Eliazer Geller - Day 13 - Friday 30 April 1943 - Warsaw Ghetto Uprising

A letter signed by Eugeniusz, the moniker of Eliezer Geller, to his comrades in Mandate Palestine.
He describes his situation. Warsaw, June 7, 1943.

Eliezer Geller letter to friends in Eretz Israel. He describes Celina (Lubetkin) and Tosia (Altman). He also mentions Regards from Haganska which is a kind of code related to Hagana (?). In the same way, the name of Celina (Lubetkin) was used in several letters. As mentioned Tosia Altman was captured two weeks later when the factory she and others (also Eliezer) were sheltering caught fire. Severely burned, she was handed over to the Gestapo and died two days later.

A 40-person group of ŻOB fighters under the command of Eliezer Geller (from Gordonia), from the area of Többens and Schultz's shops, try to get out of the ghetto. They go down to the sewage mains on Leszno St. Several hours later they come out on the corner of Ogrodowa and Żelazna Streets. They are transported out of Warsaw by car.

Stroop writes in his report “Despite the fact that huge blocks of houses were completely burned down, Jews still survive in bunkers located 2–3 meters underground,” which are very difficult to detect. The Germans wipe out 30 bunkers and destroy all escape routes to the “Aryan side”. 1,599 Jews are captured, 179 of whom are “shot in combat”. 3,855 people are loaded onto trains at the Umschlagplatz. Stroop reports to his superiors that 37,359 Jews have been captured since the operation began. He assures them the operation will continue the next day.


Eliazer Geller was born in Opoczno in 1919. He was among the initiators in setting up fighting underground in Czestochowa and Zaglebie. Geller served in the Polish army in 1939 and, along with many of his comrades, fell prisoner to the Germans and was freed after four months. He then went to Warsaw, where he was called upon by Yisrael Zeltzer, the only one of the Gordonia leadership still alive, to take on extensive movement activities. Geller distributed the movement's publications in the underground, visited Gordonia branches throughout Poland, and made contact with the Gordonia office in Geneve (Geneva). Geller and Zeltzer did not work well together, and they turned for mediation to Dr. Natan Eck, to decide which of them would step down from Gordonia's leadership. Eck decided in favor of Geller, who was made a member of the movement's directorate.

In the January 1943 fighting in the ghetto, Geller fought in the Dror/Gordonia combat group, and was made commander of a squad in the Toebbens - Schultz "shop" area. In the Warsaw ghetto uprising in April 1943, Geller commanded a combat squad at 76 Leszno Street.
On May 10, 1943, he left the burning ghetto via the sewers to the "Aryan" side of Warsaw. He and other fighters took refuge at a celluloid factory at 10 Listopadowa 11 Street (November 11th, Poland's Independence Day). Geller was burned in the fire that broke out there on May 24, 1943 -- he was the only survivor -- and succeeded in escaping from the Polish police. In the summer of 1943, he tried to leave Poland with forged documents of a South American national, but was caught and sent to Auschwitz, where he perished.

O co chodzi żonkilowcom? O Święto żonkilka?

Narcyzy chca by żonkile przypominaly Bund a jak Bund to i KOR no i Edelmana.

Przy tym niestety aktywnie zapomina się o Powstaniu w Getcie tylko komu przyczepiono żonkilek albo kto nie pozwolil sobie przyczepic żonkilka.


Jest juz Święto Kwiatów, Owoców i Warzyw no to można wprowadzic Święto żonkilka i walczyc o pamięc Edelmana zapominajac o Powstaniu w Getcie i jego ofiarach, nie tylko wsród bojowników!

Cywia - Zivia Lubetkin poem by Zrubavel Gilad - "Masada dance bursts in flames and burns" - "Suicides" in the sea of flames in Warsaw Ghetto - "Taniec Massady wybucha"

Photo of a Jewish man leaps to his death from the top story window of an apartment block during the suppression of the Warsaw ghetto uprising. Niska street.

