|
...On
Wednesday, July 22, 1942 [the eve of Tisha be-Av, Day of
Mourning], the liquidation of the Warsaw ghetto was begun. The
Public Committee was immediately summoned to find out what the
situation was and to take measures. Those attending the
meeting included: L. Bloch, Shmuer Bresler [Breslav], Dr. A.
Berman, Yitzhak Cukierman, Zisha Friedman, Josef
Finkelstein-Lewartowski, D. Guzik, Yitzhak Giterman, Josef
Kaplan, Menachem Kirszenbaum, Alexander Landau, M. Orzech, Dr.
Emmanuel Ringelblum, Josef Sack, Szachna Sagan and Dr. Yitzhak
Schiper. Opinions were divided. Representatives of the
left-wing Zionist parties and of He-Halutz [Zionists] and also
some of the men in public life called for active intervention
in some way or other. The majority wanted to wait. How long?
Until the situation became clearer. For rumors were
circulating that no more than 50,000 to 70,000 Jews would be
deported from Warsaw (old people, the sick, prisoners,
beggars, etc.), and [after that] the Aktion would be
finished....
On
July 28, 1942, a meeting was held of He-Halutz and its
youth-movement branches: Ha-Shomer Ha-Zair, Dror, and Akiva.
It was decided to set up the Jewish Fighting Organization YKA
(Yidishe-Kamf-Organizatsie). The organization signed
proclamations which it issued in the Polish language with the
initials ZOB: Zydowska Organizacja Bojowa Jewish
Fighting Organization. The members of the Command were:
Bresler, Cukierman, Zivia Lubetkin, Mordecai Tenenbaum and
Josef Kaplan. A delegation was sent to the Aryan side [i.e.,
outside the ghetto], to the Poles: Tosia Altman, Plotnicka,
Leah Perlstein and Arie-Jurek Wilner, in order to make contact
with the Polish Underground and to obtain weapons for the
ghetto.
The
fighting organization had been set up, but all the weapons
there were in the ghetto at that time consisted of just one
pistol...!
Yad
Vashem Archives, O-25/96.
*
From a report by Yitzhak Cukierman in Warsaw, March 1944. See
document 126. |
