I Wish It Were Fiction: Holocaust Memories, 1939 - 1945; by Aaron Starkman, Daniel Levine (Foreword).

Quoted from preface:-

"Remembering the Holocaust years is a very painful process: it tears you apart. It is difficult and at the same time, unforgivable to forget, especially as the ugly head of anti-Semitism rises again with the ramblings of Zundel, Keegstra and others. As a witness to the Holocaust I feel a sense of responsibility to tell the stories, as painful as it might be.

"Forgiveness is a virtue, but I am not able to forgive.

"I cannot forgive the calculated plan to destroy a people.

"I cannot and never will forgive the theft of my youthful innocence; of showing me the darker side of mankind — the darkest side. I cannot and never will forgive the theft of a normal childhood and adulthood. I cannot and never will forgive being uprooted from the nurturing of my family, community and traditional life. I cannot and never will forgive the annihilation of my parents, brothers, aunts, uncles, cousins, my whole family.

"I have become an orphan.

"While the Germans worked out the annihilation plan they had many collaborators:

"Ukrainians, Poles and others, all willing and anxious to help. As misguided as they might have been, I cannot forgive the cruelties and indignities they perpetrated on us, the Jews.

"As I look back on the Holocaust years I can see the step by step plan to break our spirits and our bodies. I promised my mother that I would try to survive, as they believed that if I would live, they would all live through me. But from the first day after the capitulation of the Polish army, and the German occupation of Poland the reign of terror began and never subsided until liberation and the end of the war.

"We were uprooted from our homes, moved around, deprived of our livelihood, subjected to beatings, humiliation and constant killings. Without warning, there was terror in our hearts each and everyday of the war."

Not just profoundly touching, but that sums up the only possible attitude for anyone who believes in, sides with, justice.

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"After Poland was occupied, the Germans divided Poland into two separate parts. One part of the country, from Lodz to Upper Silesia, as well as Danzig (Gdansk) and its district and Poznan with its district were completely annexed and declared part of the Greater German Reich. The districts of Warsaw, Lublin, Kielce, Radom as well as Western Galicia were declared as the Polish protectorate of Germany. The Germans then decreed, that the Polish protectorate were to have their own currency (zlotys), as well as its own police force. The Polish police were given a distinct Polish uniform (blue – in Polish granat). The polish police were called the Granatowa Police. The Polish police in the blue uniforms were subjected to the orders of the occupation authorities. They meticulously carried out all the orders of the occupant.

"In addition, the Germans had their own military force and a militia. They also recruited criminal elements as assistants. They freed all the criminals from the jails and used them as a punishment cadre. When the Germans decided to torture or murder some people, they used the criminals for that purpose. These were called the “punishment expedition”"

"A short time later several civilians arrived from Germany, they interrogated the Jewish craftsmen and paid special attention to the broom makers. They consequently entered several orders for brooms, at attractive prices. Hundreds of Jews won employment in the broom industry. They remained at their work until the very last minute before they were deported.

"Many shoemakers were also employed by the Germans. They produced quality boots and shoes for the S.S. and for the police. Skilled tailors were given employment. They produced custom-made uniforms for the high officers of the army and for other government functionaries."

"The situation took a turn for the worse in the middle of 1940. It got worse from day to day. New requests were made by the Germans to the Judenrat.

"First, decree forbade Jews to engage in commerce or work in some specified positions. Then came an order prohibiting Jews to live on (or in) streets or even be seen on those streets. This followed by an order that Jews must carry white armbands on their arms. Jews were forbidden to ride in autos, and also forbidden to travel from one town to the other."

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"One day, at 5 o’clock in the morning, the whole town was suddenly encircled by the S.S. police. With the assistance of the Polish police, they succeeded to detain the 80 men. I was one of those 80."

"All 80 of us were squeezed into one freight car. The doors were then hermetically sealed.

"We traveled for 3 days and nights, without food or water or sanitary facilities. The train stopped once at a certain station. We were all half-dead. Our wagon was pelted with stones. Many times we were shot at. Two of our people were wounded. After a while, we heard the whistle of the engine and we began to travel again, until we reached Lublin.

"The sealed cars were opened from both sides. S.S. men were there to meet us. No sooner did we step down from the wagon, when the S.S. men began to beat us with their whips. Their wild shrieks could be heard for a mile. “Heraus Juden” (“Jews out!”) they yelled and kept on whipping us."

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They were taken to Majdanek, and later to the Russian border, all the while beaten, tortured, starved and more.

"We build trenches at the Russian border.

"When we reached Naral, they drove us into an old, large almost ruined flour mill. A local shoemaker lived there. He was Jewish. He told us that most of the Jews in the village were shot by the Germans. His life was spared, because the Germans considered him to be a “useful” Jew, whom they could use.

"The wealthy former owner of the mill committed suicide in his house. His wife and two children were shot by the Germans.

"Tired, exhausted and half-dead, we lied down on the floor. We were thoroughly drenched by the rain. The Germans left us alone for two days. Early in the morning on the third day, they began driving us. All we were given to eat was some stale bread and what they called coffee. We have hardly finished eating, when the S.S. guard began yelling: Hurry-up, get in line. We began to run, fearing further beatings. They led us through fields, until we reached an area, where we saw many red poles. This appeared to be the border.

"We came very close to the border. A German officer immediately issued an order, that no one is allowed to look to the right, along the border line. Whoever will look there, will be shot on the spot.

"We formed into a line, everyone was given a shovel and told how to dig. Right after that, an automobile arrived and the infamous German murderer Dolf emerged. He was dressed in civilian clothes, and wore a white overcoat. In his hand was a leather cane.

When he came closer to our lines he asked if everyone is Jewish. Yes, we all answered. The murderer Dolf marched along the entire line with his cane in his hands, and began beating indiscriminately, in the most brutal way, until very many began bleeding. He then returned to his auto and left. We stood there, bloodied, with the shovels in our hands and were forced to continue digging. The Germans instructed us how to do our work."

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"One cloudy morning, after we came to work, several of us decided to run for it and cross the border. It was not too difficult. All one had to do was be strong and determined and be ready to risk his life.

"Thus quite a few crossed over the border."

"The punishment was handed out to those of us who remained. As a first step, the Germans picked out 30 men and shot them."

"Despite all the cruel punishment, there were still some among us who took the risk again and ran across the border. In response, the S.S. instituted a still harsher regime of punishment. Every day, 10 men from among us were shot. Security along the border line was increased, with many more men guarding the border. But despite the unheard of cruelty, there were still quite a number who risked their life and ran."

"Our desperate situation became worse. There remained no place to escape, and the torture increased. We were driven in our clothes into the river, and ordered to lie flat on our stomachs. And then the Germans began to shoot at us. Some nights we were ordered to undress completely and then we were driven into the cold river. The Germans enjoyed this sort of torture.

"I remember the case of one of our fellow inmates, his name was Yoel Melman, a landsman from Opatow. They ordered him to put on 10 military winter coats, and march forward. But he could not move at all. He made every effort to run, but unfortunately he failed. Then the Germans shot him on the spot.

"They ordered another man to undress completely and jump into the river. When he was already in the water, the Germans began practicing shooting on him. They derived much pleasure in doing it. Several bullets hit him and he fell and drowned.

"Another time, they tried out one of us. They ordered him to run across the border. As he began running a second group of S.S. men started shooting. Hit by flying bullets, he finally fell and died. This situation lasted for four solid months.

"Then the days began growing shorter and colder. We were literally naked and barefoot. Winter was approaching. Early mornings were particularly cold. Many mornings the temperature was down to below zero. We had to sleep on the cold floor. There were no quilts or covers."

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Aaron escaped and walked home through forest. His parents wept with joy to see him alive. Germans were now shooting and torturing people, and soon ghetto was established, before deportations to extermination camps began.

"While being driven, we heard the steady cries and moaning of women and children, who were shot on the spot. Families were being separated. Whenever the murderers saw several people marching together, they immediately separated them. They spread panic and confusion. The cries became louder and louder.

"I walked with my family. When we reached the square, we saw a huge mass of people, some with packs, others without anything. Women were carrying their small children, led the second child by the hand and the third was running and catching up. Some men and women could hardly stand on their feet. Some mothers carried newly-born infants, covered in cushions or blankets. Those who HAD REFUSED to leave their homes were shot on the spot."

Several people were shot.

"I was standing next to my parents. Suddenly I felt a terrible pain. I was hit with a very heavy object. The pain was unbearable. Someone ordered me: Get out of the line. You are still fit for work. I was afraid that I will be hit again. I was not given the chance to say good-bye to my parents and sisters. I just looked at them. I began to realize that this may be the last time I looked at my parents and sisters.

"The S.S. man grabbed me and dragged me to a place, where some others were standing.

"During the five years of the German occupation, I spent days, weeks and months in different places. My life was hanging in the balance every minute of the day. The question was: Will I survive or perish?

"To this day, I cannot forget the last moment, when I was separated from my family. Why did I leave them? Maybe it is my fault that I left them to be murdered by the Nazis? While I myself was saved?"

Aaron and others, 50 selected young boys and girls, were made to clean up after the murders in streets by SS after they watched their families being taken to train station for extermination camps. Next day they were taken around house by house through ghetto, cleaning up after SS shot anyone including babies, children, old people and weak who remained.

"It should be noted that many Jews were killed by Polish policemen, who served their Nazi masters well."

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They were taken to ghetto in another town.

"Epidemics, caused by the congestion, broke out. Hunger became more prevalent. While in the Ghetto in Opatow, we were all from the same town and knew almost everyone. We trusted each other. But here, in the Ghetto in Kazimierz, there were so many strangers. Few knew each other and hardly trusted each other."

"There were many who refused to believe that the Jews are being taken to their deaths. However after the deportations in the towns and villages took place, it became clear to those who managed to escape what deportation means. Those who came to the ghetto in Kazimierz knew for sure, what fate had in store for them."

"Everyone of the deportees knew that this was the final march to their deaths. I cannot find the words to describe the depth of the tragedy. There were no medicines in the Ghetto in Kazimierz. The Germans forbid the use of any medication. The Jewish doctor was ordered not to treat anyone, but notify immediately the S.S. of any ill patient. He was forced to supply a list of sick Jews to the S.S. on a daily basis. Those on the list were immediately liquidated. The killing of the sick was entrusted to an S.S. officer, a short, fat guy, whose meanness knew no limits. He always wore white gloves when shooting the victims."

"I myself saw two children being taken away from their mother and put on a wagon, with the obvious intent of taking them out of the Ghetto and killing them. They said to the mother of the two children: You are still capable to work. You stay behind. But the woman clung to the wagon and kept on yelling. The Nazi beat her mercilessly, but could not tear her away from the wagon. Finally the German agreed that she should take back one of her two children. She could not decide which one she should take, the boy or the girl. The girl was 12 years old. The mother grabbed the boy first, but immediately after, she said she wanted the girl. Maybe she thought that since the girl is already older and bigger, she will be able to better take care of herself. I will never forget how the mother became hysterical and could not decide which child she should pick. But the German made his own decision. He shot the mother on the spot. The children, seeing their mother dead, began to cry uncontrollably, they were taken away to their death."

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Aaron escaped ghetto and walked. A farmer fed him and told him to go to Rakower forest where he'd find Jewish partisans. He met other Jews and heard their story.

"In 1940, the Germans gathered all Jews of Tarnobrzeg — young and old, men, women and children — in one big square. The older people were segregated from everybody else and kept separately. The younger people were ordered to dig deep trenches. This completed, the Germans shot everybody. The three young men, whom I met in the cellar managed to turn away and escape. They escaped into the forest and met here several hundred other Jews. The Germans didn’t dare to come into the forest."

The escaped Jews were in touch with Polish partisans, and had arms and ammunition.

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"The Polish partisans in the neighbouring forest; the so-called “A-K” (the name stood for the initials of ARMJA KRAJOWA, the Polish national Army), were organized by the Polish government in exile. They received from the Government-in-exile arms, planes, medical supplies and food. They received their instructions from that Polish government.

"One morning, a group from the Polish partisans came to the Tarnobrzeg forest and told the Jews that they were instructed to confiscate all the weapons in the possession of the Jews, since they need the ammunition for themselves. They claimed that they are organizing attacks against the Germans and they lack sufficient arms and must get all the arms possible. The Polish partisans told the Jews they can live safely in the forest, without ammunition.

"The answer of the Jews was, that they are prepared to join the Polish partisans in their attacks on the Germans, but that they cannot remain in the forest without ammunition. The Jews understood that once they will part with the ammunition that their lives will be in grave danger. When the Polish A-K partisans realized that the Jews will not give them the ammunition, they opened fire. A number of Jews were killed there and then. The Jews then replied with fire, and a number of the A-K were also killed. The battle continued for some time, until the Jewish ammunition was exhausted. The A-K partisans celebrated their victory over the Jews by expelling all Jewish survivors from the forest. This was the story of the Jews whom I met in the cellar."

Aaron volunteered to look and went, and had several fortunate escapes after sheltering in one place after another. Some Poles helped, but no stable shelter was forthcoming.

"I arrived in the village and went to an old acquaintance. He and other acquaintances told me the same thing. Everyone was afraid to have me stay with them for more than one night. The farmers told me, that for harboring a Jew, one can be shot. Stool pigeons abound and they are watching every step. Anyone telling where a Jew is hiding, gets a prize of 1,000 zloty. Jews have “become a profitable commodity”, my acquaintance said. I had no alternative and turned back towards Kazimierz. When I was already near the camp, I met an old acquaintance by the name Kutchi-Sobol and told him about my desperate situation. You cannot find a place to hide, and all roads lead to death. When you meet someone and you don’t know who he or she is, you fear the worst. My acquaintance could not give me any help, not even a reply to my story."

