A Surplus of Memory: Chronicle of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising (A Centennial Book) - Hardcover

Zuckerman, Yitzhak (""Antek"")

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0520078411 ISBN 13: 9780520078413

Publisher: California University Press, 1993

Synopsis

In 1943, against utterly hopeless odds, the Jews of the Warsaw Ghetto rose up to defy the Nazi horror machine that had set out to exterminate them. One of the leaders of the Jewish Fighting Organization, which led the uprisings, was Yitzhak Zuckerman, known by his underground pseudonym, Antek. Decades later, living in Israel, Antek dictated his memoirs. The Hebrew publication of Those Seven Years: 1939-1946 was a major event in the historiography of the Holocaust, and now Antek's memoirs are available in English.

Unlike Holocaust books that focus on the annihilation of European Jews, Antek's account is of the daily struggle to maintain human dignity under the most dreadful conditions. His passionate, involved testimony, which combines detail, authenticity, and gripping immediacy, has unique historical importance. The memoirs situate the ghetto and the resistance in the social and political context that preceded them, when prewar Zionist and Socialist youth movements were gradually forged into what became the first significant armed resistance against the Nazis in all of occupied Europe. Antek also describes the activities of the resistance after the destruction of the ghetto, when 20,000 Jews hid in "Aryan" Warsaw and then participated in illegal immigration to Palestine after the war.

The only extensive document by any Jewish resistance leader in Europe, Antek's book is central to understanding ghetto life and underground activities, Jewish resistance under the Nazis, and Polish-Jewish relations during and after the war. This extraordinary work is a fitting monument to the heroism of a people.

About this title

About the Author

Yitzhak Zuckerman ("Antek"), 1915-1981, was the last commander of the Jewish Fighting Organization. After World War II he assisted the exodus of surviving Jews to Palestine, where he also emigrated. His memoirs were published in Israel in 1991. Barbara Harshav, who has taught history at various universities and at Yad Vashem in Jerusalem, is the translator of several books, including Jewish Memories (from French, California, 1990) and American Yiddish Poetry (from Yiddish, with Benjamin Harshav, California, 1986).

From the Back Cover

In 1943, against utterly hopeless odds, the Jews of the Warsaw Ghetto rose up to defy the Nazi horror machine that had set out to exterminate them. One of the leaders of the Jewish Fighting Organization, which led the uprisings, was Yitzhak Zuckerman, known by his underground pseudonym, 'Antek.' Decades later, living in Israel, Antek dictated his memoirs, which were published in Hebrew as Those Seven Years: 1939-1946.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

A Surplus of Memory: Chronicle of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising

By Yitzhak Zuckerman

University of California Press

Copyright © 1993 Yitzhak Zuckerman
All right reserved.
ISBN: 0520078411
One
The War

[World War II broke out with the invasion of Poland by the German armies in the early morning hours of September 1, 1939. At the time, Zuckerman was a leader of the He-Halutz Ha-Tza'ir (Young Pioneer) Zionist socialist youth movement, which had recently united with Frayhayt (Freedom, later known as Dror), a youth movement with similar ideals. Both belonged to the He-Halutz (Pioneer), an umbrella organization of all pioneering Zionist youth movements, striving to realize their ideals on kibbutzim in Eretz Israel.]

On September 1, 1939, I was in Kleban*

, a small village in Wolyn*

, near Rowno, where we were holding seminars of He-Halutz Ha-Tza'ir and later of the united movement of Frayhayt-He-Halutz Ha-Tza'ir. Why was I in Kleban*

at that time? The twenty-first Zionist Congress was taking place in Geneva and most of the Shlikhim from Eretz Israel who worked with our Movement in Poland were in the delegation to the Congress, along with many from the local leadership cadre. There were very few of us left in Poland in this season of summer camps, symposia, and similar activities. A month-long seminar for the leaders of the united movement from Wolyn*

and Polesie was going on in Kleban*

, which began on August 11 with thirty-eight participants.

I opened the seminar with lectures on literature and other subjects. Haim Shechter and Edek Golowner were with me.1 I stayed a week, delivered a course of lectures, and returned to Warsaw at the end of August. Arriving in Warsaw, before I had a chance to bask in the sun—the weather was very nice—I was informed that the English Consul in Warsaw had called on English citizens, including residents of Eretz Israel who had British Mandatory citizenship, to leave Poland immediately.

One of the first things I did when I heard this was to return to Kleban*

to replace Yudke Helman, a Shaliah from Eretz Israel who had succeeded me there.2 I did that to keep the seminar from dispersing, for Yudke had

Yitzhak (Edek) Golowner: Born in Vienna in 1915, educator; one of the founders of the He-Halutz and Frayhayt (Dror) underground in the Soviet zone in December 1989. Imprisoned in Luck by the Soviets and murdered at the age of twenty-seven when the Germans captured that city. (Details of his death are unknown.)

Yudke Helman: Born in Pinsk. Immigrated to Israel as a Halutz. Sent to Poland in 1939 by Ha-Kibbutz Ha-Meuchad and the Histadrut; established the Dror underground in the Soviet zone and worked there until his return to Eretz Israel in February 1940. Currently a member of Kibbutz Gvat.

to rush to Warsaw with the other Shlikhim returning from the Congress until the issue of their return to Eretz Israel was clarified.

At that time, I was Secretary General of the united movement, Frayhayt-He-Halutz Ha-Tza'ir. Edek Golowner was in Kleban*

with me. As a result of the parity arrangement in the Movement, after unification, Moshe Novoprutzki, a member of Frayhayt, was supposed to be with me; but he was also a delegate to the Congress.3 He was supposed to "keep an eye on" me, in case I "went too far" in shifting the Movement onto the tracks of Halutziut,4 Hebrew, and such, so that Frayhayt wouldn't assimilate, God forbid, into He-Halutz Ha-Tza'ir. When He-Halutz had told me they didn't want to add Novoprutzki to the delegation to the Congress, I thought it was unfair to him; I discussed it with Abraham Gewelber of the He-Halutz Central Committee and Nowoprutski was ultimately added to the delegation.5 The Zionist Pioneer movement in Warsaw was almost bereft of its central activists and I remained practically alone.

