8 Friday, April 8, 1983
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
Anniversary Marks Warsaw Ghetto Uprising Against Nazis
(Continued from Page 1) Menakhem Linder, an ture, writers, journalists,
loggerheads. The Gestapo
the main defense force was
"At the moment when economist, murdered by the musicians, sculptors and all
for once not daring to act on
concentrated
but snipers
the Polish Jews fell Germans as early, as April
the contributors to modern
its own, blamed the military
and hand-grenade throwers
under the horrible Hit- 1942.
Jewish culture and fighters
for procrastinating. The
still lurked in ambush in
lerite yoke, the more
"The Center for Child for national liberation and
military, interpreting the
the ruins of the "outer-
active elements of the Welfare, Centos, con- the cause of mankind, we
revolt as retaliation for the
circle," to stall the German
Jewish population began ducted many cultural ac- send our warmest greet-
Gestapo's brutality, waited
advance.
conducting a program of tivites among the great
ings."
for orders from Berlin.
Ther Germans found
broad scope and with the masses of children and
One week after writing,
On the seventh day, using
every building, every
rallying-call of self-help youth under the leader-
the time of German inac-
doorstep bitterly con-
and struggle. Through ship of the unforgettable this letter, Dr. Ringelblum
tivity to reinforce its num-
tested. By evening, how-
the active and generous Rosa Sinchowicz (who was shot to death by the
bers and arsenals, the
ever, they had recorded
aid of the American Joint died of typhus which she Nazis in Warsaw's Pawiak
ghetto rebel headquarters
gains toward the ghetto
Distribution Committee, caught during her work Prison.
Many instances of mar-
received a plea from the
center.
a large net of institutions among the street ur-
Pawiak jail: "Release us and
The Jews sent messen-
for communal welfare chins). Hundreds of chil- tyrdom and herosim are re-
corded in the story of the
we shall fight with you."
gers to. the Polish under-
was spread throughout dren's projects in board-
There were several
ground, proposing a revolt
Warsaw and in the coun- ing sch ools, nurseries Warsaw Ghetto Uprising.
Among those reme m- EMMANUEL RINGELBLUM thousand prisoners in the
of the entire city, for the
try, conducted by the and clubs were under-
ghetto alone could not hold
Jewish Society for Social taken with the assistance bered are the hero is outside the ghetto, seizing Pawiak tombs, most of them
out much longer. Told that
Welfare (ZTOS), the Cen- of a group of teachers, exploits of Zivia Lubetki n foodstuffs for distribution Jews and Poles, and even
and Tosia Altman, t he
such revolt would be prema-
tral Organization for the educators and artists.
among the ghetto residents. some deserters from the
two
girls
who
headed
t
he
German army; and the Jews
ture, they held out alone.
Protection of Children
"A central library for
In
the
morning,
the
and Orphans (CENTOS) children was created, and a defense of the Warsa
ghetto was silent with little needed manpower.
The ghetto ran out of food
Ghetto.
On the eighth day of the
and the Society for the theater. Courses were given
outward sign of what was
and water. The dead piled
Protection of the Health in the Yiddish language and s The Nazi records the m- going on in its dwellings, s ghetto revolt -- with the
up. Epidemic raged. The
elves affirmed that mo re cellars and subterranean
treets still deserted, and
of the Jewish Population literature. Especially im-
last
defenders, sick and
than
1,000
Nazis
were
k
(TOZ).
pressive were the cultural
passages, except for blue- both Germans and Jews
feverish, stuck to their
ed
or
wounded
in
the
resi
wary
—
500
Jews,
in
Ger-
"The ORT, too, carried on and artistic performances
s- and-white flags flying
guns.
considerable work.
given during the `Chil-
side-by-side with the Polish 0 man uniforms, sneaked out
On the 42nd day, the
*
*
*
f the ghetto, in small
"Tens of thousands of dren's Month' when the
colors and labor's red ban-
Nazis cordoned the last
groups,
and
reassembled
as
Historic
Account
adults and children were audience, consisting of
ners from some of the win- a
target, a single building
detachment in front of the
able 'to survive for a longer thousands of weary spec-
of the Uprising
dows.
whose
occupants still held
awiak jail.
period because of the help of tators, came to spend a few
The German and
In April 1944, a year aft er
out. It was a four-story
The
ruse
they
had
in-
these institutions and of the carefree hours with the t he Warsaw Ghetto Upri s- Lithuanian police came
structure, each of its floors a
ramified network of house children and thus, for a i ng, the Independe nt as usual to escort the tended was only partly
fortress.
successful.
