Isaac's Army (67 page)

2
“I was mortally afraid of Mr. Glaser”
Olczak-Ronikier,
W Ogrodzie Pamieci
, p. 277.

3
“Conspirators, underground agents, and saboteurs used it”
Ibid., p. 279.

4
“Not bad for a hideout”
Ibid.

5
“help from God himself”
Martha Osnos, unpublished journal, p. 24.

6
an earthquake that measured 7.7 on the Richter scale
F. Wenzel, D. Lungu, and O. Novak, eds.,
Vrancea Earthquakes
, Natural Hazards, vol. 19, no. 1, January 1999, p. 80.

7
Carlton Hotel, collapsed, killing 267 guests
Ibid.

8
“Two days later we had a transit visa”
Martha Osnos, unpublished journal, p. 24.

9
“It seemed impossible to accomplish in a few hours”
Ibid., p. 25.

10
“known for all kinds of guides and
machers
”
Ibid., p. 26.

11
“ ‘Everyone is in mourning here’ ”
Ibid., p. 27.

12
“the picture of bourgeois respectability”
Hilberg, Staron, and Kermisz,
Warsaw Diary of Adam Czerniakow
, p. 26.

13
Most of the sixteen-hundred-strong force hailed from an upper-middle-class background
Gutman,
Jews of Warsaw 1939–1943
, p. 87.

14
“Many used bribery and influential connections”
Goldstein,
Five Years in the Warsaw Ghetto
, p. 59.

15
“I heard cries and shouts”
Zuckerman,
Surplus of Memory
, p. 135.

16
a number that would peak at 1.6 million
Lukas,
Forgotten Holocaust
, p. 33.

17
“These snatchings were done in streets and in houses”
Zuckerman,
Surplus of Memory
, p. 134.

18
“Before dawn, we were led through the streets of Warsaw”
Ibid., p. 136.

C
HAPTER
17: I
SAAC AND
B
ORUCH
G
LIMPSE
H
ELL

1
Czerniakow was “weak”
Mark Edelman, author interview, Lodz, May 2007.

2
The
Judenrat
was rife with corruption and collaborators
Goldstein,
Five Years in the Warsaw Ghetto
, p. 30.

3
“scoundrels, vipers, and louses”
Hilberg, Staron, and Kermisz,
Warsaw Diary of Adam Czerniakow
, p. 46.

4
“He was in an impossible position”
Boruch Spiegel, author interview, Montreal, November 2007.

5
“Vomiting at home”
Hilberg, Staron, and Kermisz,
Warsaw Diary of Adam Czerniakow
, p. 85.

6
“At 2
A.M
.
I begin to fret”
Ibid., p. 91.

7
“When they found out he wasn’t there”
Boruch Spiegel, author interview, Montreal, October 2007.

8
Ghetto entry for Christians was
Streng Verboten
Helena Balicka-Kozlowska,
Mur Mial Dwie Strony
(Warsaw: Dom Wydawniczy Bellona, 2002), p. 10.

9
“They remain all day on their filthy straw mattresses”
Edelman,
Ghetto Fights
, p. 41.

10
“Very rapidly they started to die”
Boruch Spiegel, author interview, Montreal, October 2007.

11
“So they took me”
Ibid.

12
“Who was that woman?”
Zuckerman,
Surplus of Memory
, p. 138.

13
“For three days his body will hang as a warning”
Ibid., p. 193.

14
“I have only one explanation”
Ibid., p. 140.

15
a series of assisted “suicides” among the nine thousand Volksdeutsche
Wladyslaw Bartoszewski,
1859 Dni Warszawy
(Krakow: Znak, 2009), p. 202.

16
Bogus farewell notes were left at the scenes
Karski,
Story of a Secret State
, p. 226.

17
executing the customary one hundred Poles in retaliation
Lukas,
Forgotten Holocaust
, p. 35.

18
“I hinted that I would be willing to pay”
Zuckerman,
Surplus of Memory
, p. 141.

19
fifty-three died in camp, and another fifty died shortly after their release
Samuel D. Kassow,
Who Will Write Our History? Rediscovering a Hidden Archive from the Warsaw Ghetto
(London: Penguin, 2007), p. 133.

20
“They behaved wonderfully toward us”
Zuckerman,
Surplus of Memory, p. 142
.
128 “When you set up the gallows”
Ibid.

21
“I didn’t understand what we were doing there”
Boruch Spiegel, author interview, Montreal, November 2007.

22
“They fed us a bowl of soup a day and two hundred grams of bread”
Ibid.

23
“It was awful”
Ibid.

24
“I thought the Blue Police was bad”
Ibid.

25
“when they finish with us, they’ll move on to you”
Ibid.

26
“Don’t faint. You can’t faint”
Ibid.

C
HAPTER
18: T
HEY
D
IDN
’
T
D
ESERVE
S
UCH A
P
ARTING

1
“the pampered child of Valiant” Street
Zuckerman,
Surplus of Memory
, p. 144.