So, at the outbreak of the war, on September 1, I was back in Kleban*

. We assembled the students for a discussion and tried to prepare them for the future in terms of our naive understanding. First, we made sure everyone would return home. Edek and I stayed behind. The two of us belonged to the Polish "Patriot" branch—we overlooked the injustices and hatred of the Polish state against the Jews and reported to the local authorities to enlist in the army. But the authorities didn't know what to do with us. The next day, September 2, we decided to return to Warsaw, which we did by traveling a roundabout route, in a train and a taxi. The great turmoil had not yet reached eastern Poland. We even took a taxi, which was expensive. On the way, in Miedzyrzec, I think, we came upon an army unit commanded by a Polish officer. We reported to the officer, a pleasant young man, who told us he wished he knew what to do with his own soldiers, let alone civilians.

I must say that I didn't serve in the Polish army. I was the youngest of four children in my family, two boys and two girls. The family did

Moshe Novoprutzki: A member of the Central Committee of Frayhayt-He-Halutz. Immigrated to Eretz Israel from Vilna in 1941.

I.e., "pioneering," striving to realize the ideals of the Movement by joining a kibbutz in Eretz Israel.

Abraham Gewelber: Secretary of He-Halutz Ha-Tza'ir in Poland from 1937 on. Active in the Soviet zone after the outbreak of the war. Moved to Vilna, where he represented He-Halutz Ha-Tza'ir in Jewish welfare organizations. Immigrated to Eretz Israel in 1941.

everything to keep my oldest brother, Abraham, from serving in the army. The night before he reported for the draft, he and his friends sat up all night drinking coffee. When my brother appeared the next day, his heart was pounding and the doctor sent him to rest. After an hour's rest, his strength was restored. But, finally, he was released with a bribe. I didn't allow my parents to do the same for me and reported on time for the military examination. He-Halutz was against shirking Polish army duty, and that was my personal position, too. But by law, high school graduates could not serve as simple soldiers and were sent to officer's school; yet, except for physicians, Jews weren't accepted to those schools. This dragged on for a year, two, three, and I wasn't called to the army. Finally, I was called in and informed that I wasn't accepted. So I was exempt from military service.

Now, when we got to Warsaw, I reported again for the draft, for the third time. They took Edek but not me. Since the Halutzim on Dzielna6 and Gesia*

7 considered me a "patriot," I tried to do something. Not everyone understood what war with the Germans meant. There was a certain apathy. I argued not only the anti-German aspect, but also the pro-Polish angle.

On September 2, by the time I returned from Kleban*

, the Shlikhim who had returned from the Congress were in Warsaw, and everything was confused and in a turmoil. As we made our way to Warsaw, we saw bombing, and Warsaw itself had already been bombed. The war began on Friday, September 1; many cities were bombed that day, there were serious casualties, and everything was in an uproar.

We gathered to discuss the situation. By then we knew from the radio about the German advance. We figured that our Movement would retreat eastward, but it didn't occur to us that Poland wouldn't hold out at all, not even a few months. We assumed our men would be drafted, and a "cabinet of girls" was set up for that eventuality.

All this happened within a few days. The situation deteriorated from day to day and, at one meeting in which we discussed the Shlikhim, the local members proposed that the Shlikhim from Eretz Israel leave Poland at once because both the front and the Movement would probably move east and the men would be mobilized. The Shlikhim were citizens of a foreign country and, although we locals probably couldn't do anything, they certainly couldn't; and, in any case, the entire burden would fall on the girls. And if something could be done—it would be done by us Polish

For many years, Dzielna Street 34 was the Warsaw address of the Kvutsa, a commune of Shlikhim and activists in He-Halutz and He-Halutz Ha-Tza'ir. The apartment was the center of all Zionist operations, and Dzielna turned into a proper name.

Gesia*

Street 14: Address of the offices of He-Halutz and the Po'alei Zion party.

citizens. Nor did we think the Shlikhim could contribute anything to the Movement; on the contrary, we thought they would be a burden. Fayvush Ben-Dori was against our position and was supported by Yudke Helman.8 I was strongly in favor of sending the Shlikhim back to Eretz Israel. Perhaps our position was arrogant, but experience in the long run proved us right. We thought we could work by ourselves; we were ambitious young people and thought we could do everything.

I was young; I had come to Warsaw in 1936 and joined the central staff of He-Halutz Ha-Tza'ir. I was supposed to live in the leadership commune on Dzielna, but, as the youngest one, I didn't feel comfortable there. I was depressed and so I fought to be transferred to our training farm in Grochów,9 which is what happened. I worked in Landau's workshop and became friendly with him.10 After work or on my days off, I would come to central Warsaw. Only after the unification of Frayhayt and He-Halutz Ha-Tza'ir did I have to move to the commune on Dzielna and serve as one of the two secretaries of the Movement. Unhappily, I left Grochów and moved to Dzielna 34.

I was also a member of the Central Committee of the umbrella organization, He-Halutz, but my position there was that, for example, if there were twelve people at a meeting and only eleven chairs, I was the one who sat on the floor. (And if there was another chair missing, Zivia would also sit on the floor.11 ) At any rate, the group at Dzielna was young, and even though I had come before the others and had been in the commune longer, I still regarded myself as one of them.

That emergency meeting with the Shlikhim was the first time I talked aggressively, insolently. I demanded that we locals do the work in the Movement and said that if we weren't drafted into the army, we would probably have to move east someday. At that time, we thought Poland was likely to take a stand on some line of defense in the east; we thought in terms of World War I. It didn't occur to us that Poland would completely

Fayvush Ben-Dori (1900-1956): Key member of the Eretz-Israeli delegation to the Polish He-Halutz.

The training farm of He-Halutz was located in a Warsaw suburb, Praga, on Grochów Street.

Alexander Landau: Born in Galicia. Engineer. Came to Warsaw after living in Vienna. Friendly to He-Halutz and the underground. Owner of a wooden products factory, where many activists found shelter during the Great Aktsia of July 1942; crossed to the Aryan side in April 1943, sent to Vittel Camp in occupied France and from there to Auschwitz, where he was murdered.

