by Jon E. Lewis
His colleague Többens gave a solemn speech at 72 Leszno Street: ‘Workers! I swear by the life of my child, who is very dear to me, that if you go with me to Poniatów you will not be going to your deaths. You will be leaving to work there and to live. I want it inscribed in your history that my Jews survived this terrible war by staying with me.’ His partner – who happened to be his brother-in-law – picked up where his accomplice in murder left off. ‘We have also set up a nursery school for your children who have survived and hired teachers to look after them.’ He further promised to organize an orchestra.
Next they took Jewish envoys to Poniatów and Trawniki to verify the Nazi promises. The Nazis were overjoyed when the envoys came back and made speeches in the workshops, pitching their propaganda to the more naïve and simpleminded among the slaves: ‘Let us leave, let us leave to live and to work.’ But all these agitators who called on people to leave for Poniatów had long before secured a hiding place on the Polish side, where their families were waiting for them. Every one of them knew when he had to disappear. Jews, let us leave – indeed!
At tremendous risk, Jewish resistance groups tore down the SS posters calling on Jews to leave and distributed flyers to the shop workers: ‘To those of our brothers still alive! We warn you, do not deliver yourselves into the hands of the murderers! Do not offer yourselves voluntarily to the Nazis. Do not believe the slave-trader accomplices of the SS.’ A genuine debate commenced on the walls between the SS appeals and the Jewish flyers.
Meanwhile the round-up was beginning in the Többens factories on Leszno Street and inside the little ghetto. At that point the majority of workers were still being sent to Poniatów instead of to Treblinka. The murderers weighed their options: ‘How long will we have to deal with the Jews before they’re all deported? There’s still plenty of time. They’re caught in a net and will fall into our hands sooner or later. First we should delude as many as we can, then move in and sweep up any trash left behind.’
Until then Jews had been prohibited, under pain of death, from sending letters outside or receiving them, but now the Nazis Steinmann and Bauch brought letters – unstamped, at that – from Poniatów into the Warsaw Ghetto. The people from Poniatów wrote that they were in paradise. Unfortunately, this convinced most of the Jews still alive to leave for Poniatów and Trawniki. And so every few days a new group was sent to be ‘taken care of’. They were given special permission to take their belongings with them, and packed up the little they had. Others would say to themselves, ‘Those people are leaving in order to live,’ and join the transport.
My comrades and I, on the other hand, decided not to leave under any circumstances. We preferred to die fighting in the ghetto, armed with a few revolvers, than fall victim to Nazi sadism in Poniatów. Since we felt the decisive day was drawing close, we began to prepare for armed resistance. First I made my way to the brushmakers’ shop on Swietojerska Street to say farewell to my family and friends. I wanted to see my sister’s wonderful little boy, five-year-old Mietek, one last time. On 7 September, his father had saved him by hiding him in a sack and carrying him out of a group already selected for deportation. My heart ached as I looked at him, a child who at the age of five was as mature as a thirty-year-old man. ‘What can I do with my papa?’ he asked me. ‘He thinks we should both go to Poniatów. But they’ll just shoot us there. They promise Mama work there too. And she rode right off to the gas, my beautiful dear mama. Why was I even born!’ I hugged and caressed the little boy and said to him, ‘You’ll see, it’ll all end well.’ The child started crying, ‘No, no!’ When I kissed him for the last time, his eyes were flooded with tears. I closed the door behind me.
The next morning I went to work. An hour after I arrived, the factory was blocked off by a detachment of SS. The work that day turned out to be a little different. Instead of overseeing production, they compiled lists of people who could stay and those who had to leave. They announced the order of transport for all the workers on the second floor; I’m safe for the moment. So I decided to save my comrades who were already lined up in the factory courtyard. I quickly threw on a Werkschutz uniform and ran to the comrades at 76 Leszno Street. There I managed to obtain four additional uniforms for men from the Schultz factory. Unfortunately, I couldn’t get hold of any more.
