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| The photograph on the left was taken on Lag Ba’omer 1937. In the back row, left to right, are: Cwi, Tzvi Braun, Shifra Sokólka and Mordechaj Anielewicz. Seated in front are Mosze Moshe Domb and Rachel, Rachelka Zylberberg "Sarenka". On the right photograph, Rachelka Zylberberg and uprising leader Mordechaj Anielewicz are marked. |
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| Lag Ba’omer 1937 or 1938. In the back row, left to right, are: Cwi, Tzvi Braun, Shifra Sokólka, and Mordechaj Anielewicz. Seated in front are Mosze Moshe Domb and Rachel Zylberberg "Sarenka". Mordechaj Anielewicz was the leader of the Tel Amal division of Hashomer Hatzair, and the other four were also group leaders. |
At the Warsaw Ghetto Fighters Monument erected in the area of the former Warsaw Ghetto -- perhaps the most famous such monument in the world — one’s attention is immediately drawn to the face of the monument representing the seven insurgents bursting out of flames.
In the middle of the group, the central figure is Mordechaj Anielewicz, the leader of the Ghetto Uprising. He stands with a grenade in his left hand while his right hand is covered in bandages. Above Anielewicz stands a bare-breasted woman holding a baby, high up away from the flames. Who is she? Of course, she is a fighter, a leader, and a member of Hashomer Hatzair, a socialist-Zionist youth movement in Poland. Her name is Rachela, Rachelka Zylberberg, whom everyone called Sarenka
Rachel, Rachela Zylberberg - Sarenka (meaning “fawn" in Polish) was born in Warsaw in 1920. She excelled in her studies and was active in Hashomer Hatzair and also, like Anielewicz, in Bahazit. After the German invasion of Poland and the outbreak of World War II, Sarenka fled with her sister, Ruth, to Lithuania, overtaken by the Red Army and later by the Germans during Operation Barbarossa in the Summer of 1941. Sarenka gave birth to a daughter named Maya on 22 February 1941. It is therefore very likely that the child portrayed in Sarenka´s hands on the Ghetto Fighters Monument is her daughter Maya.
The Ghetto Fighters Monument was inaugurated on the fifth anniversary of the outbreak of the Ghetto Uprising on April 19, 1948. The State of Israel’s Declaration of Independence took place just 21 days after this inauguration
Why are there so many Hashomer Hatzair fighters on this side of the Monument? The simple answer is that it was Hashomer Hatzair who together with Dror built ŻOB (Żydowska Organizacja Bojowa or Jewish Combat Organization). The Monument was created by a sculptor, Nathan Rapoport, who was born in Warsaw and was also a member of Hashomer Hatzair.
Incidentally, Natan Rapoport created a relief commemorating Janusz Korczak and his children in New York (1980). The sculpture is named "Korczak´s Last Walk”. And Janusz Korczak also had a firm bond with Hashomer Hatzair, both before WWII and while in the Warsaw Ghetto, because he was among the founders of that organization, which was created in Gdansk in 1924. Korczak was writing the articles for the “Szomer", the Hashomer organization's newspaper in the Polish language.
Two of Korczak's books, Ludzie sa dobrzy and Trzy wyprawy Herszka, published in 1938 and 1939, are directly related to the Hashomer Hatzair ideas to emigrate to Eretz Israel and build the future there. In fact, Korczak met in August 1939 with Yitzhak Gruenbaum, a member of the Jewish Agency, to consult with him about his plans to immigrate to Palestine.
In the middle of the group, the central figure is Mordechaj Anielewicz, the leader of the Ghetto Uprising. He stands with a grenade in his left hand while his right hand is covered in bandages. Above Anielewicz stands a bare-breasted woman holding a baby, high up away from the flames. Who is she? Of course, she is a fighter, a leader, and a member of Hashomer Hatzair, a socialist-Zionist youth movement in Poland. Her name is Rachela, Rachelka Zylberberg, whom everyone called Sarenka
Rachel, Rachela Zylberberg - Sarenka (meaning “fawn" in Polish) was born in Warsaw in 1920. She excelled in her studies and was active in Hashomer Hatzair and also, like Anielewicz, in Bahazit. After the German invasion of Poland and the outbreak of World War II, Sarenka fled with her sister, Ruth, to Lithuania, overtaken by the Red Army and later by the Germans during Operation Barbarossa in the Summer of 1941. Sarenka gave birth to a daughter named Maya on 22 February 1941. It is therefore very likely that the child portrayed in Sarenka´s hands on the Ghetto Fighters Monument is her daughter Maya.
The Ghetto Fighters Monument was inaugurated on the fifth anniversary of the outbreak of the Ghetto Uprising on April 19, 1948. The State of Israel’s Declaration of Independence took place just 21 days after this inauguration
Why are there so many Hashomer Hatzair fighters on this side of the Monument? The simple answer is that it was Hashomer Hatzair who together with Dror built ŻOB (Żydowska Organizacja Bojowa or Jewish Combat Organization). The Monument was created by a sculptor, Nathan Rapoport, who was born in Warsaw and was also a member of Hashomer Hatzair.
Incidentally, Natan Rapoport created a relief commemorating Janusz Korczak and his children in New York (1980). The sculpture is named "Korczak´s Last Walk”. And Janusz Korczak also had a firm bond with Hashomer Hatzair, both before WWII and while in the Warsaw Ghetto, because he was among the founders of that organization, which was created in Gdansk in 1924. Korczak was writing the articles for the “Szomer", the Hashomer organization's newspaper in the Polish language.
Two of Korczak's books, Ludzie sa dobrzy and Trzy wyprawy Herszka, published in 1938 and 1939, are directly related to the Hashomer Hatzair ideas to emigrate to Eretz Israel and build the future there. In fact, Korczak met in August 1939 with Yitzhak Gruenbaum, a member of the Jewish Agency, to consult with him about his plans to immigrate to Palestine.
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| Two of Korczak's books from 1938 and 1939 are directly related to the Hashomer Hatzair ideas to emigrate to Eretz Israel and build the future there. |
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| Members of Hashomer Hatzair from the Korczak Orphanage go on a Lag B'omer outing. |
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| Janusz Korczak´s newspaper Mały Przeglad with a heading showing Shomer - Guard with a spade. He is followed by others who want to build Eretz Israel (my own explanation). The young Shomer walking against the rising Sun was introduced in May 21, 1937. |
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| Młody Czyn - newspaper of Hashomer Hacair in Poland. Here is an article by Janusz Korczak. |
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| People are good is the name of Janusz Korczak's novel about emigration from Poland to Eretz Israel. This article was written by one of the young readers of Młody Czyn, a newspaper. In the book review, there is a very special sentence in this article says that för him, Korczak is not just famous and admired, waking up the heart and thoughts, but he is in a way closer, like breathing the same air and sharing the same ideas (marked sentence). |
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| Memorial stone with the names of the Warsaw Ghetto fighters who died at Mila 18. |
