Federation Star - January 2018

20A Federation Star January 2018
January 1943 in the Warsaw Ghetto
By Paul R. Bartrop, PhD
Seventy-five years ago this month,
in January 1943, the Jews of the
Warsaw Ghetto embarked upon
a course of action which Nazi Germany
considered impossible: they took up
arms and, for the first time, fought back
in an attempt to stop the Nazis from
achieving their murderous aims.
Through the summer of 1942, the
Germans deported or
executed more than
300,000 Jews from
the Warsaw Ghetto.
During a two-anda-half-month
wave
of deportations to
Dr. Paul Bartrop
Treblinka, from July
22 to September 12,
1942 – a period known to the Germans
as “Gross-Aktion Warschau” (General
Action Warsaw) – it was intended that
this would end the Jewish presence in
Warsaw. On average, more than 5,000
Jews were deported each day, leaving
alive only somewhere between 55,000
and 60,000 by the time the operation
came to a close.
While those in the ghetto did not
know the precise destination or fate of
those who had been deported, vague
reports of mass murder at Treblinka
did manage to leak back. In response,
members of Jewish youth groups, in
particular Hashomer Hatzair, formed
the Żydowska Organizacja Bojowa
(ŻOB), or Jewish Fighting Organization,
on July 28, 1942. They issued
a proclamation calling on the ghetto
residents not to go to the trains when
ordered to do so.
While the deportations were taking
place, one member of Hashomer
Hatzair, 23-year-old Mordecai Anielewicz,
had escaped to southwest
Poland on an underground mission to
organize other branches of his movement,
but upon returning to Warsaw
he found the ghetto devastated. He,
and others, knowing from the outset
that they could not defeat the Nazi war
machine, now decided to resist any
further deportations from the ghetto. In
November 1942, members of the ŻOB
elected Anielewicz as their leader, and
preparations started for a defense of
the ghetto whenever the next wave of
deportations should begin.
Most of the more senior members
of the Jewish communal leadership in
the ghetto disapproved of armed resistance
out of fear of provoking a devastating
German retaliation. However,
Anielewicz and another Zionist leader,
Yitzhak Zuckerman, began looking for
support outside the ghetto. Contacting
the Polish government in London, they
managed, with difficulty, to obtain a
few rifles and pistols. The ŻOB then officially
became part of the High Command
of the Polish Home Army (Armia
Krajowa or AK), which began providing
additional weapons and training.
In the meantime, the ŻOB prepared
for the next onslaught by the Germans.
On December 22, 1942, Zuckerman,
Miriem (Gole) Mire and Adolf Liebeskind
were sent by the ŻOB to Kraków
to meet with resistance fighters there.
While in the city, they took part in an
attack on a café that was frequented
by the SS and the Gestapo. Liebskind
was killed. There is debate regarding
Gole’s fate. Some say she was killed
soon afterwards; others assert she
played a part in the Warsaw Ghetto
Uprising in the spring of 1943. Zuckerman,
although shot in the leg, managed
to escape and return to Warsaw.
Once back, he then became the
unofficial armorer of the ŻOB. He
negotiated through contacts he had
made with external resistance groups,
attempting to procure rifles, pistols,
ammunition and grenades. These were
smuggled into the ghetto via the Warsaw
sewers, and his ongoing negotiations
meant that he had a good idea of
how he might navigate the labyrinth in
the future.
In early January 1943 – 75 years
ago this month – Reichsführer-SS
Heinrich Himmler visited the Warsaw
Ghetto and ordered one final deportation
of all the remaining Jews. This
began, unannounced, on January 18. In
response, although lightly armed and
poorly trained for combat, the ŻOB
saw its first action. Mordecai Anielewicz
developed a plan in which his
fighters obeyed the deportation orders
until they reached a certain part of
town, where they received a signal to
attack. Despite the death of most of the
early Hashomer Hatzair fighters, many
Jews escaped at this time.
Surprised by the opposition and
suffering several casualties, the Germans
withdrew from the ghetto to
regroup their forces and evaluate the
situation. Four days later, they stopped
the deportation altogether – at least for
the time being.
One of the Jewish leaders in this
first expression of armed resistance in
the ghetto was a young woman, Tova
(Tosia) Altman. Directly involved in
the fighting, she, along with several
others, was captured and taken to the
Umschlagplatz (collection point for
JEWISH INTEREST
deportation). She managed to escape
with the aid of a Jewish ghetto policeman
acting on behalf of Hashomer
Hatzair. Placed in charge of maintaining
contact with ŻOB members outside
the ghetto, she then spent a large part of
her time on the Aryan side, but, always
prepared to fight, returned whenever
she heard of an impending roundup.
Shocked that the Jews would arm
themselves and fight another round of
deportations, the Germans returned in
force in April to liquidate the ghetto
completely. The resultant Warsaw
Ghetto Uprising, the starting date of
which Jews employ to commemorate
Yom HaShoah each year, saw the first
and most extensive expression of urban
guerilla resistance against the Nazis by
any population during World War II.
It is important to place this in its
proper context, however. The Warsaw
Ghetto Uprising of April 19 - May 16,
1943 did not emerge out of nowhere,
and 75 years later it is incumbent upon
us all to recognize and honor the brave
2. H
young Jewish men and women who
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decided to enter upon a course from
o
which there was no going back, taking
A
up arms to resist the Nazis in January
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1943.
1
Dr. Paul Bartrop is Professor of History
and the Director of the Center for
w
H
Judaic, Holocaust, and Genocide Studies
at Florida Gulf Coast
l
University.
He can be reached at pbartrop@fgcu.
edu.
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Founded in 1897
ZIONIST ORGANIZATION OF AMERICA
Southwest Florida Chapter
Wednesday, January 10, 2018 at 7:30 PM
Dr. Asaf Romirowsky
Nakba: The Source of the Arab/Israeli Conflict
Dr. Asaf Romirowsky is making a return to our area. To those in the Israeli
advocacy community, this man needs no introduction. Dr. Romirowsky
is a preeminent Middle East researcher, and an adjunct scholar at the
Foundation for Defense for Democracies and the Middle East Forum.
He is a former IDF (Israeli Defense Forces) International Relations liaison
officer in the West Bank, and to the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. He
holds a BA from the Hebrew University of Jersulem, Masters degrees from Villanova University
and West Chester University, and a Doctorate from King’s College London. His presentation
will broach one of the foundational impediments to a Middle East peace agreement.
Dr. Romirowsky’s insights on the Middle East are highly sought after, not only in the halls
of our Congress, but by governments throughout the world.
Chabad Jewish Center of Naples, 1789 Mandarin Road, Naples, FL 34103
Admission:
$20.00 prepaid by mail
$22.00 at the door
$7.00 Students with valid ID
To ensure faster seating,
prepayment is suggested
www.zoaswfl.org • 914-329-1024
Free refreshments served
Make checks payable to:
ZOA of Southwest Florida
4003 Upolo Lane
Naples, FL 34119