Isaac's Army

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by Matthew Brzezinski


  12 “It didn’t occur to a Jew that Jews would use weapons” Zuckerman, Surplus of Memory, p. 203.

  13 he looked like a regular “sheygetz” Adolf Berman, Underground Days (Tel Aviv: Hamenora, 1971), p. 191.

  14 eight hand grenades and five handguns Lubetkin, Zaglada I Powstanie, p. 73.

  15 “I’ll never forget the drinks in honor of that event” Zuckerman, Surplus of Memory, p. 201.

  16 “I gave orders to bring the weapons to us” Ibid., p. 200.

  CHAPTER 24: LITTLE ANGEL

  1 “wet myself, I was so frightened” Simha Ratheiser-Rotem, author interview, Jerusalem, March 2009.

  2 “You are outside the area!” Ratheiser-Rotem, Kazik, p. 15.

  3 “I was standing ten feet away” Simha Ratheiser-Rotem, author interview, Jerusalem, March 2009.

  4 “I remember the blood pooling on the ground near my feet” Simha Ratheiser-Rotem, author interview, Jerusalem, March 2009.

  5 “was the first time that I really understood what was happening to my people” Ibid.

  6 “So many of our comrades were gone, and we were too ashamed” Lubetkin, Zaglada I Powstanie, p. 75.

  7 departed on September 21, 1942—Yom Kippur—carrying two thousand Jewish policemen Engelking and Leociak, Getto Warszawskie, p. 689.

  8 The shops housed the 34,969 Jewish slave laborers Krzysztof Dunin-Wasowicz, ed., Organizacja Wladz Niemieckich na Terenie Dystryku Warszawskiego 1939–1945: W Raporty Ludwiga Fischera (Warsaw: PAN, 1987), p. 600.

  9 the Wilfried Hoffman Works, where twelve hundred Jewish tailors sewed SS uniforms Engelking and Leociak, Getto Warszawskie, p. 474, appendix.

  10 “We were consumed with shame” Lubetkin, Zaglada I Powstanie, p. 75.

  11 Of 51,458 Jewish children under the age of ten in Warsaw, for instance, only 498 remained alive Kassow, Who Will Write Our History? p. 308.

  12 “We hid like mice in holes” Zuckerman, Surplus of Memory, p. 213.

  13 “I don’t remember who spoke first”: Yitzak Zuckerman, In Ghetto and Uprising (Tel Aviv: Ghetto Fighters House Ltd., 1986), pp. 80–81.

  14 “Let’s go out in the streets tomorrow” Ibid.

  15 “Ari must go back to the Aryan side. We must look for new contacts” Ibid.

  16 “We started organizing again” Zuckerman, Surplus of Memory, p. 215.

  17 “Jews considered it the underworld suburb” Ratheiser-Rotem, Kazik, p. 3.

  18 the Rozenwein and Bromberg families had small shops down the street Kasprzycki, Korzenie Miasta, p. 330.

  19 Mordechai’s mother had a stall that sold fish, and she could not always afford to buy ice Mark Edelman, author interview, Lodz, April 2007.

  20 his younger brother Pinchas, a brawny wrestling champion Kurzman, Bravest Battle, p. 32.

  21 the P or Z bus lines … his thirty-groszy, or nickel, fare Kasprzycki, Korzenie Miasta, p. 328.

  22 his future nom de guerre, Aniolek, or Little Angel Callahan, Mordechai Anielewicz, p. 19.

  23 “That didn’t fill me with pride” Boruch Spiegel, author interview, Montreal, November 2007.

  24 “It wasn’t important to me that I was alive” Ibid.

  25 “Father, mother, sister all burned, my Zille in Majdanek” Goldstein, Five Years in the Warsaw Ghetto, p. 158.

  26 “They had misjudged the situation very badly” Boruch Spiegel, author interview, Montreal, November 2007.