He contacted partisans.

"Once, when I came on a mission to the partisans, I was told that the partisans will not accept any more Jews in their ranks. The reason that I was given was that the A.K.’s (members of the Polish National Army A.K.) are looking for Jews, whom they hated. I was also told that a few days ago,aA group of A.K.’s lured away eight Jews, took away their clothing and money and shot them.

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Aaron managed to find a small farmhouse where a farmer hid them, and they survived until the liberation, but it was chaotic as war wasn't over yet. He got shot at one point, and was hospitalised until after the war was over.

"The situation of the Jewish survivors was very tragic. The Poles did not relish the sight of any Jewish survivors. A lot of them said, that if Hitler failed to murder ANY Jews, we will complete the job. And this is what happened to many.

"A bloody pogrom took place in Kielce, with close to 50 victims.

"Several Jews who returned to Opatow were shot by the Poles. I decided to immediately leave Opatow. From Opatow I went to lower Silesia, where a semblance of Jewish life was being reestablished. There I met a number of my landsleit from Opatow."

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February 24, 2020 - February 24, 2020.
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Saved By the Enemy, by Craig A. Ledbetter.

The book is somewhat akin to an inlay work of art, where the author takes the true story of two little boy a born in Germany in 1932 and 1933, and tells this story along with that of the background, those times and the place - Germany in the so called third Reich until the end of the war - but its not a single seamless work of art; its rather one where the edges of the inlay work show.

The background story is told in a manner of informing a junior high school class in U.S. where the kids know nothing about the topic, and for that purpose, it's a job  very well done, except some usual mistakes due to regarding Germany and disregard for India, and perhaps some numbers such as number of massacres by nazis which might be downplayed here.

And there are more serious mistakes. For example somewhere halfway along he states:-

"The German mathematician D. Hubert, founder of modern math, dies.

"Allies start bombing Germany around the clock; Germany bombs London in retaliation."

The last one makes one question the author's knowledge and loyalties, perhaps both; Battle of Britain and London Blitz preceded all but invasion of Poland and of much of western Europe, but it definitely did happen before Germany invaded Russia in 1942, even the decision to invade Russia which was in 1941. Bombing of London was certainly not a reaction or retaliation to any allied action.

For that matter, the preceding statement isn't certain as to veracity thereof. The said D. Hubert might have been a well known mathematician of his time in Germany, but is far from founder of modern mathematics; his name doesn't ring a bell with a mathematician whose field is not history of German mathematics.

Unless the author, completely unfamiliar with mathematics, mixed up names? The person of stature he mentions was not D. Hubert who was American, but the description fits David Hilbert - someone known to anyone even at the beginning of serious mathematics - amongst other great mathematicians.

Then there is The usual crass ignorance about some things. The borrowing or stealing of terminology and symbols from India, using them in a fraudulent way and twisting their meanings completely out of their truth, is what nazis did; West generally ignores all of this and retains the falsehood of nazis. This is akin, for example, to regarding the crucifix as a massacre instrument and using the word Easter to symbolise a spring tide in China.

Sounds horrible? So are the false meanings given by nazis to the word Arya and the symbol Swastik.

Arya, pronounced Aarya, is a Sanskrit word and is related to Light, as in inner enlightenment, not to fair skin; it has connotations of a well bred, civilised person of exemplary conduct, and was a term of honour, not race or skin tone. The person who carried the flag of the creed, symbolically, in his conduct throughout his life in his being, was for example Raama; he, while paens are in epics to his beauty, wasn't said to be fair, but dark. Whether this was due to extensive travels in tropical India on foot, or otherwise, isn't mentioned.

Swastika or Swastik is a Sanskrit word and the word literally means symbol of well being. It's drawn fresh before traditional homes, every day, in front at entrance, by housewives or a daughter or a daughter in law, after her bath and after cleaning floors including the front yard. It denotes goodwill, hope and prayer about good coming to the home. It's often found built in the entrance wall, for the same reason.

Swastika or Swastik is an occult symbol, a powerful one, no less than say, the six point star, which incidentally is another symbol drawn before homes in the morning, one of the many, many alternative choices to Swastik that the housewife or daughter may choose fresh for the day. Being an occult and powerful symbol, any misuse thereof is dangerous, as evident in case of Germany doing it. It backfired on them.

More serious readers should read better books for the purpose, beginning with the far more informative work of William Shirer, Rise And Fall of The Third Reich, which is exhaustive and trustworthy in the information part.

The personal part is, being from personal information, better. But it's as sparse as salt in a dish one can eat without grimacing, rather than the main course one expects in reading an account of a true story about real people.

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"This six-pointed star was made of two interlocking triangles. Where the triangles overlapped, it was assumed to be extra thick, offering great protection.

"The first known use of the hexagram was as a wax seal in ancient Israel around 6 BC and 2 AD, in a synagogue in Capernaum. Many scholars have tried to trace its origin, with little agreement. One popular legend is that King David used it as a magical shield in battle. Charles the IV of Prague allowed the Jews in his lands to display the star as their own flag on special occasions, and it spread to other areas of Eastern Europe. Eventually, in response to the Christians using the cross to represent their faith, the Jews adopted the six-pointed star to represent Judaism as a whole.

"During the Nazi holocaust, the star had its saddest moment. The Nazis chose a yellow Star of David to be worn conspicuously on the clothes by all Jews, to allow easy identification of them. Not wearing it could and would end in death. After the war it became a badge of honor, and it is now used as an amulet of good luck and as a symbol of Jewish identity. It also appears on the flag of Israel and on Israeli ambulances."

"World War II was never really covered in any depth in my high school classes, and the parents and grandparents of my friends and I really didn’t talk much about it to us. I was a part of the generation of post-war baby boomers. It seemed like the “Greatest Generation” just wanted to move on to the dreams they now held, having survived such an enormously long and harsh era of wars. Forgetting about it seemed a lot more important than remembering the pains and sacrifices. Few told stories of those hard times to us youngsters."

"Luckily, a man joined my family who has many of the answers to my questions. His family had been caught up in the holocaust of WWII, as he was a Jew born in Berlin just hours before the start of one of the nastiest, bloodiest campaigns ever launched against mankind. He and his brother would end up as two of just a few Jewish children who survived those ghastly years right under the noses of their enemies.

"During the researching of this book, I ended up getting all the knowledge about this era that I had always wanted and possibly more. I had to reconstruct the events as they unfolded in the proper historical timeline. I had never imagined the grand scale of this reign of terror across Europe and N. Africa. Hitler’s Nazis committed genocide: close to 6 million Jews, 10 million Slavs, 250,000 Gypsies, 250,000 homosexual men, and more than 100,000 handicapped persons were the victims. Another 4–5 million civilians were killed as a result of the Nazis’ brutal tactics of intimidation and reprisals against anyone who opposed Nazism and the criminally insane Hitler. Who didn’t Hitler like? Wow, a total of more than 20 million innocent lives were taken, and that does not include all the many millions of civilian and military personnel lives lost by both sides in the ensuing war."

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"Anti-Semitism is officially adopted by the German Conservation Party in 1882.

"In Poland, anti-Semitic laws are passed.

"WWI, “The War to end all Wars,” lasts from 1914 to 1918.

"It is a closely held trench war in which air bombers are used for the first time.

"The death toll is extremely high among both troops and civilians.

"On November 10, 1918, Germany’s Kaiser flees; November 11 is called Armistice Day, as fighting ends and a formal peace agreement is signed.

"Germany’s general staff won’t accept that Germany could lose a war.

"Hitler’s anti-Semitic outbursts impress his superiors; they praise him as a born orator who speaks well in front of large groups, holds their attention, and sways them to his anti-Semitic views.

"Anti-Semitism rises against Jews as a race/ethnic group, not against Judaism as a religion."

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"Germany’s population is estimated at 64.8 million in 1932.

"Unemployment in Germany hits 33%, in 1932.

"Jews are suspect as they hold such a disproportionate number of the high-paying jobs.

"Berlin is the center of many new social movements. These movements are reflected in the arts, sexual freedoms, architecture, and theater.

"Many view the Berlin culture movements as hedonistic, degenerate, and amoral.

"Thousand of artists, filmmakers, designers, and other professionals flee Germany; among them are 20 former Nobel Prize winners."

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The father of the two boys had been born in U.S. in 1891, and as a 19 year old, had migrated  with his parents to Germany where he subsequently fought as a German soldier in WWI. He'd met his wife to be soon after, married, and settled as an owner of a tailoring business in Berlin. His sons were born in 1932 and 1933, the latter a day before a dictator took charge of the nation. The younger one was born with a midwife help at home, since legally Jews were no longer allowed to use hospital facilities or help of a doctor.

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"Jews are banned from labor unions. Jews’ health insurance is canceled.

"Jews are banned from practicing any form of law.

"All non-Nazi organizations are banned.

"Farmer unions, labor unions, church youth groups, and Boys and Girls Clubs are all placed under Nazi control.

"Now, anyone with one or more Jewish parents or grandparents is considered a Jew."

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"Hitler’s SA (Sturm Abteilung), also known as his storm troopers or the Brown Shirts, had outgrown its purpose in the Nazi Party and was now viewed as a threat to the party and its future. These storm troopers were anti-capitalist and anti-traditionalist; they wanted a second revolution and wanted to replace the regular German Army. Their Marxist inclinations were at loggerheads with the regular army and its traditions. The SA’s Marxism also did not sit well with the big industry leaders, the manufacturing conglomerates, and the bankers. The old army generals wanted their old military privileges and traditions back. The generals supported breaking the Treaty of Versailles, which placed limits on the size of Germany’s armed forces."

Hence the next.

"On June 30, 1934, Hitler put into action a plan called “The Night of the Long Knife.” Special SS forces were armed with a list of SA leaders or Hitler’s Brown Shirts (who actually comprised a group of well-trained troops) inside of the SS. These special SS forces, who were originally organized as personal bodyguards for Hitler, went out and murdered hundreds of leading SA members who were on the list."
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"The only thing Therese and Julius had known about the midwife they called to help with Fred’s birth, Gertrude Nölting, was that she was obviously not Jewish. She was grandmotherly looking, yet determined. Her demeanor appeared stiff yet would also show compassion. Gertrude showed sincere concern and caring while participating in the birth, engendering Therese’s warmth in return.

"The old adage of not taking one at the first glimpse definitely applied to Gertrude, as there was a great deal about her life yet to be revealed. A lady of middle age, she lived with a younger woman by the name of Traute Holina whom all assumed to be her daughter. They also assumed Traute’s father was a victim of war, which would account for his absence, a common situation after WWI, and could also account for the different last names.

"There was even more to Gertrude than what had first met the parents’ eyes, and it was slowly surfacing. They were startled by their new discovery about this helpful woman. They had discovered that she was a Nazi Party member. Pointedly, Gertrude was included among Adolf Hitler’s friends and most loyal supporters in the years that he spent climbing toward his political ambitions.

"She even had purchased a small summer cabin in the outskirts of Berlin among many of the higher ranking Nazis and SS officers. It was seemingly incomprehensible to the Tauchers that Mrs. Müller could have recommended Gertrude, if she had known this about her. Yet, there was absolutely no doubt that both ladies were fully aware they were helping a Jewish family."

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"Jews are banned from the German military.

"A law is passed stating that to be a German all four of one’s grandparents must be of Aryan blood.

"Jews and non-Germans are stripped of their German citizenship. Jews are prohibited from marrying Germans, and annulment laws for mixed marriages are passed.

"The Nazi swastika flag becomes the flag of Germany.

"The term “Jude” officially replaces the term “non-Aryan.”

"German females under the age of 45 are not allowed to work in Jewish households.

"Violation of any of these laws can result in imprisonment, fines, hard labor, and even death.

"German Jewish passports can be used to exit the country but not to return.

"A large “J” is stamped on all Jewish passports.

"Jews are barred from public schools after age 14.

"Public parks, libraries and beaches are closed to Jews."

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" ... Hitler had the Reichstag (Parliament) moved to the town of Nürnberg, just in time for the annual Nazi Party rally. The rally had been held there yearly since 1925, but this was the first year in which the Reichstag convened there. Two measures came out of the rally and were passed into law shortly after by the Reichstag. These measures were to be known as the Nürnberg Laws and allowed anti-Semitic behavior to be legal and enforceable."

"The biggest change was that Judaism was now determined by ancestry and not by beliefs or practices. Many German citizens who had not practiced Judaism, did not identify themselves as Jewish, did not belong to the Jewish community, and in some cases even had converted to Christianity years ago were now defined by law as Jews. Besides institutionalizing many racist ideas, these new laws increased the Jewish population from an estimated 600,000 in all of Germany and 150,000 in Berlin in 1933, to possibly 2,500,000 in Germany and 500,000 in Berlin as of this decree in 1935."

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"Jewish names are removed from all war memorials in Germany.

"Jews become “Guests” in Germany. No German can be employed in or around a Jewish household.

"Jews are not allowed to have a telephone.

"Jews are prohibited from owning franchises.

"Jews are not allowed in areas occupied by Germans.

"The Summer and Winter Olympic Games are held in Germany.

"Hitler sends troops to Italy to help Mussolini fight in Spain's civil war.

