16 Friday, October 6, 1978

THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS

Warsaw Ghetto Photograph Stirs Debate

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WASHINGTON — A
London man's claim that he
is the boy being herded
towards deportation by a
German soldier in a famous
Warsaw Ghetto photograph
has been greeted with skep-
ticism and complaint in
England, according to a
Washington Post article by
Clay Harris.
Harris wrote that Joseph
Finklestone, news editor of
the London Jewish
Chronicle, interviewed, the
man and his parents, who
also survived the war, and
wrote a story in August re-
lating the man's tale of es-
cape under the headline
" 'Ghetto boy' lives here."
The man asked to remain
anonymous.
The man said the photo-
graph was taken in a mar-
ket place of the Warsaw
ghetto in 1941. The day was
still vivid in his memory.
"I was wearing a pair of
shoes that were too big
for me," he told Finkles-
tone, "and which I bor-
rowed from the boy on
my right who worked in a
baker's shop. I had no
socks on. We and other
Jews were suddenly
rounded up because, so
we were told, an impor-

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tant German official had
arrived.
"We were taken to the
local police station. I stayed
there a number of hours. My
mother who had been
searching for me arrived
and we both claimed that we
were not Jewish. We spoke
very good Polish and some-
how managed to persuade
the police to let us go."

The man's mother , who
- also lives in London, con-
firmed the story to Finkles-
tone, and the two told of
their escape into the care of
partisans who were fighting
the Germans and eventually
to Russia. They were re-
united there with her hus-
band and his father who had
made a similar, near
miraculous escape from
forced grave-digging duties
for the Germans.
The main weakness of the
man's claim is that he dates
the event in 1941. The
photograph was found in
the collection of a German
SS general named Stvoot
Whowas, later executed by
the Poles for his role in the
destruction of the Warsaw
Ghetto, beginning in April,
1943.
If the photo was taken
during that time — as al-
ways has been assumed
— the London man con-
cedes that he was not the
boy, because he agrees
that he was no longer in
Warsaw then.
But although the photo-
graph "was found 'amongst
the '43 collection, there isno
final proof that it was taken
in 1943," Finklestone said;
and the man's claim is bol-
stered by "certain unusual
features of this photo-

graph."
Finklestone compared
the photograph to others
known to have been taken
in 1943. The soldiers in this
photo are "ordinary Ger-
man Wehrmacht soldiers"
and seem to be more relaxed
and less obviously brutal
than-. soldiers, wearing
different insignia, who ap-
pear in 1943 photos, accord-
ing to Finklestone.
He suggested that the fact
that people in the photo are
carrying bags indicates that
they were being moved into
the ghetto rather than
taken away to extermina-
tion camps.
"This is something I
cannot prove one way or
another," the veteran re-
porter ;aid.
The Jewish Chronicle
published a. photo of the
London man in later child-
hood under the famous
ghetto picture. From this
and Finklestone's descrip-
tion, some London Jews
claimed to be able to iden-
tify him.
The reaction, at least as
recorded by the sen-
sationalist Sunday news-
paper News Of The World,
was antagonistic to the
man's claim.
The News Of The World
named the man as Issy Ron-
del, who fit Finklestone's
description and under sques-
tioning by a reporter admit-
ted that he had given the
interview. Then he was said
to have recanted his story.
One disbeliever was
quoted: "That little boy
died like all the rest of the
people in the picture. Cut
my head off, Issy Rondel
is not that little boy. I

'

have a number on my
arm from Auschwitz. He
opened all the old
wounds, and he is mak-
ing a mockery of all those
Who -died."
Another said: "This pic-
ture is very important to the
Jews, expecially the Polish
ones. This story offends all
of us and degrades the
memory of that child."
Reached recently, Rondel
said: -"I'm afraid I cannot gir
say anything at all. I've
been wrongly accused of
being all sorts of people.
There may be legal proceed-
ings pending." He would not
say whether he gave the
interview to Finklestone.
Finklestone said he was
respecting a pledge of strict
anonymity that he gave to
his subject. The man he
interviewed was active in
the late 1950s and early
1960s in an anti-Fascist
movement 'here known as
the "62 group" which par-
ticipated in activities simi-
lar to those of the Jewish
Defense League, though not
as extreme, Finklestone
said.
Other London Jews
have found it hard, if not
impossible, to reconcile
the man's reputation
from those days with
their image of the little
boy in the Warsaw
ghetto.
"People who knew him
just could not relate him to
this particular boy,"
Finklestone said.
Finklestone initially was
skeptical of the story.
"I queried his secretive
methods," he said. "We met
always in James Bond fash-
ion in hotels.
"But I found that every-
thing he had told me I could
confirm either from our own
files or from documents. It
was the mother who was
absolutely certain that this
was her son. She laughed at
me, she ridiculed my
doubts."
Finklestone believes that
the man is telling a true
story, even if he was not the
boy in that particular pic-
ture. _
"There was more than one
little boy who held up his
hands," Finklestone said.
"You. can imagine that
there were many such occa-
sions. There must have been
hundreds of occasions when
similar scenes happened all
over Europe."

Ariel Sharon, Israel
Agriculture Minister:
"One thing at least has
taken place in Egypt. They
have reached the conclusion
that nothing can be solved
by means of war.
"In my opinion, Sadat
today understands that the
situation in the Middle East
can be resolved only
through peace.
"But the sincerity of the
Egyptians' desire for peace
has yet to be put to the test.
Nor can that test under any
circumstances be at the ex-
pense of Israel's security
and survival."

Quarrels are the weapons
of the weak.

•