Zivia Lubetkin (1914-1978): Born in Bitan, Polesie, Poland. Active in Dror (Frayhayt); central figure in ZOB; leader in the January and April uprisings in the Warsaw Ghetto and prominent in subsequent activity. Wife of Antek Zuckerman. Immigrated to Israel in 1946; was a member of Kibbutz Lohamei Ha-Getaot.

collapse in three weeks. Warsaw was conquered and surrendered on the twenty-seventh of that month!

This meeting took place on September 6. The girls assigned to run things were Zivia Lubetkin, the sisters Frumka12 and Hancia Plotnitzka,13 and Leah Perlstein.14

In the first days of the war, even before the decision about the departure of the Shlikhim, "Commissars" were appointed by the central committee for various areas of the country: Yudke [Helman], for example, was to go to Vilna and I was to be the "Commissar" of Bialystok*

—a real Commissar! This was preceded by another development. On the third day of the war, I think, a He-Halutz delegation, which included Fayvush Ben-Dori and Dr. Meir Pecker, reported to the Polish authorities.15 There was something in the press about it, and the document about the delegation was re-published a few years ago by the Poles in a collection of documents of September 1939.16 This delegation informed the military authorities of Zionist support for the Polish army and announced that all our training groups, workshops, sewing shops, in Lodz*

, as well as everywhere else, were at the disposal of the war effort. This was received very positively.

That delegation also informed the authorities that we were sending special emissaries to various places to mobilize all Zionist forces. These emissaries received special permits along with an appeal for help to all local institutions. I also received such a document, which turned out to be very useful and saved a lot of our people.

One night, I went to the railroad station with Yukde. Train traffic was disrupted; we sat in the station all night long and finally went

Frumka Plotnitzka: Born in Plotnica, near Pinsk. Active member of He-Halutz and ZOB, member of the ZOB delegation on the Aryan side of Warsaw, brought the first weapons into the ghetto. Sent to Bedzin-Sosnowiec*

in September 1942 to organize the local defense there. Was killed in the ZOB uprising in Bedzin*

on August 3, 1943.

Hancia Plotnitzka: Born in Plotnica, near Pinsk. Outstanding figure in He-Halutz and Frayhayt. Active in the underground, first in the Soviet zone and later in the Nazi area. Sent to the Aryan side of Warsaw; caught and murdered by the Germans at the age of twenty-five.

Leah Perlstein: Born in Sokolka. A teacher and one of the organizers of the Frayhayt and He-Halutz underground in the Generalgouvernement. Active in the ZOB on the Aryan side. Captured by the Germans during the January Uprising and sent to Treblinka. Details of her death are unknown.

Dr. Meir Pecker: Physician of the Palestine office in Warsaw; worked for He-Halutz in the official institutions of Poland. Went to Vilna, where he immigrated to Eretz Israel in 1941.

The delegation reported to the Polish Welfare Minister, Marjan Zyndram-Koscialkowski*

. A dispatch of the Polish information agency, PAT, of September 2, 1939, was published in the Polish-Jewish newspaper Nasz Przeglad*

, September 3. See Dobroszyski, 1964:17.

back home. Hancia Plotnitzka was sent to Lodz*

and Natan Blizowski to Wolyn*

.17 I was supposed to remain in Bialystok*

, while Yukde was to go on to Vilna, but both of us got stuck. Two days later, the trains stopped running altogether. At that meeting, it was decided that the Shlikhim would leave Warsaw for Romania on the way to Eretz Israel; and that very night they moved out, except for Yukde who stayed with us a while longer.

That night, Mayor Starzynski*

made a radio appeal to all civilian men to report to the suburbs with tools, to dig defense trenches.18 I mobilized my friends Gewelber and Mulka Barantshuk, and we worked all night in Wola, one of the suburbs of Warsaw.19 We worked hard and the Poles were nice to us. We didn't sense a whiff of antisemitism in those hours. At daybreak, we returned exhausted and found the house on Dzielna empty. We didn't know that, on that night, Colonel Umiastowski, on behalf of the army staff, broadcast a dramatic appeal to all able-bodied armed men to go east.20 To this day, I don't know exactly what that announcement meant. It might have been an act of German provocation since it resulted in hundreds of thousands of people streaming eastward, blocking the roads to Polish army traffic, the few tanks and the cavalry. The next day, they were exposed to aerial bombings.

A group of us, including Mulka Barantshuk, Avreml Gewelber, and I, were hungry and set out for Grochów, where we learned that the members of the training farm who had been there had gone. By decision of the Central Committee, they left at night for the eastern border, guided by Frumka. The gentiles in the area had plundered the farm, but we did find a horse and cart left for our escape. I told my comrades I would go to a hut I had seen, perhaps to check out if anyone was left. When I came back, there was no cart and no comrades. So I remained alone without food or a horse, with just my own two feet.

I started walking with the masses streaming on the roads at the height of the bombings. I think I reached Minsk-Mazowiecki*

at nightfall. I was hungry and worn out after a night of work, mad at myself, and without a cent; I was close to passing out. I sat down against some fence, and

Natan Blizowski: Member of the Central Committee of He-Halutz in Poland; active in the Soviet zone and later in Vilna. Immigrated to Eretz Israel in 1941.

Stefan Starzynski*

: Appointed mayor of Warsaw in 1934. Mobilized into the Polish army with the rank of major, but remained in the city, he said, to provide the population with necessary services. Arrested by the Germans in October; executed in Dachau.

Mulka (Shmuel) Barantshuk: Member of the Central Committee of He-Halutz in Poland and editor of Yediyer . Immigrated to Eretz Israel in 1940.

