64 Friday, April 22, 1983
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
Noble Heroine Memorialized
Campion Volume Acclaims Gisi Fleischmann
Gisi Fleischmann is no within the power of most of
for rescue efforts, served as an emissary in the
meant. That she may hav e their community, who
longer a forgotten name in us, assuming we were funds
made possible the escape
the ranks of Jewish caught in such a tragic trap. of Nazi sufferers to pre- deals that were promul- wanted a high post in emi g- helped to rescue hun-
gated to provide what could ration work is quite likel y, dreds of people from Po-
heroism, devotion, human- But, because she did it, she Israel Palestine.
be described as blackmail, if she believed it would en - land, and who even
ism and martyrology.
stands as an outstanding
Her two daughters, Alice
Gisi Fleischmann's name example of Jewish, Zionist, and Judith, were sent and payoffs for lives of Jews to able her to do more for he ✓ reached out in a futile ef-
desperate fellow Jews. A de
is where it belongs — and, above all, human they settled in Palestine. be saved.
tp
o e.save every Jew in
Of interest are some of the sire on the part of wome
alongside the heroes of the ideals.
foui
r t-o
The mother refused to leave Nazi collaborators who to have the power to accom n E
Warsaw Ghetto Revolt,
Joan Campion had a
"Her own have not forgot- the battlefield, remaining
with Hannah Senesh and ten her. In Natanya, Israel, in Bratislava to supervise showed a measure of "com- plish worthwhile things is measure of encouragement
passion"
in
concessions
to
fortunately, no longer con - in hex efforts from many
Raoul Wallenberg.
there is a street named after the rescue efforts together
The name of this great her, at the urging of sur- with the leading per- help save lives as means of sidered the anomaly it one e quarters and her trip to Is-
and compassionate woman vivors from Czechoslovakia. sonalities engaged in the acquiring an alibi when the was.
rael, where she interviewed
"That whatever ambi - Gisi's daughters, and con-
who devoted herself to the But no number of streets or superhuman tasks. She time was to come to pay the
tion she had was mor e ferred with survivors who
rescue of fellow Jews who monuments could mean as traveled to Hungary in penalty for the crimes of the
than self-serving was t O were assisted in their rescue
were victimized by the Nazi much as the testimony of search for rescue before that Nazi era.
Campion's many associa- be established in the re - efforts by Gisi Fleischmann
savages is no longer hidden people's tears when they
maining few years of he ✓ and Y.O. Neumann, had the
and it has emerged to win remember her courage and
life. There is nothing o f assistance of the Memorial
acclaim for self-sacrifice compassion. I have
the suicidal in Gisi, and Foundation for Jewish Cul-
which has glorified the re- encountered these tears
Cul-
there is plenty of indica
sistance to the Hitlerite ter- more than once.
ture.
tion that she knew — and
ror.
Gisi was arrested twice,
"On a personal level, I
feared — her increasing managed to secure release
Reconstruction of the began this work out of intel-
danger. Yet she remained from prison, until the final
Holocaust chapter in his- lectual curiosity. If I have
and tried to help others tragic hours.
tory entitled Gisi Fleis- stayed with it, despite con-
until all chance for her
chmann invited appre- siderable difficulty, it must
Miss Campion makes
own survival had been considerable use of the re-
ciation for the devotion be seen as a tribute to the
lost. No self-seeking cords compiled by the histo-
and the research and personality who has been
could have led down this 1 grivaonteL
literary labors of a Chris- progressively revealed to
de:
Leon
Poliakov, who is
path; it took a specia
tian lady of valor, who, me.
warm-heartedness, com-
having discovered the
" `Gisi Fleischmann
"There were, of course,
passion and courage."
name of the woman and the Jewish Fight for
numerous cases of last-
Summarizing the Jewish minute blood-baths in the
heroine, devoted several Survival' is, frankly,
Council problem, Miss Nazi camps; but (histo-
years of her own life to work in progress. In the
Campion points to the out- rian Leon) Poliakov be-
the gathering of material present climate of world
rageous role of Carl lieves there were not
about the martyred re- opinion works like it
Hochberg, whose activities more because Gisi's ef-
scuer of fellow-Jews.
seem more necessary,
were widely condemned and forts and those of her col-
Joan Campion is the pro- even if less wanted, than
who finally was executed by leagues had in the first
ducer of that masterful re- ever. I have therefore de-
Jewish partisans in 1944. instance convinced cer-
sult of keeping the name cided to publish it as it
With regard to the other tain key Nazi officers that
Gisi Fleischmann alive. She stands, with a bibliog-
GISI FLEISCHMANN
heads of Jewish Councils, they might hope for some
accomplished it in a volume, raphical note hoping a
"Gisi Fleischmann and the more finished edition will country fell under complete tions, her family's strug- who labored unsuccessfully leverage with the Allies if
domination of the Nazis.
Jewish Fight for Survival," later be possible."
gles, the many friends and in behalf of Jewish sufferers they slaughtered as few
The world Jewish organ- the enemies on the horizon and who sought aid for additional Jews as possi-
published by her at a great
Miss Campion judges her
sacrifice to assure that the work as "intellectual curios- izations she worked with, provide a near-total picture them, Miss Campion writes: ble.
