Resistance: Jews and Christians Who Defied the Nazi Terror

by Nechama Tec

  On June 10 and 11, 1942, the German authorities decided to stop the smuggling of food into the Warsaw ghetto. On those two evenings some Jewish smugglers were removed from their homes and executed. Such killings continued. One German whom the Jews nicknamed “Frankenstein,” disguised himself as a Jew and ran around the ghetto covered with a sack. Inside this sack, he held a gun with which he shot at whomever he could reach. The smugglers were not ready to give up their livelihoods. Ringelblum quotes some of them as saying that they will not give up smuggling, that they were not afraid of bullets. They refused to endure the slow, painful death from starvation. Smuggling in the ghetto continued.44

  Ringelblum also reported how the ghetto physicians studied the implications and consequences of chronic hunger, noting that the Warsaw ghetto had served as a kind of laboratory. News came from Lodz that a recently arrived physician from Prague had discovered that eating boiled potatoes would eliminate swellings caused by starvation. Unfortunately, potatoes were not available in the Lodz ghetto. Others suggested a different remedy against swelling created by chronic starvation: the total German withdrawal from the country.45

  By June 1942, the Germans became more serious about stopping the smuggling of goods into the Warsaw ghetto. To accomplish this, the head of the Jewish police, Yakov Lejkin—a Nazi supporter—had asked Jewish policemen to volunteer for this new undertaking. He emphasized that they were responsible for enforcing anti-smuggling rules in areas assigned to each of them.

  This was a diabolical plan, which aimed at transforming Jewish policemen into a means with which to starve other groups of Jews, particularly those whose lives depended on smuggled goods. This was by no means the first time that the German authorities had forced Jews to dig graves for themselves and other Jews. This time the numbers of volunteers for such jobs were few. In the end, the Germans had to forcefully assign some Jewish policemen to these tasks: “I must admit that in the end the German oppressors found some Jews who had agreed to do the dirty work for them,” noted Ringelblum ruefully.46

  Ringelblum’s wartime experiences were characterized by few rewards and many devastating disappointments. Among his close friends and longtime coworkers was Itzchak Giterman. Itzchak came to Poland as a representative of the Joint, the aforementioned American Jewish welfare organization. For years, their lives were closely intertwined. Giterman, as the Director of the Joint, continued to stay and work in Warsaw during the occupation.47 Even after war was declared between the United States and Germany, Giterman decided to stay.48 Ringelblum and Giterman shared a deep commitment to the welfare of the Jewish people. Both were convinced nothing would alter their deep personal friendship and stop their cooperative efforts on behalf of the needy.

  Although an American Jew, Giterman still had to move into the Warsaw ghetto. By 1942, the Warsaw ghetto inmates had designed ingenious shelters and hiding places, which were intended to function as protection against deportations. Giterman was unfamiliar with the ghetto. One morning he decided to find his hiding place, which also served as his new living quarter. He came upon two friends. They stopped to exchange greetings. As they chatted, an SS man’s bullet found its way to Giterman, killing him instantly.

  Ringelblum was shaken by this loss. Distraught, he paid a secret visit to the illegal offices of the Oneg Shabbat records. What happened reminded him of an earlier visit to the same office, which he had shared with Giterman. At that time Giterman was busy adding the names of fallen comrades to the record. Ringelblum mused that “now the list which Giterman had worked on has his name added to the others. My hand shakes as I write the name, Itzchak Giterman. Who knows if a future historian will be correcting this list, by adding to it the name Emanuel Ringelblum? So what? We are used to death and it makes no impression on us. If anyone of us will survive, he will be looked upon as belonging to another planet. Our survival will be seen as a miracle or a mistake.” He noted that Giterman’s name was next to Sagan’s, who had been murdered during an earlier deportation. “One could write a book about each of them and about many others who had been murdered. These tragic circumstances only underline how precarious and unpredictable life for the Jews is.”49

  Such tragic events as these were constant in the ghetto. Indeed, with transfer into the Warsaw ghetto came the loss of basic comforts, personal freedom, and property. Most ghetto inmates tried to hide their valued possessions. Even though pushed into dilapidated, overcrowded living quarters, many carved out spaces that protected their goods from inquisitive eyes.