I.e., the night of September 6. Colonel Umiastowski was chief of propaganda in the headquarters of the Polish Supreme Command. His appeal resulted in a mass exodus, panic, and confusion; he committed suicide.

suddenly Oskar Hendler appeared, like a guardian angel.21 He dragged me into some courtyard where all the comrades were, the members of the He-Halutz Central Committee as well as others from the Central Committee of Po'alei Zion-Z.S.; the comrades with the horse and wagon were also there. I didn't ask any questions. To this day, I don't know why they went off and left me. I think it was because of the general chaos and panic; at least that's how I tried to explain it to myself; I was young, inclined to joke and not to bear a grudge. I wasn't angry for more than a few minutes. Apparently, we met by chance, since I had started walking on a different road from the one they took. And so, for example, Zivia and Edek Golowner, who were in charge of the evacuation of our resthome in Jósefów outside Warsaw, had also taken another road.22

So, at dawn on September 8, I was back with the group. I ate my fill and rested. We got hold of another wagon and, in the early morning, we set out for the east. We had ridden about half an hour when I suddenly saw some of the people from Grochów. There was a group of children from Zbaszyn*

who had been expelled from Germany and were studying in Grochów.23 They were in a woods with Frumka, but with nothing to eat and helpless; so, they went to look for food. I got out of the wagon, which would continue with the other comrades, while I joined the members of the Grochów training program.

We did have money because we had had time to withdraw most of the money in the He-Halutz account from the PKO Bank. In Minsk-Mazowiecki*

, we distributed the money to our comrades in case we were separated. I got some too, but not much, maybe enough to pay for a haircut. (Later, when I got to Kowel, I got some more.) Yet, I remember that we bought wine, got hold of a bag of bread somewhere, and brought it all to the woods, where it was a cause of great joy. Yitzhak

Oskar Hendler (1911-1978): Born in Germany, active in the Central Committee of He-Halutz in Berlin. Deported to Poland by the Nazis and joined He-Halutz in Warsaw. One of the founders of the Frayhayt and He-Halutz underground in the Soviet zone. Was arrested by the Soviet authorities and sent to a labor camp in the Urals. Returned to Poland in 1945 and resumed activity in Dror. Immigrated to Eretz Israel in 1948 and settled on Kibbutz Lohamei Ha-Getaot.

The central rest home of He-Halutz in a suburb of Warsaw. On September 8, 1939, a unit of the German army arrived there and arrested the patients and nurses. The men were forced to precede the advancing unit over the frontline in the suburbs of the city. Most of those arrested were killed by the Polish defense. When Warsaw surrendered on September 29, the Nazi army took over the resthome and turned it into a military hospital.

In 1938, the Germans expelled German Jews of Polish origin from the Reich to the Polish border near Zbaszyn*

, where they were stuck in no-man's land until the war. The "children of Zbaszyn*

" were a group of youths from the German He-Halutz who had been kept for a long time in the border town of Zbaszyn*

until just before the war, when they were allowed to go to Grochów to train at the He-Halutz farm there.

Perlis24 rode on the wagon that went on and I returned to Frumka, who remained there alone, near Kaluszyn*

.25 When we got back to the woods that evening, we didn't know there were two more groups of people in the same woods: one, a Polish army unit that had explosives; and the other, a group of gypsies. Nor did we know German spies were also swarming around there, signaling to German pilots that the Polish army was camping there, and they began bombing the woods. Trees fell down right before my eyes; I ordered the young people to cover their heads and not to look; but I did look and I saw how the woods burned down. The heavy bombing went on for hours, and it was extraordinary luck that we weren't hit. The Polish army group was hit. What saved me and our group afterward was the "commissar document" we had gotten from the Polish authorities. For, as darkness came on, Polish gendarmes surrounded the woods searching for spies and caught us. Many of our young people didn't know a single word of Polish and spoke only German. I was their spokesman, and the documents I had received from the central authorities helped us get away from the gendarmes. Many fell victim to that bombing, but none of us was hit. After that we decided to travel only at night and to hide during the day off the road. We continued walking until we reached the River Bug. It was the eve of Rosh Hashana when we came to the town of Wlodowa*

on the River Bug.26 We were exhausted and looked for a place to rest. We found a place and got an extraordinary welcome from the local youths, who weren't even members of the Movement, just young Jews.

The daughter of the rich man of the town took us home and offered us a straw pallet in the attic. We rested there until the rich man himself appeared; he was terrified that the place would be bombed because of us and gruffly ordered us out of the attic. We came down and lay on the lawn. We were very tired and waited for night. There's one picture I remember clearly. It was dusk; I was wearing a black coat, and I went into the rich man's house. Candles were lit inside the house, since it was a holiday eve. I found him drinking tea. I thanked him for the "welcome" and took some money out to give him. He asked for what. I said: "For hospitality, since you welcomed us so nicely." "In a few more hours," I said, "more Jews might pass by here, and I'm paying for them in advance so that you'll welcome them nicely too." He got up

Yitzhak Perlis: Member of the He-Halutz Central Committee and editor of He-Halutz Ha-Tza'ir .

Kaluszyn*

: A Jewish town of 6,000 between Warsaw and Siedlce. Served as transit point at the outbreak of the war for masses of refugees streaming east.

In September 1939, the River Bug became the boundary between the German and Soviet zones of occupation of defeated Poland.

and started weeping with remorse and invited me to tea. But I refused. The place wasn't far from the River Bug, close to the town of Domcowa. We had to shoe the horse we bought on the way, along with a wagon; and we had to cross the Bug; and we needed help with both. I told the rich man: "If you want to help us, we've got two requests: shoe our horse and guide us across the river." He asked some locals to take the horse to the blacksmith to be shoed and to find a peasant to help us across the river. So, in about an hour and a half, we crossed the Bug. There was no bridge at that place, but there was a crossing where we passed safely.

We were a big group and there wasn't room on the wagon for everybody, so some rode and some walked behind the wagon. Frumka claimed that we couldn't go on like that, since those who were riding could travel faster. She suggested dividing the group in two, and I agreed. But then there was a "war" between us over the horse and wagon. Frumka argued that she couldn't manage them and wanted to walk; I should take the horse and wagon. (In time, the army would have confiscated the horse and wagon anyway.) So I took the horse and wagon and became a driver. It was a big wagon I had paid a lot for; and with that horse, if I'm not mistaken, we arrived in Kowel a few days later.27 Frumka and her group were still walking toward Kowel. She walked with the older ones, and I rode with the weak and the young and the girls. I think Frumka reached Kowel a day after me.