Shooting
committees which cooper- short time, escape from the J ewish Press Service pu b_ Jews who worked out-
After eight hours of
ated with them. These nightmare of reality. 1 ished the following accou nt side the ghetto, and the ensued. In the confusion
constant
firing, the Nazis
organizations conducted
"Hundreds of children o f the 42-day battler:
German soldiers arrived, of uniforms, however, the
gained entry into the
Jews
broke
into
the
jail
their self-sacrificing work from the Centos homes and
On the first Seder nigh t as usual to supervise the and poured its human
house, but were balked
up to the last minute, as from the schools partici- a bout midnight, six tank
Jewish workers within
by
resistance on the
long as even the slightest pated in these performances c arrying German soldier • the ghetto. Cautiously contents into Warsaw's
ground floor. Resistance
streets.
By
morning
there
spark of life still burned in which rose to a high artistic r umbled into the ghett o. they walked down the
there quelled, they
the Jewish group. Under level. Today there are no T he Nazis began throwin
deserted streets. Round- were many German dead
moved to the first floor
and
the
ghettos
had
sev-
their cloak all the political more Jewish children in Po- t he customary cordo
ing corners they were
and here too were met by
eral
new
detachments
parties and ideological land! Ninety-nine percent of a round one of its street s pounced on and dis-
a
fusillade.
trends conducted their them were murdered by the fr om which they were t o armed by ghetto fighters behind its barricades, the
In the midst of the resis-
Pawiak
jail
detachments
clandestine activities. Hitler criminals.
striking from ambush.
ake away Jews for deporta
ters, on each staircase land-
with
German
deserters
in
Under their cover practi-
"When the period of mur- ti on, as they had done s o They were the ghetto's
ing and in each room, there
their ranks.
cally all the cultural activi- derous deportations began, o ften on previous occasion s. first Nazi captives.
was always the blue-and-
Partisans
returned
from
ties were organized.
the slogan of self-help was B ut this was unlike prey
At noon, motorized mili-
white flag, for these last de-
• "The watchword of the abandoned for the idea of io us occasions. The Jew
tary detachments raced the woods to reinforce the
fenders were members of
organized groups of the active resistance. Our youth h ad been preparing fo ✓ through the streets of War ; ghetto army.
the Hechalutz, the Zionist
Jewish community was 'To of all the movements, espe- m onths.
• saw, headed for the gates of
The German authorities
pioneer movement. They
live with honor and die with cially of the pro-Palestine
For many weeks now, i n the ghetto. Machine guns had by then received their
carried their banner with
honor!' We made every ef- organizations, revealed its fl agrant defiance of th e were brought up. Houses on orders from Berlin. De-
them, as they retreated to
fort to carry out this watch- indomitable courage; it was G ermans, the walls of th e the outskirts of the ghetto tachments, rushed from
the roof.
word in the ghettos and con- the onset of the colossal epic ghettos had been plastere d were razed in the firing; the Galicia, reinforced the War-
Then the firing stopped,
centration camps. An ex- by the armed Jewish battle w ith posters calling upo n gates of the ghetto were saw garrison. An ul-
and for a moment the flag
pression thereof was the in Poland; the heroic de- th e ghetto residents to b e blown up. The Germans timatum to the Jews called
disappeared. Soon some-
wide scope of the cultural fense of the Warsaw ghetto, re ady, for the hour of yen knew that this was or- for the immediate discon-
thing wrapped in blue-
work which was under- the illustrious battle in g eance. On reaching th e ganized rebellion.
tinuance of all resistance
and-white crashed to the
taken notwithstanding the Bialystock, the destruction g hetto's main street, th e
Late in the evening the and the release of German
street. It was the last defen-
horrible terror, hunger and of the extermination dens in G ermans were met by an in
Germans withdrew, aban- captives, or the ghetto
der, jumping to his death
poverty and which grew and Treblinka and Sobibor, the to nse fusillade. They died i n doning tanks and machine would be razed to the
wrapped in the Zionist
spread until the martyr battles in Tarnow, Bendzin, th e flames of their own guns which had been put ground.
colors.
death of Polish Jewry.