  Thus, Vladka’s family, the Peltels, had hidden fabrics which they had saved from their partially bombed haberdashery. With time they would convert these into cash and food. Other ghetto inmates hid leather and other materials, as well as a range of nonperishable foods: flour, sugar, dry beans, and much, much more.

  Ghetto dwellers who had managed to avoid deportations had no illusions. Convinced that they could rely only on their own resources, they became inventive. They created sanctuaries by digging below the surface, first beneath the floors and then lower still. They were separated into several layers. The final layer of these hideouts came close to the sewage system.

  The other kinds of hiding places started just below the street level. From there, unobtrusively, these places spread out beyond the ghetto limits and into the forbidden Christian world. Most of these relied on Jewish-Polish cooperation, and the creation and maintenance of all of these hideouts required close ties. Anyone involved in the use of these structures was sworn into secrecy.

  With the worsening of circumstances, those who had built and maintained these shelters devised extraordinary solutions. Most of them grew in size. Some of them were equipped with proper ventilations, electricity, bathrooms and kitchens. Added to these comfort features were all kinds of nonperishable foods, which could be prepared with relative ease.

  The main deportations from the Warsaw ghetto to the concentration camp Treblinka began on July 22, 1942. On July 23, Adam Czerniakow, the head of the Judenrat, committed suicide by drinking cyanide. His coworkers found him in his office chair, dead. Nearby on his desk were two brief notes. One was addressed to his wife. He asked her for forgiveness for leaving her all alone, adding that he could not act in any other way. The second note explains: “They are demanding 10,000 for tomorrow, then 7,000 . . . ” The second note ends with two unreadable words.50

  When the deportations began, the Germans and their collaborators concentrated first on collecting the beggars and other starving segments of the population—the sick, the old, and unattached children. Some who were considered too weak to travel to Treblinka were executed at the ghetto’s cemetery. It is assumed that at least 20,000 inmates were murdered this way. This early focus on the infirm suggested to some that the intellectuals and the professional ghetto inmates might be spared deportation. This was not so. As the deportations continued, each policeman was required to deliver a specific number of professionals and intellectuals. Whoever failed to deliver his quota was himself subjected to deportation. Such demands and threats led to high levels of demoralization among these policemen. The deportations resulted in a growing rate of suicides among the prospective victims.51

  During these deportations some unusual things happened. At the place of departure, the Umschlag Platz, the gifted young poet Henryka Lazowert joined her mother, even though she was not required to board the train which took them both to Treblinka. Some of the doomed refused to leave their apartments. They were killed on the spot. Many of the rabbis were shot prior to deportation. Rabbi Kanal resisted their orders. He was shot next to the loaded train.52 Rabbi Huberband was an expert of Hebrew literature and a historian. As a member of the Oneg Shabbat archive, he contributed greatly to the writing of the evolving Holocaust history. Some of his historical contributions were lost; others were preserved as a part of the Ringelblum archives. Hidden in a workshop during the first deportation, Huberband was found and taken to his death at Treblinka.53

  The journalist Ahron Einhorn ref
used to leave his quarters. Those who came to pick him up simply shot him right there in his room. Some prominent figures managed to jump out of the moving trains carrying them to Treblinka. The secretary of the Zionist party, Nathan Asch, succeeded twice in escaping. Others took different paths. The well-known psychiatrist Stefan Miller and his wife committed suicide in protest.54 According to other reports, women in particular physically fought the policemen who pushed them onto the trains.55

  Ringelblum writes that Czerniakow’s death came too late, proving his weakness.56 His assessment of Czerniakow’s suicide is followed by a painful description of the deportations. Ringelblum notes how close some of the departing Jews came to losing their minds, driven to insanity by the violent whims of their oppressors and the capriciousness of survival.57

  Before these deportations, the ghetto underground had persuaded the Ringelblum family to relocate to the forbidden Christian world. This move brought Ringelblum, his wife Judyta, and their son Uri to a large bunker on Grojecka Street. The owner of this place, Wladyslaw Morczak, had agreed to hide thirty-four Jews. With the Ringelblum family that number rose to up to thirty-seven.58 At the height of the Warsaw ghetto deportations, Emanuel Ringelblum disappeared. He was last seen in the ghetto on April 18. Then news reached the underground that he was an inmate in the Trawniki camp. The Trawniki camp had contacts with the Warsaw ghetto. Eventually these contacts reached Theodor Pajewski, a member of the Polish underground. He was protected by his cover job as a train conductor. Pajewski and the Jewish courier Shoshana (Emilka) Kossover became Ringelblum’s rescuers. Dressed as a train conductor, accompanied by Pajewski and Emilka, Ringelblum arrived safely back in Warsaw. For him this meant a return to the bunker on Grojecka Street, on the outskirts of Warsaw, and a reconnection with Judyta and thirteen-year-old Uri.59 The Warsaw ghetto deportations continued.

