweet words!
But you will pay for everything!
Your end is already near!"
The commandant shot 'her
Mandelstamm, Prof. Rich and
Gottheil, Stephen S. Wise and
others. When Herzl appeared,
the public enthusiastically wel-
comed the founder of modern
Zionism.
Several minutes passed before
the excited crowd quieted down.
London papers stated that never
before, "not within living memory"
had there been such a mass meet-
ing of Jews. "Zionism belongs to
the forefront of international poli-
tics," wrote the Manchester
Guardian.
More than 400 delegates arrived
in London to participate in the
Fourth Zionist Congress, from Aug.
13 to 16, 1900. The Queens Hall
(Langham Place) was packed
when Herzl, in his opening speech,
stated that England was one of
the few countries without organ-
negotiating their amalgamation. In
1899, the English Zionist Federa-
tion was founded, became active
and a year later consisted of 39
societies in 29 towns.
Of the six Zionist Congresses
over which Herzl presided, five
took place in Basle and one, the
fourth, in London. Seventy years
have passed, and 27 Zionist Con-
gresses have been convened, yet
no other Zionist Congress has met
in London.
Herzl wanted to hold the First
Zionist Congress (1897) in Munich,
but because of the opposition of
the Jewish community there and
the "Protestrabbis," Basle finally
became the town of Zionist Con-
gresses. One year later, on Oct. 18.
Herzl met Kaiser Wilhelm, at ized Jew - hatred. It was difficult
Yildiz Kiosk, and again on Nov. to find a country in which God's
2, 1898, in Jerusalem, but the ex- Ancient People were not per-
pectations for a charter were not secuted. The aim of Zionism was
realized. From then on, Herzl con- to create a home for the Jewish
centrated his hopes more intensely people secured by public law.
on Great Britain. Modern Zionism The return of the Jews to the
would be made known to the larg- Land of their Fathers, foretold by
est city in the world, to win Lon- the Holy Scriptures, sung of by
don's moral and political support. poets, desired, with longing, by
Journalists of the powerful English our people, should be an impor-
press would be invited to report tant event, of political interest,
and comment on Zionism and to to the powers concerned in the
explain the aims of Zionism to its development of Asia. Herzl con-
through the heart."
readers
in nearly all the countries tinued and formulated the historic
There is the constant debate
over resistance. What better ex- of the world. Whoever makes a words: "England, great England,
speech
in London, Herzl wrote, freedom-loving England, overlook-
ample of resistance than this?
Goldstein's story tells of enmities speaks to the entire English civil- ing all the seas, will understand
ized
world.
towards Jews by Poles. He also
our movement. From there the
There was a stimulating "Con- idea of Zionism will soar higher
records acts of friendship, espe-
gress atmosphere." The English and farther. We may be convinced
cially from one Pole who kept
Zionist Federation gave an of- of this."
coming to the bunker to bring
ficial reception in honor of the
them food. The reminiscences of
The delegates listened to Nor-
delegates, as well as a garden dau, one of the finest orators of
Goldstein contain a reference to
party at the Royal Botanic Gar- the Jewish people. He spoke on
the tragic death of his noble Pole.
dens and a banquet.
"The Bunker" is part of the
the "General Situation of the
history of the bitter era in Poland.
An exhibit of pictures of the Jews" and called special attention
JPS adds valuably to literature Holy Land was opened, and daily to the pogroms in Romania. Others
about the Holocaust with this book. lectures on Palestine were ar- dealt with anti-Semitism in various
ranged. Mazin published Zionist countries.
Oskar Marmorek reported that
'Of Bombs and Mice' songs in English, Hebrew and Yid-
dish, and Isaac Snowman designed the number of Zionist societies
Also Tells of Ghetto a souvenir card for the London was increasing all over the world,
"Of Bombs and Mice" is intro- Congress. Israel Zangwill was including Egypt, Morocco and
duced as a novel by Mina Tom- proud to announce that "Litera- Algiers. Booklets in various lan-
kiewicz relating the story of the ture" was fully represented. Be- guages, in Arabic too, were being
Warsaw ghetto. It is much more sides Herzl and Nordau, Abraham published to explain modern Zion-
than that. It is the personal exper- Goldfaden, Father of the Yiddish ism. Libraries, Hebrew schools,
ience of a woman who, with her Theater, was' there, as well as the reading rooms, Jewish study and
child, survived Bergen-Belsen, who
went through the era of the Ger-
mans arrival in Poland, the period
of humiliation that was followed by
arrest, the concentration camp
miseries, the indignities and the
struggle for survival.
TARIFF
On this Thomas Yoseloff-pub-
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lished novel, we meet the char-
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acters involved in the battle for
life. The reader learns of the hope-
lessness under which the per-
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secuted lived, the striving for food
ninip'?7
and for hope to escape the terror.
NEW EXPRESSIONS j
The novel was translated
from the Polish by Stefan F.
Gaze!, and the author edited the
volume together with Patrick
Wyndham. In the gathered facts
are the accounts of Jews and
Poles seeking means of escap-
ing the worst and with efforts
to attain posts—such as police
for the Germans to restrain the
victims of the Nazis.
Well trained, having earned her
master's degree in law before
World War H, Mina Tomkiewicz
and her young son were `the only
members of the family to survive.
Her husband was murdered. She
was in DP camps after the war
before going to Israel where her
first book was written in a British
camp at Beit Nabala. She is now
in free-lance journalism, has lived
for four years in Richmond, Sur-
rey, as correspondent for Polish
emigre and Israeli newspapers.
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
literary societies were being
founded.
Max
preparations should continue and
that the next Congress (1901)
should establish the JNF.
Some of the delegates—David
Wolffsohn, M. Ussishkin, N. Soko-
low, Rabbi Reines, L. Motzkin-
were already well-known, others
—Chaim Weizmann, Leopold Kes-
sler, Yechiel Tschlenov—on the
way to becoming known. Delegates
from England who played impor-
tant roles were: Sir Francis Mon-
tefiore, Leopold J. Greenberg,
Joseph Cowen and Jacob de Haas.
After the closing session at the
banquet, Nordau said: "There
were those who declared them-
selves to be Jews, and there were
those who had to be
told they
were Jews. It was more hon-
orable to acknowledge this than
to be told one was a Jew," he
concluded.
Herzl saw Lord Salisbury's
private secretary, Eric Barring-
ton, and other high officials of the
foreign office. Together with other
leading Zionists they visited Wind-
sor Castle and discussed the Jew-
ish problem.
"In his heart of hearts," wrote
the Manchester Guardian, "every
Herzlist considers his beautiful
dream of a Jewish State to be
a British protectorate . .
The Chicago Record published
an interview with Herzl and
stated: "At present, Palestine
is a dead country, completely
barren, in the modern idea. The
Jews would breathe into it, the
breath of life . . ."
In an interview with Nordau,
The Westminster Gazette declared:
"There are enormous tracts of
waste land in Palestine, good to
no one, except jackals." Even
after the Congress closed, the pa-
pers continued the discussion on
Palestine, the historic land of the
Jews. As long as Palestine was
poor, barren, a country for jackals
—the Arabs were not interested
in the Palestine desert.
The London Congress was a great
success. "The result was excel-
lent," noted Herzl in his diaries.
"We have made a demonstration
before the English world and the
demonstration has been noticed."
Nearly all papers published de-
tailed reports and friendly com-
ments and articles. The Fourth
Zionist Congress acquainted the
English readers and politicians
with the time of Zionism and es-
tablished a bridge which years
later paved the way to the Balfour
Declaration.
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