Re: The Warsaw Ghetto

On Monday, October 10, 2022 at 3:14:47=E2=80=AFPM UTC-4, Ed Debevic wrote:
> by Eli Gat=20
>=20
>=20
> Like many Holocaust survivors, I=E2=80=99ve always felt uncomfortable abo=
ut=20
> the way the memory of the Holocaust has been shaped. The myth of the=20
> Warsaw Ghetto Uprising is an excellent example.=20
>=20
> The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising =E2=80=93 the very name is deceptive. The Jews=
 of=20
> the Warsaw Ghetto never revolted. In the summer of 1942 some 300,000=20
> Jews from the ghetto were sent to Treblinka and murdered. Around=20
> 50,000 people were left in the ghetto; they were spared death at the=20
> time because they were skilled professionals who worked in German=20
> factories both inside and outside the ghetto. These people never=20
> thought about revolt, they thought about survival.=20
>=20
> Only a small group of young people revolted, whose size and efforts=20
> were inflated to mythic proportions in Israel after the state was=20
> established in 1948. More importantly, the uprising, which started on=20
> April 19, 1943, contradicted the survival strategy of the masses of=20
> Jews who remained in the ghetto.=20
>=20
> The idea of the revolt and armed warfare jibed with the ethos of the=20
> prestate Jewish community in Palestine and the young nation. It was=20
> exaggerated by the activist part of the Labor movement =E2=80=93 the Ahdu=
t=20
> Ha'avoda party and its affiliated kibbutz movement =E2=80=93 which also l=
aid=20
> claim to the uprising while repressing the memory of other movements=20
> that took part, like the Bundists, Communists and right-wing=20
> Revisionists.=20
>=20
> Due to pressure from this part of the Labor movement, the memorial day=20
> for the destruction of European Jewry was named Holocaust and Heroism=20
> Remembrance Day, as if there was any proportionality between the two=20
> parts of the phrase. Ahdut Ha'avoda attacked David Ben-Gurion and=20
> Mapai =E2=80=93 another precursor to the Labor Party =E2=80=93 and waved =
its banner=20
> of military activism: In Israel the Palmach, in the Holocaust the=20
> ghetto fighters.=20
>=20
> The uprising was also inflated by a blurring of the numbers: the=20
> number of German casualties, the number of ghetto fighters and the=20
> length of the uprising. In the first works after the Holocaust,=20
> writers talked about hundreds of Germans killed. But the daily reports=20
> sent out by the commander who destroyed the ghetto later came to=20
> light. Based on these reports from SS Gen. Jurgen Stroop, which no one=20
> questions, 16 Germans were killed in the fighting. After these reports=20
> came to light, the original writings on the uprising were filed away=20
> and never mentioned.=20
>=20
> A second murky figure is the number of people who took part in the=20
> uprising, in which two umbrella organizations participated. One was=20
> the left-wing Jewish Combat Organization (Zydowska Organizacja Bojowa,=20
> or ZOB), which included groups from movements with socialist and=20
> communist leanings, both Zionist and non-Zionist. The second consisted=20
> of the people from right-wing Beitar, which operated within the Jewish=20
> Military Union (Zydowski Zwiazek Wojskowy, or ZWW).=20
>=20
> Yitzhak (Antek) Zuckerman (Icchak Cukierman) was a ZOB leader and a=20
> key figure in building up the uprising's image after the war in Israel=20
> . He claimed that around 500 fighters took part in the revolt. Another=20
> participant in the uprising, Stefan Grayek, put the figure at 700.=20
>=20
> Among historians, Prof. Yehuda Bauer of the Hebrew University of=20
> Jerusalem states (without giving details) that there were some 750 to=20
> 1,000 fighters, while Prof. Israel Gutman, who took part in the=20
> uprising and wrote a book after doing separate research, put the=20
> number at only 350. None of these numbers =E2=80=93 except it seems Bauer=
=E2=80=99s =E2=80=93=20
> include the fighters of the right-wing organizations from which there=20
> were no survivors to provide testimony and whose contribution was met=20
> with thunderous silence for many years.=20
>=20
> The most reliable testimony on many points about the uprising,=20
> including the number of participants, was given by one of its leaders,=20
> Marek Edelman. Edelman, a Bundist, remained in Poland after the war=20
> and therefore became an untouchable as far as the institutions that=20
> organized the remembrance in Israel were concerned.=20
>=20
> Edelman put the number of ZOB fighters at about 220. When asked what=20
> he based his figures on, he responded: =E2=80=9CI was there and knew ever=
yone.=20
> It=E2=80=99s not hard to know 220 people.=E2=80=9D As for the gap between=
 this figure=20
> and Zuckerman=E2=80=99s, Edelman said: =E2=80=9CAntek had political motiv=
es and I=20
> didn=E2=80=99t.=E2=80=9D=20
>=20
> Assuming that the number of fighters in the right-wing organization =E2=
=80=93=20
> for which there are no clear numbers =E2=80=93 was smaller, it=E2=80=99s =
reasonable to=20
> assume that the total number of participants in the revolt was less=20
> than 400 people, out of some 50,000 people in the ghetto.=20
>=20
> Just two days of hard fighting=20
>=20
> The figures on the length of the real fighting were also inflated.=20
> Gutman stretches out the uprising to a month. But Stroop=E2=80=99s report=
s, as=20
> well as the testimony of the uprising=E2=80=99s leaders, show that the ac=
tual=20
> battles took place over only two days. This was because the ZOB=E2=80=99s=
=20
> battle plans were never carried out in full. Their conception was to=20
> take positions in windows, fire guns and throw grenades, and then take=20
> new positions.=20
