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Resistance: Jews and Christians Who Defied the Nazi Terror

Page 30

by Nechama Tec


  acceptance of Jewish fighters, 80

  development of Armia Ludowa, 45

  in Southeastern Poland, 44

  Zygmunt Rytel’s work with, 22

  Halperin, Ada, 137

  Hashomer Hatzair

  Aba Kovner and, 6

  Ciechanow Jewish resistance group and, 127

  Israel Gutman as member, 130–131

  Leah Silverstein as member, 161, 162

  Mordechai Anielewicz and, 73

  response to deportations, 72

  Roza Robota as member, 134

  Tosia Altman as member, 178–179

  Yosef Kaplan as member, 165

  Hehalutz organization, 122

  Heinsolor, Miriam, work with ŻOB, 163

  Henryk “Shmendryk.” See Smolar, Hersh

  Heydrich, Reinhard, order for Judenrat, 49

  hiding places, in ghettos, 66–67, 76, 88, 90

  Hilberg, Raoul

  The Destruction of European Jews, 8–9

  omission of facts in research, 10

  as promoter of Jewish complicity, 11–12

  Himmler, Heinrich, destruction of ghettos, 77–79

  Hitler, Adolf, view of Polish, 26, 206n7

  Holocaust scholars, moderate approach of, 15

  Holocaust survivors, self-reported reasons for survival, 191

  Holocaust trials, Richard Glazar’s testimony at, 152–153

  Holuj, Tadcuszkj, transfer to Auschwitz, 126

  Home Army (AK)

  anti-Semitic policies of, 42–43, 104, 117–118

  Antoni Zieleniewski’s work with, 30

  claim of Jewish assistance, 184

  cooperation with Jewish partisans, 43

  Jan Karski’s work with, 183

  role in occupied Poland, 42

  support of Auschwitz rebellion plans, 129, 131

  view of ghetto uprising, 78–79

  Zygmunt Rytel’s work with, 22

  honorable death, 75, 81

  Hotel Polski, 177

  House Committees (Warsaw ghetto), mutual aid activities by, 62–63

  humanitarian activities

  effect on Jewish morale, 58–59

  in Jewish ghettos, 57, 58, 62

  as resistance effort, 13

  infanticide, 60–61, 207n17

  International Military Tribunal (1945–46), lack of discussion of Jews, 2

  Iser, Shmuel, 173

  Izbica Lubelska, 185

  Jagiellonian University, persecution of Polish elites at, 160

  January Aktion, 79

  JDC. See American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee

  Jewish annihilation

  disbelief of, 6

  distinct stages of, 34–35, 47

  for German economic benefit, 21

  ghettos as first step, 52

  origins of plan for, 26

  renewed concentration on, 60

  world leaders’ knowledge of, 186, 187, 188

  Jewish children, efforts to protect, 60–62

  Jewish civilians, routine murder by Germans, 26

  Jewish complicity

  assertions of, 2

  assumption of, 15

  Hannah Arendt’s interpretation of, 8–9, 11

  New Year’s Manifesto (1942) and, 7

  Jewish concentration camp inmates, dire conditions faced by, 126–127

  Jewish Councils. See Judenrat

  Jewish Fighting Organization (ŻOB)