"Membership in the Hitler Youth organization is required for German youths 10 years and older."

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The author mentions, 're 1936 Olympics:-

"The games were the first to be televised, although only in Germany."

He does not elaborate. Not everybody even had a radio or wireless set as it was then called, and not even the wealthy had a television set at home. Does he mean they filmed the games live and showed them on large screens to viewers in the arena, or nearby in VIP enclosures?

Also, he is meticulous in clearing some points, generally in favour of Hitler, such as his allowing blacks and Jews of other teams, or simply not shaking hands with anybody after he was informed that not shaking hands with black or Jewish winners wasn't proper. 

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"The outside world was looking forward to the games even though the news was slowly spreading about the anti-Semitic vengeance of the German government. Jews were being transported to camps in droves, and many murders of the other unwanted were also taking place in Germany."

"Easily turning the tables to suit his strategy, Hitler appeased game participants and governments alike by implicating the media for lies and false propaganda. Pulling the wool over all eyes by this whitewashing of the credible unfolding events, he convinced skeptics to squash any plans for interference, such as boycotts.

"The games went off as scheduled, with neither race nor religion supposedly an issue. Hitler would not allow German Jews to compete, and he was appalled by the success of the black male athletes from the United States, especially Jesse Owens, who won four gold medals.

"The USA’s black athletes voted among themselves and chose to attend the games, thinking that black victories would undermine the Nazis’ view of white supremacy, while Jewish groups opposed any attendance. Jesse Owens turned out to be the star of the Summer Games. Hitler did not like blacks but had no campaign directed toward them at this time. Jesse even found he had more freedom in Germany at this time then he had in the US. He was freely allowed to ride public transportation, and he entered bars and restaurants with less difficulty than he had back home."

"The American team from the University of Washington won the eight-man team rowing event over the Germans and Italians while Hitler watched; he was not amused."

As to Winter Olympics, which were also conducted in Germany that year, in Bavaria:-

"Hitler did attend, only to watch Norway easily win the games, with Germany a distant second.

"Immediately after the Summer Games, the Nazis once again stepped up their persecution of the Jewish population."

................................................................................................

"Jews and gentiles no longer shopped at the same markets, waved to each other in the parks, or shared meals. Most Germans felt it was best to just pretend not to see their old Jewish friends, to make believe they were invisible. This was done by both Jews and gentiles to avoid possible repercussions to all. Jews could no longer be productive members of society."

................................................................................................

"Jews are required to register their business properties.

"Jewish doctors are not allowed to give treatment to non-Jews.

"Jewish workers and managers are dismissed from all public and private employment except work related to the war preparations.

"A law is passed that all German women must do one “Duty Year.”"

"Duty year"???? In Nazi creed, didn't that mean servicing nazis sexually, and/or reproducing an offspring of a designated Nazi by mating?

"Jews are banned from teaching German students or practicing dentistry.

"Jews are forbidden to touch money.

"The Buchenwald concentration camp is completed and will operate until 1945.

"Hitler tells his military staff, “We are going to war.”

"A law that all chimney sweepers must be German is approved, allowing for domestic spying."

................................................................................................


"When Hitler first came to power in 1933, one of the first things he did was to put into place the Nazis’ position on the role of women in Germany. They were supposed to be good mothers, bring up a house full of children, and provide a good home for their husbands so they could work and produce. They should get married at a young age and have as many children as possible; Hitler even provided loans to newlyweds of 1,000 German marks, which were to be paid back by bearing children. For every child that a couple produced, 25% of the debt was forgiven; have four and no more debt. Almost a million newlyweds took Hitler up on the offer.

"The Nazi leadership saw the future need for more soldiers to fight, which in turn required more mothers to keep up the supply of children: more men to fight and more women to have the needed babies. Also, the need was arising to populate the new lands that were to be conquered in Eastern Europe with pure Aryan blood. Unmarried women were even encouraged to have children for the cause. Hitler went as far as opening up places where women could go to get pregnant by racially pure SS men. These “clinics” were not hidden on backstreets; in fact, they were openly advertised. Many women took up the offer, and even more men volunteered for this patriotic duty.

"Germany’s women were encouraged not to wear makeup and not to wear high heels or trousers. Also discouraged were perms or the dying of hair. Being plump was encouraged. Every August, on Hitler’s mother’s birthday, he would award the Motherhood Cross to German women. Those with eight or more children received a gold cross, while a silver cross was given to those with six children, and a bronze one to those with four."

................................................................................................

"All Jewish properties, now both personal and business, must be registered with the Reich.

"Germany captures Austria without bloodshed or even firing a gun.

"At the Evian Conference, only the Dominican Republic agrees to accept more refugees.

"The laws of Nazi Germany are applied in Austria.

"Hitler has the Sudetenland of Czechoslovakia ceded to Germany.

"Jews are not allowed to own a pet or a radio.

"Most sweet treats such as ice cream and pastries are placed off limits to Jews.

"Jews’ driver licenses are canceled.

"Jews are not allowed to use public transportation.

"Kristallnacht, the “Night of Pandemonium,” takes place in Germany, Poland, Austria, Hungary, and Czechoslovakia.

"Nazis implement plans for all major cities in Germany and its occupied lands to contain Jewish ghettos.

"Berlin is sectioned into Jew and Jew-free areas. A strict curfew for Jews is established, 8PM–5AM."

................................................................................................


"One of the most violent nights in history soon followed, in November of 1938. It occurred after Germany asked Poland to accept 50,000 Polish Jews that Germany wanted to ship back to Poland, whether they wanted to go or not. Poland refused, so Germany loaded up 3,000 of them and sent them by boxcar to the German-Polish border. Poland refused to let them enter, and there they sat for three days in terrible conditions. Finally, they were allowed across the border into Poland and were placed in a livestock corral where they received their first food and water in days.

"When word of their treatment became known, a young Polish Jew in Paris, who actually heard about the incident from a relative who had been on the train, took things into his own hands. He went to the German Embassy in Paris and shot a relatively unimportant German diplomat, injuring him superficially. The diplomat, who just happened to not be anti-Semitic, was attended by French doctors and appeared to be recovering. Then German doctors came and took over, the diplomat got promoted, and then he mysteriously died. The German public was livid at the Polish Jews and started attacking anything Jewish. The whole thing may well have been fully orchestrated, but it was surely the end for this lowly official, who left behind a legacy that he certainly did not want.

"The Night of Broken Glass, Kristallnacht, erupted on November 9. In just one night in Germany, Austria, Poland, and elsewhere hundreds of Jews were murdered, thousands of synagogues were burned, and thousands of Jewish businesses and homes were destroyed.

"Over 30,000 of Berlin’s Jews were rounded up and shipped to concentration camps. Looting took place at every Jewish home and business that could be identified. Jews were beaten and killed, while others were made to clean up the mess. Many Jews just killed themselves, seeing no hope. Insurance claims for the damage were paid, only to be diverted by the Nazis for their own use. Many more Jews now began trying to emigrate to anywhere they could, but by now most doors were shut tight with little hope of unlocking them."

Julius Taucher's tailoring shop was destroyed, and the boys Hank and Fred remember that night vividly. The family was subsequently ordered to move, to a place without a kitchen and with only outdoor facilities. Therese had a son from a previous marriage who met her at her workplace and brought gifts for his half brothers. He committed suicide when nazis came to take him yo a concentration camp. Her sister, married to a non Jewish man in a wheelchair, suffered similar fate along with her husband.

................................................................................................

Julius was ordered into slave labour, and meanwhile the boys suffered bullying and worse, at school and on the way. Therese accompanied them and taught them at home. Hank went for a walk, and was thrown into the frozen canal by two Hitler youth boys. One man on a bicycle heard Hank and jumped in, saving his life, and was reported for this. He brought Hank home and left his number, and Julius made him a suit for gratitude, but Gestapo caught him for taking the suit and he vanished.

Jews were forbidden to use soap or any other hygiene necessities.

"The Wannsee conference in Berlin in January, 1942, was held to coordinate the efforts of various agencies in the Nazi government. One outcome of the conference was an effort to eliminate use of the words “killings,” “extermination,” or “liquidation,” in discussion of the Final Solution. It was determined that the phrase “resettlement to the conquered lands,” which really meant going to Poland and the gas ovens, would sound nicer and hide the harsh reality to the outside world. In late 1941 and early 1942, 25 trains left Berlin each day with 100 Jews per cattle car. After a while that number dropped down to fewer than 50 per car, as the Jews were becoming so scarce."

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"The German Army is defeated at Stalingrad, USSR.

"Women in Berlin stand up and resist terror in a six-day protest.

"The British Air Force pounds German targets, focusing on arms, aviation, and ball bearing production.

"Jews are denied legal system protection.

"Many Jewish ghettos in Eastern Europe are destroyed by the Nazis.

"Jews from Rome are sent to death camps in Germany, with no response from the Vatican.

"Jews from Greece are sent to Auschwitz.

"All of Berlin’s Jewish armaments workers are rounded up for shipment to Auschwitz.

"An estimated 2,000,000 Jews are killed by the beginning of 1943.

"Hitler receives a gift of a dog to try to cheer him up after the USSR defeat. The dog is named Blondie.

"The German mathematician D. Hubert, founder of modern math, dies.

"Allies start bombing Germany around the clock; Germany bombs London in retaliation."

The last one makes one question the author's knowledge and loyalties, perhaps both; Battle of Britain and London Blitz preceded all but invasion of Poland and of much of western Europe, but it definitely did happen before Germany invaded Russia in 1942, even the decision to invade Russia which was in 1941. Bombing of London was certainly not a reaction or retaliation to any allied action.

For that matter, the preceding statement isn't certain as to veracity thereof. The said D. Hubert might have been a well known mathematician of his time in Germany, but is far from founder of modern mathematics; his name doesn't ring a bell with a mathematician whose field is not history of German mathematics.

Unless the author, completely unfamiliar with mathematics, mixed up names? The person of stature he mentions is not D. Hubert who was American, but the description fits David Hilbert - someone known to anyone even at the beginning of serious mathematics - amongst other great mathematicians.

................................................................................................

"Joseph Göbbels was fast approaching his goal of turning Berlin into a Judenfrei (Jew Free) area. To finally achieve his goal, he launched his Gestapo to raid the factories and round up all the privileged Jews left in Berlin, most of whom worked in the arms factories. They were Jews that had been deemed necessary for the war cause; most were married to gentiles. The Gestapo forcibly collected them, leaving, for the most part, their German spouses and mixed-ancestry children alone. These Jews were taken to a collection place at a downtown administration building at Rosenstraße 2-4 and held for processing for their one-way trip to Auschwitz. Soon, their non-Jewish wives showed up bringing food, clothing, and blankets for their Jewish husbands inside. The crowd grew in the first few days to about 600 wives, who began shouting, “Let our husbands go.”

"The Nazis’ extermination of the Jewish people had so far been kept behind doors closed to the German people at large, as well as to the world. Berlin was a very liberal city in Germany, having always had a dislike for the Nazis as a whole. The international news organizations were based in Berlin, so the Nazis were shy about their brutal acts being publicly known to the world. The Nazis also did not believe that women were capable of political action. They were caught in a dilemma, as they could not use force against these women without looking extremely hypocritical. Soon, ordinary German citizens started joining the women, swelling the crowd to over a thousand, all taunting the Gestapo and the SS.

"Finally, Göbbels saw he had no other choice than to release the men and to have 35 men who had already been sent to Auschwitz earlier that day returned. That day, about 1,700 men in Berlin and more throughout Europe were released, as the Nazis adopted a hands-off policy toward Mischlinge (intermarried) Jews."

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Julius wasn't home as Hank woke up on March 4, 1943; he heard someone outside shouting about nazis and Gestapo coming to round up everyone Jewish. Therese's friend and boss, Mrs Mueller came by and quietly told them that Julius had been sent to Auschwitz. Therese had the boys dressed in new clothes Julius had made them, so there would be no sign of a star removed, for going into hiding, and they could only think of Gertrude, the midwife. They escaped at back as nazis entered the building.

Gertrude was happy they'd escaped, when Therese called from a phone at the train station, and asked them to come to Spandau using three different routes. She met them and they walked to her forest cabin. The area was meant for vacation homes of Nazi officers. The boys were coached to say their father was an army officer serving in East, and since they couldn't risk school because showering with other boys must be avoided, they instead pretended to go with satchel but veered off into woods and spent time collecting mushrooms, necessary staple.

They lived there until it was too cold and people were returning to homes in Berlin, and Gertrude told them to have her sister Traute help them. Traute was a photographer for SS and was now photographing those dead in bombing, and helped by finding the three of them new identities.

................................................................................................

"Conditions at Auschwitz become known to the public, due to escapees.

"438,000 Hungarians and 500 Greek Jews are deported to Auschwitz.

"40,000 Polish children are kidnapped for slave labor.

"At the start of the year, the Jewish death toll reaches 3,000,000. At least three known assassination attempts on Hitler occur.

"In what is known as the Big Week, the US Air Force steps up its bombing in Germany, targeting aircraft production.

"20,000 Gypsies are sent to Auschwitz. 400,000 Allied soldiers land on Normandy beaches.

"Germany launches the first-ever missile in a battle, with only limited success.

"Nazis raid a house in Amsterdam and arrest Anne Frank; she later dies, just before her camp is liberated.

"Hitler orders Paris destroyed: “Turn it into a smoldering ruin.”

"Prisoners riot and blow up a crematorium and a gas chamber at Auschwitz.

