Post on 08-Mar-2023
1
ARTHUR ZYGIELBAUM - HERO OF THE WARSAW GHETTO
Judith S. Tellerman, M.A.T., M.Ed., Ph.D. Michael Reese Hospital 60 E. Delaware, 15th Fl. Chicago, Illinois 60611 (312) 321-0130
2
Copyright (c) 1993 Judith S. Tellerman, Ph.D. ARTHUR ZYGIELBAUM - HERO OF THE WARSAW GHETTO
The Nazi era - this was a time that defies explanation. And so
the death of Arthur Zygielbaum likewise defies explanation. One
searches for a way to place Arthur's death conceptually within the
framework of Jewish history. How does one conceptualize the
monstrosity of genocide within the context of the civilized
Twentieth Century, and concomitantly the horror of Arthur's
efforts to prevent genocide in the face of an invincible onslaught
and an indifferent world?
3
As an elected leader of the Warsaw Ghetto, Arthur had been sent on
a mission to escape from the Ghetto and go to the Free World to
find help to save the Jewish people who were being exterminated by
order of Hitler's Nazi regime. The Jewish Underground transmitted
a directive to him intended for all the leaders of World Jewry:
Let them go to all the important English and American officesand agencies. They must not leave until they have obtainedguarantees that a way has been decided upon to save theJews....let them die...while the world looks on. This mayshake the conscience of the world. (Ravel, p.176)
Arthur replied:
...I'll do everything I can to help them. Everything! I'lldo everything they demand - if only I'm given a chance.(Ravel, p.176)
At the time of his death Arthur had received word that the Warsaw
Ghetto had been destroyed and virtually everyone living there had
been slaughtered. Arthur had exhausted all possibilities to save
lives - all but one, giving his own life to try to save the
4
remnants of the Jews of Poland. In keeping with Jewish tradition
his death was not a desired solution and martyrdom was not sought
for its own sake. His actions were not done as a negation of life
but to dramatize the importance of Jewish life.
Arthur loved life. His accomplishiments were a testament to his
efforts to improve the lives of his fellow man by developing
social systems for health, education, and the humanities. In life
he was the quintessential Jew. In death he was a martyr of the
Holocaust.
Arthur was born on the estate of his grandfather where his first
four years of tranquility and plenty were abruptly ended when fire
destroyed his family's mill. He had no choice but to become a
factory worker at the age of 10 in order to support his family.
As a hungry child laborer constructing wooden boxes for packaging
pharmaceuticals he noticed that the glue was made of flour and
white cheese. He called a secret meeting of the child laborers
and devised a plan to insert less cheese into the glue and eat
some of it themselves. Of course the plan was eventually
5
uncovered as the children ate more cheese and the glue stopped
holding the boxes together. This was Arthur's first attempt to
help his fellow workers. He could have eaten the cheese alone and
never been caught but he was more concerned about sharing with
others in the same plight.
Another example of Arthur's leadership occurred when he was
nineteen years old. World War I was raging around his town of
Krasnystaw. With fires burning everywhere people were faint with
thirst. The Town Magistrate said that the Russian soldiers had
poisoned the wells and rivers and forbade the people to drink.
Arthur maintained that it was impossible to poison a flowing
river. When the Magistrate formed a human blockade to block
access to the allegedly poisoned water, Arthur asked permission to
drink the water to prove it was safe. The Magistrate granted
permission and Arthur drank a full cup, paving the way for all the
people to revive themselves and prepare to escape from the town.
Later when they reached the bridge leading away from the town
rumors spread that the bridge had been mined and people were
6
afraid to cross. Arthur crossed the bridge first and the people
followed to safety.
These leadership qualities were well suited to Arthur's advent
into political and union activities. Courage was needed to demand
equal rights for Poland's three and a half million Jewish
citizens. In Poland the Jewish working people had lived for
centuries segregated in a "Pale," forbidden to leave without
permission from the government. They were not allowed to work in
agriculture and many trades, resulting in poverty. With the
industrial revolution changes began to occur which gave hope that
Jews could attain civil rights. After the Polish-Russian War of
1921 the minority rights granted by the Treaty of Versailles in
1919 slowly began to come into being and Jews were allowed to be
elected to parliament and municipal councils.