  elimination of collaborators, 72–73

  Mila 18 headquarters, 173

  turning point for, 78

  Warsaw headquarters, 172–173

  in Warsaw uprising, 80

  work in ghettos, 76–77

  Jewish Fighting Union, in Warsaw uprising, 80

  Jewish ghettos

  1947 death sentence mandate, 57

  burials in, 165

  conditions in, 52–53, 54, 58, 66, 161–162

  deportations from, 54–55, 67–71

  deportation survivor shame in, 71–72, 76

  early rumors about, 52

  effect on cooperation, 5

  efforts to protect children in, 62–63

  escape from, 175

  as first step to Jewish annihilation, 52

  food allocation in, 59–60, 64, 161

  hiding places in, 66–67, 76

  instability of, 54

  labor system in, 59

  manipulation of inmates in, 57–58

  murder of “useless” Jews in, 60, 67

  mutual aid activities in, 57, 58, 62

  preventing food smuggling in, 65

  prohibition against procreation, 60

  survival in, 53–54

  underground movement in, 62

  women’s contribution to survival in, 55–56

  See also Warsaw ghetto

  Jewish Historical Institute (Warsaw), 22

  Jewish laborers, maltreatment/disappearance of, 32–33

  Jewish men

  as chief enemies of Third Reich, 26, 50

  effect of ghettos on, 55

  Jewish Military Union (ŻZW), 72, 73, 77

  Jewish passivity

  arguments for, 11–12

  assumption of, 1–2, 15

  Isaiah Trunk’s research on, 14

  mythology of, 6

  Nathan Eck’s views on, 12

  Jewish people

  inattention to post-war fates of, 3

  lack of post-war recognition as victims, 2

  as Nazi collaborators, 3, 4

  Jewish refugees, in Soviet-occupied Polish territories, 48–49, 50, 184

  Jewish resistance

  as armed struggle, 15, 148–149

  in Auschwitz, 127

  day-to-day survival as, 13

  differing chronology of, 4

  effect of topography on, 5

  German retaliation to, 3

  ingenious strategies of, 10, 15, 155–156

  Israel Gutman’s research on, 14–15

  lack of post-war recognition of, 2

  multiplicity of forms, 12–13

  Raoul Hilberg, 9–10, 11–12

  readiness of, 81

  reality of, 190

  Ruben Ainsztein’s writings on, 14

  search for cooperative parties, 4

  Soviet aid to, 40

  view of Jewish youth, 75

  Jewish Resistance in Nazi Occupied Eastern Europe (Ainsztein), 14

  Jewish Scout organization, 160

  Jewish “self-hatred,” 200n19

  Jewish underground

  AK claim of assistance to, 184

  disbelief in extermination, 6

  leadership of, 5–6

  organization of, 75–76

  Jewish youth organizations, supply of underground leadership, 5–6

  Jodla detachment (AK), 105

  Judenrat

  corruption among members, 53

  diverse reactions of, 14

  executions of, 50

  female members of, 50

  inmates’ view of, 53

  Isaiah Trunk’s research on, 14

  lack of support for underground, 5

  as Nazi instrument, 9

  order for establishment of, 49

  Phillip Friedman’s research on, 13–14

  Raoul Hilberg and, 8–9

  refusal to accept ghetto conditions, 58

  requirement to supply laborers, 32–33, 59, 87

  role in ghettos, 62

  July Aktion

  “Bloody Thursday,” 206n11

  mass murders during, 86–87

  response of survivors, 87

  Kahn, Eliahu, work in House Committee, 63

  Kaminski, Yakov, 127, 128–129, 132

  Kamionka, Poland, 32, 34

  Kampel, Mania, 210n52

  Kampfgruppe (Struggle Group), 128–129, 131, 132–135

  Kanal, Israel, attempted assassination by, 72–73

  Kaplan, Chaim, description of anti-Semitism, 27

  Kaplan, Yosef
, 72, 163, 165

  Karski, Jan

  on assistance from non-Jews, 189–190

  call for common alliance, 184–185

  call to honor attempts to save Jews, 186–187

  collection of evidence by, 185

  compassion for underground workers, 188

  death of, 190

  denouncement of anti-Semitism, 185

  early life of, 182, 183

  informs world leaders of Jewish annihilation, 186, 187, 188

  insistence of world-wide Holocaust knowledge, 190

  photo of, 189

  as professor at Georgetown University, 188–189

  recognition by Yad Vashem, 183

  torture by Gestapo, 185

  work as courier, 163

