ARMED RESISTANCE OF THE JEWS IN POLAND – by Jacob Apenszlak and Moshe Polakiewicz, published by American Federation for Polish Jews, New York 1944 – first edition. On the cover is a black and white illustration of a Jewish fighter with an armband of a Star of David, in front of the Nazi SS headquarters building with a swastika and Nazi flag at the front, and on the right a Jewish synagogue, in the background rivers of blood in color. Cover design by Noya Koslowsky (an illustration that over the years became a symbol of resistance to the Nazis).
An early booklet that provides a comprehensive picture of the Jewish resistance in Poland during the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. The booklet was published in New York in 1944 less than a year after the uprising, and before the end of World War II. The editor writes about it in the introduction: “The reader must remember that nowhere is there a complete picture of the hermetically sealed Jewish prison enclosed within Nazi-ruled Europe. Even the Poles who were in Warsaw during the ghetto revolt did not know the full story… One day, and that day will not be long in coming, the world will have the full, detailed, documented story of this unique armed rebellion in world history… In the absence of the possibility of on-site investigation, the report presented in this book may be accepted as authentic documentation”. The authors documenting the heroes of the revolt and the events in detail relied on several sources in an attempt to compile the overall picture – fragmented reports sent from Poland, secret radio broadcasts that reached the free world, reports printed in the Polish underground press, and a report that came from a resistance fighter who managed to escape. This publication came out in the midst of the war before the surrender of the Nazi occupier, and collecting information into a complete picture required great efforts. The report details the organization of the Jewish underground before the outbreak of the revolt, the underground propaganda activities in an attempt to recruit as many Jews as possible to the resistance, the cooperation between the Jewish underground and the Polish partisan guerrilla fighters, the attempt to appeal to American leadership, and at the same time secret reports to Israel, stages of the outbreak of the revolt – including first-hand reports of the ghetto battle, the situation after a week of fighting, the role of women who joined the resistance, and the final stages of the revolt. At the end of the booklet there are reports of other manifestations of Jewish resistance – resistance in other ghettos, the organized armed uprising of Jewish workers in Lublin, the Jewish underground in Tarnow, the battle in the Bialystok ghetto, the revolt of Jews in the death camps of Treblinka and Sobibor, the struggle of the Jews of the Vilna ghetto, the unwritten final chapter, and more.
Among other things, appears a map of the Warsaw Ghetto, “Yizkor” for the fallen, as well as photos published here for the first time: pictures of Eliezer Reichter, leader of the Left – Poalei Zion who was killed in the Warsaw Ghetto revolt, Dr. Hirschfeld, leader of Mizrachi who was killed in Tarnow, Dr. Ignacy Schiper, historian and Zionist leader who was killed in the Poniatowa concentration camp, Prof. Meir Balaban – Jewish historian murdered in Warsaw, photo of German guards at one of the entrances to the Warsaw ghetto, a street blocked by a stone fence in the ghetto, a poster distributed by the Gestapo announcing the execution of hostages in response to the underground’s attack on German soldiers in Warsaw, the 16th century synagogue destroyed by the Germans during the resistance, a German poster announcing the execution of rebels, a camp of Polish soldiers hiding in the woods, Jewish fighters in the Polish underground army taking position by a machine gun, a building completely destroyed during the revolt, Jewish hostages captured by the Germans, a German sign near the forest warning against guerrilla fighters.
In November 1943 Joseph Tennenbaum (writer of the book’s introduction) received a chilling letter from a Jewish fighter in Poland, saying: “When you read this letter, do not think that we are broken in spirit or have become desperate. We just look soberly at our inevitable fate… It will be easier for us to die knowing that there will be a free world. With faith that Eretz Israel will become the homeland of the Jewish people…”.
On the back of the booklet is a photo of a patriotic father, mother and son against the backdrop of the American flag and the caption: “Counterattack! Buy war bonds”.
80 p. Very good condition.