>=20
> At the start of the revolt on April 19, the Germans were surprised by=20
> the armed resistance and retreated from the ghetto. But after they=20
> reorganized, they had no intention of chasing the Jews from house to=20
> house and suffering casualties. Instead, they decided to destroy the=20
> ghetto and set it ablaze.=20
>=20
> The members of the ZOB who thought the fate of the Jews in the ghetto=20
> was set in any case =E2=80=93 to die =E2=80=93 had planned to fight and d=
ie with=20
> their guns in their hands. But they found themselves hiding and=20
> searching for an escape from the destruction and flames. In the end,=20
> they were forced to flee and burned up with the ghetto=E2=80=99s inhabita=
nts,=20
> in opposition to their original plans.=20
>=20
> Zivia Lubetkin, a leader of the revolt, wrote about it this way: =E2=80=
=9CWe=20
> were all helpless, shocked with embarrassment. All our plans were=20
> ruined. We had dreamed of a last battle in which we knew we would be=20
> defeated by the enemy, but they would pay with a great deal of blood.=20
> All our plans were ruined, and without any other opening the decision=20
> was made: We would leave. It was no longer possible to fight.=E2=80=9D=20
>=20
> Zuckerman wrote: =E2=80=9CWe knew all the exits very well, all the roofto=
p=20
> passages. If the war had been carried out ... without flamethrowers,=20
> thousands of troops would have had to be sent into battle to defeat=20
> us.=E2=80=9D=20
>=20
> The first group of ZZW fighters left the ghetto on April 20, the=20
> revolt=E2=80=99s second day, through tunnels prepared in advance. A secon=
d=20
> group left on April 22 and a last group on April 26. Most if not all=20
> were killed when they were discovered on the Polish side.=20
>=20
> The ZOB fighters, who had not intended to leave the ghetto, had not=20
> prepared escape routes. Only thanks to the sewage tunnels and help=20
> from the Polish side could they leave the ghetto. On April 28 a first=20
> group left. On May 8, Mordechai Anielewicz, the ZOB=E2=80=99s commander,=
=20
> committed suicide after his group=E2=80=99s basement hiding place was=20
> revealed. On May 9 the remnants of the ZOB left the ghetto. All told,=20
> some 100 ZOB fighters fled.=20
>=20
> Within a few days the two military organizations left (or fled) the=20
> bombed and burned-out ghetto and its 50,000 inhabitants, leaving the=20
> residents to the terrible revenge of the Germans. It is thought that=20
> the Germans murdered 10,000 ghetto residents; they sent the rest to=20
> camps near Lublin.=20
>=20
> Ruining a survival strategy=20
>=20
> The uprising thus interfered with the survival strategy of the masses=20
> of Jews in the ghetto. To understand this, one must first understand=20
> the change in the situation between the mass transports in 1942, when=20
> the vast majority of Jews in Poland were exterminated over a short=20
> period of time, and the situation in 1943.=20
>=20
> During this time came the turning point of World War II. In November=20
> 1942 the Russians broke through the front around Stalingrad and by the=20
> beginning of February 1943 the entire Sixth Army had surrendered. At=20
> the same time the Germans were defeated at El Alamein in the Egyptian=20
> desert, and the Allies landed in French Northwest Africa.=20
>=20
> These routs breathed hope in occupied Europe for a relatively quick=20
> defeat of Germany. Even the Jews=E2=80=99 hopes were buoyed. If they coul=
d=20
> somehow hang on another day, maybe they could be saved.=20
>=20
> There was even something of a change in the German policy toward the=20
> Jews. The destruction of every last Jew may still have been the=20
> highest priority, but the urgency eased a bit after most of the goal=20
> had been reached and in light of the war=E2=80=99s economic needs. The Ge=
rmans=20
> needed workers for its factories after the entire fit German workforce=20
> had been drafted for fighting. Forced labor was used all over Europe.=20
>=20
> The 50,000 or so Jews who remained in the Warsaw Ghetto after the=20
> transports of 1942 had survived, as in other ghettos in occupied=20
> Poland, largely because they worked in factories for Germany. Many of=20
> these factories were owned and managed by Germans, who negotiated with=20
> the German authorities and the SS to hold on to their workers.=20
>=20
> In light of all this, the Jews=E2=80=99 belief grew that somehow they cou=
ld=20
> survive. They had two bad options: Flee the ghetto to the hostile=20
> Polish side or continue working in the German factories. Both options=20
> meant living day to day in the hope the war would end quickly.=20
>=20
> At the end of the war, hundreds of thousands of Jews survived in=20
> Poland and Germany. In Warsaw alone the number of survivors is=20
> estimated at about 25,000. Death in battle, as the ghetto fighters=20
> planned, did not keep with the intentions of the vast majority of Jews=20
> remaining.=20
>=20
> Many historians of the Holocaust and the uprising came from a=20
> political camp enlisted for political purposes. Their influence on the=20
> Yad Vashem Holocaust museum was great. They wrote our history books=20
> and shaped our remembrance of the Holocaust.=20
>=20
> Their influence on their students and followers is still greatly felt=20
> today. Thus the question has never been raised: What right did a small=20
> group of young people have to decide the fate of the 50,000 Jews of=20
> the Warsaw Ghetto?=20
>=20
> Eli Gat is a Holocaust survivor and the author of =E2=80=9CNot Just Anoth=
er=20
> Holocaust Book.=E2=80=9D=20
>=20
> https://www.haaretz.com/jewish/.premium-warsaw-ghetto-myths-1.5302604

The cowardly jews would NEVER fight back