The Ghetto Fights
Marek
Edelman, Bookmarks / book
review by Tony Greenstein in RETURN, December1990 The Warsaw
Ghetto Uprising stands as one of the finest symbols of humanity's capacity to
resist oppression, no matter how powerful the enemy seems. Even today, it
stands as a beacon of light for those without hope. From July to
September 1942 the Nazis deported three-quarters of the ghetto, over a
quarter of million Jews, to the Treblinka death camp. The left political
groups in the ghetto had stood by, impotent with rage, without arms, as the
Jewish Police hunted down their fellow Jews. In the months
that followed the beginnings of physical resistance took shape. There had
always been political opposition within the Ghetto, the Bund (Jewish Workers
Party) putting out regular bulletins and newssheets. In January 1943 an
Aktion was met by armed resistance. With only a few revolvers, the SS and
their Latvian and Ukrainan helpers were driven back. The Nazis backed off for
3 months and the Jewish Fighting Organisation (ZOB) took control of the
streets. When the Nazis moved in on April 19, 1943, it took them longer to
conquer the Ghetto than it had to conquer all of History is
written and re-written from the standpoint of those in power. Thus it is that
the Jewish Establishment whose equivalent in the Warsaw Ghetto, the Judenrat
(Jewish Council) was one of the main obstacles to resistance, today pay
homage to the Resistance. Likewise all those Zionists who negotiated and
collaborated with Nazism, even to the extent of conducting profitable trade
with the murderers, now make an obscene comparison between the fighters of
the Ghetto and Israeli militarism. Hollywood films
such as The Wall would have us believe that the goal of the fighters was to
reach The Uprising is
claimed by the Zionists today as proof that they resisted. It is true that
the left-Zionist groups, especially their youth wings, fought valiantly. Yet
in such a situation, it was hardly their Zionism which was responsible for
this. Indeed it was when these same groups had abandoned any practical commitment
to Zionist goals, eg. the maintenance of kibbutzim on farms from which Poles
had been sent for forced labour in If not for the
Bund and the Communists, resistance would not have occurred. Only the Left
had developed relations with the non-Jewish parties. The Zionists, having
always preached that Jews should keep themselves apart from non-Jewish Poles
and, with the exception of Left Poale Zion having abstained from the fight
against the anti-Semites in pre-war This book was
first published in 1946. Marek Edelman, deputy leader of ZOB, was a member of
the anti-Zionist Bund, which in last pre-war elections in This book tugs
at the whole range of human emotions - despair, joy, grief and hope. How was
it possible for people to resist the most powerful army on earth armed with
little more than pistols, having been starved for two years? When a loaf of
bread had enticed so many into the death trains only months before. For me the most
searing account is that of the escape of Edelman's band of fighters into the
Central ghetto. He commanded the group in the shops area - where the German
factories were situated - which was set alight by the Nazis in order to smoke
out the resistance. A decision was taken to flee and in one fell swoop, they
darted through the flames and fiery ruins. As they crossed over, a
searchlight was trained upon them. A shot rang out and the darkness returned
and the fighters were safe. Edelman's
political integrity is in itself a testimony to the struggle of the human
spirit. Contrary to the assertions of Zionist historians he states that the
reason ZOB had so few arms was not because of the anti-Semitism of the Polish
resistance but because they too had so few. The precondition for resistance
was the elimination of the Jewish collaborators and the terrorising of the
Jewish establishment in the ghetto. Ironically this is exactly what the
Palestinians are doing today in the Intifada. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Elaborating on
this subject here is a Letter to the editor by Prof. Israel Shahak, published
on 19 May 1989 in Kol Ha'ir, Falsification
of the Holocaust
I disagree with
the opinion of Haim Baram that the Israeli education system has managed to
instil a 'Holocaust awareness' in its pupils (Kol Ha'Ir 12.5.89). It's not an
awareness of the Holocaust but rather the myth of the Holocaust or even a
falsification of the Holocaust (in the sense that 'a half-truth is worse than
a lie') which has been instilled here. As one who
himself lived through the Holocaust, first in One of my own
strongest memories is that, when the Jewish underground killed a despicable
collaborator close to my home at the end of February 1943, I danced and sang
around the still bleeding corpse together with the other children. I still do
not regret this, quite the contrary. It is clear that
such events were not exclusive to the Jews, the entire Nazi success in easy
and continued rule over millions of people stemmed from the subtle and
diabolical use of collaborators, who did most of the dirty work for them. But
does anybody now know about this ? This, and not what is 'instilled' was the
reality. Of the Yad Vashem (official state Holocaust museum in Therefore, if we
knew a little of the truth about the Holocaust, we would at least understand
(with or without agreeing) why the Palestinians are now eliminating their
collaborators. That is the only means they have if they wish to continue to
struggle against our limb-breaking regime. |
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