Arthur began working as a trade union organizer. During the day
he worked to improve the conditions of the working classes. At
night, living in a basement with his wife and two children, he
7
studied and with the help of tutors he learned to read and write
Polish and Yiddish (the Jewish language of Europe, a combination
of German and Hebrew). He quickly compensated for his lack of
formal education, becoming an avid writer. He wrote plays and
acted in dramatic productions but excelled in the areas of
political oratory and journalism.
Arthur was at the center of the development of working class
people at a time when the trade union movement was in its infancy.
As a leader of the Bund, the Jewish Political Party and Labor
Union, he was sent on missions to the provinces to organize
strikes, disseminate information, and conduct election campaigns
for local government officials sympathetic to the union cause. As
he travelled he wrote about the people he met in his newspaper
column, "Iber Shtet und Shtetlach" (Across Cities and Towns),"
which appeared in the Jewish newspaper, Nayeh Folkstseitung (The
New Peoples' Newspaper). One story he wrote was about Velvel, the
Shoemaker, a malnourished, deformed child of the slums who
symbolized the downtrodden Jewish worker. Velvel joined the
8
union, acquired self-confidence, and defended the rights of his
fellow men. In this way, with his activism and his writing,
Arthur drew the underclass into the Jewish Renaissance of Poland.
As Chairman of the Leather-Workers Union, Secretary of the
National Council of the Jewish Trade Unions, and member of the
Council of the General Federation of Labor in Poland, Arthur acted
on behalf of Jewish and Polish working class members and edited
Arbeiter Fragen (Labor Issues), a trade union newspaper. He would
organize a union in a small town, then establish a school,
library, and study groups. He was sent to the U.S. and Canada
where he publicized and disseminated Yiddish books for the Kultur
Lige (Culture League), an umbrella organization which coordinated
Jewish cultural affairs - libraries, choirs, drama and study
groups, and publishing houses.
At that time 103 Jewish periodicals and newspapers were published
in Warsaw. Jewish drama, cinema, music and art flourished.
Warsaw was the focal point of Yiddish scholarship in Europe.
There were several school networks, trade schools, communal
9
institutions for health care, welfare agencies, libraries, and
sports clubs established by the Jewish Labor Union in Warsaw. The
Medem Sanitorium, founded by the Union, had modern facilities to
treat tuberculosis and served as a health resort for inner city
Warsaw children. In spite of the constant threat of anti-Semitism
there was progress and there was hope for the future in Poland
until the Germans invaded.
When the German army besieged Warsaw on October 1, 1939 all of
Poland had fallen. Arthur remained to fight for his homeland
despite terrible odds. The following is his account of the 21 day
siege of Warsaw:
All of Poland had already been occupied by the Germans; theregular Polish army, almost entirely defeated, was unable tosupply organized military leadership. The Government and theMilitary High Command, having decided to surrender Warsawwithout a struggle, evacuated the city and withdrew every itemthat could have been of use during the siege. Our defenseequipment amounted to a number of small and ineffective anti-aircraft guns. The defenders fired machine guns from rooftops at the hundreds of German airplanes that rained bombs andwrought destruction on the city day in and day out. We notonly felt vulnerable but we were alone, cut off from the
10
world. No one offered assistance or a word of reassurance.The city lacked not only the most basic armaments required fordefense, but rudimentary medical supplies. On the third dayof the siege doctors appealed to citizens for syringes,bandages, gauze and medicine to treat the wounded.
Despite the insurmountable difficulties, the people of Warsawfought the enemy with untold determination and would notsurrender. Time after time Hitler's soldiers attempted tobreak through the outlying areas and penetrate the city, butthey were repulsed by the defenders. Even in direct man toman combat, they did not prevail although Warsaw's newly-formed and poorly equipped units, of which only an incidentalfew belonged to the regular army, were pitted against regular,well-trained and heavily-armed troops. The Nazis took thecity only when the defenders themselves had decided tosurrender for the sake of its tormented women and children whohad suffered hunger, thirst and terror for three long weeksand could endure no longer.
The defense of Warsaw demonstrated the determination of theworking classes to wage a life and death battle againstHitler's onslaught....The Jewish population participated fullyin every line of duty. Soup-kitchens fed Warsaw's homelessand hungry refugees with the cooperation of many heroic menand women who braved the machine-gun fire and brought producefrom the outlying areas. Soldiers applied for assistance atthe Folkstseitung offices: they lacked the most basicnecessities - blankets, spoons, cups - in their improvisedbarricades; in the heat of battle our comrades collected anddistributed supplies....