  Nachum Remba worked as a secretary in the Warsaw ghetto Judenrat. He was involved in aiding Jews selected for deportation. Remba was known for his eagerness to ease the sufferings of as many of the victims as possible. Ingrained in his memory was the day of the deportation during which the children in Janusz Korczak’s orphanage and several others were deported to Treblinka. He wrote that the day the Germans decided to empty the Jewish orphanages was a very hot day. Remba tried to delay the deportation. “I had hoped that a delay might give me a chance to save some of them. And so, first I begged Dr. Korczak to come with me to the Judenrat before the start of the children’s deportations,” he wrote, “explaining that maybe we would succeed in saving some of the children. But he would not hear of it. Korczak was not about to leave his children, not even for one minute. They counted on his presence!”

  Remba recalled standing next to the Jewish police who were assisting with the deportation of the adults. “I continued to hope that there might not be enough room for all the children. The loading was about to start. The Jewish masses were cruelly pushed, many were beaten with clubs. The Jewish policemen handled them roughly, screaming at them to move faster and faster. Each of the policemen had to deliver a number of victims.” The crowd that had formed tried to delay the deportation, perhaps knowing where they would be taken.

  Then I heard the German in charge announce that the orphanages will be coming next. At the front of this precession was Korczak. No, this picture I will never forget! All of his children were clean. Each child carried a bottle of water and a brown paper bag with a slice of bread in it. Theirs’ was not a walk to the wagons. Rather, it was an organized mute protest; it was a march in opposition to these bandits! In sharp contrast to the previous, demoralized roughly pushed, severely beaten Jewish inmates, who were forced to reach their humiliating destination. . . . These children were arranged in rows of four. At the head of the group, Korczak walked erect, his eyes looked up at the sky. At each of his sides was a child’s hand, resting in each of his hands. The next part of the procession was led by Stefania Wilczynska, a teacher and Korczak’s close associate. The third group of children resembled the others. They were led by Broniatowska. The fourth and last group was led by Szternfeld.

  Remba noted that the children went to their death quietly, “throwing at the barbarian murderers facial expressions filled with a collective, uniform disdain. Through these mute communications the children and their educators conveyed the idea that the time will come when powerful avengers will hold them responsible for this tragedy.” When they saw this, “commanded by no one, the Jewish police force stood erect; soundlessly, respectfully, they saluted this dignified procession of children and their educators. When the Germans saw Korczak approach, some of them asked: ‘who is this man?’” Remba was overcome with emotion. He notes:

  I could not stand this anymore. Tears came pouring down my face. I placed my hands over my eyes. I was filled with a profound pain. Thoughts about our endless helplessness filled my entire being. It was followed by a question. How did it happen, that all we could do was to watch passively how these murderers were destroying us? At night, I kept hearing the sounds of the little children’s feet, marching in unity with their teachers. I heard the rhythm of their steps moving into an unknown destination. Still today, this picture is burned into my memory. I also see ghostlike figures appear in front of me. After that, I seem to be staring at thousands of people who stand there with clenched fists, high up. In the end I see these clenched fists land on the heads of our oppressors.60

  Nachum Remba perished in a concentration camp somewhere in the vicinity of Lublin.61

  Even as the 1942 Warsaw ghetto deportations were in full swing, many Oneg Shabbat archivists continued to work. They were racing against time. At this stage, unable to protect the Jewish people, they concentrated on saving Jewish history. This was their act of resistance. Ringelblum and his coworkers took steps to safeguard their collected treasures. The Oneg Shabbat archives were sealed into ten large units, which consisted of metal boxes and empty milk bottles. Two parts of these units were buried in the ghetto on August 1942, at 68 Nowolipki Street. By February 1943, the rest of the archival materials were buried at 36 Swietokrzycka Street. These parts of the archives were later retrieved, one in 1946, the second in 1950. The third section seems to have been lost.62