The definitive order came on 19 April 1943. In every shop, the Werkschutz men were told to order all workers to report – with baggage – at 72 Leszno Street by 9 a.m. for the final transport. Whoever failed to appear on time would be shot. A few prominent figures and shop managers were allowed to stay behind for several days to dismantle the factories. The news spread like lightning. The next day everyone ran with their bundles to Leszno Street. They arrived punctually at nine o’clock. God forbid they should be late.
Our group consisted of seventeen men; we had seven revolvers and four grenades. We stationed ourselves in three separate hiding places. All was quiet once everyone had left. Just before sunrise, Czarny had come to deliver the news: ‘Get ready, comrades! This is where it’s going to start – here, in our building, with us! It’s going to start with us! Rufinow is still inside the factory; he has a permit from the SS.’ I ran up to the attic where I could watch. I had to be there, I had to witness the Jewish fighters avenging their nation, avenging the blood that had been shed.
I wait at my post anxiously, but not for long. I cock my ears and hear the heavy tread of the uniformed killers. A detachment of murderers is marching down Zelazna towards Leszno, into the ghetto: one-two, one-two, more blood, more blood. But then comes the most beautiful moment in my life. A tremendous explosion rends the air. Crash! They’re falling to the ground. Again, crash! All of a sudden the Ukrainians are rolling in puddles of blood. Blood for blood! The murderers disperse in a wild panic, seeking shelter in the entranceways. Shots and flames, on the right and on the left, start spewing from buildings on both sides of the street, Aryan as well as Jewish. Bullets go whizzing over my head. I have to retreat. I race through the secret attic corridor that runs from house to house down the entire length of the street, an emergency lane for saving Jewish lives. I want to make it back to the shelter, but the stairs seem to snake on a long way ahead of me. More bullets whiz by. I feel hot, my leg is bleeding, I have been wounded.
At last I make it to the darkness of a bunker, then cross to the Aryan side of Leszno, where I manage to stay for several days. I telephone my comrade at the brush factory to learn what’s going on there. He yells into the telephone, ‘It’s horrible!’
They’re fighting in the ghetto; our boys are fighting like heroes. The area around Muranowski Square has become a fortress that the Waffen-SS can’t take. And two flags are flying over the building at number 19, one blue and white, the other white and red.
‘I can’t go on any longer. Our building’s on fire. My apartment’s going up in flames. There are SS men outside with their rifles trained on the exits, shooting the Jews as they run from the building. I can’t go on!’ he shouts. His voice is filled with horror. ‘The door’s caught fire. I’m going to stay here in the flames. Take care, farewell.’
I took one more look outside. There, next to the building at 76 Leszno, the bodies of my murdered comrades were lying in their blood. Over the city I saw a sea of fire. The Jewish ghetto was burning, and with it the heroes of my nation.
‘For Your Freedom and Ours’: A Resistance Communiqué, Warsaw, 23 April 1943
JEWISH COMBAT ORGANIZATION
FOR YOUR FREEDOM AND OURS
Warsaw Ghetto: 23 April 1943
Poles, citizens, freedom fighters!
From out of the roar of the cannon with which the German Army is battering our homes, the dwellings of our mothers, children, and wives;
From out of the reports of machine guns which we have captured from the cowardly police and SS men;
From out of the smoke of fires and the blood of the murdered Warsaw Ghetto, we – imprisoned in the ghetto – send you our heartful fraternal greetings.
We know that you watch with pain and compassionate tears, with admiration and alarm, the outcome of this war which we have been waging for many days with the cruel occupant.
Let it be known that every threshold in the ghetto has been and will continue to be a fortress; that we may all perish in this struggle, but we will not surrender; that, like you, we breathe with desire for revenge for all the crimes of our common foe.
A battle is being waged for your freedom as well as ours.
For your and our human, civic, and national honour and dignity.
We shall avenge the crimes of Auschwitz, Treblinka, Belzec, Majdanek!
Long live the brotherhood of arms and blood of fighting Poland!
Long live freedom!
Death to the hangmen and torturers!
Long live the struggle for life and death against the occupant.
