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...We,
the Jewish youth, cannot free ourselves from the influence of
the situation as a whole on young people in general. To this
is added the specific lack of contact with the land of the
Jews and the special hatred that accompanies us as Jews. The
war and the Nazi Occupation have revealed the tragedy of our
Jewish youth very sharply. We have become a group that is
ostracized, attacked and humiliated, the object of scorn and
derision. Jewish youth has been worn down and has withered
physically and spiritually in the Nazi labor camps. Jewish
children are cut off from school and education. First of all
there hangs over us the sword of want and unemployment, which
cuts short the existence and lives of thousands of
individuals, which ages Jewish youth before their time, turns
them into worn-out people, apathetic and full of doubts,
without faith and without the ability to change their lives.
What
must we do in this situation? In which direction shall we turn
our attention? It is only natural that we cannot speak of one
road for the whole of Jewish youth. There are different
diseases and different forms of cure. There is one situation
for the youth that fills the streets and courtyards, who are
without schools and supervision, in whom one can see all the
undesirable aspects of the whole adult world. They spend their
time buying and selling. The situation is different for the
youth which has an opportunity of acquiring education. But
this youth withdraws into itself, and is unwilling to descend
into the life of the Jewish masses.
The
first group must be enabled to acquire an elementary
education: we must arrange courses in reading and writing
Yiddish, Hebrew, and in arithmetic, etc.; to draw the street
youth into warm social surroundings, to attend as far as
possible to their personal future, and to implant in them a
feeling of solidarity and responsibility; and with the aid of
singing and games to create a youthful atmosphere for a Jewish
youth that has become old before its time.
The
other part of Jewish youth must be helped to a consciousness
of its common fate with the Jewish masses; it must be brought
down from Olympus; its feeling for the people must be
awakened; it must be given an awareness of Socialism; it must
be drawn into public activities in every part of Jewish life;
enriched with the spiritual treasures which the Jewish people
have created through the ages. And, finally, we must gather
together the best of the Jewish youth, which has already
received its education in our movement, and forge it into a
cadre that is prepared for battle and that will lead the way
for Jewish youth....
Yad
Vashem Archives, JM/215/1.
*
From the article by R. Domski (T. Borzykowski) in the
underground newspaper of the Dror-He-Halutz movement in
Warsaw, Dror, No. 3, August 1940. |