  When collecting historical evidence, Ringelblum was sensitive to the interdependence of facts. He was convinced that if presented in an orderly fashion, all evidence, ugly or uplifting, would be useful for those who would be reconstructing this history. Over time, Ringelblum lost his confidence that he himself would be the author of this history. But he never lost his confidence that the risks and difficulties associated with their clandestine collections and their preparations were worthwhile.

  When on September 12, 1942, the deportations stopped, the ghetto population had been reduced by an estimated 300,000. Exact figures about the remaining ghetto prisoners are elusive. According to some estimates, only 10 percent of the Jewish inmates survived these deportations. Significantly, no one had any idea what the Germans aimed at doing with those who remained. What seemed clear was that for the occupiers Jews had no economic value and that their presence was attached to unknown political and propaganda measures.63

  The general consensus among the remaining Jews was that they should have fought the Germans, preventing them from having such an easy time during the deportations. Young people in particular felt that they should have gone into the streets and set fire to the entire ghetto. There would have been victims, but not as many as 300,000. Many survivors were ashamed, and felt that this tragedy should never have come to pass. The determination to fight soon grew. At first, however, the deportations dominated all discussions. Some wanted to know why the Germans had refrained from eliminating all Jews. Others speculated that had they murdered all the Jews, the Germans would have deprived themselves of scapegoats for explanations of disasters, real or imaginary. Some noted that strangely enough the Germans failed to boast to the world that they had murdered millions of Jews. What was the reason? Similarly, some asked whether Hitler st
ill wanted to keep his promise of freeing the world of the Jewish presence. Others determined that the cultural climate was ripe for a vigorous resistance to the final Jewish annihilation.

  Ringelblum’s reunion with his family in the Warsaw bunker was a miraculous gift. Once more, this historian threw himself into writing. His friends, the Bermans, managed to visit him, supplying him with historical evidence, which he wanted to re-examine, clarify, and render more accessible to future historians. Faced with more evidence, Ringelblum would come up with new questions. At one point, when he received information about the Warsaw ghetto underground known as the Jewish Military Union or Żydowski Związek Wojskowy (ŻZW) and made up mostly of former Polish army officers, he asked “Why is there no more data about ŻZW? Their traces must remain for history, even if we don’t find them likeable.” This comment shows how concerned Ringelblum was about being objective and using reliable evidence. It also suggests how nonjudgmental he was. He consistently reiterated his position that no matter how we feel about a part of history, it has to be recorded and preserved in a fair and value-free way as possible.64

  Although removed from the ghetto, Ringelblum followed the historical implications of the ghetto deportations that lasted from July 22 until September 12, 1942. These deportations had overlapped with the Jewish underground preparations by political groups—made up mostly of young people—such as Hashomer Hatzair, Dror, Akiva, and the vacillating members of the Bund, who had identified strongly with the Polish socialists. Only when the Bund recognized that the Polish socialists had no intention of uniting with them did they also join the Jewish Fighting Organization, Żydowska Organizacja Bojowa, also known as ŻOB.

  The ŻOB was officially established on July 28, 1942. In addition to Antek Zukerman, other leadership positions were assumed by Shmuel Breslaw, Yosef Kaplan, Zivia Lubetkin, and Jurek Wilner. The official head of this underground was Mordechai Anielewicz.65 Earlier on, ŻOB began its operations by eliminating collaborators. The Nazis had relied on collaborators and placed them in high positions. The ŻOB had thought that by doing away with collaborators they would be strengthening their own anti-German operations. In the Warsaw ghetto, some of the converted Jews were identified as virulent anti-Semites. Jozef Szerynski was one of them. The Germans had appointed him as head of the ghetto police. The Jewish ghetto underground designated one of its valued members, Israel Kanal, to be Szerynski’s assassin. But Kanal’s bullet missed, only wounding Szerynski in the cheek. Szerynski was soon accused by the Germans of stealing fur coats. Before the authorities meted out the “proper” punishment, Szerynski committed suicide.66