Jewish Combat Organization
The Destruction of the Warsaw Ghetto: The Report of the SS Commander, 16 May 1943
SS BRIGADEFÜHRER JURGEN STROOP
Stroop was sent to Warsaw on 17 April 1943 as a replacement for SS-Oberführer Ferdinand von Sammern-Frankenegg, following the latter’s failure to suppress the uprising in the city. Stroop had his report – which he entitled ‘The Jewish Quarter of Warsaw is no more!’ concerning his successful destruction of the ghetto – bound in black leather. It was later used as evidence in the Nuremberg trials. For his part in the Warsaw ‘action’ Stroop was awarded the Iron Cross 1st Class. Seven thousand Jews were shot during the revolt, and 56,000 captured and sent to the camps.
THE WARSAW JEWISH QUARTER IS NO MORE!
I
For the Führer
and for their country
the following were killed in action during the destruction of Jews and bandits in the former Jewish quarter in Warsaw [15 names with date of birth and rank, arranged by date of death]. In addition, the Polish Police Sergeant Julian Zielinski, born 13 November 1891, 14th Commissariat, was killed on 19 April 1943, while carrying out his duties.
They ventured their utmost, their lives. We shall never forget them ...
Units Used in the Action
Average Number of Personnel Used per Day
SS Staff and Police Leaders
6/5
Waffen-SS
SS Armoured Grenadier Training and Reserve Battalion No. 3, Warsaw
4/440
SS Cavalry Training and Reserve Unit, Warsaw
5/381
Police
SS Police Regiment 22, 1st Battalion
3/94
3rd Battalion
3/134
Engineering Emergency Service
1/6
Polish Police
4/363
Polish Fire Brigade
166
Security Police
3/32
Army
Light Anti-Aircraft Alarm Battery III/8, Warsaw
2/22
Engineers Detachment of Railway Armoured Trains Reserve Unit, Rembertow
2/42
Engineers Reserve Battalion 14, Gora-Kalwaria
1/34
Foreign Guard Units
1 Battalion Trawniki men
2/335
II
... Security considerations made it necessary to remove the Jews entirely from the city of Warsaw. The first large resettlement action took place in the period from 22 July to 3 October 1942. In this action 310,322 Jews were removed for resettlement. In January 1943, a second resettlement action was carried out, comprising 6,500 Jews in all.
In January 1943, the Reichsführer SS, on the occasion of his visit to Warsaw, ordered the SS and Police Leader in the District of Warsaw to transfer to Lublin the armament factories and other enterprises of military importance installed within the ghetto, including their personnel and machines. The execution of this order proved to be quite difficult, since both the managers and the Jews resisted the transfer in every conceivable way. The SS and Police Leader therefore decided to effect the transfer of the enterprises by force, in a large-scale action to be carried out in three days. My predecessor had attended to the preparation and orders for this large-scale action. I myself arrived in Warsaw on 17 April 1943, at 0800 hours, the action itself having started the same day at 0600 hours.
Before this large-scale action began, the boundaries of the former Jewish quarter had been blocked by an exterior cordon to prevent the Jews from breaking out. This cordon was continually maintained from the start to the end of the action and was especially reinforced at night.
When the ghetto was first invaded, the Jews and the Polish bandits, by a well-prepared concentration of fire, succeeded in repelling the participating units, including tanks and armoured cars. In the second attack, at about 0800 hours, I deployed the forces separately through previously defined fighting zones, so as to have the whole ghetto combed out by the different units. Although the firing was repeated, the blocks were now successfully combed out according to plan. The enemy was forced to retreat from roofs and elevated bases to basements, bunkers, and sewers. To prevent escapes into the sewers, the sewer system beneath the Jewish quarter was promptly closed off and filled with water, but this move was for the most part frustrated by the Jews, who blew up the turn-off valves. Late the first day, rather heavy resistance was encountered, but was quickly broken by a specially assigned raiding party. Further operations succeeded in expelling the Jews from their prepared resistance bases, sniper holes, etc., and, during 20 and 21 April, in gaining control of most of the so-called residual ghetto, to the extent that resistance within these blocks could no longer be called major or considerable.
