looking back

Temple Beth El, Michigan’s first Jewish congregation, dates to 1850. In 1856, the congregation adopted a new
constitution that contained ideas of Reform Judaism, thus becoming Detroit’s first Reform congregation. In 1925, the
congregation gathered at the elegant Book Cadillac Hotel in Downtown Detroit to celebrate its 75th anniversary. •

Courtesy of the Leo M. Franklin Archives at Temple Beth El.

Historic photos are curated by the
Jewish Historical Society of Michigan.

From the DJN

Davidson Digital Archive

I

t would be hard to ignore the bombastic headline for the Feb.
12, 1943, issue of the JN: “500,000 Jews Fall Prey to Nazis in
Warsaw Area.” By this point in history, the world was becoming
increasingly aware that Jews were suffering in Poland like nowhere
else. In Nazi death camps, like Auschwitz and Treblinka (to name
just two), Jews were being exterminated with cold efficiency. There
was also ample evidence by 1943 of Jews being
rounded up in Poland and forced into “ghettos”
like Warsaw and Lodz.
How many Poles put their own lives in jeop-
ardy to save Jews or how many turned in their
Jewish neighbors — there were plenty of both
— is still a controversial subject for historians
and, indeed, for Poland today.
However, the report from the Jewish
Telegraphic
Agency that generated the headline
Mike Smith
is flawed. It stated that, of the 500,000 Jews con-
Detroit Jewish News
Foundation Archivist
centrated in the Warsaw Ghetto, “not a single Jew

50

February 15 • 2018

jn

remains …” First, historians now estimate that 300,000-400,000 Jews
were in the ghetto. These are, of course, still incredible numbers
even if the article exaggerated by 25 percent, but the statement
that there were no Jews left in the ghetto was what really caught
my historian’s eye.
This is hard to reconcile with another fact, the famous “Warsaw
Uprising.” From April 19-May 16, 1943, the approximately 13,000
Jews still living in the ghetto, with nothing left to lose, rose up and
fought against the full might of the German army. It was a heroic
stand but, ultimately, a futile one … except for the huge moral vic-
tory.
With hindsight, we can see the problems encountered while
attempting to provide accurate reporting from an occupied sector
during World War II; especially, under the dire circumstances of a
Nazi-controlled area. What is still undisputable is the scale of the
Nazi atrocities. •

Want to learn more? Go to the DJN Foundation archives,
available for free at www.djnfoundation.org.