Obituaries
Obituaries from page 89
EDITH WYMAN, 94, of Oak Park,
died Oct. 7, 2009.
She was a secretary at Sinai
Hopsitars walk-in psychiatric unit. She
was also an 8 over 80 recipient and a
lunch lady at Workman's Circle Nursery.
Mrs. Wyman is survived by her son
and daughter-in-law, Dr. Larry and
Wyman
Dr. Carole Black of Massachusetts;
daughters and son-in-law, Shirlee
Wyman Harris of Commerce Township, Carol Wyman
and Doug Brzak of Farmington Hills; grandchil-
dren, Julie Black and Matt Piotrowski, Jason Harris
and Jordan Harris; brother and sister-in-law, David
and Jean Blau of Commerce Township; sister, Esther
Morger of West Bloomfield; sister-in-law, Florence
Blau; brother-in-law, Allen Buch.
Mrs. Wyman was the beloved wife of the late Irving
Wyman; the loving sister of the late Edward Blau and the
late Elizabeth Buch; dear sister-in-law of the late Maury
Morger; mother-in-law of the late Richard A. Harris.
Interment at Beth Abraham Cemetery. Contributions
may be made to Yad Ezra, 2850 W. 11 Mile Road,
Berkley, MI 48072, www.yadezra.org ; JARC, 30301
Northwestern Highway, Suite 100, Farmington Hills, MI
48334 www.jarc.org ; Tri-County Celiac Support Group,
42193 Old Pond Circle, Plymouth, MI 48170, www.
tccsg. Arrangements by Ira Kaufman Chapel.
Remembering Marek Edelman
Shana Penn
Jewish Telegraphic Agency
M
arek Edelman could be
said to embody both
Poland's Holocaust his-
tory and its modern Jewish revival.
The last surviving leader of Warsaw's
ghetto uprising,
a man credited
with "awakening"
Poland's postwar
generation to its
proud Jewish leg-
acy, Edelman was
a hero to Polish
Marek
Jews and gentiles.
Edelman
His death Oct.
2, 2009, in Warsaw
at age 90 brings to a close his gen-
eration's contributions to Poland's
democratic culture.
Edelman's role in the Warsaw
ghetto uprising elevated him to a
place of honor among Jewish and
gentile resisters. A fighter of unusual
skill and courage, this 24-year-old
commander survived the 1943 upris-
ing to participate in the valiant 1944
Warsaw uprising against the Nazis.
Only 280,000 of Poland's 3.5 mil-
lion Jews survived the Holocaust and
returned. By 1970, that number was
down to 20,000-30,000, as many fled
the communist regime. Edelman's
wife and children left Poland during
the Cold War anti-Semitism of the
late 1960s, but he stayed. "Warsaw
is my city:' he said. "Someone has to
stay here with all those who died."
By the 1970s, few Poles knew any-
thing about the Warsaw ghetto or its
uprising. The communist govern-
ment had made a point of systemati-
cally erasing Poland's past.
Then in 1976, the anti-communist
underground published a book-
length interview with Edelman.
Forty thousand copies sold with
remarkable speed. Edelman became
Poland's only famous living Jew, and
the postwar generation began to
learn about its Jewish history.
In the late 1970s, together with
interested gentiles, Jewish activ-
ists organized secret, underground
groups that sought to supplant the
negative stigma around Jewishness.
They studied Jewish history, held
Holocaust commemorations and
practiced religious observances.
This reclamation of Jewish iden-
tity and culture became a meaning-
ful expression of anti-communist
resistance, and it imbued the 1980s
Solidarity movement with respect
for Poland's Jewish heritage. With
communism's collapse in 1989, the
Jewish activists came out of hiding
and began to revitalize Jewish com-
munities in a free Poland. I
Shana Penn is the executive director of
the Taube Foundation for Jewish Life and
Culture in San Francisco.
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October 15 • 2009
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