  27 With only five hundred employees it was one of the smaller shops Ibid.

  28 Toebbens factories, which had a combined twelve thousand workers and supplied 60 percent of the winter clothing Engelking and Leociak, Getto Warszawskie, p. 707.

  29 “She was all I had left” Boruch Spiegel, author interview, Montreal, November 2007.

  30 “Bernard didn’t grasp the reality of the conditions in the Ghetto” Edelman, I Byla Milosc w Getcie, p. 47.

  31 “As usual Mark was carelessly dressed” Goldstein, Five Years in the Warsaw Ghetto, p. 139.

  32 “We saw eye to eye” Mark Edelman, author interview, Lodz, May 2007.

  33 “They were subordinate to fringe [Polish] ultranationalists” Ibid.

  34 “sharply opposed us and was especially virulent against the Soviet Union” Ber Mark, Powstanie W Getcie Warszawskim (Warsaw: Wydawnictwo Idisz Bukh, 1953), p. 104.

  35 “you didn’t bring anyone in unless you knew them from childhood” Mark Edelman, author interview, Lodz, May 2007.

  36 “Mordechai Anielewicz wanted to be commander” Zuckerman, Surplus of Memory, p. 228.

  37 “What is there to say?” Mark Edelman, author interview, Lodz, May 2007.

  CHAPTER 25: SIMHA RETURNS AND JOANNA FLEES

  1 “I had a lot of confidence in my mother” Simha Ratheiser-Rotem, author interview, Jerusalem, March 2009.

  2 “He wasn’t an anti-Semite, quite the opposite” Zuckerman, Surplus of Memory, p. 75.

  3 “We wanted to save the people” Ibid., p. 76.

  4 he recognized a familiar face: Rivka Pasmanik Ratheiser-Rotem, Kazik, p. 17.

  5 “Would you go on a mission to the Ghetto?” Ibid.

  6 the Piastow Rubber Works, which had 1,070 employees Grzelaka, Warszawa we Wrzesniu 1939 Roku, p. 69.

  7 Tudor Accumulator Systems, stood next door, spilling out 450 workers Ibid., p. 42.

  8 “We moved in at dusk” Olczak-Ronilier, W Ogrodzie Pamieci, p. 280.

  9 “At first we found the heavy traffic that passed through the house” Ibid.

  10 “Miss Irene was in the A.K.” Joanna Olczak-Ronikier, author interview, Warsaw, December 2008.

  11 British officials thought the Poles seemed more intent on fighting one another than the Germans Jan M. Ciechanowski, Powstanie Warszawskie (Warsaw: Bellona, 2009), p.118.

  12 “If Irene sped off somewhere with a bag, she was sure to be taking supplies” Olczak-Ronikier, W Ogrodzie Pamieci, pp. 280–81.

  13 would result in the rescue of at least twelve hundred Jewish children Ewa Kurek, Gdy Klasztor Znaczyl Zycie (Krakow: Znak, 1992), p. 102.

  14 “Sister Wanda called us together” Ringelblum, Stosunki Polsko-Zydowskie w Czasie Drugiej Wojny Swiatowej (Warsaw: Czytelnik, 1988), p. 83.

  15 “I clearly remember my first encounter with that place” Olczak-Ronikier, W Ogrodzie Pamieci, p. 281.

  16 Breakfast and prayers followed punctually at eight. Between nine o’clock and noon, classes were held Kurek, Gdy Klasztor Znaczyl Zycie, p. 71.

  17 “This was the special skill of many occupation-era children” Olczak-Ronikier, W Ogrodzie Pamieci, p. 282.

  18 Referred to her torn undershirt as a lejblik Kurek, Gdy Klasztor Znaczyl Zycie, p. 64.

  19 One in five Polish priests died at the hands of the Germans during the war Lukas, Forgotten Holocaust, p. 9.

  20 “When an internal bell rang during lessons” Olczak-Ronikier, W Ogrodzie Pamieci, pp. 282–93.