Czestochowa and other ex ploded tanks. This wa
out of commission and in the
The Jews countered with
Next morning the Ger-
"At the time when the places. • th e revolt.
evening the firing ceased. terms of their own;-demand-
mans announced that Ghet-
Warsaw Ghetto was her-
"The Jews showed the
But the Jews stuck to their ing that for each German
tograd was liquidated. It
All able-bodied me
metically sealed, a clandes- world that they could fight,
a nd women were armed posts. The guard was rein- captive released by them, 10
was not. Some fighters still
tine cultural organization weapon in hand, that they
. forced. Flames and pillars of Jews be released from con-
L
remained, in the rubble, in
was formed with the name know how to die honorably to arge houses were vir t smoke rose from the ghetto. centration camps in Poland.
the ruins, in the catacombs;
al
forts.
Every
stree
Jewish Cultural Organiza- in the battle against the de-
w as equipped with an
All was outwardly quiet The Germans found this
and the revolt had spread to
tion (YIKOR). It conducted adly enemy of the Jewish
ar senal and under com that night, and the whole of unacceptable. The next
other ghettos. On the an-
broad educational work, or- nation and of all humanity.
m and. Trenches were the next day. Both sides morning the great battle
niversary of the Ghetto re-
ganized series of lectures,
"This is all we wanted d
were marking time. The opened.
volt, its environs are still
literaiy anniversaries (in to tell you, dear friends. C ug under cover of night ▪ third night was the
Cannon opened up on the
being guarded. Among the
ellars were ready as
honor of I.L. Peretz, Sholem Not many of us survived.
sh elters. Children were Gestapo-liquidation night, ghetto. Tanks, rumbling
ruins the Germans some-
Aleichem, Mendele, Among the writers . • . as
with the Jews venturing into its streets, were sho-
times see a grizzled figure, a
signed
the
task
of
mes
Borokhov, etc.) and literary live, write and work with se
surviving Jew. They rarely
ngers, to maintain con- into the nearest headquar :- wered by bullets. Jewish
and dramatic programs.
us (here ten names are gi-
ta ct between posts, to ters, seizing arms and av- su icide squads rushed in the
capture such alive. In their
"The spirit of the YIKOR ven. Then follow three b
enging in blood their breth- fa ce of German tanks,
rags,*these Jews still carry
ring
food
and
water
to
was the young scholar names of well-known th
ren who had died at the ex ploding them with hand
hand grenades, exploding
e fighters.
writers who were trans-
themselves and their cap-
Early in the morning of hands of the Gestapo. gr enades. Several hundred
ported beyond the Polish
It was a race for time, Ge rman soldiers died that
tors.
th e first day of Passover, de-
"Where Fir is Foremost -
border by the Germans).
* * *
ta chments of ghetto guerril- with the - Germans rush- da y. The German military
We do not know whether
I a s stormed the ghetto ing new arms transports au thorities ordered that the
In 1942, the U.S. Office of
or not they are alive.
wo rkshops, where Jews into the vicinity of the gh etto be subjected to bom-
War Information published
Uptown • Southfield Rd. at
"Whether
we
shall
have
we
b
a
ghetto
and
the
Jews
seiz-
rdment
with
incen-
111/2 Mile • 559-3900
an illustrated pamphlet,
Blg 8 Tall • Southfield at 11 Mile
the opportunity to meet un re forced to make Nazi ing or destroying them. dia ries. That night was in-
"Tale of a City," describing
iforms,
and
the
arsenals
569-6930
with you is doubtful. To all
w here the Nazi ghetto- The ghetto fighters were fer nal, with fires sweeping
Warsaw and the ghetto Up-
the workers for Jewish cul-
th
tense
and
trigger-
e
ghetto
and
buildings
rising which occurred a year
guards kept their weapons.
nervous. They were cra shing on their defenders.
Music by
later
during the Passover
The Jews took all the equipped with bombs,
By morning the ghetto
period of 1943.
weapons on hand, and out- machine guns and anti- ha d reorganized for battle
The story of the heroic re-
fitted all Aryan-looking tank cannon.
un der the new conditions.
sistance
is retained in the
Big or small, we custom
members within their own
The Germans were unde- Ho uses on the outskirts
Ringelblum tin containers.
the music to -your needs.
ranks with German army tided as to how to cope with we re abandoned. Arms and
They represent the most
uniforms. They also pene- the situation. The military foo d were removed into the
968-2563
moving chapter in Jewish
trated into the territory and the Gestapo were at cen ter of the ghetto, where
history.
K °sins
Sam Barnett