THE HOLOCAUST IS OVER WE MUST RISE FROM ITS ASHES

organizations were concealed and silenced. Literature by the nonZionist Jewishpartners in the rebellion was not translated into Hebrew. Polish writer Hannah Krallwrote a book, To Steal a March on God, 5 which tells the story of Marek Edelman,a Polish Jew, who was a socialist and non-Zionist and served as a deputy to theadored Mordechai Anilevich—a fact that has not been widely publicized. He lovedlife and was very much non-Zionist; he was a Jewish humanitarian who later becamea physician. Marek Edelman represented the Bund, an anti-Zionist Jewish Socialistmovement, in the rebellion leadership. As the uprising was suppressed, Edelmanmanaged to flee the ghetto through the sewage system with some of the survivingfighters, and later participated in the Warsaw Uprising of 1944. After the war heremained in Poland, studied medicine and practiced cardiology in Lodz. He became amember of the Solidarity movement and voiced his opinions on issues of humanrights. In 1988 he received the highest Polish decoration, the White Eagle Order,from Polish president Aleksander Kwaśniewski. He is still alive.Immediately after the war, Edelman wrote his story, 6 a very different interpretationof what took place during Passover 1943 in Warsaw, Poland. The book was nottranslated into Hebrew; the Zionist censorship kept the book outside the nationalconsciousness. He was not a Zionist! Poland was his motherland and he fulfilled hisrole as second-in-command on behalf of the non-Zionist Bund.Edelman told Krall that he thought suicide should not have been committed in the18 Mila Street bunker. “It should have not been done, even though it was a verypowerful symbol. Life should not be sacrificed for symbols,” he said. He was criticalof Jewish combat abilities and claimed that the uprising could have been moreeffective, killing more Germans and saving more rebels. He acknowledged thestrength of German soldiers as a fact. These are dissonant notes in the concert ofheroism.Because no one was willing to hear from him the naked truth:Could this really be called an uprising? . . . It was, after all, a questionof not letting them slaughter you when your turn came. It was merelychoosing how to die . . . Humanity agreed that to die with a weapon inhand is more beautiful than without a weapon, so we conceded. 7The monument to Anilevich at Yad Mordechai depicts an athletic man holding a hand