  CHAPTER 26: BORUCH AND ROBERT LEARN DIFFERENT LESSONS

  1 “Because of the sun, the elegant people were housed on the shady, port side” Robert Osnos, author interview, New York, April 2010.

  2 “In Baghdad, my father had heard that if you had a transit visa” Ibid.

  3 “Phosphorescent like green gold fire and stars like we’d never seen them before” Martha Osnos, unpublished journal, p. 32.

  4 “didn’t even know what they were or how to eat them” Ibid.

  5 “Money was never a problem in India” Robert Osnos, author interview, New York, April 2010.

  6 “My parents were very active socially in Bombay” Ibid.

  7 “My parents were borderline negligent in leaving me to my own devices” Ibid.

  8 “He couldn’t go swimming with us” Ibid.

  9 “Of course you’re a Jew” Ibid.

  10 “What strikes me most in retrospect” Ibid.

  11 “700,000 Jews were reported slain in Poland” New York Times, June 27, 1942.

  12 “I was afraid it would go off accidentally” Boruch Spiegel, author interview, M
ontreal, October 2007.

  13 “It filled me with purpose and hope” Ibid.

  14 “As we walked, everything became increasingly unreal” Karski, Story of a Secret State, pp. 330–33.

  15 “They pretty much said you don’t represent the Jews” Zuckerman, Surplus of Memory, p. 220.

  16 “What do you need—money?” Kurzman, Bravest Battle, p. 47.

  17 “Enemy Number One of the Third Reich” Andrzej Krzystof Kunert and Jozef Szyrmer, Stefan Rowecki: Wspomnienia I Notatki (Warsaw: Czyelnik, 1988), p. 7.

  18 “First Ally” Norman Davies, Rising ’44: The Battle for Warsaw (New York: Viking, 2003), p. 29.

  19 “We must remember … that the position of the Anglo-Saxon world” Mark, Powstanie W Getcie Warszawskim, p. 107.

  20 “I therefore plead with you” Ibid., p. 108.

  21 “Since we are citizens of Poland … the decisions of the Polish government” Kurzman, Bravest Battle, p. 53.

  22 “Jews from all sorts of communist groups” Gutman, Resistance, p. 174.

  23 “Instead of saying ‘I hate you’ it was easier for them to say ‘I don’t believe in you’ ” Zuckerman, Surplus of Memory, p. 219.

  CHAPTER 27: ISAAC’S NOT-SO-MERRY CHRISTMAS

  1 “Nothing but trouble ever comes from that forsaken city” Dunin-Wasowicz, Warszawa W Latach 1939–1945, p. 169.

  2 “We were traveling openly. I looked like a rural Polish nobleman” Zuckerman, Surplus of Memory, p. 235.

  3 “He could keep his cool in any situation” Lubetkin, Zaglada I Powstanie, p. 84.

  4 “That night we got together to toast the success of the operation” Zuckerman, Surplus of Memory, p. 236.

  5 Thirteen Germans were dead and a dozen more were in the hospital Lubetkin, Zaglada I Powstanie, p. 85.

  6 “After five steps, I began to feel warmth and a sharp pain” Zuckerman, Surplus of Memory, p. 237.

  7 “I said they could take me to the Gestapo in a cab, but I wasn’t moving” Ibid., p. 238

  8 “Hard times! … We are turning into wolves” Ibid., p. 239.

  9 “The station was full of Germans” Ibid.

  10 “Until the moment I entered the building I held up” Ibid., p. 240.

  11 “They found us.… An SS man, he had a whip” Chaika Belchatowska, transcript of taped interview with Sandra Fishlinsky, November 29, 1993, Montreal, as part of the Contributions of Holocaust Survivors to the Cultural and Social Institutions of Montreal, in the digital archives of Concordia University (http://archives.concordia.ca/P007).

  12 “In his shoe, in the sole of his shoe, he had a little saw” Ibid.

  13 “We started marching” Ibid.

  14 “They recognized that we were Jews” Ibid.

  15 “She had been taken on her birthday” Boruch Spiegel, author interview, Montreal, October 2007.

