Resistance (41 page)

 

The State of Israel enacted the law of Yad Vashem, creating Israel's national memorial to the Holocaust and Resistance in memory of the Holocaust, and established the twenty-seventh of Nisan as the day commemorating the anniversary of the Uprising of the Jews of Warsaw—the memorial day of the Holocaust and its heroism. On this day there are gatherings throughout Israel in addition to an official assembly on the Hill of Remembrance (Mount Herzl) in Yad Vashem in Jerusalem. There are two mass rallies: one in the north at Kibbutz Lochamei Hagetaot (the ghetto fighters' kibbutz), established by survivors of the fighters in the Warsaw ghetto, including Yitzhak Zuckerman and Zivia Lubetkin; and the second in Yad Mordecai, the kibbutz in the south named after Mordecai Anielewicz where a monument stands in his memory.

Memorial Day is now commemorated by official assemblies in Warsaw, in Washington, in Jewish congregations throughout the world, and in an increasing number of towns, settlements, kibbutzim, and youth groups. On this occasion, the thoughts of survivors and public leaders return to those dark and torturous days and to the courage that will forever stir the soul. In the darkest hours of the Warsaw ghetto, when all hope was lost, when none had a chance to survive and the end was certain, young Jews arose to fight. They chose to die in freedom rather than cower before an overpowering enemy. They refused to surrender, preferring instead to fight to the death and thus preserve their honor even when they could no longer defend their lives.

Throughout the ages, Jewish life in Warsaw has been the topic of numerous important works. Emanuel Ringelblum, who chronicled the last days of the Jews in the Warsaw ghetto, also published an important study on the early years of Warsaw's Jews until their expulsion in 1527: see Emanuel Ringelblum,
Zydzi w Warszawie, od czasow najdawniej-szych do ostatniego wygnania w r.
1527,
Warszawa,
1931.

In 1881 Hilary Nusbaum published his book Z
zycia Zydow w Warszwie,
containing pictures of Jewish daily life and important historical events in the life of the city's Jewish community. Special note should go to Jacob Shatzky's work,
The History of the jews in Warsaw (Geschichte von Yidn in Varshe),
published in Yiddish in three volumes by YIVO, in New York, during the years 1947—53. The work covers the period from the beginning of Jewish settlement in Warsaw until 1896.

Numerous works deal with the city of Warsaw and its inhabitants. Among the authors of these works are several outstanding contemporary historians of Poland. Similarly, Warsaw's city life has been a popular subject for many writers in Poland for generations. The most relevant in terms of the Jews of Warsaw is the in-depth series published by Panstwowe Wydawnictwo Naukowe and edited by Stefan Kieniewicz, which includes the following volumes:

 

Maria Bogucka, et al.,
Warszawa w latach 1526–1749.

Stanislaw Kieniewicz,
Warszawa w latach
1749–1914.

Marek Drozdowski,
Warszawa w latach
1914–1939.

Krzysztof Dunin-Wasowicz,
Warszawa w latach
1939–1945

 

In Israel, a book was published by Avraham Levinson entitled
History of the Jews of Warsaw (Toldot Yehudei Varsha),
a comprehensive survey of the city's Jews and Jewish life (second publication in 1953). Much material can be found on the Jews of Warsaw in the three-volume
Encyclopedia of the Diaspora (Encyclopedia shel haGaluyot
, published in jerusalem (volume 1, 1953; volume 2, 1959; volume 3, 1973). Information can also be found in
Warsaw Memorial Rook (Pinkas Varshe),
published in Yiddish in Buenos Aires in 1955.

A number of comprehensive works on Warsaw have recently been published in Poland. Especially noteworthy is the anthology edited by Wladyslaw T. Bartoszewski and Antony Polonsky entitled
The fetes of Warsaw
(Oxford, 1991).

The literature on the Jews of Warsaw during the Holocaust is extremely rich and includes original journals, diaries, memoirs, scholarly articles, and beautiful stories and poems. This work relied primarily upon the abundant archival material on the Warsaw ghetto in the collection established by Emanuel Ringelblum, as well as Warsaw's Jewish underground newspapers.

The greatest importance must be assigned to the diaries kept in Warsaw during the Holocaust, especially the chronicle of Emanuel Ringelblum, published in part and in full in many languages. The most complete is the two-volume Yiddish edition, published in Warsaw (1963) and in Tel Aviv (1985), entitled
Writings from the Ghetto (Kso-vim fun Geto).
Recently a multivolume work was prepared in Hebrew, with accompanying notes and explanations. The first volume was published in 1993.

The diary of Adam Czerniakow, chairman of Warsaw's Judenrat, was published in English and edited by Raul Hilberg and others:
The Warsaw Diary of Adam Czerniakow
(New York, 1979). Another valuable diary concerning ghetto life in Warsaw is that of Chaim Aaron Kaplan. A complete volume has been published in English:
The Warsaw Diary of Chatm A. Kaplan,
edited by A. L. Katsh (New York, 1973). The diary of Abraham Levin has been published in English and edited by Antony Polonsky:
A Cup of Tears
(Oxford, 1988). Also translated into English is the diary of Stanslaw Adler, officer of the Jewish police in the Warsaw ghetto: Stanslaw Adler,
In the Warsaw Ghetto, 1940—1943)
(Jerusalem, 1982).