"Himmler orders the destruction of Auschwitz and Birkenau crematoriums in hopes of hiding what has really gone on there from the advancing Allies."

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The Tauchers, helped by Gertrude and Traute, changed from one place of hiding to another, until in final months of war they had to find shelter in underground stations where most Berliners did too, due to bombings - but there the danger was nazis checking on identity cards. Traute had to already providethem with another set, after a boy in school saw the brothers in showers and noticed they were circumcised, but wasn't aware of the significance. Therese made sure they weren't often out together, since being caught and interrogated by Gestapo as a group was far more dangerous what with their techniques of separate interrogation.

................................................................................................

"In January 1945, the Soviets liberate Auschwitz: over 1 million had died there.

"German fighter plane and tank production is reduced.

"Romania and Hungry surrender.

"Warsaw falls to the Soviets.

"The Allied military, the Soviets, and the Red Cross liberate many camps by the end of January.

"The salt mines are discovered, stuffed with loot the Nazis had pilfered.

"Jews are massacred by the fleeing SS.

"American heavy bombers strike Dresden, leaving 135,000 dead.

"Kurt Vonnegut will later write Slaughterhouse Five, based on his experiences as a war prisoner in Dresden.

"Peru, Chile, Syria, and Egypt declare war on Germany.

"On March 18, a total of 1,600 US air bombers attack Berlin in one night.

"On April 22, Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp was liberated by the Soviet Troops."

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Fred was caught on the trolley one day in March 1945 by nazis and taken for interrogation, beaten, tortured and finally packed onto a cattle car which was Nazi way of transporting people to death camps. The train went slow for several days, stopped outside Sachsenhausen, still locked, while they watched nazis take camp inmates into woods, shoot, return and repeat. Soviet POWs on the train took care of Fred, even after the door was unlatched from outside - they had him down safe, and all ran into woods, where hitler youth were being trained. They overpowered them, took their rifles and having found their food, fed Fred. This was April 19, 1945.

At night, though, they vanished after changing into SS uniforms, being determined to fight. Fred was overcome and cried, but then copied their example and changed into a Hitler youth uniform and went out on road. He was given a lift by an SS car, and they went to Berlin, luckily for him. He vanished quietly when the car stopped and proceeded to the Anhalter Bahnhof, the station Therese had set for rendezvous if they were to find one another. They did find one another, and then on only Therese ventured out to find food when it was extreme need, but between bombing and hand to hand fighting, Berlin suffered shortage of food along with the desperate battle where nazis killed everyone they suspected even as Russian tanks and artillery battled them in streets.

"Finally, on May 2, the Reich Chancellery surrendered the city of Berlin to Marshall Zhukov of the Soviet Army. The document was signed by General Weidling, commander of German troops in Berlin. This was far from the end of the fighting here or elsewhere, where fighting officially continued. In Berlin, things might have actually gotten worse, although the Allies did halt their bombing of the city. In many areas the fighting just continued as if nothing had happened. In most areas, mass confusion ruled. The Nazis’ POWs and slave laborers were set loose. A common ruse involved Nazis putting on Soviet uniforms, while others put on civilian clothing, some complete with a Jewish star. Everywhere, false Jews emerged among the few who had actually survived."

................................................................................................

"Since 1941, Nazi forces had laid to waste numerous tracts of land and cities in Russia. More than 20 million Russian military and civilians were dead. There were fears of retaliation, and the masses of both sides were close to starvation. The “Big City” had finally fallen. It was no longer the political, economic, and communication center and power base of the Nazis’ Reich."

Therese went out to get water on 4th of May and that was the last the boys saw of her.

"While the boys waited, they tried to stay optimistic, their eyes roaming the very confused scene. They were surrounded by ordinary Germans, many wounded, many sick, with deserters from each side, wounded Nazis and healthy ones. There were also a large number of Nazi command and defensive forces hidden behind sandbag command posts, ready to fight to their end. Many wondered if the remaining gasoline might be used to seal the fate of them all, in a cowardly final act by the Nazis."

The boys survived the tunnel being flooded and exit locked by nazis, emerged out in street in Berlin to return to where they hoped their mother would find them. But her fate remained uncertain, from being taken prisoner by Russians to being killed by nazis.

"They chose to believe that most likely Therese was killed in crossfire."

................................................................................................


They sought out Gertrude, who immediately took them in lovingly. While with her, they talked to one another about their loss of parents, their grief and their having only one another at 13 and 12.

"The four of them living together was like nothing the boys had ever experienced, for Gertrude and Traute were wealthy and spared no expense, trying their best to be surrogates for all that the boys were wanting. Hank and Fred were reminded of the simple joys of a lost childhood—freshly baked cookies and other favorite sweets, quiet walks without the need to worry—and slowly the ability to laugh aloud returned.

"Some of the Soviet soldiers, who Fred and Hank had amazed by their very existence, a result of somehow surviving all those years in Berlin as Jews, had become friends. And because of Fred and Hank’s help in getting them around in the city, they had procured for the boys, from the Soviets’ Berlin HQs, written documents which allowed them free, safe travel around Berlin.

They went to look for the American headquarters. They had to wait before someone able to understand German was available, and they waited.

"It just so happened that after a short time, an American army truck came along, and the one soldier in it overheard the confused situation. He put on a big smile and asked the boys “Sind wir Jüdisch?” Are we Jewish? After so many years of fear of their identity being known, the boys hesitated before realizing that the Americans were really the good guys. They admitted that they were Jewish and that their father had been born in the State of Manhattan. This got a big laugh from the soldier and the gate guard, which really puzzled the boys. The soldier, who was a Jewish American, explained to the boys that Manhattan was not a state but a part of New York City, which was in the state of New York."

................................................................................................

In August 1946, finally, they managed to get visas to U.S., although Gertrude really wanted them to stay with her, and arrived after sailing in September from Bremerhaven. They found cousins who were surprised at the survivors and wanted to have them live with them, which was finally played after they got an aunt from Israel to come live with them. 

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February 20, 2020 - February 23, 2020.

ISBN: 9781598499033
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I Shall Set You Free! A Tale Of Auschwitz; by Matthew Manning.

The introduction is as honest as it's disappointing.

"Dear Reader,

"I feel the need to apologize up front for the crudity of this tale. You see, I am a pizza delivery driver by trade and a science major still yet to graduate. English, or rather literature, had never been my focus. I feel that I have taken what could be an amazing and thought provoking plot, and put it to paper through a mediocre hand."

So after the tremendous, mindboggling Silence Of God, this is a novel One is setting forth to read, by a college undergraduate, because Amazon suggests such titles for readers amongst the various memoirs of holocaust!

................................................................................................

It seems to be a book published as it was originally typed, without any effort to make it look like a book - the chapters aren't even separated by new pages, chapter headings or even a bold font, just a normal font giving numbers. Doesn't make for an easy experience. And the amateurish youth character shows in writing.

"“It seems you have a solid and refined cottage here, unlike the roughshod dwellings fit for swine that infest the area! Likely built by the Prussians before this land was taken from us by lesser folk, if only for a short span. Hardly can I believe that such a dwelling were built by the oafs and bumbling fools that now inhabit expanses lost through intrigue. Land that was once part of Germania and bright with prosperity. It has become a stinking mess of offal. That aside, it is an honor to see you in such appropriate lodgings, thanks be to our generous Leader! I am sure the previous owners now inhabit a household more fitting their stature.”"

And while it's obvious that intentions behind writing this were laudable, the amateur writing and imperfect punctuation, added to the extravagant verbiage, belongs to schoolwork, not for publishing unleashed on unsuspecting readers. 

................................................................................................


Fortunately the torture is short, just about eight pages including the epilogue, which is the only part not awfully badly written. Just a tad.

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February 20, 2020 - February 20, 2020.
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The Silence of GOD: A true account by The People of the Holocaust

The work is a compilation, from various first hand accounts, of the events related to holocaust and in particular to Poland, especially Warsaw.

As such, it's a reading harder than most memoirs, since the events, emotions, horror and more, are here in the most skeletal forms. These accounts were recorded by those eyewitnessing the whole thing, and are a raw level of horror that belongs to life, court testimonies and documentations.

These documentspations were done consciously by those suffering, undergoing and witnessing the events they wrote about, as they became aware of their being cut off from the world, which was done deliberately by the invader occupying Germans; if foùnd, the diaries and other writings were destroyed.

So these people went to great lengths to collect and preserve these accounts, by burying them, and survivors who knew about it recovered some after the war.

As such, there is very little in nature of commentary, and the end is quite abrupt. It's not just historic and realistic, it's reality of holocaust.
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The preface begins with a hearbreaking address to the reader by a holocaust survivor, and goes on to give details of the horror, before saying something about the identity of the person:-

"... The book about the is Jankiel Wiernik. He was held prisoner there for a full year. Together with others, he organized a successful uprising there, set fire to and destroyed the camp, killed the German and Ukrainian jailers and escaped with a large group of other Treblinka victims."

"Wiernik was deported to Treblinka on August 23, 1942 and there was assigned to the brigade handling the corpses of the murdered Jews. He participated in the revolt of the camp prisoners on August 2, 1943 and managed to escape. He got in touch with his friends in Warsaw and was provided a temporary shelter in the woods where he wrote down his ghastly reminiscences."

................................................................................................

Quoted from the preface, the said details of the horror:-

"It was in Warsaw, August 23. We could hear firing going on and suddenly the voice of a German policeman calling: "Alle raus!" I was in the home of a neighbor. We were all forced to go into the street where many other Jews, men and women of all ages and children were already gathered. Scharfuehrer Franz with a sadistic smile on his face and his dog, Bary, at his feet, was already busy sorting out people, one here, one there. I'll never forget his face. I was standing in line opposite my own house in Wolyriska Street.

"Around us were German and Ukrainian guards, already dividing and quarreling over loot taken from Jewish homes. We were ordered to proceed to Zamenhofa Street while German photographers photographed the scene. None of us realized where we were being sent. When we came to the station, there were empty wagons waiting. We were ordered to enter them, eighty in each. I had left all my things at home, all I had on was trousers, shirt and slippers. The doors were slammed, and then we realized that there was no return.

"We left Warsaw that day and under most terrible conditions we came to Malkinia. Here Ukrainians entered, demanding that we should surrender everything to save our lives. Many gave rings and all other articles they had, I had nothing to give. In the morning, the train went on and we came to Treblinka.

"When I arrived at the camp, three gas chambers were already in operation; another ten were added while I was there. A gas chamber measured 5 x 5 meters and was about 1.90 meters high. The outlet on the roof had a hermetic cap. The chamber was equipped with a gas pipe inlet and a baked tile floor slanting towards the platform. The brick building which housed the gas chambers was separated from Camp No. 1 by a wooden wall. This wooden wall and the brick wall of the building together formed a corridor which was 80 centimeters taller than the building. The chambers were connected with the corridor by a hermetically fitted iron door leading into each of the chambers. On the side of Camp No. 2, the chambers were connected by a platform four meters wide, which-ran alongside all three chambers. The platform was about 80 centimeters above ground level. There was also a hermetically fitted wooden door on this side.

"Each chamber had a door facing Camp No. 2 (1.80 by 2.50 meters), which could be opened only from the outside by lifting it with iron supports and was closed by iron hooks set into the sash frames, and by wooden bolts. The victims were led into the chambers through the doors leading from the corridor, while the remains of the gassed victims were dragged out through the doors facing Camp No. 2. The power plant operated alongside these chambers, supplying Camps 1 and 2 with electric current. A motor taken from a dismantled Soviet tank stood in the power plant. This motor was used to pump the gas, which was let into the chambers by connecting the motor with the inflow pipes. The speed with which death overcame the helpless victims depended on the quantity of combustion gas admitted into the chamber at one time."

"The machinery of the gas chambers was operated by two Ukrainians. One of them, Ivan, was tall, and though his eyes seemed kind and gentle, he was a sadist. He enjoyed torturing his victims. He would often pounce upon us while we were working; he would nail our ears to the walls or make us lie down on the floor and whip us brutally. While he did this, his face showed sadistic satisfaction and he laughed and joked. He finished off the victims according to his mood at the moment. The other Ukrainian was called Nicholas. He had a pale face and the same mentality as Ivan.

"The day I first saw men, women and children being led into the house of death I almost went insane. I tore at my hair and shed bitter tears of despair. I suffered most when I looked at the children, accompanied by their mothers or walking alone, entirely ignorant of the fact that within a few minutes their lives would be snuffed out amidst horrible tortures. Their eyes glittered with fear and still more, perhaps, with amazement. It seemed as if the question, "What is this? What's it all about?" was frozen on their lips. But seeing the stony expressions on the faces of their elders, they matched their behavior to the occasion. They either stood motionless or pressed tightly against each other or against their parents, and tensely awaited their horrible end.

"Suddenly, the entrance door flew open and out came Ivan, holding a heavy gas pipe, and Nicholas, brandishing a saber. At a given signal, they would begin admitting the victims, beating them savagely as they moved into the chamber. The screams of the women, the weeping of the children, cries of despair and misery, the pleas for mercy, for God's vengeance ring in my ears to this day, making it impossible for me to forget the misery I saw.

"Between 450 and 500 persons were crowded into a chamber measuring 25 square meters. Parents carried their children in their arms in the vain hope that this would save their children from death. On the way to their doom, they were pushed and beaten with rifle butts and with Ivan's gas pipe. Dogs were set upon them, barking, biting and tearing at them. To escape the blows and the dogs, the crowd rushed to its death, pushing into the chamber, the stronger ones shoving the weaker ones ahead of them. The bedlam lasted only a short while, for soon the doors were slammed shut. The chamber was filled, the motor turned on and connected with the inflow pipes and, within 25 minutes at the most, all lay stretched out dead or, to be more accurate, were standing up dead. Since there was not an inch of free space, they just leaned against each other."