On the way, before we got to Kowel, we had a single casualty and I found out about that only later. I protected the youths from every patrol. We tried to circumvent any place Polish soldiers were liable to be since these youths spoke German; so we traveled dozens of extra kilometers. Before we had a horse and wagon, we used to walk on foot at night. I didn't know whether to walk at the head of the line or to bring up the rear. These were youngsters and you had to watch them. I used to run back and forth, from one end of the line to the other.

I mentioned the first casualty we had on the way: one of the youths had relatives in Brisk [Polish: Brzesc*

], and he asked permission to go to his relatives, but I forbade him to go. Nevertheless, he left the ranks and went to Brisk, where Polish soldiers captured him; and, because he didn't know Polish, they thought he was a German spy and executed him. We learned about this later. The rest of the group reached Kowel safely.28

Kowel: A city in western Wolyn*

, in the Soviet occupation zone, not far from the German-Soviet line, which served as a transit point and shelter for Polish refugees.

Later, they learned of a few other victims among the Zbaszyn*

Halutzim. (See Yehuda Helman 1969:74.)

When we reached Kowel on September 16, I found all the others who had preceded us, including the members of Grochów and other kibbutzim who had found a shelter in Kibbutz "Klosowa*

" in Kowel, while we found a place in the apartment of Zvi Melnitzer (now Netzer).29

On the day we reached Kowel, the Germans bombed the city and a meeting of the Central Committee of He-Halutz was held in Zvi's apartment by all the members of the Central Committee who were there. They decided that, first of all, the young people had to be evacuated from Kowel to a small town further east, Mielnica, and that I would take them. I asked if any of the comrades was willing to go with me and Nehemia Gross agreed to come along.30 It was at dawn on September 17, 1939, the day the Soviets entered those areas. On our way, we saw airplanes and thought they were German. We hadn't heard the radio and didn't know about the new partition of Poland according to the Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact.31

I spent only one night in bombed-out Kowel. We got to Mielnica with the group, me at the head, riding a horse—a real cavalryman. I could ride well since we had had a small mill when I was young, and in summer I would go there and ride for pleasure. I also knew how to swim and to trade blows with the gentile boys.

By the time we got to Mielnica, it was empty. We entered one house, opened the windows, went into the cellar and found jars of preserves. Mielnica was empty because the Jews didn't know what we knew by then—that the Russians would soon enter that area. The very next day, the Soviets appeared in the area and the baleboste 32 also returned and found us eating everything she had stored in the cellar. She cursed us to kingdom come and threw us out. We settled the youngsters in all kinds of places, since the Jews were compassionate and took care of us. We bought sacks of flour and left them for the locals. Then I returned to

Zvi Melnitzer (now Netzer): Educated in He-Halutz Ha-Tza'ir, a member of Kibbutz Grochów. After the Soviet-German war broke out in Vilna in 1941, he was arrested by a Soviet patrol on the road from Vilna to the Soviet zone. In 1943, he arrived in Eretz Israel through Teheran. After the war, he worked with Brikha in Poland; after the establishment of the State of Israel, he was Israeli ambassador to Poland.

Nehemia Gross (1917-1970): Born in Leipzig, Germany. Worked in the He-Halutz underground in the Soviet zone; arrested by the Soviets and imprisoned in a forced labor camp for five years. Returned to Poland after the war and was active in Brikha; arrested again by the Soviets and imprisoned in Leipzig. Died in Israel.

Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact: A secret agreement between Germany and the Soviet Union which divided Poland: the western and central part went to the Germans, and eastern Poland to the Soviets. The Red Army crossed the border and incorporated the eastern parts of Poland into Soviet Byelorussia and the Ukraine. Vilna was given to Lithuania, which was an independent state until May 1940.

Lady of the house.

Kowel with Nehemia Gross and, since I was a "Polish patriot," as I said, I would stop on the way, despite the danger, and take wounded Polish soldiers to Kowel.

Two Central Committees were then formed: one of He-Halutz Ha-Tza'ir and Frayhayt in Kowel, and another one of Ha-Shomer Ha-Tza'ir in Rowno. Kowel became a transit city for masses of refugees, including the leaders of the Jewish and Zionist parties, such as Bundists Erlich33 and Alter,34 general Zionist leaders of Et livnot and Al Ha-Mishmar factions and the heads of Po'alei Zion-Z.S. and Po'alei Zion Left. Everyone was looking for a way out. In Kowel, Yitzhak Perlis, Abraham Gewelber, Mulka Barantshuk, and I shared an apartment. I was up to my old tricks. What could you buy in those days? Wine! So I bought wine. I would come to Frumka, who was in charge of supplies, and tell her that Dr. Pecker, the He-Halutz doctor, was "dying of hunger" and needed food packages and she would give them to me. Later I told her the truth, that we ate the food ourselves. My comrades put me up to it, and I was tempted even though, morally, it wasn't nice. But they wanted to eat, and, as we know, hunger isn't the best counselor in matters of morality.

In the evenings we would discuss serious matters: what to do? The first question was how to find a way to Eretz Israel. Then the decision was made that Mulka and I would go to Vilna, our hometown, cross the border of Lithuania and, from there, get in touch with Eretz Israel.35 So I left for Lithuania to pave the way. I had relatives around Vilna, in Troki, which was perhaps four or five kilometers from the Lithuanian border. I had spent a lot of time in Troki, in summers, when I was a boy. There were big, beautiful orchards there, leased by my uncle on my mother's side, Shimon Kotz, the rich man of the town. He was a "State Appointed Rabbi." Now, as when I was in school, I contacted the chairman of Keren Kayemet and consulted with him about how to cross the border to Lithuania.36 He found a gentile who was supposed to take me across. Vilna was then under Soviet control.

At that time, Mulka and I were the only members of the Central Committee of He-Halutz in the area. On the day I was supposed to cross the border, the Zionist activist in charge of Keren Kayemet came to me

Henryk Erlich (1882-1941): Journalist and Bundist leader in Poland. Editor of the party's Yiddish daily newspaper, Di Folkstzaytung . Executed by the Soviets in December 1941.

Viktor Alter (1890-1941): Bundist leader in Poland; member of the Warsaw city council for twenty years. Executed by the Soviets in December 1941.