The defenders of Warsaw were the regular and volunteersoldiers who held their positions on the front lines; thethousands of women who stood beside the men, with axes andkitchen-knives, often with sticks and bare hands, flingingthemselves into battle at those points where the German
11
infantry tried to storm the city; the men and women who duringthose terrible days and nights, when fire and death rainedunceasingly on beleaguered Warsaw, went from house to housebringing encouragement and consolation to thousands ofanguished people hidden in cellars; they maintained the spiritof resistance like a holy flame and did not let it die.
The defense of Warsaw was only the beginning of aninexhaustible, tireless and massive heroic struggle againstNazism which was carried on by the Underground ResistanceMovement. (Ravel, 51-52)
Arthur chaired the first meeting of the Underground Resistance
Movement. The Jewish Workers' Underground Movement had a history
of organizing self-defense units against pogroms (massacres of
Jewish citizens) perpetrated by Polish fascists in the 1930's.
This organization became the foundation of the Underground
Resistance Movement. Once the Nazis occupied Warsaw, a courier
system was set up to bring supplies, information, and messages of
hope as the Nazis looted and murdered the Jewish population.
Mail, telephones, telegraph services and trains had stopped
functioning. In constant danger, the couriers walked from town to
town, keeping communication open in many cases at the cost of
their lives.
12
Arthur had become too visible. When the Germans first occupied
Warsaw they demanded twelve hostages who would be responsible for
order in the city. Arthur was one of the twelve. Later, the
Germans ordered the Jewish community to set up a Council of Elders
of the Jewish Community of Warsaw (Judenrat) consisting of twenty-
four members. The Labor Union was ordered to supply a member and
Arthur was chosen. Since he had publicly urged Jews to resist, he
was under surveillance by the Gestapo. They were hoping he would
lead them to other activists so they could destroy the entire
Underground network. The Underground decided to help Arthur
escape from the Warsaw Ghetto in the hope that he could somehow
find his way to the Free World and, as a member of Polish
Government-in-Exile bring help to save the Jews of Warsaw,
including his beloved wife and children, from impending
annihilation.
Arthur made his escape via a harrowing voyage through Nazi Germany
and went to Brussels where he spoke to the International Labor
13
Union Executive Committee about the conditions in Poland. He then
came to the United States in September, 1940, lecturing to
thousands of people on a national tour sponsored by the Jewish
Labor Union. He wrote a series of articles published in The
Jewish Daily Forward. In the spring of 1942 Arthur arrived in
London to serve as the official representative of the Underground
Labor Movement in the Polish Parliament-in-exile. He pleaded with
the Polish Minister of the Exterior to bring the information about
the extermination of the Jews to the allies. Arthur had full
reports about the atrocities which he received via radio from the
Underground Resistance. He attempted to publish the reports from
the Underground in the major newspapers of the Free World. The
London Times published reports. Arthur began broadcasting on the
BBC. His broadcasts were the only link that the Jews of Poland
had with the outside world. On July 2, 1942 Arthur broadcast:
Can anyone imagine this horrendous crime - the calculatedannihilation of an entire people! Each one of us, who cangrasp this horror, must be encompassed by a sense of shamethat he is still among the living. Each one of us who doesn'ttake every possible action to halt the mass slaughters shall
14
assume the moral responsibility for them...The mass gravesinto which thousands of Jewish women, children, aged, arehurled every day, are burning wounds that every decent humanbeing must feel on his own person; every decent human beingmust feel that the torment and disgrace are perpetratedagainst himself. (Ravel, 174)
On November 27, 1942 Arthur broadcast:
Several months ago we were shocked by reports of thesystematic and calculated murder of the Jewish population indozens of Polish cities....In Belzec, Treblinka, and Sobibor,concentration camps have been established where the murders areexecuted by means of gas, electrocution and other methods.Huge modern machinery is employed to dig mass graves.
...On Himmler's orders the entire extermination of a peoplehas begun. We ask the Germans: where are three and a halfmillion Jews? What have you done with them? This questionshall be heard for generations to come.
We know that the longer it takes to destroy the Germanmilitary machine, the larger the number of murdered in theoccupied lands. Therefore, we hope that the completedestruction of the German might will be accomplished asquickly as possible. And we demand of the Allied Powers totake immediate action and force the Germans to halt theslaughter of the civilian population. It will actually be a shame to go on living, to belong to thehuman race, if steps are not taken to halt the greatest crime
15
in history. Everyone's consciousness must be awakened,particularly those who calmly dismiss the horrible facts,deluding themselves that these facts are incredible....