Masada dance bursts in flames and burns

wrote Gilad in his poem about Zivia, Cywia Lubetkin, read the entire poem below.
The entire Warsaw Ghetto was a sea of flames. A total of 13,000 Jews died, about half of them burnt alive or suffocated. Germans were systematically burning houses block by block using flame-throwers and fire bottles, and blowing up basements and sewers.
When Germans put the fire on the houses Jews were trying to move up to the attics. When the fire reached them they jumped and found the death on the pavement. Germans called it in their reports for suicide.

The photos above and below show a Jewish man leaping to his death from the window of an apartment block during the suppression of the Warsaw ghetto uprising.

These photos were taken on the fourth day of the ghetto clearing operation. The original caption (translated from German) reads, "Bandits jump to escape capture.". They called it for suicide.

A Jewish man leaps to his death from the top-story window of an apartment block during the suppression of the Warsaw ghetto uprising.

A Jewish man leaps to his death from the top-story window of an apartment block during the suppression of the Warsaw ghetto uprising. There are several bodies on the pavement. Maybe his wife and/or children. German soldiers and Polish firemen use to stand on the sidewalk and watch the "action of flames"!

Zrubbavel Gilad - Zerubawel Gilead spent two years in Warsaw 1937-39 and became a close friend to Janusz Korczak.

As I wrote earlier, Janusz Korczaks and Cywia (Tzwia - Zivia) Lubetkin´s friend from pre-war Warsaw, Zrubbavel Gilad wrote a poem about her, see below.
At that time Zrubbavel Gilad thought that Cywia died in the bunker at 18 Mila str. Dalia Tauber from our sister organization succeeded to find the poem and also was so kind to translate it from Hebrew to English. Actually, at that time, the publications of the labor movement glorified Lubetkin, as in June 1943 issue of Mibifnim which is devoted primarily to the WarsawGhetto Uprising and contained Zerubavel’s poem “Zivia.” 

The journal Zzror Michtavim contained the following words: Zivia – this name has become synonymous with the pioneering underground, the pioneering movement in occupied Poland, Polish Jewry, imprisonment within the walls of Warsaw, Lublin, and the barbed wire fences of the death camps.[…] She was the living spirit behind the heroic story of the pioneering uprising, the immense power of life that revealed itself in slaughtered Jewry, and the ability revealed in the great joint action


Tzvia - Cywia - Zivia
Translation: Dalia Tauber

The fountains of the song have dried out.
only one orphan tune
like drippings of blood
my heart will pour.

I will always remember your voice,
soft and confident,
while singing the song
with a raging soul:
"Masada dance bursts in flames"- -

Night it was. The Kibbutz was a hush.
You alone are awake: in the light if an oil lamp
Collecting the bread.
Night it was. And your rejoicing voice
over the sleeping hovers
Like a mothers' breath…

How will everything light up now
In flames of horror and fears! -
And your silent voice turned a flaming shout
Heart stabbing:
"Masada dance bursts in flames"- -
Over the ruins,
Over the crushed,
Over your wobbling body -
Your voice raises from the flames,
Your glorious, awesome voice grows stronger:
"Masada dance bursts in flames
and burns" - -

Źródła pieśni wyschły
tylko jedną osieroconą melodię
jak krople krwi
serce moje zaśpiewa.

Zawsze wspominać będę twój głos,
cichy i pełen wiary,
śpiewając tę piosenkę
z głębi wstrząśniętej duszy:
"Taniec Masady wybucha"...

Była noc
w kibucu zapadła cisza
tylko ty jeszcze nie śpisz:
w świetle lampki naftowej
wyjmujesz z pieca chleb.
Była noc
i twój śpiewający glos
unosił się nad śpiącymi
jak oddech matki...

Jak rozjaśni się teraz wszystko
światłem niepokoju i przerażenia! -
I twój cichy glos stal się ognistym krzykiem
przeszywającym serca:
"Taniec Masady wybucha"...
nad ruinami

nad zmiażdżonymi
nad twoim słaniającym się ciałem
twój głos unoszący się nad ogniem,
twój majestatyczny, straszny głos, wzmacnia się:
"Taniec Massady wybucha i płonie"

Members of the He-Chaluts movement's Central Committee in Poland. In the photo: Rachel Fogelman (top row, on the right), David Kokla-Kafri (top row, center), Chaya Spiegel (top row, on the left), Eliezer Grawicki-Regev (bottom row, on the right), Rivka Perlis -Tamarit (bottom row, second from the right), Yitzhak Perlis (bottom row, third from the right), Yoske Rabinowicz (at the bottom), and Zrubavel Gilad, a Zionist emissary from Mandate Palestine (bottom row, on the left). Photographed in 1938.