Prior to the outbreak of the war, Vilna had been part of Poland, close to the Lithuanian border. Between September 17 and October 10, 1939, the city was controlled by the Soviets, who then ceded it to the Lithuanians.

Keren Kayemet: Jewish National Fund, the land purchase and development fund of the Zionist Organization, founded December 29, 1901, at the Fifth Zionist Congress.

and said he had heard that Vilna was ceded to Lithuania by the Soviets. So I decided there was no point crossing the border, but it was better to return to Vilna and consult with Mulka about what to do. I went back to Vilna. We decided not to cross: why cross to the Lithuanians if the Lithuanians would come to us? But it took a long time.

After we had been in Vilna for two weeks, the members of the Central Committee began arriving, including Kozibrodski and Perlis.37 Abraham Gewelber remained in Kowel. I lived with my parents, but I spent all day in the training kibbutz Shahariya on Subocz Street.38 At one of the meetings, I was informed that, at a meeting of the Central Committee in Kowel, the decision was made that most of the members would go to Vilna, while Yitzhak Zuckerman and David Kozibrodski would return to Kowel to work in the Soviet zone.

The decision was made on the afternoon of September 20. We can determine almost with certainty the day I left Vilna. On September 17, the Soviets crossed the Polish border. A few days before I left, there were rumors of possible pogroms in Vilna upon the Lithuanians' arrival, and our first idea was to establish a self-defense organization. Mulka Barantshuk and I went to consult with the old leader, Dr. Jacob Wygodski, a personage universally admired by the Jews of Vilna, who had also been a member of the Polish Parliament, the Sejm , and he encouraged us. Dr. Wygodski was a poor man and was old by that time. It was the first time I had ever been in his home, and I still recall how poor it was, with shabby chairs and peeling walls; but it was a large flat.39

After that visit to Wygodski, I returned to my father's house to say goodbye. I didn't know then it was forever.

Let me say a few words here about my family:

My father was a tall man with a small beard, and he held himself erect. I think it was Mordechai Tennenbaum who told me that if you had put a bucket of water on his head, not a single drop would have fallen to the ground. He was an observant Jew, but I suspect that he neglected a prayer every now and then. Aside from Yiddish, he spoke Polish and Russian and knew Hebrew.

David Kozibrodski: Born in Prusków. Active in He-Halutz and Dror in Vilna; escaped from there to the United States during Soviet control of the city. Immigrated to Israel.

A center for He-Halutz members from all over occupied Poland. As one of them said: "Our kibbutz in Vilna, which had a small number of members, began to increase daily . . . and became a kibbutz of 600 members by the time the Lithuanians entered." (Quoted in Arad 1982:15.)

Jacob Wygodski: A prominent leader of Vilna Jewry. Head of the Jewish Community Council formed in July 1928. A member of the Judenrat in the ghetto; arrested by the Nazis on August 24, 1941, and died in Lukiszki Prison a few days later.

My grandfather, Rabbi Yohanan Zuckerman, was a rabbi who didn't want to make his living at it. In terms of the Hasid-Misnaged40 conflict, I'm the child of a mixed marriage. On my father's side, I'm "Ukrainian" from the area of Kiev or from Kiev itself; on my mother's side, I'm a real "Litvak," from a small town in Lithuania. My mother's maiden name was Frenkel.

I was born in Vilna in December 1915, during World War I, when the city was occupied by the Germans and Mother was alone at home. Father had gone with his mother and my two sisters to Moscow (he had relatives there and in Kiev) and was still there when the Germans occupied Vilna. I can only imagine the problems caused by my birth.

How did the "Ukrainian" side meet the "Lithuanian" side? How did Mother and Father meet? I learned the details of that only recently. My aunt, my father's sister, died a year ago in Israel. I had taken care of her when she was ill, and she had always been very fond of me. When she was sick, she told me a lot of things I didn't know.

Apparently, Father had been something of a "hippie" in his youth. His father, Rabbi Yohanan Zuckerman, came from the town of Lebedova where he owned a small flour mill. He was a rabbi and ritual slaughterer; but, as I said, he didn't want to make a living at it and he hated the sight of blood; so he set up a flour mill. My father was his oldest son and Grandfather loved him very much; but one day Father got fed up and disappeared, taking some money without permission. Apparently he went to Russia, where he wandered around. One day, he came to Vilna, hungry and tattered, not knowing where to spend the night. At a bakery, he saw a Jewish Lithuanian girl who had left her native village and had come to the big city of Vilna where she worked for her relatives.

She took the handsome lad under her wing, brought him home, and fed him. Thus began the love that was to produce me. At first, Grandfather refused to come to the wedding—because of the theft and other "favors" his son had done him. But since Father was the only son from his first wife, his second wife made him go to the wedding. Grandfather came to live in Vilna later, and, when I visited home in 1939, he still lived there and was very old, about 90, I think.

In my childhood, the commandment to Honor thy Father and thy Grandfather was the law in our home. When Grandfather came in, everyone would stand up and no one sat down before he did, in a chair Father would clear for him. They loved each other very much, and I too loved Grandfather. On my last visit in 1939, I came home by surprise. Grandfather could still read without glasses, but I didn't yet know that

The conflict between the populist Hasidic sects, primarily based in Poland and the Ukraine, and the rationalist Misnagdim faction, centered in Lithuania.

changes had taken place in him. On my way, I had bought a volume of the Talmud for Grandfather from the Rom Printers.41 The Soviets were in control of Vilna by then. Grandfather came into the dining room and everyone stood up. "What's new, Dyedushka [Grandfather, in Russian]?" I called out. And he said: "The French entered Vilna."42 I knew he was old, but I didn't imagine he had reached such a state. That was the first time I saw a smile on the faces of Father, Mother, and my sister. I was furious: how dare they smile? When Grandfather left after the meal, I exploded. They explained and told me for the first time of the changes in him: he thought "the French have come." And they were used to his eccentricities. He died a natural death at the age of 90-plus, old and senile.