"A pack of dogs, along with Germans and Ukrainians, had been let loose on us. Almost one-fourth of the workers was killed. The rest of us tossed their bodies into the ditches without further ado. Fortunately for me, when the Hauptmann left, the Unterscharfuhrer relieved me from this work.

"Between ten and twelve thousand people were gassed each day. We built a narrow-gauge track and drove the corpses to the ditches on the rolling platform.

"While I was working in Camp No. 1, many transports arrived. Each time a new transport came, the women and children were herded into the barracks at once, while the men were kept in the yard. The men were ordered to undress, while the women, naively anticipating a chance to take a shower, unpacked towels and soap. The brutal guards, however, shouted orders for quiet, and kicked and dealt out blows. The children cried, while the grown-ups moaned and screamed. This made things even worse; the whipping only became crueler.

"The women and girls were then taken to the "barber shop" to have their hair clipped. By now they felt sure that they would be taken to have a shower. Then they were escorted, through another exit, to Camp No. 2 where, in freezing weather, they had to stand in the nude, waiting their turn to enter the gas chamber, which had not yet been cleared of the last batch of victims.

"All through that winter, small children, stark naked and barefooted, had to stand out in the open for hours on end, awaiting their turn in the increasingly busy gas chambers. The soles of their feet froze and stuck to the icy ground. They stood and cried; some of them froze to death. In the meantime, Germans and Ukrainians walked up and down the ranks, beating and kicking the victims.

"Often people were kept in the gas chambers overnight with the motor not turned on at all. Overcrowding and lack of air killed many of them in a very painful way. However, many survived the ordeal of such nights; particularly the children showed a remarkable degree of resistance. They were still alive when they were dragged out of the chambers in the morning, but revolvers used by the Germans made short work of them...."

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The introduction clarifies further about this work.

"Before World War II, Warsaw was the home of the largest Jewish community in Europe and the center of Jewish cultural, social and political life in Poland. It was a source of renewal and revival not only for Polish Jewry but for Jewry the world over. In 1939, this gigantic reservoir of Jewish strength was occupied by the Nazis. They created in Warsaw the largest ghetto in history. Into its overcrowded area, they jammed the three hundred fifty thousand Jews of Warsaw and thousands of Jewish expellees and refugees from various Polish provinces, and even from Western and Central Europe, until the Warsaw ghetto overflowed with more than five hundred thousand inhabitants.

"The story of the Warsaw ghetto is, therefore, more than a mere local phenomenon. In its sufferings and its desperate struggle, almost all the important features of Nazi anti-Jewish policy are reflected. To study the stirring accounts of the Warsaw ghetto is to become acquainted with the horrible mechanism of totalitarian methods of degradation, de-humanization, depersonalization and, in the last stage, with the "techniques" of genocide.

"Moreover, the Jewish revolt in Warsaw is almost unique in its historical significance. Probably, it had no more military effect on the course of the war against the Germans than did the heroic resistance of the three hundred Spartans at Thermopylae in halting the march of the Persian hordes into Greece. But both events had a deep moral impact. Both testify that, in the final test, moral factors prove stronger than brute force and terror."

"More than ever the world needs a warning reminder of the ruthless and coldly calculated crimes, including genocide, of which the totalitarian regimes are capable. Whatever their color—black or brown, red or white —they inevitably bring havoc and destruction when they run rampant in our troubled, twisted world and when they are unchecked by the vigorous will of free men.

"This anthology—which depicts the Warsaw Jewish community from the beginning of World War II to the liberation of Warsaw (1939-45)—is not composed, as is usually the case, of selected essays or excerpts from monographs. All secondary accounts have been eliminated, as well as scholarly or literary elaborations upon the momentous experience of the Warsaw Jews. It is, rather, based on original sources, records of human sufferings, as well as documents of revolt against slavery and oppression. Here the reader will find eye-witness accounts, memoirs, diaries, minutes and protocols, official reports and battle bulletins, statements, proclamations, ordinances, letters, contemporary folksongs and poetry, and children's songs and stories. Thus, the editor has tried to plunge the reader directly into the day-by-day life and strife of the ghetto, into the whirlpool of feelings and emotions, into the maze of various, sometimes contradictory, currents and problems which moved and stirred the inhabitants of the ghetto."

"Most of the texts used in this book were not available in English and were translated from the Polish, Yiddish, German and French originals by Dr. David Chazen. Wherever original English texts or printed translations had been used the genuine style and other linguistic particularities of the pertinent source material have been left unchanged."

................................................................................................

................................................................................................


"September 1939

"... The Germans come to a Jewish family and rob it of virtually all its belongings. They take away pictures, rugs, furniture, shoes, etc. The mother begs them to leave the little bed for her child. The answer is that a Jewish child does not need a bed. German soldiers visit Dr. Brokman's home, and steal. They express their surprise that there are so few shirts. He tells them that he is not a wealthy man. "Yes," confirms the German, "with honesty you cannot get rich," and he steals some more. A music teacher is paid a visit by two German soldiers who pick up the piano. They order her to play for them. The teacher starts to play Beethoven. The Germans get sentimental; every German has a feeling for music. One of them is even ready to leave the piano, but the other gets angry: "These Jews even have a Bechstein piano! Aren't they indeed vicious people?" And the piano disappears from the apartment. The libraries of the Jewish doctors are being requisitioned. The physicians and scholars of the gentlemanly nation are not bashful about using Jewish books. A young German officer-physician appears in the home of Dr. Srebrny, the well-known old laryngologist and grabs his library. Dr. Srebrny had published many works, some in German. At the moment one of his works, written in German, is lying on his desk. The following conversation takes place between them: "Is this your work?" asks the German doctor. "Yes, I wrote it at a time when science was still respected by the Germans." "But now times have changed," says the German, "didn't you ever hear how the Roman soldier killed Archimedes?" And now Dr. Srebrny gives the reply that should burn every German with the flame of shame: "Yes, but the name of Archimedes is known to you, to me, and to others, while nobody knows the name of the Roman soldier."

"... Jews are not allowed to have more than two-thousand zlotys in cash. During a search of the home of a Jewish lawyer it turned out that the searching officer and his victim had formerly been university colleagues. A conversation ensues and memories are refreshed. Soon they indulge in common reminiscences of past years of adolescence. Then suddenly the German asks: "How much money do you have?" The lawyer, still inhaling the balmy air of his past youth, tells the truth. He has a few thousands. To this his colleague replies: "Then give me half of it."

"(Hirszfeld, pp. 185-186)"

................................................................................................

"... Despite the wishes of its members, the Judenrat was forced to become an instrument of anti-Jewish policy of the authorities. The blows of the Nazis were struck at the Jews through the Judenrat, which acted as the involuntary agent of the occupation in the Jewish community.

"(Goldstein, pp. 35-36)"

................................................................................................


"Although there were no newspapers and no radio, the news of the menace of the Ghetto spread like lightning among the Jewish population and stirred up a terrible commotion among them. Thousands of people gathered in front of the Community Council building...

"... In the course of the day the panic among the crowds of Jews gathered in the streets reached such a point that it was feared they would demolish the whole building. Then the representative of the workers, Zygelboim, undertook a hazardous step. He offered to address the crowds, along with Dr. Szoszkes, and to try to calm them down. After Dr. Szoszkes had informed the crowd about the situation, the representative of the workers stood up in the middle of the street and harangued the more than ten thousand Jews gathered there with words of comfort and hope. He appealed to their sense of dignity, called on them to stay in their homes until they were driven out by force, and pleaded that nobody go into the ghetto voluntarily..."

"(Zygelboim, pp. 131-135)"

................................................................................................

"The first Nazi blackmail affair

"... Then occurred the affair of Number 9, Nalewki Street.

"A convict who had been released at the beginning of the hostilities lived there. On a Thursday evening toward the end of November, this robber had decided to "do a job" with two of his cronies. Interrupted by two Polish policemen, the burglars took to their heels and sought refuge in the courtyard of number nine. The police followed, and presently shots rang out. One of the policemen slumped to the ground, fatally shot, while the desperados made good their escape.

"Immediately, the Gestapo imposed a fine of three million zlotys on the Jewish Community, payable the following Saturday night... The next day, at eleven o'clock in the morning, a car drew up at the door of Number 9, Nalewki Street, and all the men and boys in the house were taken away. No distinction was made between permanent residents and casual visitors. Fifty-three persons were removed, including young boys twelve and thirteen years old.

"... Eight days later news was received that all fifty-three had been shot on the day of their arrest, the pretext being that they had not assisted the police in apprehending the burglars. This was also the explanation subsequently published in the Nowy Kurjer Warszawski (New Warsaw Courier).

"(A. Weiss, pp. 485-487)"

................................................................................................


"The Divide and Rule policy in operation: hooligans attack, while the German wire-pullers watch and smile. Early in April 1940, just before the Easter Holiday, a Polish hooligan attacked an old religious Jew on a Praga [suburb of Warsaw] street and began to tear out his beard and side locks. Comrade Friedman, a husky, well-built slaughterhouse worker, happened by. He came to the defense of the helpless old man and gave the Pole a thorough beating. A crowd gathered quickly, and a street battle broke out between Jews and Poles. German police arrested Friedman and shot him the following day. The Jews of Praga waited in terror for the consequences of Friedman's boldness. But the pogrom that followed had obviously been organized long before this incident. Groups of hooligans, mostly youths, stormed through the Jewish sections of Warsaw.

"They charged down the streets shouting, "Beat the Jews! Kill the Jews!" They broke into Jewish homes and stores, smashed furniture, seized valuables, and beat the occupants...

"... The Germans did not intervene. They neither helped nor hindered the pogromists. We saw many smiling German cameramen recording the scenes with relish. We later learned that the pictures appeared in German magazines. They were also shown in movie theatres as graphic evidence that the Poles were winning their freedom from Jewish domination..."
................................................................................................


"(From an affidavit by a refugee, Dr. S.S. dated May 12, 1940, in Jerusalem).

"The Passover pogrom continued about eight days. It began suddenly and stopped as suddenly. The pogrom was carried out by a crowd of youths, about one thousand of them, who arrived suddenly in the Warsaw streets. Such types have never before been seen in the Warsaw streets. Clearly these were young ruffians specially brought from the suburbs. From the characteristic scenes of the pogrom I mention here a few:

"On the second day of Passover, at the corner of Wspolna and Marszalkowska Streets about thirty or forty broke into and looted Jewish hat shops. German soldiers stood in the streets and filmed the scenes.

"... The Polish youngsters acted alone, but there have been instances when such bands attacked the Jews with the assistance of German military. The attitude of the Polish intellectuals toward the Jews was clearly a friendly one, and against the pogrom. It is a known fact that at the corner of Nowogrodzka street and Marszalkowska a Catholic priest attacked the youngsters participating in the pogrom, beat them and disappeared. These youngsters received two zlotys daily from the Germans.

"(Black Book, pp. 30-31)

................................................................................................

"October 31 was set as the deadline for the complete exchange of populations."

Jews were supposed to move into ghetto, but the boundaries kept moving, and often Jews lost everything because of that. Also, they weren't supposed to use the word 'ghetto.

".. The walls on the Rymarska which had been built before were now made even higher. They make the impression of real prison walls. "They intend to bury us alive"—these words characterize the mood of the Jews..."

During last week of October 1940, six hundred thousand people moved due to orders about Jews moving to ghetto; on November 15, they found the ghetto enclosed in barbed wire, with guards posted across, so Jews couldn't go out to work.

"On February 12, 1941, seventeen people previously sentenced to death for illegal trespassing in the "Aryan section" lost their lives. The execution took place in the Jewish jail on Gesia Street.

"At four A.M., shrill cries notified the neighborhood that "justice" was being meted out, that seventeen outcasts, including four children and three women, were being duly punished for leaving the ghetto in pursuit of a piece of bread or a few pennies. Cries from other jail cells could also be heard, the voices of future victims awaiting trial for the same offense, a total of seven hundred people. The same afternoon the entire Jewish population was notified of the execution by special posters sighed by the German Commissar of the ghetto, Dr. Auerswald...

"... In mid-May 1942, 110 prisoners of the so-called Central Jail (Gesiowka), arrested for illegal crossing to the "Aryan side," were executed. One of our comrades (Grylak) saw the prisoners being led out of the jail and into special trucks. Almost all of them walked meekly into the cars, when suddenly one woman found courage to protest. From the steps of the truck she shouted: "I shall die, but your death will be much worse." Special proclamations signed by Dr. Auerswald informed the ghetto of the "just" punishment received by the 110 "criminals."

"(Edelman, pp. 4, 12-17)"

................................................................................................

Fraudulent propaganda was furthered by films taken by Germans where either Germans pretended to be Jews or Jews were forced to do things they wouldn't.

"Goebbels' propaganda machine at work.

"A secret report submitted by a Polish underground reporter (undercover name: Lilka) to the Polish underground authorities reveals the German methods of manufacturing propaganda lies.

"Report from the Jewish Section in Warsaw—LILKA,"

"May 19, 1942.