In Warsaw. From December 1, 1939 all Jews were obliged to wear white armbands with the blue Star of David on their right arm according to the order issued just 7 days earlier.

 

In Warsaw. From December 1, 1939 all Jews were obliged to wear white armbands with the blue Star of David on their right arm according to the order issued just 7 days earlier.

Photo on the right from the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising in 1943.

The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising - Postal stamps and FDC (First Day Cover).

The philatelist wrote: "The yellow, daffodil Star of David cheers up and gives hope". Caught by Germans, Ghetto fighters have been marked by Polish Post with yellow stars and do not seem to be happier by Star of David, they were just humiliated!

Thanks to my intervention, Polish Post removed the signs used to humiliate, and isolate Jews from the photo of woman fighters. 

The yellow color and the yellow star of David seems to appear on the Polish stamps year 1988. 19 years after 1969 emigration. 

 
To cheer up?
Someone wrote on internet: "With the eyes of the "old" philatelist, I look at the new collection of anniversary stamps and observed with hope the radical rejection of martyrdom design, heavy colors and serious typography. The subject matter, is obviously dramatic, difficult, and yet it possible to overcame it. The yellow, daffodil Star of David cheers up and gives hope".

It is likely that we have to forget the martyrdom and concentrate on daffodil without any real connection beside the fake story about one of the fighters that survived and his story that he was receiving.

We have to remember that the Nazis implemented the yellow star as a means to publicly identify, humiliate, and isolate Jews. In reality, the Jews were excluded from the society. Several laws concerning Jews were approved by Nazis. Jews throughout Nazi-occupied Europe were forced to wear Yellow Star badge. This public identification and stigmatization preceded the mass deportations of Jews to ghettos and killing sites. Yellow colour was used for hudred sof year to mark the Jews as a badge or yellow hats (in Iatly): Also in Sweden a yellow ribbon was suggested by City council when Jews were allowed to legally stay in Sweden. yellow badge, which meant they were excluded from society..

However, in the Warsaw ghetto, Jews wore a white armband with a blue Star of David on their left arm. In some ghettos, even babies in prams had to wear the armbands or stars. Jewish shops were also marked with the Star of David.

The star was intended not only to humiliate Jews and to mark them out for segregation and discrimination. The David Star marking made it easier to identify Jews for deportation to death camps.

Okiem „starego” filatelisty przyglądam się na nowej kolekcji rocznicowych znaczków i z nadzieją obserwuję radykalne odrzucenie martyrologicznego designu, ciężkiej kolorystyki i poważnej typografii. Tematyka, wiadomo dramatyczna, trudna a jednak można. Żółta, żonkilowa Gwiazda Dawida² rozwesela i daje nadzieje.

23 kwietnia 1943 roku, w czasie walk w warszawskim getcie, Żydowska Organizacja Bojowa wydała odezwę do Polaków

23 kwietnia 1943 roku, w czasie walk w warszawskim getcie, Żydowska Organizacja Bojowa wydała odezwę do Polaków.

23 kwietnia 1943 roku, w czasie walk w warszawskim getcie, Żydowska Organizacja Bojowa wydała odezwę do Polaków.

Polacy! Obywatele! Żołnierze Wolności!

Wśród huku armat, z których armia niemiecka wali do naszych domów, do mieszkań, do naszych matek, dzieci i żon;
Wśród terkotu karabinów maszynowych, które zdobywamy w walce na tchórzliwych żandarmach i SS-owcach; Wśród dymu pożarów i kurzu krwi mordowanego ghetta Warszawy – my, więźniowie ghetta – ślemy Wam bratnie, serdeczne pozdrowienia.
Wiemy, że w serdecznym bólu i łzach współczucia, że z podziwem i trwogą o wynik tej walki przyglądacie się wojnie, jaką od wielu dni toczymy z okrutnym okupantem.
Lecz wiedzcie, że każdy próg ghetta jak dotychczas, tak i nadal będzie twierdzą; że może wszyscy zginiemy w walce, lecz nie poddamy się; że dyszymy jak i Wy, żądzą odwetu i kary za wszystkie zbrodnie wspólnego wroga.
Toczy się walka o Waszą i naszą Wolność!
O Wasz i nasz – ludzki, społeczny, narodowy – honor i godność.
Pomścimy zbrodnie Oświęcimia, Treblinki, Bełżca, Majdanka!
Niech żyje braterstwo broni i krwi walczącej Polski!
Niech żyje Wolność!
Śmierć katom i oprawcom!
Niech żyje walka na śmierć i życie z okupantem!