Long before that, some time after I was born, when Father was in Moscow, a fire started in the house when I was alone in my cradle. Mother had begun working for her relatives as a housekeeper. And one of their daughters saved me from the fire. When I came to Israel, I met that woman, who lived in Haifa, and she loved to tell how she rescued me from the fire and how I wet her lap.

Let's go back to that part in my parents' story when Father was in Russia and World War I divided him from Mother, who was in German-occupied Vilna. Homeless after the fire, Mother decided to cross the border to look for her husband. I was the only one with her at the time, since the other three children were with Father. The Germans let her cross the border (apparently they were "different Germans" then).

After the family was united, they returned to Vilna, lived in another house, and began restoring their fortune. That was when I started talking, and what I said amazed the family. I told what we had gone through on the road: my fears, riding in a wagon, and the shooting we heard. I said that Mother held me in her arms, and I wanted Father awfully and he didn't come. That was all true. I remember a wagon covered with a tarpaulin. I recall shots across the border, horses rearing, and Father holding them by the reins, and I wanted Father to come to me. I was born in a war, and we escaped from the Russian Revolution of 1917. The Germans saved us. I was two years old.

Once, when I was five years old, I lay in bed and the "Hallerczyki " (the unit of General Hailer of the newly created Polish army who was notorious for pogroms against Jews) came looking for Father, but he had run away and they didn't find him. I was terribly scared they would hit me, but they didn't do anything to me. That was during the pogroms, in 1920

Rom Printers: Publishing house and printing press famous for its classical editions of the Babylonian Talmud, distributed all over the Jewish Diaspora.

Allusion to the vivid memory of Napoleon's sojourn in Vilna in 1812.

[when the Poles took over the city from the Red Army], and the fear of Poles remained engraved on my heart ever after.

From that early period, I remember the big fire when everything burned down; and I remember a flour mill (near Bratslav) and big lakes. I would go there every year, between the ages of eleven and thirteen. I learned to ride horses and I felt like a kind of Taras Bulba, riding on the steppes.43

My parents' home was in Vilna, and when I visited there in 1939, that home no longer existed. I hadn't come to my sister's wedding because I didn't have money for the trip. I was a member of the Central Committee of He-Halutz and I didn't want to ask my relatives for money. I didn't have a proper suit either.

My sister bought a big apartment, a two-story house on Ponarska Street, and brought Father and Mother to live there. She and her husband worked hard and strictly observed the commandment to Honor thy Father and Mother. My sister's family lived on the top floor, and everyone else was downstairs, including Grandfather and my widowed sister.

My father was a Zionist, but I don't think he belonged to any Zionist organization, although I think he leaned to Mizrakhi.44 Our home was a Zionist home. Zalman Kleinstein, a famous Zionist leader in Vilna in the 1920s, was a member of our family. When I was a child, Father made incessant and unsuccessful efforts to immigrate to Eretz Israel. In those years long before my Bar Mitzva, I was promised a Bible as a gift.

I completed seven grades in a religious grammar school, Ezra , where Yiddish was the basic language. It was a school run by Mizrakhi, which had an educational system in Poland. Then Father sent me to the Hebrew secular Gymnasium, an aristocratic institution, whose very high tuition posed a heavy financial burden on the family, especially since all four of us children (my brother, my two sisters, and I) were in school at the same time. Almost all the teachers in the Gymnasium were Zionists. Some were adherents of labor Zionist ideals,45 like Dr. Riger and Dr. Yosef Shuster, who was later a teacher in Ben-Shemen. I was friendly with him (I saw him a lot when I came to Israel).

I was outstanding in my attitude toward Yiddish culture in the Gymnasium. It was not a matter of spoken Yiddish (most students spoke

Taras Bulba: A Cossack leader and Ukrainian national hero who perpetrated pogroms against Jews, as described in Gogol's novel of the same name.

Mizrakhi: Religious Zionist movement, founded in 1902, whose motto was "The Land of Israel for the People of Israel according to the Torah of Israel." Later renamed the National Religious Party.

Eretz Israel Ovedet: A federation of Socialist Zionist parties and various social organizations for material and political support of the Labor Movement in Eretz Israel. Founded in 1930.

Yiddish at home), but of literature: I was perhaps the only one in the Hebrew Gymnasium who constantly read and kept up with Yiddish literature. I read a lot—that was my weakness, and because of it, I used to put off doing my homework and sometimes neglected it altogether so I could read. I first read Yosef-Haim Brenner46 when I was in Gymnasium, and read all eight volumes in Hebrew (published by "Stybel"47 ) by the time I left home. I continued to read both Hebrew and Yiddish (Scholem Asch,48 for example). Thus, I came to He-Halutz with a great love for the Yiddish language and went to Lida49 for training in a unit in the Klosowa*

work brigade.

When I was active in the League for Workers' Eretz Israel on behalf of the students, I met with members of He-Halutz and with members of Po'alei Zion and Ha-Shomer Ha-Tza'ir. In my last two years of school, I was chairman of the student organization of the Gymnasium and chairman of the League for Workers' Eretz Israel. There I met Dr. M. Dworzecki50 and the father of Professor Kolat (Kopelovitsh). I had friends both in Ha-Shomer Ha-Tza'ir and in Betar, but I myself didn't belong to any movement. I was a Zionist first of all and also had roots in the Yiddish language and its literature. I wasn't a member of a party until I was forced to by the merger of Frayhayt-He-Halutz Ha-Tza'ir. What kept me out of party affiliation was a group of Po'alei Zion I knew, part of which was militantly anti-Hebrew and against Zionist realization. Although my world view was close to theirs, and I was far from Z.S. and Hitahdut,51 I remained only a member of the general He-Halutz.

I graduated from the Hebrew Gymnasium in 1933, passed the government matriculation examinations, and applied for admission to the university in Vilna. I also applied to the university in Jerusalem and was accepted there too. I don't know the meaning of the turn I took—instead of studying, I joined the He-Halutz training kibbutz on Subocz Street in Vilna. I think I was the only one in my class who went to He-Halutz. And I also tried to establish a movement of He-Halutz Ha-Tza'ir, which didn't exist in Vilna up to then. I didn't have much success, but a small branch

Yosef-Haim Brenner (1881-1921): Major Hebrew writer of the Second Aliya. Born in the Ukraine, lived in Bialystok*

, Warsaw, and London. Immigrated to Eretz Israel in 1909. Was murdered in the Arab riots in Jaffa on May 2, 1921.