  work in Washington, D.C., 188–189

  Katyn Forest, mass graves in, 181

  Kerski, Jan. See Karski, Jan

  kibbutzim, in Warsaw ghetto, 162, 163

  Kielar, Wieslaw

  description of Kommando uprising, 142–143

  memoirs of, 210n50

  removal from Auschwitz, 143

  Kielce, Poland, 105

  Klener, Yankel, election as Commander, 37

  Klooga concentration camp, Julek Frohlich’s death in, 61

  Koch, Eugen, 138

  Kolo, Poland, 22–23

  Kommando revolt, 135–138, 142–144

  Kommandos

  duties at Auschwitz, 127–128

  eagerness to fight, 132–134

  interrogation over rebellion plans, 137

  murder of, 133–134

  work with underground, 131–132

  Kosovo, 93, 97

  Kovner, Aba, 6

  Kozibrodzka, Lea, 178

  Kozilbrodzka, Lonka, 123

  Krakow, Poland, persecution of Polish elites in, 160

  Krakow ghetto, 102

  Krakowski, Shmuel, on AK claim of assistance, 184

  Krasnaja Gorka, 115–116

  Kronika (historical text), 82

  Krzemienice, Poland, 15

  Kulka, Moshe, transfer to Auschwitz, 130

  Kurland, Zvi, 152

  Langbein, Hermann, 126, 133

  Laniewska, Katarzyna, transfer to Auschwitz, 123

  Lanzmann, Claude, 189

  Latvia, Nazi collaboration in, 3

  Laufer, Yehuda, 130–132

  Lazower, Henryka, submission to deportation, 68

  leadership, role in resistance, 5

  Leczynski, Lolek, 22–24

  Lejkin, Yakov, 65, 73

  Lejtman, Shlomo, 154

  Levi, Primo, opposition to “banality of evil,” 11

  Lida ghetto, 74, 110

  Ligeti, Herta. See Fuchs, Herta

  “like sheep to the slaughter,” origin of phrase, 6

  Lipiczanska forest, 120

  Lithuania, Nazi collaboration in, 3, 90

  Lodz ghetto

  construction of, 52

  liquidation of, 193

  “Mrs. Mokrska” House Committee work, 63–64

  Sara Zyskind’s experience in, 56–57

  Lubartow ghetto, transfer of Kamionka Jews to, 34–35

  Lubetkin, Cywia, assistance to ghetto escapees, 175

  Lubetkin, Zivia, work with ŻOB, 72, 163

  Lublin ghetto, 74

  Madejsker, Sonia, work as courier, 178

  Mafia organizations, 149–150

  Marchwinski, Jozef, 119

  Margolis, Ala, 196

  Margolis, Anna, 194–195

  Markow, Fiodor, betrayal by, 119–120

  Masarek, Rudi, resistance efforts of, 147

  Mechlis, Michal, plan to save Bielski partisans, 115–116

  Meed, Shlomo, 52, 56

  Meed, Vladka

  chronic hunger of, 57

  identification card of, 168

  photo of, 51

  recollection of ghetto lecture, 58–59

  view of women’s roles in ghettos, 55–56

  “menashke,” 131

  Mengele, Josef, 124

  Miete, Kütner, 151

  Mila 18

  collective suicide at, 81, 176–177

  German discovery of, 176

  relocation of ŻOB headquarters to, 173

  Milaszewski, Kasper, 115

  Miller, Stefan, death by suicide, 68

  Minsk ghetto, 109

  Mir ghetto, 89

  “missing Jews” of Skarzyn, 29–30

  money-for-passports exchange scheme, 177–178

  Monowitz. See Auschwitz

  moral effects, of Jewish resistance, 10

  Morczak, Wladyslaw, 68, 83

  Moscow University, 24

  Nalibocka forest, 113, 114–115

  Narodowe Sily Zbrojne. See National Armed Forces

  National Armed Forces (NSZ), 42, 115, 157

  Nationalist Party

  anti-Semitism of, 42, 184

  and Polish government-in-exile, 183

  and Polish underground, 25

  Nazi General Government, Polish government-in-exile and, 183

  New Year’s Manifesto (1942), 6

  Nirenska, Pola, 189

  Nossig, Alfred, assassination of, 73

  Novogrodek ghetto, 74

  Nowolipki Street, Oneg Shabbat archives at, 71

  NSZ. See National Armed Forces

  Nuremberg Trials (1947–48), 2

  Okinowo, 93

  Oneg Shabbat, 49, 62, 66, 68, 70–71

  orphanages, deportation to Treblinka, 69–70

  Oswiencin concentration camp. See Auschwitz

  Pajewski, Theodor, 69

  Pankiewicz, Tadeusz, 102, 207n20

  Paris revolt (1944), 13

  partisan movement

  effect on Jewish morale, 40

  formation of, 39

  inclusion of Jews in, 40

  Jewish partisans, 43–46

  value placed on professionals, 91, 100, 206n12

  See also Bielski Jewish partisan group; Soviet partisans; Vilna Partisan Organization