 
Żydowska Organizacja Bojowa

Polish selectivity among the Heros of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprise

 

Selectivity in Poland.
"They" were trying for years to forget the Ghetto Uprise leader Anielewicz and invented a new one.
This year they are trying to forget another hero Cywia (Zivia) Lubetkin.
Why?
Both Mordechaj Anielewicz and Cywia (Zivia) Lubetkin wanted to build their future in Israel.
Actually Cywia survived, moved to Israel and her granddaughter Roni Zuckerman, the first female F-16 jet fighter pilot for the Israeli Air Force, received her wings in 2001.

Already during the war and also after WWII the influence and the importance of the Żydowski Związek Wojskowy - ŻZW in the Warsaw Ghetto Uprise was downgraded. Partly due to the fact that there were almost no survivors from ŻZW. ŻOB and ŻZW fighters were approx. 1200 - 1300 (my estimation). If so the number of Bund fighters will be below 8-9%. Now in Poland one is trying to force the false idea that Bund was the leader of the Uprise and not the Zionist-groups and ŻZW.

Today dr. Dreifuss from Israel and dr. Stola from Poland are going to discuss this particular problem. Therefore, I wrote a open letter to dr. Dreifuss, see below.

Dear Dr. Dreifuss,

I saw that You are going to discuss with dr. Stola "the second battle" in Warsaw Ghetto on another forum.

As You already know, during the Summer 1943 Bund was ascribing to themselves the predominant, almost an exclusive role in the Warsaw Ghetto Uprise.

In the name of historical truth You should correct this false legend and undeserved merit. The battles in the Ghetto of Warsaw, like those in the other ghettos and concentration camps, were initiated, organised and conducted by zionist organisations like "Hechalutz”, "Dror”, "Freiheit”, '"Hehalutz Hazair”, "Hashomer Hazair”, "Poale Zion-Z.S." and "Left Poale Zion". These organisations took the initiative to form Anti-fascist block in May 1942 and took the leading part in the battles in January 1943 and in April 1943. They also supplied the largest number of fighting groups and the fighters. They also offered the greatest sacrifice of blood. There were 22 fighting units in the Uprise of them Bund had just 4.

Another false legend and undeserved merit concerns Marek Edelman. After the last big group of Jews left Poland in 1968-1969, he was created as a leader of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprise. At the same time all the real leaders of the Ghetto Uprise were "actively forgotten"!

Historian, Dr. Stola, during his time at Museum Polin, actively supported the false Bund story. It would be meaningful if You could ask him about it.

Roman Romuald Wasserman Wroblewski, Ph.D.

Chairman Swedish Holocaust Memorial Association.

Alexander Lazer

Wiem że wielu moich drogich przyjaciół popiera symbolizm żonkili i w dobrej woli, ale dla mnie to jest w pewnym stopniu jak zgrzyt gwoździa po szkle. Żółty kolor nigdy nie był symbolem Żydów - był narzucony przez ich oprawców. Kwiaty nie są w tradycji żydowskiej ofiarowane w żałobie lub na grobach. Dlaczego nie używać historycznie tradycyjnych symboli żydowskich tak jak tarcza Dawida ("gwiazda Dawida") lub menora? Rozumiem że żonkil jest bardziej dyskretny chodząc po ulicy i bliższy tradycji otaczającej większości - ale jaka jest cena tego kompromisu jeśli chodzi o dumę (nie zwycięstwo) o którą powstańcy walczyli w tej drugiej (lub kolejnej) Masadzie - getcie Warszawskim?