"Such works as Hannah
record she reconstructed ity." Its result is an accom- and whose help she enlisted, of her researched accounts
"He wrote, 'In the last
will remain alive in the plishment in gathering his- were the American Jewish of the perpetrated horrors, Arendt's sensational and analysis, the 'great work of
Joint Distribution Commit- the threatened dangers to unreliable `Eichmann in human love' begun by the
memory of mankind.
torical data, in summariz-
The admirable approach ing the battle for life and the tee, the Jewish Agency for the Jews of Bratislava and Jerusalem' have done unknown Jewess of Bratis-
to her task is outlined by obstacles to it. As the title to Palestine, the World Jewish in that entire area as the much to create the lava saved the lives of tens
Miss Campion in her the book indicates, the Gisi Congress, HICEM and Nazi domination continued false impression that all of thousands of deportees of
many individuals, whoever to spread.
members of Jewish Coun- all categories and
foreword to her volume in
story is also an account of
which she sends forth the the testing by the could provide means for re-
Especially moving is cils, everywhere in Europe, nationalities and prevented
scue.
message to mankind in sup- Holocaust.
the descriptive account were Nazi collaborators. the worst from happening
(HICEM was the inter- provided of the Jewish For Arendt, apparently, the during the collapse of the
port of her laborious task:
Miss Campion is a native national Jewish agency for
"This is the testimony of a
of Pennsylvania and a the regulation of Jewish Councils which have paradigm of the Jewish German concentration
been viewed by many his- Council member was the camps.'
gentile and a searcher of graduate of Cedar Crest
documents. Tell all who ask College, where she majored emigration and immigra- torians of the Holocaust flamboyant, power-mad
"In most cases it seems
tion. The name was a com- as nefarious and of Gisi Mordechai Rumkowsky, impossible to be sure just
you that there was indeed a in history.
bination
of
the
initials
of
Fleischmann's associa- head of the Jewish Council why the survivors survived,
Holocaust. It happened to
She has lectured at
people I know. It destroyed Lehigh University and to the three organizations tion with the Bratislava of Lodz, Poland, who ruled what x-factor made the dif-
which originally set it up —
his little domain, the
worlds I have been
various civic groups. She is HIAS, the ICA — Interna- Council. It is defended in Jewish ghetto of Lodz, like a ference. Some may have
the
Campion
story,
and
lived because of a strong
privileged to glimpse. It de- ,
a member of the Society for tional Colonization Asso-
the author of the Gisi petty monarch. He was basic physique, others be-
stroyed, alike, 'ordinary
the History of Czechoslovak ciation and Emigdirect.)
Fleischmann record of known as "the Jew king," a cause of some action taken
people and those whose Jews, Women's Interna-
Campion's Gisi story is devotion to the major title that in Slovakia was or not taken by their Nazi
achievements might have
tional League for Peace and
reserved for a non-Jew and
enriched all of us.
Freedom, International an account not only of the duty of rescuing Jews re- an avowed enemy of the tormentors.
calls
the
martyred
heads
heroine
herself
but
of
all
"One of its victims was
"But that the actions of
Women's Writing Guild and
Jewish people.
resistance organizations
a middle-aged Slovakian
the North Shore Women who were associated of Jewish Councils while
"In his realm, Rum- like the Working Group
with her — the Jewish re- berating the selfish and
Jewish woman named
Writers Alliance.
kowsky decided for the made the difference for
exposing
the
criminal.
scue
group,
the
commu-
Gisi Fleischmann. As one
While Bratislava in
Y. 0. (Oscar) Neumann Nazis who should live and many is clear.
of the most prominent
Czechoslovakia, Gisi's nity leaders, as well as
leaders of the Working home base, is the center those who created obsta- was one of Gisi's closest as- who should die. He can be
" 'Who lived and who died
sociates in her rescue ef- cited by anyone who wishes was largely a matter of
Group of Bratislava she,
of her activities, the cles.
forts. He has a major role in to assert that Jews helped to
with her colleagues,
brave lady labored in
The role of Adolf this tragic account of resis- determine their own de- luck,' observed Gisi Fleis-
chmann's niece Sonia
helped to save thousands
wider spheres. Miss Eichmann is revealed in
stiny under Nazi rule.
of Jewish lives.
Brueck Bachner. Yes; but
Campion's story of this this story, and a most im- tance and life saving.
Gisi and her friends, as well
"Great-hearted and lady's efforts describes portant account is given of Neumann is quoted about
"Unfort
unately,
to
gifted, this heroic woman
how she worked with the relationship with Dieter the debate that arose, single out Rumkowsky as as other Jewish resistance
was not so enormously
world Jewish organiza- von Wisliceny, whose name primarily in Zionist ranks, `typical' is to commit a leaders throughout Europe,
gifted as to have nothing in
tions to secure and pro- figured so prominently in over participation in the libel on the memory of worked hard at providing
the conditions in which as
common with the rest of us.
duce relief for the suffer- the Eichmann trial in Jewish Councils.
There even was an ac- many good, even noble many people as possible
What she Aid probably was
ers, how she gathered Jerusalem. Wisliceny
cusation that Gisi was am- people — for example, would be lucky.
bitious -in her role in the Adam Czerniakow of
"In a real sense, the
Bratislava Council. Here is Warsaw, Poland, who did
how Campion treats that the best he could to help children of those she
his people, against in- helped to save are Gisi
charge:
surmountable odds, and Fleischmann's descen-
"As to the question of who killed himself when dants.
whether Gisi Fleisch- he could do no more. For
"But what of the woman
mann was 'ambitious,' other examples, there are herself, this indomitable
the answer to that probably Gisi Fleischmann and her
small figure who had the
is 'yes,' although not quite friends, who until late courage to live not just the
in the sense that (Josef) 1944 struggled unceas- last weeks, but the last
Blum appears to have ingly for every life in
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