  16 “We felt certain the Germans were too busy with their roundups on the Aryan side” Lubetkin, Zaglada I Powstanie, p. 87.

  17 twelve thousand Varsovian Gentiles were arrested Bartoszewski, Warszawski Pierscien Smierci 1939–1945, p. 228.

  18 erased virtually every German street name in Midtown … and papered walls with forty thousand Bartoszewski, 1851 Dni Warszawy, p. 424.

  19 such as Helgoland, Mitropa, and the Apollo Theater Luczak, Dzieje Polski 1939–1945, p. 290.

  20 “Even some Poles from the underground sought refuge in the abandoned sections of the Ghetto” Lubetkin, Zaglada I Powstanie, p. 87.

  21 minus twenty degrees Celsius Bartoszewski, 1851 Dni Warszawy, p. 425.

  22 carrying two hundred SS troops and eight hundred Ukrainian and Latvian auxiliaries Gutman, Resistance, p. 184.

  23 “I don’t think Isaac, at this stage, even knew who I was” Simha Ratheiser-Rotem, author interview, Jerusalem, March 2009.

  24 “We had three pistols and three grenades” Tuvia Borzykowski, Between Tumbling Walls (Tel Aviv: Beit Lahomei Hagettoat, 1972), p. 23.

  25 “My God, that’s Angel” Simha Ratheiser-Rotem, author interview, Jerusalem, March 2009.

  26 “We’ve got to help him” Lubetkin, Zaglada I Powstanie, p. 89.

  CHAPTER 28: THE ORGANIZATION

  1 “The doors suddenly burst open and in flew a band of Germans” Ibid., p. 90.

  2 after liquidating a mere five thousand Jews Gutman, Jews of Warsaw 1939–1943, p. 311.

  3 The Home Army counted 380,000 registered members across Poland Lukas, Forgotten Holocaust, p. 62.

  4 greater than the French Resistance or any other insurgent group in Europe William Hitchcock, Liberation: The Bitter Road to Freedom 1944–1945 (London: Faber and Faber, 2009), p. 155.

  5 “The street was in the hands of Jewish fighters for fifteen to twenty minutes” Biuletyn Informacjny, no. 4, January 28, 1943.

  6 “I doubt they will use them” Gutman, Resistance, p. 174.

  7 “It changed everything” Boruch Spiegel, author interview, Montreal, November 2007.

  8 “We are no longer in charge. A new authority now rules the Ghetto” Engelking and Leociak, Getto Warszawskie, p. 724.

  10 “My assignment was to distract the [Jewish Police] guards” Simha Ratheiser-Rotem, author interview, Jerusalem, March 2009.

  11 “word spread like wildfire that the operation had been commanded by a fighter from the Polish Underground” Ratheiser-Rotem, Kazik, p. 24.

  12 “When others became nervous or agitated I got calmer” Simha Ratheiser-Rotem, author interview, Jerusalem, March 2009.

  13 “Isaac [Zuckerman] would tell Hanoch who had been sentenced to death” Ibid.

  14 “I wanted to drink, and I drank too much” Zuckerman, Surplus of Memory, p. 305.

  15 “I’m sorry, I won’t talk about that” Boruch Spiegel, author interview, Montreal, November 2007.

  16 “A Jewish policeman, a real son of a bitch” Assuntino and Goldkorn, Straznik, p. 77.

  17 “We would kidnap their children and ransom them” Simha Ratheiser-Rotem, author interview, Jerusalem, March 2009.

  18 the nickname by which his Israeli grandchildren would address him, the nom de guerre on his email address Ibid.

  19 “I put the barrel of my revolver near him” Ratheiser-Rotem, Kazik, pp. 28–29.

  20 “They drew their guns, we also brought guns” Mark Edelman, author interview, Lodz, May 2007.

  21 “In a low dark room where large amounts of ammunition” Arens, The Jewish Military Organization in the Warsaw Ghetto, pp. 15–16.