  passing (as non-Jews), 20

  passive vs. active fighting, 20–21

  Pawiak prison, 83, 123

  Peasant Party, 25, 183

  physicians

  need for, 96

  in partisan groups, 91, 100, 206n12

  Pieczorski, Alexander, 155–156, 157

  Pilecki, Witold, 125, 129, 130

  Platon (Soviet General), 113–114, 118

  “the pleasure of the Sabbath.” See Oneg Shabbat

  Poalei Zion Left party, 47, 107–108

  Podgorze ghetto, 102

  Podlesie, Poland, 28

  Polesie, Poland, 107

  Polish army, support of Polish underground, 25

  Polish elites

  hiding in Jewish ghettos, 88–89

  Hitler’s determination to destroy, 181

  imprisonment in Auschwitz, 124, 125

  as most threatened population, 17

  persecution by Einsatzgruppen, 26

  persecution in Krakow, 160

  refusal to heed warnings, 89

  removal during Aktions, 86–87

  Polish Foreign Service, 183

  Polish forests, 41–44

  Polish government-in-exile

  basic principles of, 42, 183

  Jan Karski’s view of, 183–184

  lack of concern for Jewish people, 184

  political movements included in, 42, 183

  Stalin’s abandonment of, 181

  use of former army officers, 25

  Polish Jews, school admission quotas, 15

  Polish officers

  murder by USSR, 181

  saved by underground, 160

  work with AK, 125

  Polish Peasant Party, 42

  Polish Socialist Party (PPS)

  Antoni Zieleniewski as member, 22

  response to deportations, 72

  support of Żegota, 20

  Zygmunt Rytel as member of, 16–19

  Polish
underground

  protection of former Polish officers, 25

  summer of 1943 success of, 27

  varied political ties of, 126

  work of Jan Karski in, 182–183

  Polish Workers Party (PPR), cooperation with Jewish partisans, 44–45

  Polska Partia Robotnicza. See Polish Workers Party

  Polska Partia Socjalistyczna. See Polish Socialist Party

  Ponary, mass shootings at, 166

  Ponmarenko, Pantileimon, 39

  Porat, Dina, on Kovner statement, 6–7

  PPR. See Polish Workers Party

  PPS. See Polish Socialist Party

  prisoners of war (POWs), execution by German Army, 84

  procreation prohibition, 60–61

  Pruszkov forest, 90

  Rabinowicz, Hannah, 110–112

  Rada Glówna Opiekużcza. See Central Welfare Council

  Radom, 105

  Rather Die Fighting: A Memoir of World War II (Bleichman), 46

  Raysko, Poland, 136

  religious observances, prohibitions to, 58

  Remba, Nachum, 69–70

  Resilience and Courage (Tec), 194

  resilience vs. resistance, 4, 15

  resistance

  conditions necessary for, 4

  definition of, 4, 13

  importance of strategic base to, 5

  multiplicity of forms, 12–13, 196

  need for cooperation in, 4, 130

  resistance groups. See Jewish resistance

  Reuerstin, Regina, 175

  RGO. See Central Welfare Council

  Ribbentrop-Molotov Agreement, Stalin’s pressure to honor, 41

  Ringelblum, Emanuel

  anguish over fate of Jewish children, 61–62

  arrest/execution of, 83

  contribution to history by, 49, 70–71, 72, 82–83, 83

  dedication/self-sacrifice of, 48

  description of women’s lives, 50–51

  disappearance of, 68

  on food allocation/smuggling, 64–65

  photo of, 48

  praise of couriers, 158

  refusal to flee German invasion, 47–49

  return to Grojecka Street bunker, 69

  study of Jewish women, 62–63

  on tragic deaths in ghetto, 65–66

  tribute to ghetto activists, 63

  view of Adam Czerniakow, 68

  view of Jewish history, 14

  Ringelblum, Judyta, 68, 83

  Ringelblum, Uri, 68, 83

  Rizyszczyce, Poland, 122

  Robota, Roza

  execution of, 142

  photos of, 127, 134

  refusal to divulge information, 138, 139, 140–141

  speaks to Zippi Spitzer-Tichauer, 140–141

  work with underground, 131–132, 134–135, 140–141

  Roniker, Jerzy, 160

  Rosblat, Lutek, assistance to ghetto escapees, 175

  Rotkopf, Tonia, description of German kindness, 193–194

  Rotman, Lutek, 172, 174

  Rotman, Maria, 172, 175

  Rozycka, Marylka, work as courier, 180

  Rudashevski, Yitskhok, 54–55, 59

  Rufeisen, Oswald, 89

 

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