"... The second abominable action carried out by the Germans in the Jewish section during the last few weeks was the activity of the so-called Propaganda Section, Warsaw District. This institution sent to the Jewish section a special movie team which is taking pictures for a "cultural" film now in preparation. Besides technical workers from the film industry, experts on "Jewish life" also participate; they are staging and directing the various scenes. It is rather difficult, based on these individual scenes, to find out exactly what the picture in its entirely may represent. But what we have already seen speaks for itself. This film seems to be designed to represent all the bad features of the Jews as "sub humans." In order to give prominence to these features, the directors are resorting to experiments which are revolting and repulsive to any unbiased observer.

"After photographing scenes of misery in the streets, beggars etc., special scenes are set-up in which German actors, made-up like Jews, play their parts. Moreover, Jewish people, seized at random in the streets, are forced to participate.

"Thus, when a picture of a ritual bathing-establishment, the so-called mikva, was to be taken, fifty people were seized in Gesia Street and transported to a real mikva located in Zamenhofa Street. There all these people were ordered to undress completely and they were driven, both men and women, into a pool, so that pictures might be taken. (As I learned later from persons versed in these matters, Jews are allowed to bathe in such ritual bathing establishments, i.e. in pools with running water, but only men and women separately).

"A few days later the same film team arrived in the so-called "refugee" centers, which accommodate Jews driven out from the towns in which the ghettos had been liquidated. There unimaginably pornographic pictures were taken. Old, bearded Jews were ordered at pistol point to commit lascivious acts with children, with young girls, etc.

"On Sunday, the 17th of this month, the movie people filmed the ceremony of circumcision of a Jewish infant.

"(IPN Archives, Lilka, p. 2)"

................................................................................................


Jews from Berlin, Prague and western Poland were ordered to go to Warsaw, but the ghetto lacked the most primitive necessities.

"Some of the men allegedly go to work, but they are not able to maintain a family. They get, it is true, a bowl of soup in order to prevent them from fainting during their work. But their families belong to the large category of unemployed and consequently are considered parasites by the Herrenvolk...

"Here, unfortunately, nothing can stall the avalanche of death any longer...

"(Hirszfeld, pp. 237-238}

"In January [1942], 9,030 persons stayed in the "refugee" centers; 715 of them died. The mortality in one such "center," which accommodated 2,500 persons, was 17.5% a month.

"(Underground report of March 23, 1942, IPN Archives)"

................................................................................................


"Prices of food and transportation soaring high. The rikshas of the ghetto.

"October 1941"

Carriages pulled by men emerged in the ghetto, because it was cheaper to maintain men instead of horses.

"In the Warsaw ghetto a loaf of bread costs from 60 to 100 zlotys (before the war one dollar was worth five zlotys), a pound of potatoes from 30 to 40 zlotys, a pound of butter, 250 zlotys. Outside the ghetto a loaf of bread costs from 12 to 15 zlotys, a pound of potatoes from 3 to 4 zlotys, and a pound of butter 120 zlotys.

"(Report from the underground Bund, August 31, 1942 quoted in In di Yorn, p. 30)"

"Many were shot for smuggling food."

................................................................................................

"Six-year-old boys crawled through the barbed wire under the very eyes of the gendarmes in order to obtain food on the other side. They supported entire families in this manner. Often a lone shot in the vicinity of the barbed wire told the casual passersby that another little smuggler had died in his fight with omnipotent hunger.

"(Edelman, p. 6)"

................................................................................................


"Altogether 44,000 persons died in the Warsaw ghetto in 1941, which means about 10% of the whole Jewish population of the ghetto. (To provide a clearer contrast we note that the rate of mortality among Jews in Warsaw before the war amounted to about 1.5% yearly.)

"(Polish underground report, IPN Archives)"

................................................................................................

"For the purpose of better understanding by the layman, I note that the quantity of food needed for an adult person is 3,000 calories daily. The facts were that the employees of the Community Council, who represented the most aristocratic class of the population, consumed 1,500 calories daily, or half of the necessary quantity of food. Other strata, such as members of liberal professions, workers, craftsmen, etc. consumed less than 1,000 calories.

"And how about the refugees? They got only 300 calories. What wonder then that you met in the streets crowds of beggars bloated from hunger?...

"(Hirszfeld, pp. 231-232)"

................................................................................................


"And, not infrequently, an important post was occupied by a convert. For instance, the chief of the Jewish police, or, as the Germans called it, the Public Safety Service (Ordnungsdienst), was the convert and violent anti-Semite, Colonel Szeryriski, a former Polish police inspector.

"(Turkow, pp. 47-49)"

................................................................................................

"The Nazi "moral revolution" which, both in Germany and later in the German-occupied countries, brought the most corrupt and abject elements to posts of command, had its counterpart in the ghetto. In the conditions of great confusion, under direct German intervention or pressure, the most vile and ignoble elements in the Jewish population tried to gain control of the ghetto, to override the legitimate Jewish institutions and to spread a terror regime of their own in the ghetto. Sometimes these tools of German policy were liquidated by the Germans themselves after they fulfilled their "mission." But mostly they were disposed of by the Jewish organizations after the first shock was over and the Jewish political organizations began to recover from the terrible blows of the Germans. As soon as they regained control of the ghetto the Jewish organizations meted out the just punishment to traitors and collaborators and eliminated them from Jewish society."

................................................................................................


"The "Thirteen" was the name of an institution which came into existence in Warsaw in 1940. Its seat was at 13 Leszno Street, whence its name. At the head of the institution was Gancwajch, a Jew who had previously been a Zionist. He had lived in Czestochowa, Radomsko and Lodz and before the war was very active in the anti-fascist movement organized by Irena Harand. An intellectual himself, a journalist by profession, he brought up his son in a spirit of Jewish nationalism.

"In 1933, this man became an agent of the Gestapo. In the ghetto, he opened an office supposedly for fighting profiteers and keeping the ghetto clean. To his work, he attracted many serious-minded people from the Jewish intelligentsia, writers, journalists, artists of the stage and others. In the ghetto, he delivered lectures on social justice. He has mastered perfectly the Hebrew language, sends his child to the Hebrew school Dror... and... every week sends a report to the Gestapo. We have unmasked the villain.

"I am not asserting that the members of the Judenrat were of the same ilk as Gancwajch. But he had hundreds of confidants in the Judenrat. Czerniakow was surrounded by agents of Gancwajch and the police captains were all his men.

"Gancwajch did all in his power to keep tabs on us...

"(Cukierman, in Nasze Slowo)"

................................................................................................

"The Jewish Fighting Organization was set on the liquidation of all Jewish Gestapo men and traitors. After the attempt on the life of the police chief Szerynski, which was carried out by Israel Kanal, the same fate awaited other scoundrels. Fuerst, of the Judenrat, was killed for his collaboration with the Germans. Hirschl, a Jew from Danzig and the main assistant of the "shop" owner Hallman, was shot for doing the Jews great harm. The employees in the "Emergency Aid" of the "Thirteen," the boxer Fred Bobby and the Gestapo agent Edek Ast were shot in the street, in bright day light. Dr. Alfred Nossig met his well-deserved death, as did the successor of Szeryriski, the "little Napoleon" Leikin. During an entertainment given by the brush-makers, a group of armed members of the Jewish Fighting Organization suddenly broke into the place and carried out the death sentence against the Gestapo men, the two brothers Weintraub (from Lodz) and Lolek Skosowski, who had come especially for the entertainment from the "Aryan" side. Skosowski, however, although hit by many bullets, survived. The Germans sent a special ambulance to take him to the "Aryan" side, and there they put him into the Omega hospital.

"After he recovered from his wounds he became again "active" on the "Aryan" side.

"The Jewish Fighting Organization further carried out an attempt on the life of Fuerstenberg, the last commander of the Umschlagplatz as well as on Szmerling. Like Szerynski, Szmerling was only wounded. The former was later shot by the Germans in recognition of his devoted service, the latter committed suicide later. The successor of Szeryriski and Leikin as chief of the Jewish police was the lawyer Pizyc, from Lodz.

"The informer "Ele Malpe" (the monkey), who was a porter before the war, was the terror of the Jews in Schultz's shop, where he was "working"; he also was shot by the Jewish Fighting Organization..."

................................................................................................


" ... the converts were better off than the rest of the ghetto populace. ... When the extermination began, they shared the doom of the rest of the ghetto population."
................................................................................................


"The trend to conversion has also been noted by the Jewish historian E. Ringelblum and others and was explained in this way: (1) the food situation of the converts was generally better since they were taken care of by the powerful Catholic welfare organization Caritas, (2) the well-to-do converts used to help their co-religionists, (3) they were favored in the Jewish Community Council, in the Jewish police and other institutions; the converts also hoped to get more assistance and sympathy from the Polish population in crucial situations than the Jews.

"(cf. Ringelblum, Notes, p. 172 and passim)."

................................................................................................

"June 30, 1942

"For many, many months we endured the most terrible sufferings and we kept asking ourselves: Does the world know about our sufferings, and if it knows, why is it silent? Why was the world not outraged by the fact that tens of thousands of Jews were shot to death at Ponary [a place near Wilna where the Germans executed many thousands of Jews?] Why was the world silent when tens of thousands of Jews were poisoned in Chelmno? [an extermination camp near Lodz.] Why was the world silent when hundreds of thousands of Jews were slaughtered in Galicia and other occupied regions? We asked ourselves these questions and could only reply by counter-questions: Why should the world be outraged by the slaughter in Wilna, when the Germans exterminated 180,000 people in Rostow, when a comparable number of Ukrainians and Jews were murdered by the Germans in Kiew? Why should the world be aroused, when, daily, blood is flowing in rivers in all the theaters of the war? Is the blood of the Jews more precious than the blood of the Russian, Chinese, British and other soldiers? It is true that we always gave ourselves this reply, but we felt still that this was no honest answer? Only now have we come to understand the cause of this silence: London just did not know anything about all that was happening here, and that was the reason for this silence. But now we ask how it was possible that the Polish Government, which had its own radio-station, knew nothing about it? Now we ask: if London knew, the next day, that one hundred people were shot in the Pawiak prison, why then did it take many months before they learned in London of the hundreds of thousands murdered Jews? This is indeed a question which cannot be turned away by any excuses...

"(Ringelblum, Notes, pp. 240-241)"

................................................................................................


"On the main thoroughfare of the ghetto, Leszno Street, there were at least twenty restaurants. There were as many on Żelazna Street, and Sienna and other streets. Due to the lack of skilled personnel and the indigency of the population, many young girls and women from various social strata offered their services as waitresses, so that the owners had an ample choice. Thus, it happened, that no other city in the world had as many elegant and beautiful women waiting on the patrons as did the ephemeral city of the ghetto in its cafes Cafe of Arts (Sztuka), Splendid, Negresco, etc..."

"When somebody, through skill and diligent work, transformed a dusty court-yard in the ghetto into a cafe in a garden, with grass, flowers and even a fountain; when, on other hand, some of these establishments offered musical programs of the highest artistic value; or when orchestras played English songs (a fact which would have been inconceivable in any other place under German occupation)—did not all these features bear testimony to the strong vitality of the ghetto?

"(M. Mazor, in M.J., No. 37, p. 9)"

................................................................................................

"The Jewish Cultural Organization (YIKOR) created a network of schools and courses and a people's university, opened a large Jewish library, organized lectures, reports on scientific subjects, and various entertainments of high artistic and literary standards. Also, many symposiums and commemorative meetings were arranged, dedicated to Yehuda Halevi, Shlomo Ettinger, Mendele Mokher Sforim, Sholem Aleikhem, Peretz, Bialik, Ash, Leivick, and many others.

"Trashy literature and theater were judged and condemned.

"Many periodicals in Yiddish, of a high standard, were published... The key role which YIKOR played in carrying out its diversified cultural activities in hundreds of house committees is to be emphasized. A large staff of lecturers, writers and scientists penetrated into the darkest corners of the ghetto and carried on their educational and enlightening cultural work. They uplifted, revived and encouraged the Jewish masses and awakened them from their apathy and indifference, organizing in each house committee, according to a prearranged plan, a series of lectures on social and political subjects, arranging supplementary courses, literary evenings, discussion meetings and artistic performances, giving these tormented souls new sources of knowledge and life. In the house committees, the YIKOR also established special youth sections...

"(Turkow, pp. 249-250)"
................................................................................................

"A clandestine center for Jewish archives was formed under the innocent name of Oneg Shabbath [a Society for the Pleasures of the Sabbath]. Under the direction of Dr. Emanuel Ringelblum, the founder of the archives, and with the active cooperation of (six names are listed here), the archivists amassed materials and documents relating to the martyrology of the Jews in Poland. Thanks to the intensive work of a large staff, some tens of crates were filled with extraordinarily valuable documents, diaries, memoirs, reports, photographs, etc. These materials were buried, we have no access to them. Most of the material sent abroad originates from our archives. We have raised a cry to the world, with exact information about the greatest crime in history. We are still continuing the archival work."

................................................................................................

"A symphony orchestra under the able leadership of Szymon Pullman was active in the ghetto. Whenever an occasion was presented, concerts of beautiful orchestral and chamber music provided moments of rest and escape. Pullman and almost all the members of the orchestra including the violinist Ludwik Holcman were killed in Treblinka. The young concert master Marian Neuteich was murdered in the Trawniki camp.

"New talents appeared in the ghetto. The phenomenal young singer Marysia Ajzensztat, "the nightingale of the ghetto," daughter of the choir director of the Warsaw synagogue, shone like a meteor. She was murdered by the S.S. during the "liquidation campaign.""

................................................................................................