  22 “It began in the cellar of number 7 Muranow and ended across the street in number 6” Ibid.

  23 “In the command room was a first class radio that received news” Joseph Kermish, ed., To Live with Honor and Die with Honor: Selected Documents from the Warsaw Ghetto Underground Archives Oneg Shabbath (Jerusalem: Yad Vashem, 1986), p. 596.

  24 “Nine squadrons were concentrated in the center of the ghetto, eight in the area of the Tobbens and Schultz workshops” Wladyslaw Bartoszewski, The Warsaw Ghetto: A Christian’s Testimony (Boston: Beacon Press, 1987), p. 71.

  25 “We did not want to be taken by surprise again” Simha Ratheiser-Rotem, author interview, Jerusalem, March 2009.

  26 “We would aim and shout Bang, Bang” Boruch Spiegel, author interview, Montreal, November 2007.

  27 “Allocating weapons without ammunition impresses us as being a bit of a mockery” Gutman, Jews of Warsaw 1939–1943, p. 358.

  28 “a machine gun, a tommy gun, twenty pistols with magazines and ammunition, 100 hand grenades” Bartoszewski, Warsaw Ghetto, p. 71.

  29 “the odor of the chemicals was overwhelming” Vladka Meed, On Both Sides of the Wall (New York: Schocken, 1979), p. 173.

  30 “We would remove the pipes with a larger than normal diameter” Zuckerman, Surplus of Memory, pp. 293–94.

  31 “One morning the entire ghetto shook to a mighty explosion” Borzykowski, Between Tumbling Walls, p. 39.

  32 “this was a mistake” Engelking and Leociak, Getto Warszawskie, p. 726.

  33 “
not all of us were in such a hurry to die” Mark Edelman, author interview, Lodz, May 2007.

  34 “I had not gotten to know him well because I didn’t mix with Communists” Beres and Burnetko, Marek Edelman, p. 141.

  35 “very emotional and sometimes acted rashly” Mark Edelman, author interview, Lodz, May 2007.

  36 “After this incident the Coordinating Committee of the ZOB wanted to remove him from his post” Beres and Burnetko, Marek Edelman, p. 141.

  37 “the Home Army had an iron-clad rule that if someone was burnt” Ibid., p. 136.

  38 “He talked and looked like a typical Warsaw Pole” Zuckerman, Surplus of Memory, pp. 342.

  CHAPTER 29: ZIVIA LETS LOOSE

  1 (now couldn’t sleep unless he had his trusted pistol under his pillow) Boruch Spiegel, author interview, Montreal, October 2007.

  2 The ZOB’s twenty-two fighting units had all been mobilized and deployed Gutman, Resistance, p. 197.

  3 “In the bunkers, people push and shove and lie down on planks” Lubetkin, Zaglada I Powstanie, p. 105.

  4 There were roughly 750 of them dispersed throughout the Jewish district’s three remaining sections Gutman, Resistance, p. 204.

  5 “we would have a thousand warriors rather than five hundred” Lubetkin, Zaglada I Powstanie, p. 105.

  6 “The day of revenge is upon us” Ibid., p. 104.

  7 “Behind them were tanks, armored vehicles, light cannons and hundreds of Waffen-SS units” Ratheiser-Rotem, Kazik, p. 33.

  8 “We don’t stand a chance” Simha Ratheiser-Rotem, author interview, Jerusalem, March 2009.

  9 only 850 Waffen-SS troops, drawn more or less equally from Jürgen Stroop, progress report, April 19, 1943, translated in The Stroop Report (New York: Pantheon, 1979).

  10 Deutsch-Negers Kazimierz Moczarski, Rozmowy z Katem (Krakow: Znak, 2007), p. 177.

  11 “Let them come” Lubetkin, Zaglada I Powstanie, p. 106.

  12 “I could see torn limbs flying through the air with my own eyes” Ibid.

  13 Juden haben Waffen Haim Frymer in Gutman, Resistance, p. 207.

 

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