| WARSAW GHETTO |
The Warsaw Ghetto was established by a decree dated October 2, 1940 by Dr. Ludwig Fischer, the German Governor of the Warsaw district. Within eight days, Jews had been rounded up and herded into the ghetto. By November 15, the Ghetto was closed. No Jews were permitted to leave, under threat of death. In the ensuing weeks and months more Jews were imprisoned as well as Jews deported from all points of Europe to the ghetto in Warsaw, the largest of several ghettos throughout Poland. Four hundred thousand men, women and children were crowded within the walls of one gigantic prison, covering an area somewhat larger than one square mile. The Germans kept the food rations at below subsistence level. . They were slowly starved to death, and many died in the streets. Disease was rampant. The ruling body of the Ghetto, the Judenrat, led by Adam Czerniakow, were appointed by the Germans and given the responsiblity of conducting their own internal affairs, such as issuing birth and death certificates, food ration cards, collecting taxes and so on. While the Jews believed they had autonomy, it was merely an illusion. The Germans ordered the members of the Judenrat to obey all German commands, and warned them that if they did not obey, their representatives could be easily be replaced with those chosen by the Germans. Therefore, the Judenrat's allegiance was not to the Jews, but to the Germans. The main activity of the Judenrat was to supply the Germans with Jews for forced labor camps. As a result the Judenrat held enormous power over the life and death of their Jewish compatriots. Armed with a list of names of the registered occupants of the Ghetto, the Judenrat selected Jews for "resettlement" - but in reality they were being sent to the extermination camps. Corruption was rampant, where wealthy Jews were able to pay the Judenrat large amounts of money in order to be exempted from deportation. Instead, poorer Jews were sent to their deaths. The delivery of Jewish quotas to the Germans were carried out by the Jewish Auxiliary Police, or Blue Police. When Germans first started recruting Jews to the force, they were swamped with men vying to register. To those Jews who were accepted, it meant freedom from Nazi persecution, assault, or deportation to labor or death camps. The Jewish Police enjoyed greater privileges. They came from every walk of life - college-educated men, professionals, white collar workers, sons of wealthy entrepreneurs. The prize they all sought was nothing more than a black cap with a blue Star of David. As soon as they donned the " uniform " they were transformed into degenerate monsters and used bribery, blackmail, and extortion to extract money from their Jewish victims. The Germans did not pay them wages. Life in the ghetto was self-sufficient. The Jews had to smuggle food or die. It was relatively easy to procure food just by bribing the ghetto sentries, who merely looked the other way. Many children of the ghetto sneaked out during the night to smuggle food. There was the constant danger that if any of the children were caught in the act, the Germans would have shot them on sight. In the deepest part of the Warsaw Ghetto, as if in the depths of hell, existed throngs of people everywhere, and often it was impossible to maintain one's equilibrium as though one were carried upon waves of human misery. Old and young, mothers tried to sell rags. Dead bodies lay on the sidewalks covered with newspapers. They were left there because relatives wanted to avoid paying a funeral fee. Beggars were everywhere. Despite the grotesque ugliness pervading within the ghetto walls, an intellectual and cultural life flourished. Education, though conducted in secret, was widespread. Students listened in rapt attention to their professors' lectures temporarily oblivious to the gunshots and screams from the outside. Artistic performances took place in Sztuka Concert Hall, where Maira Eisenstadt sang. Piano concertos were given by Ludomir Rosycki, and Pola Brawn delivered witty reviews of life in the Ghetto complete with vicious barbs against the hated Germans. The Jewish Underground press thrived, though it was declared by the Germans to be illegal. The press represented every Jewish political faction - the nationalistic Zionist movement, the Socialist Bund, and the Jewish Communists, among others. Circulation was small, usually in the hundreds because printing presses had been confiscated by the Germans. Copies were made on two mimeograph machines that some Jews had stolen and hid. Mass deportations were conducted on a regular basis under the guise of relocation to labor camps. Initially, none of the Jews suspected that the real destination were the death camps. Thousands had gone voluntarily believing that they would be sent to labor camps. When suspicions began to spread throughout the Ghetto, fewer Jews were willing to report for "relocation". The Germans had to use enticements such as additional food rations, or marmelade, to lure the Jews to go willingly. Many fell for the trick and died in the gas chambers. To the outside world it seemed as though the Jews passively accepted their fate, and even willingly submitted to it. In reality, the isolation of the Jews within the Ghetto walls made it virtually impossible for them to know what was really going on. Although rumors circulated, no one wanted to believe that the German Kultur could ever resort to such beastly murders. Even the British government refused to believe it, when the Polish Underground sent secret messages reporting on the German atrocities against the Jews in the Ghettos. In this pit of human misery, Jewish culture and education thrived and became the center of their activities. While it gave Jews the illusion of normality, they squandered precious time that could otherwise have been applied to strengthening an armed resistance. Many Jews trusted that if they were to remain obedient to German commands, they might be able to survive until the Allies came to liberate them, or other believed in Divine Providence as their only salvation. Despite this passivity, there existed a Jewish Underground, created for the purpose of saving as many Jews as possible from annihilation, or die trying. They had many contacts with their counterparts in the Polish Underground. Similar but smaller uprisings also took place at ghettos in Bialystock, Czestochowa, Bedzin, Krakow, and Lodz. The liquidation of the Warsaw Ghetto was ordered by SS Brigadier-General Stroop. In January 1943, German soldiers stormed into the Ghetto with objective of its total annihilation. They were surprised by the existence of a formidable Jewish armed resistance - and had to retreat - temporarily. On April 19, the Germans made a second attempt, this time storming in with an army of over 2,000 soldiers, all heavily armed. They systemically slaughtered thousands of Jewish civilians including members of the Jewish Underground. Of 500,000 inhabitants in the Warsaw Ghetto, 14,000 were killed during the fighting or burned alive in their houses, 7,000 were sent to the death camps at Treblinka, and the remainder were deported to camps at Majdanek. All perished. In 1939 there were 3.5 million Jews in Poland, with 360,000 in Warsaw alone. After the war, there remained 25,000 Jewish survivors. The world looked the other way. Nations refused to believe what was happening in Poland. But the Polish Govenment-in-exile knew about these atrocities, and appealed continuously to Western Allies to intervene, but it fell on deaf ears. |