"Later Dr. Zweibaum got permission to organize courses for the training of sanitary personnel. In fact, it was a camouflaged teaching of the medical courses of the first years of the medical program. There were a few university professors among the lecturers. Professor Centnerszwer and Professor Laks taught chemistry, Dr. Zweibaum, histology, I myself, bacteriology. We have organized something like a faculty and attracted a few more lecturers to cooperate with us. These courses had a fee attached and were self-supporting. Chairman Czerniakow strongly backed them and with his aid we found appropriate quarters..."

................................................................................................

"In the brief period from September 1940 to September 1941 (inclusive) we arranged 1,814 artistic spectacles, among them light symphony concerts...

"Besides the great symphony orchestra, which gave symphonic matinees once a week, (on Saturday or Sunday), there were also a few chamber music ensembles..."

"We also had several ballet studios, and schools for rhythmic and plastic dances, under the direction of Irena Prusicka, Aniuta Reiser, Leo Szpacenkop and Lejzerowicz (from Lodz)."

................................................................................................

"In the ghetto, we had five permanent professional theaters, not including the Melody Palace in the Cafe Gertner."

"Femina presented mostly revues and operettas, all in Polish. The shows had the local conditions as a background, and often they were very sarcastic satires..."

"In Azazel Samberg presented L'Avare by Moliere. Of course, according to German law, works by Moliere, who was not a Jew, were not permitted to be given on a Jewish stage, so instead of his name, the name of the translator of L'Avare, A. Einhorn, was substituted on posters and programs..."

"In the large hall of the Economic Club, from time to time we used to arrange various artistic and literary evenings, as well as exhibitions of the works of painters who lived in the ghetto. The last picture exhibition displayed the works of the noted painter and composer Roman Rozental...

"When the ghetto was completely shut off, within its borders lived:

"135 Jewish actors, stage directors and theatrical managers; 52 Artists in show business;

"157 Musicians and composers; 87 Writers, who wrote in Yiddish, Hebrew and Polish;

"25 Painters and sculptors The total was 456 persons very few of whom survived.

"(Turkow, pp. 202-241)"

................................................................................................

"I started gathering documents on our times in October 1939. ... delegations from the provincial Jewry kept steadily arriving, telling their stories of the horrible ordeals the Jewish population went through. I noted down all I heard during the day, adding my remarks to it. In the course of time those daily notes formed a book of a hundred closely written pages, which convey a picture of that period."

"Universality was the leading principle in all our work, objectivity the next guiding principle. We strove to tell the whole truth, even where it hurt. Our photographic pictures are genuine, and not retouched. For instance, in our work we also dealt with conditions in the territory occupied by the Bolsheviks."

................................................................................................


"The liquidation of the Jews in the General Government started on Passover, 1942. The first victims were the Jews in Lublin, and soon afterwards all Jews in the Lublin district.

"They were deported to the camp of Belzec, where they were put to death in the newly-erected gas-chambers. The illegal Jewish press in Warsaw published extensive news and reports about these mass murders. But Warsaw would not believe them."

................................................................................................

"... On the second day of the "deportations" the President of the Jewish Council, Adam Czerniakow, committed suicide. He knew beyond any doubt that the supposed "deportation to the East" actually meant the death of hundreds of thousands of people in gas-chambers, and he refused to assume responsibility for it. Being unable to counteract events he decided to quit altogether. At the time, however, we thought that he had no right to act as he did. We thought that since he was the only person in the ghetto whose voice carried a great deal of authority, it had been his duty to inform the entire population of the real state of affairs, and to dissolve all public institutions, particularly the Jewish Police, which had been established by the Jewish Council and was legally subordinated to it.

"(Edelman, p. 19)"


"During the first conference the gentlemen from Einsatz Reinhard tried to force Czerniakow to sign a petition asking the Germans to "evacuate" from Warsaw the unproductive Jewish elements, since the ghetto was too crowded.

"As is known, Czerniakow refused to sign this petition. However, it was later signed by the other members of the Judenrat, who had been arrested, and who were released from the prison, after they had signed the disgraceful document..."

................................................................................................


"Nurses search the crowd for their fathers and mothers and, having found them, inject longed for deadly morphine into their veins, their own eyes gleaming wildly. One doctor compassionately pours a cyanide solution into the feverish mouths of strange, sick children. To offer one's cyanide to somebody else is a really heroic sacrifice, for cyanide is now the most irreplaceable thing. It brings a quiet, peaceful death, it saves from the horror of the cars.

"(Edelman, pp. 26-27)"

................................................................................................

"Wednesday, August 19

"The viciousness with which the extermination of Jewish children is carried out is stunning."

"One day, it was around the 10th or 15th of August, ... I quite unexpectedly became the witness of Janusz Korczak and his orphans marching out of the ghetto... Only the children were marked for deportation, he himself was not supposed to share their fate. And it took him great pains to persuade the Germans to let him go with the children...

"When I met the procession on Gesia street, all the children were singing together, with beaming faces, while the little violinist was playing. Korczak marched with two of the youngest children in his arms. Their faces were also smiling, apparently, he had been telling them funny stories...

"(Szpilman, pp. 101-102)"

................................................................................................


"April to July 1942

"For the difficult task of getting more exact information, we appointed Zalman Friedrych, one of the most daring and tireless individuals in the underground. He was a strong, well-built, athletic, handsome young man who looked like a German propagandist's dream of the blond Aryan."

"With great difficulty Friedrych finally reached Sokolow.

"There he learned that the Germans had constructed a small branch railroad to the village of Treblinka. Each day trains packed with Jews were switched onto the new spur.

"At Treblinka, there was a large camp divided into two sections, one for Jews, one for Poles. The residents of Sokolow had heard that terrible things were happening in Treblinka, but they had no precise information. In Sokolow Friedrych stumbled upon our comrade, Azriel Wallach, Maxim Litvinov's nephew, who had just escaped from Treblinka. He was in terrible shape, badly bruised, bleeding, his clothes in shreds. From Wallach, Friedrych learned that all the Jews brought to Treblinka were immediately put to death. They were unloaded from the trains and told they were to be bathed and cleaned before being taken to their quarters and assigned to work. Then they were led into large hermetically sealed chambers and gassed."

"With this information, Friedrych returned to Warsaw. We immediately published the gruesome report in a special edition of Storm. We were thus able to give the ghetto an eyewitness account of what actually happened to the daily train-loads of deportees.

"(Goldstein, p. 118)"

................................................................................................

"Jan Karski, a Polish liaison officer between the Government-in-exile in London and the Polish underground in Nazi occupied areas describes his impressions after several talks with Jewish representatives and a visit in the ghetto. Karski left for London in autumn, 1942."

"What I learned at the meetings and later, when I was taken to see the facts for myself, was horrible beyond description. I know history—I have learned a great deal about the evolution of nations, political systems, social doctrines, methods of conquest, persecution, and extermination, and I know, too, that never in the history of mankind, never anywhere in the realm of human relations did anything occur to compare with what was inflicted on the Jewish population of Poland..."

""We want you," they said, "to tell the Polish and Allied governments and the great leaders of the Allies that we are helpless in the face of the German criminals. We cannot defend ourselves and no one in Poland can defend us. The Polish underground authorities can save some of us but they cannot save masses. The Germans are not trying to enslave us as they have other people; we are being systematically murdered..."

""How many were deported altogether?" I asked.

""Over three hundred thousand. More than one hundred thousand are left and the deportations are still going on." I turned pale. It was now the beginning of October 1942. In two and a half months, in one district of Poland, the Nazis had committed three hundred thousand murders..."

"They urged me to the window, pulled down the shade and told me to look through the slit at the side.

""Now you'll see something. The hunt. You would never believe it if you did not see it for yourself!"

"I looked through the opening. In the middle of the street stood two boys dressed in the uniform of the Hitler Youth. They wore no caps and their blond hair shone in the sun. With their round, rosy-cheeked faces and their blue eyes they were like images of health and life. They chattered, laughed, pushed each other in spasms of merriment. At that moment, the younger one pulled a gun out of his hip pocket and then I first realized what I was witnessing. His eyes roamed about, seeking something. A target. He was looking for a target with the casual, gay absorption of a boy at a carnival. I followed his glance. For the first time, I noticed that all the pavements about them were absolutely deserted. Nowhere within the scope of those blue eyes, in no place from which those cheerful, healthy faces could be seen was there a single human being. The gaze of the boy with the gun came to rest on a spot out of my line of vision. He raised his arm and took careful aim. The shot rang out, followed by the noise of breaking glass and then the terrible cry of a man in agony.

"The boy who had fired the shot shouted with joy. The other clapped him on the shoulder and said something to him, obviously complimentary. They smiled at each other and stood there for a moment, gay and insolent, as though aware of their invisible audience. Then they linked their arms and walked off gracefully toward the exit of the ghetto, chatting cheerfully as if they were returning from a sporting event...

"(Jan Karski, pp. 320-333)"

................................................................................................


"Szyper simply thought that we had no moral right to endanger the lives of half a million Jews in Warsaw and several million Jews throughout Poland. He was convinced that Moloch would graciously accept the sacrifice of seventy or a hundred thousand Jews and would demand no more. He defended these ideas not only in private conversations, but also to his audiences in public meetings.

"(I. Cukierman, in Nasze Slowo)"


"Our group [the Bund], supported only by the Hehalutz and Hashomer organization, called for active resistance. But public opinion was against us. The majority still thought such action provocative and maintained that if the required contingent of Jews could be delivered, the remainder of the ghetto would be left in peace. The instinct for self-preservation finally drove the people into a state of mind which permitted them to disregard the safety of others to save their own necks. True, nobody believed yet that deportation meant death. But the Germans had already succeeded in dividing the Jewish population into two distinct groups— those already condemned to die and those who still hoped to remain alive. Afterwards, step by step, the Germans succeeded in pitting these two groups against one another and occasionally caused some Jews to lead others to certain death to save their own skin.

"(Edelman, p. 18)"


"The Jewish Fighting Organization encompassed twenty-two fighting groups.

"(Report B. of the Bund, p. 60)"

................................................................................................

"... In an effort to disorganize the two fighting organizations, the Gestapo created an organization of its own called "Association of Free Jews" under the leadership of a certain Captain Lontsky, a convert Jew. This Association also published its own paper, which called on the Jews to revolt immediately and not to wait for the final liquidation of the ghetto. This, of course, was sheer provocation. The Germans wanted to instigate a small, ill prepared rising so that they would be able to liquidate the ghetto without shedding blood—that is, of course, their blood. We soon recognized this provocation and, together with the Jewish Fighting Organization, made an appeal to the Jewish population not to allow themselves to be provoked; and thus, we unmasked the "Association of Free Jews."

"(D. Wdowinski, pp. 18-22)"

................................................................................................


"May 19,1942... Two heroic young girls, Hayka and Frumka (the Plotnicki sisters), and others are worthy of the talents of a great writer. These bold and courageous young girls travel back and forth across the cities and towns of Poland. They have "Aryan" documents, some as "Aryan" Poles, some as Ukrainians. One of them even wears a cross, with which she never parts except when in the ghetto. They are constantly exposed to the greatest danger. They are ready to take tremendous risks based on their "Aryan" faces and the scarves with which they cover their heads. They accept the most difficult missions and discharge them without the least complaint and without even a moment of hesitation. When it is necessary to make a trip to Wilna, Bialystok, Lemberg (Lwow), Kowel, Lublin, Czestochowa, Radom, etc., to which they smuggle such "disreputable" stuff as illegal literature, reports, money, etc., all this is done in the most natural way. Or if some comrades have to be saved in Wilna, Lublin or other cities, and they take this assignment too. They admit no obstacles and no objections... They travel to cities which no other delegate from any Jewish social organization is able to reach, for instance in Lithuania or Wolyri. They were also the first to bring the sad news about the tragedy in Wilna and they were the first to convey a message of comfort and encouragement and aid to the survivors in Wilna. How often were those girls in the clutches of death? And how often were they arrested and searched? But good luck has accompanied them everywhere. Public messengers who never stumble!"

"(Ringelblum, Notes, pp. 221-222)"

................................................................................................

"... The bulk, of the arms was supplied by the Polish military authorities, which sent a considerable shipment of arms consisting of revolvers, hand-grenades and explosive material. For the money which we received we purchased several hundred more revolvers and ammunition too, paying from ten to fifteen thousand zlotys a piece for Vises and Parabellums.

"(JFO Report, Neustadt, pp. 152, 153, 154)"

................................................................................................


"... "Yurek" (Arieh Wilner) had a "mishap" while negotiating for arms. He succeeded in purchasing from a gentile woman a considerable number of revolvers and hand-grenades. As soon as he managed to get the "goods" into his room, the Gestapo arrived. They quickly searched the room, found the arms and arrested "Yurek" together with his other roommates. We were convinced that this was the dirty work of the gentile woman who sold the arms..."

"(Wladka, pp. 121-128, 158; L. W. Schwartz, pp. 4445)"

................................................................................................

"Warsaw, April 5, 1942

"... I am well, and my health is as usual... It is understood, that Geyrusiewicz [from geyrush—deportation] will go to Adamowski [from adomoh—the earth], and that Alifowski [from alofim—thousands] will move to Kiloyon Street [from kiloyon—annihilation]. Our aunt Olomeska [from olom—here meaning world Jewry] does not care about them. It is true that she no longer has the possibilities that were available before, but if she were more concerned, the moving to Kiloyon and Adamowski could have been avoided. Mr. Pahadski (from pahad—leax) is always with us. Greetings from Haregman [from harog—to kill] and Tevakhowich [from tevakh—the slaughter]."

