Authors: Matthew Brzezinski
C
HAPTER
29: Z
IVIA
L
ETS
L
OOSE
1
(now couldn’t sleep unless he had his trusted pistol under his pillow)
Boruch Spiegel, author interview, Montreal, October 2007.
2
The ZOB’s twenty-two fighting units had all been mobilized and deployed
Gutman,
Resistance
, p. 197.
3
“In the bunkers, people push and shove and lie down on planks”
Lubetkin,
Zaglada I Powstanie
, p. 105.
4
There were roughly 750 of them dispersed throughout the Jewish district’s three remaining sections
Gutman,
Resistance
, p. 204.
5
“we would have a thousand warriors rather than five hundred”
Lubetkin,
Zaglada I Powstanie
, p. 105.
6
“The day of revenge is upon us”
Ibid., p. 104.
7
“Behind them were tanks, armored vehicles, light cannons and hundreds of Waffen-SS units”
Ratheiser-Rotem,
Kazik
, p. 33.
8
“We don’t stand a chance”
Simha Ratheiser-Rotem, author interview, Jerusalem, March 2009.
9
only 850 Waffen-SS troops, drawn more or less equally from
Jürgen Stroop, progress report, April 19, 1943, translated in
The Stroop Report
(New York: Pantheon, 1979).
10
Deutsch-Negers
Kazimierz Moczarski,
Rozmowy z Katem
(Krakow: Znak, 2007), p. 177.
11
“Let them come”
Lubetkin,
Zaglada I Powstanie
, p. 106.
12
“I could see torn limbs flying through the air with my own eyes”
Ibid.
13
Juden haben Waffen
Haim Frymer in Gutman,
Resistance
, p. 207.
14
“We couldn’t help ourselves”
Lubetkin,
Zaglada I Powstanie
, p. 106.
15
Anielewicz’s groups had knocked out a tank on Zamenhof Street
Engelking and Leociak,
Getto Warszawskie
, p.734.
16
“We can’t get into the Ghetto”
Kurzman,
Bravest Battle
, p. 105.
17
Twelve men were dead or wounded, a tank was wrecked, and two armored personnel carriers were burned beyond recognition
Stroop,
Stroop Report
, April 19, 1943.
18
“That idiot, Von Sammern-Frankenegg, drove a tank into those narrow streets”
Moczarski,
Rozmowy z Katem
, pp. 179–80.
19
picked out a four-hundred-acre parcel near Lvov
Ibid., p. 157.
20
“alcohol, parties, and loose women”
Ibid., p. 172.
21
“finest Egyptian tobacco in the world”
Ibid.
22
“I’m assuming command”
Ibid., p. 181.
C
HAPTER
30: J
OANNA
P
RAYS
1
“I don’t really remember much beyond the fact”
Joanna Olczak-Ronikier, author interview, Warsaw, December 2009.
2
“They demanded an inspection of all the children”
Olczak-Ronikier,
W Ogrodzie Pamieci
, p. 286.
3
“I don’t remember being especially frightened”
Joanna Olczak-Ronikier, author interview, Warsaw, December 2009.
4
“smell of ersatz coffee and slightly burned porridge”
Olczak-Ronikier,
W Ogrodzie Pamieci
, p. 285.
5
“Was it through mutual friends?”
Ibid., p. 284.
6
“Don’t provoke the Poles”
Moczarski,
Rozmowy z Katem
, p. 181.
7
“Poland has to wait and gather its strength”
Gutman,
Resistance
, pp. 212–13.
8
“a wide assortment of Hebrew dictionaries, textbooks, and self-teaching guides”
Jewish Historical Institute, Warsaw, archival map exhibit, November 2009.
9
The famous Moskowicz Cheese Shop had been next door, along with Goldstein’s Laundry
Ibid.
10
“No sooner had he finished speaking than the house shook”
Borzykowski,
Between Tumbling Walls
, p. 52.
11
“Afraid to stick their heads out, they fired blind”
Ibid.
12
“We were beginning to feel the fire”
Ibid., p. 53.
13
“It was a way so difficult”
Ibid.
C
HAPTER
31: G
HETTOGRAD
1
“Damn you”
Moczarski,
Rozmowy z Katem
, p. 186.
2
“Continue to play thus, Maestro”
Ibid., p. 187.
3
thanks to the four submachine guns delivered by Security Corps
Apfelbaum,
Two Flags
, p. 204.
4
“Get those flags down, Stroop”
Ibid.
5
his finger on the trigger of an IED
Simha Ratheiser-Rotem, author interview, Jerusalem, March 2009.
6
Many of the hundred German and Ukrainian soldiers in the assault party
Edelman,
I Bila Milosc w Getcie
, p. 115.
7
a geyser of water shot straight upward
Ibid.
8
most of the four thousand slave laborers hiding in cellars in the Brushmakers District
Mark Edelman, author interview, Lodz, May 2007.
9
“Shoot them”
Ibid.
10
“Hans, look, a woman!”
Ratheiser-Rotem,
Kazik
, p. 34.
11
Four of the ten fighters in Simha’s group were women
Ibid., p. 33.
