The
Heroes
children. I loved those
Russian soldiers?
Rena's brother,
Abraham, had settled in
Ohio in 1940 and opened
a lumber business. Rena
and Ina joined him there
in 1949. Abraham took
care of his sister and
niece, even paying for
Ina's college education. A
few cousins survived, but
most of the family per-
ished in the war.
Rena Rajchman died
10 years ago, leaving her
daughter only sad scraps
of memory about her
family before and during
the Holocaust.
"I was very hungry for
information on the sub-
ject," Mrs. Silbergleit
says. "But we were so
busy picking up the
pieces and making a new
life that my mother just
didn't want to look back.
"You just didn't talk
about it then," she says.
"That's the amazing
thing."
am Seltzer was 14
when the war
broke out.
He was living in a
small town, Sosnowiec,
in southern Poland near
the border of Germany.
Soon after the Nazis
S
entered Sosnowiec, they
established a ghetto.
Sam found work shovel-
ing snow, sweeping
streets and as a coal
miner. In 1943, he was
sent to a labor camp to
help build an electric
station.
Several months after
arriving at the camp, "we
were called for an appell
(roll call) and we saw
right away that some-
thing was wrong. We saw
a bunch of trucks wait-
ing for us. We were told
to gather all our belong-
ings, which weren't much
anyway. Then we drove
an hour and a half to
Auschwitz."
The SS guards were
waiting. "Get out! Get
out! Get out!" they called
as the prisoners arrived.
"Stand in line! Take your
clothes off!" Then the
"selections" began.
Many of the men were
taken straight to the gas
chambers. Seventeen-
year-old Sam Seltzer was
not among them.
"I don't need to tell you
what it was like at
Auschwitz," says Mr.
Seltzer, today of Hunt-
ington Woods. "Death,
daily beatings, people
The alarm sounded at
2 a.m. on April 19, 1943.
The Nazis encircled
the walls of the Warsaw
Ghetto.
Members of the
Jewish Fighters Organ-
ization went to their
battle stations. The old-
est fighter was 24.
The revolt was about
to begin.
The Nazis had first
entered Warsaw four
years earlier, in
September 1939. Then,
393,950 Jews — about a
third of the city's popu-
lation — lived in
Warsaw. The ghetto was
built in 1940. It mea-
sured 840 acres, though
the size was constantly
reduced over the years.
German and Polish
guards stood outside
each gate.
At first, some 400,000
Jews (including resi-
dents outside Warsaw)
were forced to live in the
ghetto. The average
number of persons resid-
ing in each room was 13.
Virtually no one was
employed. Women and
children begged for food.
Corpses were as com-
mon as torn bits of
paper on the dirty
streets.
By 1942, more than
one-quarter of the ghet-
to's population had per-
ished. Most of the rest
were either murdered
'
there or sent to death
camps.
The first Jewish mili-
tary underground group,
Swit, organized in 1939.
It was headed by David
Apelbaum and Henryk
Lipszyc and comprised
Jewish veterans of the
Polish army.
A number of Zionist
groups established a
second underground
organization called the
anti-facist bloc. It was
headed by Mordecai
Anielewicz.
After the deportations
began, members of the
various underground
groups united to form
the.
Zydowska
Organizacja Bojowa,
ZOB,
the Jewish
Fighting Organization.
They received some
assistance in the form of
100 firearms from the
Polish underground.
Communists also pro-
vided weapons.
Meanwhile, the ZOB set
up its own "factory" to
make homemade bombs
and hand grenades.
Led by Mordecai
Anielewicz, the ZOB
began resisting the
moment the Nazis
entered the ghetto in
April 1943, with plans
for its liquidation. The
Germans came with
tanks and heavy
artillery; the Jews
fought with homemade
bombs. The Nazis
retreated.
Several days later the
Germans returned. This
time they decided to
burn the ghetto. Again,
the ZOB and other
groups managed to fight
them off. Then on May 8
the Nazis destroyed
ZOB headquarters at 30
Franciszkenska Street,
killing Mordecai
Anielewicz and 100
other resistance fight-
ers.
The Jews had lost the
20-day battle for the
ghetto (though they
fought the Nazis longer
than the French had in
1940), but their actions
made a profound impact
around the world. Poles
and Jews throughout
Nazi-occupied areas
began to revolt.
The ghetto was com-
pletely obliterated on
May 16, 1943. The few
survivors joined up with
other resistance groups;
many later became
active in the Polish
uprising against the
Nazis.
After the war, about
5,000 Jews remained in
Warsaw. A monument,
called "The Ghetto
Heroes' Square," honor-
ing the resistance fight-
ers, was established in
Poland in April 1948.
Inside the ghetto, photos by Willy Georg, from the new book, - !n the Warsaw
Ghetto: Summer 1941.
C3)
CO
-1
41