A separate place is given to the memoirs and many articles published by survivors of the Warsaw ghetto, especially those by members of the underground and of fighting organizations. Some of these have been translated into English: Yitzhak Zuekerman (
Antek
), Marek Edelman, Zivia Lubetkin, David Wdowinski, Bernard Goldstein, and others.

Among the general scholarly works dealing with Warsaw during the war or containing material on Warsaw's Jews during this period are the many books of Ber Mark, as well as Israel Gutman,
The Jews of Warsaw 1939–1943
(Bloomington, Indiana, 1982). Also included are:

 

Wladyslaw Bartoszewski,
Warszawski pierscien smierci
(Warszawa, 1967).

Wladyslaw Bartoszewski, 1859
dni Warszawy
(Krakow, 1984).

Tomasz Szarota,
Okupowanej Warszawy dzien puwszedni
(Warszawa, 1988).

Adamowicz, lrena,
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Admor of Ger,
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Agudath Israel party,
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AK (Armia Krajowa, Polish Home Army),
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Akiva,
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Aktion Reinhard,
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AL (Armia Ludowa, Polish People's Army),
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Alberstein, Eliahu,
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Alter, R. Abraham Mordecai,
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Alter, Victor,
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Altman, Tosia,
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American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (the Joint),
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Anders, Wladyslaw,
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Anielewicz, Mordecai,
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; on Uprising success,
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; on German doctor scout,
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; and weapons,
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; returned from Soviet-occupied territory,
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; bare-headed custom begun by,
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; and Jewish Fighting Organization,
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–
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; Berlinski on meeting with,
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; accounts passed on to,
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; on bunker conditions,
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; partisan group named for,
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; biography of,
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–
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; kibbutz named for,
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Anski, S.,
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Antek.
See
Zuckerman, Yitzhak

Anti-fascist bloc,
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–
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Antisemitism: in interwar Poland,
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; and emigration,
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; as stereotyping,
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; German,
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; and Warsaw struggle,
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Arbuz (OBW owner),
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Archives,
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Arendt, Hannah,
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Arlt, Fritz,
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Artstein, Zechariah,
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Asch, Sholem,
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Asher (Issachar), Shmuel,
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Assassination of collaborators,
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Association for the Care of Jewish Orphans (CANTOS),
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Auerswald, Heinz,
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Balaban, Meir,
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Balfour Declaration,
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Balicka Kozlowska, Helena,
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Barak (combat leader),
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Bar Kochba revolt,
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–
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Bartoszewski, Wladyslaw,
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Batz, Rudolf,
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Begin, Menachem,
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Bellow, Saul,
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Ben Gurion, David,
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–
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Berenson, Leon,
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Berg, Mary,
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Berlinski, Hirsch,
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,
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Betar movement,
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–
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Bialik, Haim Nachman,
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Bilawski, Yitzhak,
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Blones, Jurek,
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"Bloody night, the,"
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–
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Boh in, Johannes (Gestapo official),
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"Bor" (Tadeusz Komorowski),
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Borzykowski, Tuvia,
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Bradys, Kazimierz,
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Brandt, Carl Georg (Gestapo),
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Breslaw, Shmuel,
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Browning, Christopher R.,
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Bund,
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; and Hebrew,
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; Goldstein on,
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; and FPO,
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; and creation of fighting unit,
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; and "bloody night,"
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; death camp investigated by,
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–
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; and Jewish Fighting Organization,
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; and financial support,
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Bund youth movement,
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Bunkers,
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–
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–
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; battle of the bunkers,
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–
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; fires render useless,
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–
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; conditions for those besieged in,
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; command bunker (Mila 18),
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Canaani, David,
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Carmi, Aaron,
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,
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"Cauldron" decree,
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CENTOS (Association for the Care of Jewish Orphans),
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,
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,
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Central Agency for Aid to Jews in Warsaw,
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Central Association of Jewish Artisans,
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Central Organization of Societies for the Support of Non-Interest Credit and Promotion of Productive Work (CEKABE),
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Chlodna Street,
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Commission for Polish Relief,
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–
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Communists,
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–
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–
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; in FPO,
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; and Youth movements,
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–
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; in Jewish Fighting Organization,
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; and Betar movement,
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; and Polish underground,
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; fighting groups from,
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; and Uprising,
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Coordinating Committee,
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Cracow,
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Czechoslovakia, Nazi subjugation of,
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–
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Czerniakow, Adam,
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,
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–
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,
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–
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.
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,
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,
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; suicide of,
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,
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,
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; on war events,
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,
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; and ghetto establishment,
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,
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; and Gancwajch,
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; and secret publications,
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–
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; and deportation,
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–
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