................................................................................................


"On January 18, 1943, the ghetto was surrounded once again and the "second liquidation" began. This time, however, the Germans were not able to carry out their plans unchallenged. Four barricaded battle groups offered the first armed resistance in the ghetto."

"... The number of Germans killed by Z.O.B. bullets was not the only important thing. What was more important was the appearance of a psychological turning point. The mere fact that because of the unexpected resistance, weak as it was, the Germans were forced to interrupt their "deportation" schedule was of immense value. In the meantime, legends about "hundreds" of dead Germans and the "tremendous" power of the Z.O.B. started circulating throughout Warsaw. The entire Polish Underground was full of praise for us... At the end of January, we received fifty larger pistols and fifty hand grenades from the Home Army Command. A reorganization of the Z.O.B. was carried out.

"(Edelman, pp. 30-31)"

................................................................................................

"Himmler orders the destruction of the Warsaw ghetto. On January 9, 1943, the chief of the German S.S. and Police, Heinrich Himmler, visited the Warsaw ghetto. The result of this visit, and of the unexpected Jewish resistance on January 18-19, 1943 was his Draconian order to wipe out the Warsaw ghetto entirely."

"For security reason, I hereby order that the Warsaw ghetto be destroyed, after the concentration camp has been transferred elsewhere. All useful parts of the buildings as well as all kinds of materials are to be disposed of. The razing of the ghetto and the transfer of the concentration camp are necessary because Warsaw will never quiet down and its criminal deeds will never end, as long as the ghetto stands. A general plan for the destruction of the ghetto must be submitted to me. At least it is necessary that the dwelling space for 500,000 sub humans available until now, which would never be fit for Germans, should completely disappear. In this way, Warsaw, that city of a million people, which has always been a center of decay and mutiny, will be reduced. /signed/ H. Himmler 2. Copy sent to Chief of Security Police and Security Service with request that notice be taken. Br. SS Obersturmbannfuehrer

"(S. Piotrowski, p. 47)"

................................................................................................


""For days and nights the ghetto flamed... and there was no one to halt the blaze."

"The ghetto was burning. For days and nights it flamed, and the fire consumed house after house, entire streets.

"Columns of smoke rose, sparks flew, and the sky reflected a red, frightening glow. Nearby, on the other side of the wall, citizens of the capital strolled, played, and enjoyed themselves. They knew that "the Jews were burning." The wind blew smoke and soot from the burning ruins in their direction. Sparks scattered and now and then a house outside the ghetto would catch fire. But these fires were immediately extinguished. Only in the ghetto no one hastened to put out the flames, to come to the rescue. Everything was burning and there was no one to halt the blaze."

"... The omnipotent flames were now able to accomplish what the Germans could not do. Thousands of people perished in the conflagration. The stench of burning bodies was everywhere. Charred corpses lay around on balconies, in window recesses, on unburned steps. The flames chased the people out from their shelters, made them leave the previously prepared safe hideouts in attics and cellars. Thousands staggered about in the courtyards where they were easy prey for the Germans who imprisoned them or killed them outright. Tired beyond all endurances, they would fall asleep in driveways, entrances, standing, sitting, lying and were caught asleep by a passing German's bullet...

"(Edelman, pp. 37-38)"

................................................................................................

"The Germans brought strong military detachments, field artillery, tanks and armored columns into the battle."

"The results of the first day (Monday) of action of the Jewish fighters are already known: more than a hundred Germans have been killed or wounded. Some dozens of Germans were stripped of their arms. A few tanks were burned with benzine bottles.

"Being now convinced that they cannot break the resistance of the Jewish fighters in open battle, they are now trying to annihilate them by fire. In the buildings thousands of women and children are burning to death. Terrible screams and desperate calls for help are coming from the buildings."

"According to preliminary accounts, the losses of the Germans during the first three days of the battle amount to two hundred killed and four hundred wounded."

"... Despite the deportation of a considerable number of people from the "shop" center (it has been learned that two thousand persons were deported from the premises of Toebbens, among others), and despite the killing of several thousand Jews in the central ghetto during the action, the greater part of the population (50,000 people) are still in the ghetto, in shelters and hiding-places. They are all threatened with being burned alive 0r killed by the Germans in the future."

"(JFO bulletins)"

................................................................................................

"... On the fourth story, at a small window, our old soldier Diament is at his combat post. His is a long rifle whose glorious history reaches back to the Russo-Japanese War. Diament is phlegmatic, his movements are slow but deliberate. The young boys near him impatiently try to hurry him along. But Diament is imperturbable. He aims at the stomach, hits the heart. Every round finishes off another German.

"At 56 Leszno Street Jurek is cornered at an outpost. A group of SS men surrounds him, and one throws a grenade. Jurek adroitly catches the grenade in mid-air and tosses it back at the SS men before it has time to explode. Four of them are killed on the spot...

"(Edelman, pp. 36-39)"

................................................................................................


"The large-scale action was terminated on May 16, 1943 with the blowing up of the Warsaw synagogue.

"(From the teletype message of May 15,1943:)"

................................................................................................


"The voice of the Polish underground press: Rada Narodowa [The National Council)—Organ of the Polish National Council.

"Warsaw - April 28, 1944 - No. 7

"The defense of the Warsaw ghetto, which lasted from April 19 to the middle of May 1943, was not an insignificant, isolated skirmish, but a regular battle with the overwhelming power of modern German weapons, with tanks, artillery, hand grenades, and flame throwers, with gas bombs, incendiary bombs and airplanes."

"It is a definite fact that there was not a single army officer among the commanders of the Jewish fighters. The leaders in the fighting were men who had been active in labor and youth organizations. The chief commander of the fighters and their inspiring leader was the twenty-four-year-old Mordecai Anielewicz, who previously had been connected with the youth movement. He perished in the battle together with all the members of his staff. All these leaders of the Jewish fighters had risen from the rank and file of the people. Their guiding star was the yearning for social and national liberation..."
................................................................................................


"Gios Warszawy

"(The Voice of Warsaw).

"Third year - Warsaw, April 18, 1943 No. 31

"In the Warsaw ghetto the powerful military machine which the Nazi criminals had at their disposal suffered a heavy moral blow. A handful of poorly armed and wholly isolated fighters put up a strong resistance against elite units of artillery and armored tanks. The despicable enemy could break the resistance only by setting the whole ghetto on fire, using airplanes, and even gas bombs..."

................................................................................................


"Final letter of farewell addressed by Zygelboim to the Polish President Wladyslaw Raczkiewicz, and to Prime-Minister Wladystaw Sikorski."

"The last news received from Poland makes it clear that the Germans are determined to wipe out, with horrible brutality, the last remnants of the Jews who have survived in Poland. Behind the walls of the ghetto is now going on the last act of a tragedy unequalled in all history. The murderers themselves bear the primary responsibility for the crime of extermination of the whole Jewish population of Poland, but, indirectly, this responsibility also weighs on all humanity, on the peoples and governments of the allied nations, because they have not made any attempt to do something drastic to stall the criminal deeds. By looking on indifferently while helpless millions of tortured children, women and men were murdered, those nations have associated themselves with the criminals."

"Szmul Zygelboim

"(Zygelboim-Book, pp. 364-365j"

"From a letter of farewell to friends

"... Maybe my death will achieve that which I did not succeed in achieving during my life, the starting of a definite action to rescue at least the less than three hundred thousand Jews who are the only survivors in Poland of the former Jewish population of three and a half million. Now is the last minute for such an action...

"(Zygelboim, p. 366)"

................................................................................................

"Commercial utilization of murder: the Germans clean up and salvage what they can from the ruins.

"In June 1943, the Germans recruited Polish workers to clean up the ruins, to tear down the tottering buildings, and to salvage whatever iron and other useful metals they could. They also formed a separate labor unit of Jews from Greece, France, Rumania, and Hungary, who were brought from various labor camps. They wore prison dress of striped trousers and gray blouses and were quartered in the Gesiawka, the building on Gesia Street which had once housed the institutions of the Jewish community. The Poles and Jews worked in complete isolation from each other and were not permitted to communicate. The Jewish workers were prisoners from camps and were so treated. The Poles were volunteers and were permitted to pass in and out of the ruined ghetto..."

"When the Germans finished, nothing was left in the ghetto except a broad field of rubble, three stories deep.

"(Goldstein, pp. 204-205)"

................................................................................................


"... It is a stormy, dark night... But he who survives until tomorrow will also live to see the daybreak...

"(Kermisz, pp. 343-344, 380-384)"

................................................................................................

"(Late 1943 and early 1944)

"Around Warsaw, hiding in the woods and in the open countryside, were possibly twenty thousand uprooted homeless wanderers. We estimated that the Bund alone was helping about three thousand of them. Until the outbreak of the Warsaw uprising, the organized help of all Jewish groups and organizations had reached about eight or nine thousand people."

"... During the last half of 1943 and the beginning of 1944 there were constant raids in the Otwock resort district and similar sections near Warsaw, like Podkowa-LeSna, Bernardowa, and Jablonna. These places, remote from the teeming city, surrounded by forests, with only isolated homes and villas, were well suited for concealment. Here were hidden most of the wealthier Jews, those completely assimilated and indistinguishable from Poles and those who had the advantage of an Aryan appearance...

"Here too, lurked the schmaltzovniks, petty gangsters, and informers. And there was always danger from the unpaid Hitler agents, like the members of the Polish Falanga [a Polish fascist organization], who hunted Jews without any desire for monetary gain. They were a larger group and even published an underground newspaper, Szaniec (The Bulwark). They organized partisan groups in the forest who hunted down and shot Jews in hiding.

"(Goldstein, pp. 217-218, 227)"

................................................................................................


"Report of June 23, 1942 No. 18

"1. Last week (June 14-20) there was posted on the billboard of the Jewish Community Council an order of the German authorities, according to which all foreign Jews, except men fifteen to fifty years of age, who have a father or mother, husband or wife, residing in one of the countries of the two Americas (with the exception of Chile and the Argentine), or in Palestine, are obliged to register with the Registration Office established for this purpose at the Community Council. Moreover, the registration of Polish Jews is ordered (except of men fifteen to fifty years of age) who have close relatives in Palestine. The order does not reveal the reasons for such a registration. Rumor has it that the aim of the registration is to exchange the registered persons against Germans residing in the above countries or interned by those governments in concentration camps.

"(Polish underground. IPN Archives)

"In this connection, the infamous Hotel Polski affair may be mentioned. Since many of the Jewish addressees for whom foreign passports arrived were no longer alive the Gestapo was willing to transfer these passports to other living Jewish substitutes. Of course, a considerable bribe had to be paid for this. In this way, many foreign Jews as well as "foreigners" of a recent Gestapo-make were gathered. They were ordered to live in several places in Warsaw. The best known and most crowded was the Hotel Polski, a Polish hotel controlled by the Gestapo. Later, these Jews were transferred to camps in Germany (Hannover and others) and France (Vittel). However, only a small number of those people were actually used for exchange and released by the Germans. The rest were eventually either exterminated on the spot or sent to the extermination camp in Auschwitz. The Hotel Polski affair has been described in many memoirs and eye witness records."

................................................................................................

"(August and September 1944)

"On the first day of the uprising, [August 1] the military prison on Dzika Street was captured and all the prisoners freed. Most of them were Jews, mainly from Greece, Hungary, and Rumania, with a few from Poland. They were all slave laborers whom the Germans had been using to tear down the ruins of the ghetto.

"I must confess that the attitude of the military command of the uprising toward these most unfortunate of the unfortunate Jews was far from proper, even considering the difficult times. They were formed into labor brigades and immediately sent into the front lines to dig trenches under the artillery fire of the enemy. Toughs and hoodlums taunted and tormented them. Their difficulties were multiplied because they did not understand the language. We learned of the plight of these Jews and intervened on their behalf. We gave them what assistance we could and got a promise from the military command that their condition would be improved...

"The Monitor Polski, the official government gazette, published a communique abrogating the laws which the Germans had introduced during the occupation. They forgot one detail — to nullify the Nuremberg laws against the Jews. We promptly complained, and the government promised to correct the omission.

"(Goldstein, pp. 243-244)"

................................................................................................


"After a few weeks of desperate fighting the Polish insurgents surrendered to the Germans on October 2, 1944. But the Nazis were not content with taking prisoners of war. They ordered a total evacuation of Warsaw and sent the civilian population into internment camps. After the evacuation, they set out on the systematic destruction of the whole city, house by house, and street by street. It was to be wiped out as the Warsaw ghetto had been a year before. The situation of the Jews, both the fighters and the civilians, was far more dangerous than that of the Polish population.

"If they were recognized as Jews by German soldiers and spies or by unfriendly Poles they were instantly shot. Only a small part of the Jews hidden in the "Aryan" part of Warsaw or disguised as "Aryans" survived this new disaster. However, a small number of Jews who remained in the emptied and demolished city, defying all dangers, managed to survive as ruin and cave dwellers, or in deep dug-outs and bunkers.

"On January 17, 1945 Warsaw was liberated from the Germans. But sometimes it took weeks and months until a well-hidden Jewish group learned about it in their living grave or until they had courage enough to show up, remembering previous bitter disillusionments and German tricks. The surviving remnants (Sherith Haplaithah) instantly took steps to organize Jewish life and to set up a Jewish Community.

"(January to April 1945)"

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February 13, 2020 - February 20, 2020.
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