2
“For the first time, I had seen with my own eyes”
Ibid.

3
Jews would enter from Forestry Boulevard
Paulsson,
Secret City
, p. 63.

4
“I saw how the Germans beat the Poles there at the station”
Zuckerman,
Surplus of Memory
, p. 122.

5
“We were sure of a quick victory by the Red Army”
Ibid., p. 146.

6
“barkers”
Ozimek,
Media Walczacej Warszawy
, p. 47.

7
“I left in a few minutes”
Zuckerman,
Surplus of Memory
, p. 122.

8
“We were shocked”
Lubetkin,
Zaglada I Powstanie
, p. 55.

9
“We must assume that this was an awful act of revenge”
Zuckerman,
Surplus of Memory
, p. 151.

10
“There was nowhere Lonka would not go”
Lubetkin,
Zaglada I Powstanie
, p. 52.

11
“The craziest rumors were circulating”
Mark Edelman, author interview, Lodz, May 2007.

12
“prone to childish bouts of fantasy and enthusiasm”
Beres and Burnetko,
Marek Edelman
, p. 59.

13
“We were ideological rivals”
Mark Edelman, author interview, Lodz, May 2007.

14
It would claim 14,449 lives by year’s end
Beres and Burnetko,
Marek Edelman
, p. 71.

15
“Their organs were translucent”
Ibid.

16
“I instruct the entire population of the Warsaw District”
Bartoszewski,
1859 Dni Warszawy
, p. 290.

17
“Runge was smuggled into the ghetto with great care”
Goldstein,
Five Years in the Warsaw Ghetto
, p. 83.

18
a special pogrom unit of Lithuanians called the
Ipatingas
Jean-Francois Steiner,
Treblinka
(New York: Signet Books, 1968), p. 18.

19
“rightful punishment to collaborators and traitors”
Richard Rhodes,
Masters of Death
(New York: Knopf, 2002), p. 41.

20
“On the concrete forecourt of the petrol station”
Ibid.

21
“from the reliable non-Communist elements among Ukrainians”
Ibid.

22
“Death to Jews, death to Communists”
Ibid., p. 59.

23
In the town of Radzilow, Germans incited Polish peasants to murder eight hundred Jewish inhabitants
Jan T. Gross,
Neighbors: The Destruction of the Jewish Community in Jedwabne, Poland
(New York: Penguin, 2002), p. 32.

24
“That was part of the German genius”
Mark Edelman, author interview, Lodz, May 2007.

25
“I didn’t get out of bed for a month”
Boruch Spiegel, author interview, Montreal, November 2007.

26
suffering from
ascites
or the “wet form” of severe malnutrition:
Myron Winick,
Final Stamp: The Jewish Doctors in the Warsaw Ghetto
(Bloomington, Indiana: Author House, 2007), p. 35.

27
This was known as the diuretic phase of starvation treatment
Ibid., p. 39.

28
“For her, everything was ‘God’s will’ ”
Boruch Spiegel, author interview, Montreal, November 2007.

29
“in the evening you could see well-dressed women, wearing lipstick and rouge”
Sloan,
Notes from the Warsaw Ghetto
, p. 222.

30
“He had had it for eight or nine years”
Boruch Spiegel, author interview, Montreal, November 2007.

31
“I didn’t know if I could bring myself to swallow that bread”
Ibid.

32
“I watched him fade, day by day”
Ibid.

C
HAPTER
19: S
IMHA
L
EAVES
Z
IVIA TO
H
ER
P
ROPHECY

1
“bedsheets could be traded for half a kilo of bread”
Boruch Spiegel, author interview, Montreal, November 2007.

2
like Model Pienkert or Nathan Wittenberg’s Final Journey Funeral Parlor
Photo exhibition, Jewish Historical Institute, Tlomackie Street, Warsaw.

3
forty-three thousand people had died of hunger and disease
Engelking and Leociak,
Getto Warszawskie
, p. 317.

4
“Dead bodies had become part of the landscape”
Simha Ratheiser-Rotem, author interview, Jerusalem, March 2009.

5
“I could only guess that this was a Jewish boy”
Paulsson,
Secret City
, p. 69.

6
“A little skeleton, four or five years old”
Ibid.

7
“I was almost seventeen and strong”
Simha Ratheiser-Rotem, author interview, Jerusalem, March 2009.

8
“My parents didn’t like it”
Ratheiser-Rotem,
Kazik
, p. 13.

9
“My mom had relatives who lived in a tiny village deep in the countryside”
Simha Ratheiser-Rotem, author interview, Jerusalem, March 2009.

10
“I was very eager to leave”
Ibid.

11
“If international Jewry, in Europe and outside of Europe”
Lubetkin,
Zaglada I Powstanie
, p. 55.

12
“A fat German officer greeted them politely”
Ibid., p. 56.

13
“Nobody believed him”
Ibid., p. 57.

14
They had ample historic precedent
Laqueur,
History of Zionism
, p. 159.