12
“These females fired pistols from both hands”
Stroop,
Stroop Report
, p. 8.
13
“During the night the fires we had started earlier forced the Jews to appear”
Ibid., p. 27.
14
“embark on the total destruction of the Jewish quarter”
Ibid, p. 9.
15
“I’m not going down there”
Boruch Spiegel, author interview, Montreal, November 2007.
16
As many as eighty ZOB members had participated in the opening battle
Ibid.
17
“We are going to die”
Krall,
Shielding the Flame
, p. 5.
18
“The sea of flames flooded houses and courtyards”
Edelman,
Ghetto Fights
, p. 80.
19
“We didn’t think of committing suicide”
Boruch Spiegel, author interview, Montreal, November 2007.
20
the old Municipal Courts building with its soaring six-story columns
Kasprzycki,
Korzenie Miasta
, vol. 2, p. 148.
21
But David Apfelbaum and Paul Frenkel … were reportedly refusing to use it
Lazar,
Muranowska 7
, p. 281.
22
bringing their children to watch his artillerymen level the Ghetto
Balicka-Koslowska,
Mur Mial Dwie Strony
, p. 26.
23
“It is impossible not to sympathize with and admire the Jewish population”
Dzien Warszawy
, April 20, 1943.
24
“The smoke clouds over Warsaw cannot disappear without a trace”
Polska, Zwyciezy
, April 30, 1943.
25
275
HORRIBLE CRIME COMMITTED BY JEWS FROM THE NKVD
Nowy Kurjer Warszawski
, April 18, 1943, p. 1.
26
“The Jews’ struggle has nothing to do with Poland”
Kurzman,
Bravest Battle
, p. 286.
27
Eighteen members of a Security Corps extraction squad were mobilized
Lazar,
Muranowska 7
, p. 279.
28
“With Iwanski leading the way, the men plodded along in single file”
Kurzman,
Bravest Battle
, p. 239.
29
The street had been one of the wealthiest in the poorer northern part of the Jewish district
Opoczynski,
Reportaze z Warszawskiego Getta
, p. 20.
30
But there was nothing left of the Gdansk Café, Nathan Gershwin Pharmaceuticals, the Style hairdressing salon
Kasprzycki,
Korzenie Miasta
, vol. II, p. 159.
31
“Thank God you’ve come”
Kurzman,
Bravest Battle
, p. 240.
32
Three hundred and twenty German and Latvian SS troops
Stroop,
Stroop Report
, p. 39.
33
Skeptical Polish and Israeli historians, however, would later cast doubt on many of the claims
Libionka and Weinbaum, “Deconstructing Memory and History,”
Jewish Political Studies Review
18:1–2 (Spring 2006).
34
“Iron Cross 1st Class”
Wdowinski,
And We Are Not Saved
, p. 203.
35
“The assault party discovered a gang of 120 men, heavily armed with pistols”
Stroop,
Stroop Report
, p. 39.
36
“Polish terrorists were identified with certainty among the bandits”
Ibid., p. 40.
37
Iwanski posthumously promoted him to major
Apfelbaum,
Two Flags
, p. 227.
C
HAPTER
32: F
ALLEN
A
NGEL
1
“The total number of Jews apprehended has risen to 40,237”
Ibid., p. 49.
2
“You couldn’t blame them”
Mark Edelman, author interview, Lodz, May 2007.
3
“Anyone walking on top of the rubble would never have believed that only a few meters”
Zivia Lubetkin,
Zaglada I Powstanie
, p. 118.
4
“Everyone out”
Mark Edelman, author interview, Lodz, May 2007.
5
“Mark was very cold, but he was also very brave”
Beres and Burnetko,
Marek Edelman
, p. 177.
6
“He was ruthless, but you felt safe around him”
Ibid., p. 178.
7
Mark’s plan was to send them a distraction, a pretty young ZOB member
Kurzman,
Bravest Battle
, pp. 274–75.
8
Stroop’s daily casualty rate had spiked to seven
Stroop,
Stroop Report
, p. 49.
9
a cramped and foul-smelling dugout that had been excavated by Ghetto garbage collectors
Mark Edelman, author interview, Lodz, May 2007.
10
By May 7, with the influx of Edelman’s team, it was over three hundred
Lubetkin,
Zaglada I Powstanie
, p. 111.
11
“He behaves here in the bowels of the earth like king of the roost”
Ibid.
12
“He and his pals treated the Fighting Organization with great respect”
Ibid.
13
“We feared meeting the dead more than living Germans”
Ibid., p. 121.
14
“His face sagged with worry”
Ibid., p. 111.
15
By nine o’clock there was still no word and Edelman’s patience had worn thin
Mark Edelman, author interview, Lodz, May 2007.
16
“Mark was always full of bravado, flouting safety regulations”
Zivia Lubetkin,
Zaglada I Powstanie
, p. 130.
17
She had fallen through a crevice
Mark Edelman, author interview, Lodz, May 2007.
18
“We started thinking about what practical jokes we could pull”
Lubetkin,
Zaglada I Powstanie
, p. 130.