The main Jewish fighting group, which was mixed with Polish bandits, retreated as early as the first and second day to the so-called Muranowski Square. There it had been reinforced by a considerable number of Polish bandits. Its plan was to maintain itself in the ghetto by every means in order to prevent us from invading it. Jewish and Polish flags were hoisted on top of a concrete building as a call to arms against us. These two flags, however, were captured as early as the second day of the action by a special raiding party. In this skirmish with the bandits, SS Untersturmführer Dehmke was killed when a grenade he was holding in his hand was hit by the enemy and exploded, injuring him fatally.
After the first few days, I realized that the original plan had no prospect of success, unless the armament factories and other enterprises of military importance scattered throughout the ghetto were dissolved. It was therefore necessary to require these enterprises to evacuate their quarters and move immediately, within an appropriate deadline. One enterprise after another was dealt with in this way, and thus in minimal time the Jews and bandits were deprived of the opportunity to take refuge, again and again, in these enterprises, which were under the supervision of the Army. Thorough inspections were necessary to decide in what length of time these enterprises could be evacuated. The conditions observed in the course of these inspections are indescribable. I cannot imagine that greater chaos could have existed anywhere than existed in the Warsaw Ghetto. The Jews had control of everything, from chemical substances for manufacturing explosives to Army clothing and equipment. The managers knew so little of their own enterprises that the Jews were able to produce arms of every kind, especially hand grenades, Molotov cocktails, etc., inside these shops.
Moreover, the Jews had managed to set up resistance bases in these enterprises. One such resistance base, in an enterprise serving the Army Quartermaster’s Office, had to be combated as early as the second day by deploying an engineers’ unit with flame throwers and by artillery fire. The Jews had installed themselves so firmly in this enterprise that it proved impossible to induce them to leave the shop voluntarily. I therefore resolved to destroy the enterprise by fire on the next day.
The managers of these enterprises, even though usually supervised by an Army officer, were in nearly all cases unable to provide concrete information about their stocks of the locations where stocks were s
tored. The statements they made as to the number of Jews employed by them did not check out in a single case. Again and again it was found that rich Jews, under cover as ‘armament workers’, had found accommodations for themselves and their families in the labyrinths of buildings attached to the armament concerns as residential blocks, and were leading cushy lives there. Despite all orders to make the Jews leave those enterprises, it was repeatedly found that managers shut the Jews in, expecting that the action would last only a few days and that they then would go on working with the Jews remaining to them. According to statements by arrested Jews, owners of businesses arranged drinking parties with Jews. In these, women were said to have played a prominent part. The Jews reportedly endeavoured to maintain good relations with Army officers and men. Carousals are said to have been frequent; and, in their course, business deals allegedly were concluded between Germans and Jews.
The number of Jews taken out of the houses and apprehended during the first few days was relatively small. It turned out that the Jews were hiding in the sewers and in specially constructed bunkers. Whereas it had been assumed during the first days that there were only isolated bunkers, it appeared in the course of the large-scale action that the whole ghetto had been systematically equipped with cellars, bunkers, and passageways. In every case these passageways and bunkers had access to the sewer system. Thus, undisturbed subterranean traffic among the Jews was possible. The Jews also used this sewer network to escape underground into the Aryan part of the city of Warsaw. Continually, reports were received of Jews attempting to escape through the sewer holes. Under the pretext of building air-raid shelters, the bunkers had been constructed in this former Jewish quarter since the late autumn of 1942. They were intended to house all Jews during the new resettlement action, which had long been expected, and the resistance against the task forces was to be organized from here. Through posters, handbills, and whispering campaigns, the Communist resistance movement in the former Jewish quarter had in fact managed to have the bunkers occupied as soon as the new large-scale action started. How far the Jews’ precautions went was demonstrated by many instances of bunkers skilfully laid out with accommodation for entire families, washing and bathing facilities, toilets, arms and munition-storage bins, and ample food supplies for several months.