Stybel (German: Stiebel): Publishing house founded in 1917 in Moscow by Abraham Yosef Stybel for the advancement of Hebrew literature, later moved to Warsaw.

Sholem Asch: Prominent Yiddish novelist and dramatist. Born in Poland, lived in the United States during both World Wars. Spent his last years in Bat Yam, Israel.

Lida: A small town near Vilna.

Dr. Mark Dworzecki: Physician in Vilna, author of the well-known Jerusalem of Lithuania in Struggle and Death , a history of the Vilna Ghetto (in Yiddish), Paris, 1948.

Small Zionist Socialist (non-Marxist) parties, which eventually merged with Po'alei Zion.

was set up. The regional council of He-Halutz for the Vilna district was located in the training kibbutz on Subocz Street. They knew me and, when I came, they drew me into activities in He-Halutz Ha-Tza'ir. My path in He-Halutz was the opposite of the normal one: not from the youth movement to the general He-Halutz, but vice-versa.

I don't remember how I got to the kibbutz on Subocz Street the first time; but I do remember a visit to Krupnicza 9, where Ha-Shomer Ha-Tza'ir had their club. It was a group of intellectuals, and they had a big branch. Ze'ev (Velvl) Shapiro, a member of the district council, was the one who brought me to He-Halutz. I joined the student group as "an unaffiliated Halutz." I was seventeen and a half at the time, in 1933-1934, and He-Halutz had a very nice branch in Vilna.

I remember May Day 1934 in Vilna: a thousand Halutzim paraded through the city. That year, I was elected secretary of He-Halutz in Vilna; Ze'ev (Velvl) Shapiro and Ruvke Tshirlin were on the council; and for a time, Yafa Broide, a Shaliah from Eretz Israel, also worked in the training program on Subocz. I was also appointed to the district council of He-Halutz at that time, and I started visiting small towns around Vilna, participating in symposia and such. At that period, Moshe Carmel52 was a Shaliah to He-Halutz Ha-Tza'ir in Poland. One winter day, we went together to lecture at a symposium. Many years later, Moshe told me he was amazed to hear a boy from the Diaspora lecture on Hebrew literature, on Brenner and Berditshevski.53

I already mentioned coming to Warsaw in 1936. I was sent to work in He-Halutz Ha-Tza'ir and I was put on the Central Committee of the Movement. Then I moved to Grochów, as I said, and was sent from there for operations in the He-Halutz Ha-Tza'ir movement. We called that activity "winning the educated youth" for He-Halutz Ha-Tza'ir, which previously consisted mostly of uneducated youth. The first attempt was in Kowel, where I met Zvi Melnitzer (Netzer), Sheindl Schwartz,54 and the whole Kowel group. That was the first time we penetrated the circles of young Jewish intelligentsia. In Kowel, the students' parents, led by Zvi Melnitzer's father, made a fuss. Melnitzer was a big shot, with a typical

Moshe Carmel was later a general in the Israeli army.

Micha Yosef Berditshevski (1865-1921): Hebrew writer and thinker. One of the most seminal figures in modern Hebrew literature and Jewish thought, embodying the difficult ambivalence between traditional Judaism and European culture.

Sheindl Schwartz: Born in Kowel. Active in the He-Halutz Ha-Tza'ir; joined the Grochów kibbutz in June 1938. One of the founders of the Dror underground in Nazi-occupied Kowel. Murdered by the Germans at the age of twenty-three. One of four signers (with Leah Fish, Rachel Fogelman, and David Eisenberg) of the inscription on the synagogue wall in Kowel.

rich man's house. Sheindl Schwartz was also from the "Kowel aristocracy." I would come to the Gymnasium to talk with the students and, one day, the students in the junior and senior classes stopped doing homework. So the teachers decided to ban me from the Gymnasium and from working with the students. In response, the students declared a strike and stopped studying, forcing the Gymnasium to allow me back, but on condition that I work in the Gymnasium only in the presence of a teacher. I remember one teacher of literature who sat there while I lectured on Brenner and "At the Railroad Station" by David Bergelson.55 He was amazed, shook my hand, and after that, no longer came to class during my discussions. The group I worked with was a very good group and later filled important functions in the Movement.

That was my early Kowel period, and there is a sequel to the tale. I said that, in 1939, in Vilna, the comrades decided that I and David Kozibrodski, who was about to go to Kowel, had to go to the Soviet zone because of the transfer of Vilna to the government of Lithuania. Since it was underground activity, young counselors had to be sent to Kowel and not Movement veterans, who were widely known. I didn't accept this argument, since although I was young I was already known in Poland, especially in Polesie and Wolyn*

, where I had worked in the youth movement and participated in seminars; I had worked in Kowel, Luck, and Ostrog. However, I did accept the argument that I had to do this work, because I was one of the young people.

That hasty departure from Vilna to Kowel haunted me for a long time. I didn't know it would be the last time I would see my parents and our home. Father said he didn't understand the point of my trip this time. He would have understood if I had gone closer to Eretz Israel. But to go farther away! I couldn't tell him I was going to do clandestine work. I shall never forget the picture: Mother didn't know anything. I went into the kitchen, came from behind her, picked her up, kissed her, and told her I was leaving. She started weeping. There was an atmosphere of pogrom in the streets, so I tried to convince Father not to accompany me. I begged but he wouldn't yield. It was night and he accompanied me to the train. I still imagine I hear the echo of his footsteps. There were few people in the street. This was how I left.

David Bergelson (1884-1952): Major Russian Yiddish writer; arrested in 1949 by the Stalinist regime and executed in August 1952.

Continues...

Excerpted from A Surplus of Memory: Chronicle of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprisingby Yitzhak Zuckerman Copyright © 1993 by Yitzhak Zuckerman. Excerpted by permission.
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Edition details

• Publisher: California University Press
• Publication date: 1993
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0520078411
• ISBN 13: 9780520078413
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 708