In the name of millions of helpless, innocent, doomed peoplein the ghettos, whose unseen hands are stretched out to theworld, I beseech you, you whose conscience is still alive:expunge the raging shame which is being perpetrated againstthe human race. Stop the greatest crime in human history! (Ravel, 170-171)
While broadcasting cries for help to the Free World, Arthur
continued to broadcast messages of hope and support to his
countrymen in the Warsaw Ghetto. The following was broadcast
during the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, April 19, 1943:
Rest assured my dear comrades and brothers, the day of ourdeliverance, the fall of fascism is inevitable...we must havepatience and fortitude to endure. Out of this bloody chaos anew world of equality and justice will arise, a world in whichall our high ideals will be realized...The Jewish and Polishworkers will build a free and independent Poland. (Ravel,174)
Arthur worked desperately to the end to save the Jews of Poland.
He petitioned governments and wrote directly to President
Roosevelt and Prime Minister Churchill:
16
As the official representative of the Jewish Labor Movementin Poland...I turn to your governments with the latestdesperate appeal of the Jews who are being murdered en massebehind the ghetto walls.... (Ravel, 176)
On May 12, 1943 he heard the Polish Underground radio announce the
massacre of the last Jews of the Warsaw Ghetto. Arthur committed
suicide at the age of 48, leaving behind a final letter to the
Polish Prime Minister and President:
I take the liberty of addressing to you my last words, andthrough you, to the Polish people, to the governments and thepeoples of the Allied states - to the conscience of the world.
From the latest information received from Poland, it isevident that the Germans, with the most ruthless cruelty, arenow murdering the few remaining Jews in Poland. Behind theghetto's walls the last act of a tragedy unprecedented inhistory is being performed. The responsibility of this crimeof murdering the entire Jewish population of Poland falls inthe first instance on the perpetrators, but indirectly it isalso a burden on the whole of humanity, the people and thegovernments of the Allied states who thus far have made noeffort toward concrete action to halt this crime. By the passive observation of the murder of defenselessmillions, and of the maltreatment of children, women and oldmen, these countries have become the criminals' accomplices.
17
I must also state that although the Polish Government has ina high degree contributed to the enlistment of world opinion,it has yet done so insufficiently. It has not done anythingthat could correspond to the magnitude of the drama beingenacted now in Poland. From some 3,500,000 Polish Jews andabout 700,000 other Jews deported to Poland and othercountries - according to official statistics provided by theUnderground Bund organization - there remained in April ofthis year only about 300,000, and this continuing murder stillgoes on.
I cannot be silent - I cannot live - while remnants of theJewish people of Poland, of whom I am a representative, areperishing. My comrades in the Warsaw ghetto took weapons intheir hands on that last heroic impulse. It was not mydestiny to die there together with them, but I belong to them,and to their mass graves. By my death, I wish to express mystrongest protest against the inactivity with which the worldis looking on and permitting the extermination of my people. I know how little human life is worth today, but as I wasunable to do anything during my life, perhaps by my death Ishall contribute to breaking down the indifference of thosewho may now - at the last moment - rescue the few Polish Jewsstill alive, from certain annihilation. My life belongs tothe Jewish people of Poland and I therefore give it to them.I wish that this remaining handful of the original severalmillions of Polish Jews could live to see the liberation of anew world of freedom.... I believe that such a Poland willarise and that such a world will come.
I trust that the President and Prime Minister will direct mywords to all those for whom they are destined, and that thePolish government will immediately take appropriate action inthe fields of diplomacy. I bid farewell to everybody andeverything dear to me and loved by me. (Ravel, 178-179)
18
Arthur had been given a directive by the Jewish Underground to
sacrifice his life if necessary to save the Jewish people. In
reading his last letter it is clear he believed that only by his
death could he achieve at least in part the purpose he had been
unable to achieve with his life. Within this letter are the
characteristics which match the criteria Shneidman (1980, 1982)
has described for a letter of enforced death: a positive,
dignified attitude toward life; warm embracement of family and
community; righteous indignation; and the courage of one's own
convictions.
Arthur had always chosen life. His death cried out to the world
the tragedy of the slaughter of innocents. He did not abandon his
people. He was faithful to the end. But there were still other
Jews, Jews he did not know, in other countries, all of whom needed
his help. So he left behind his most valuable contribution, his
writings, entreaties for justice and mercy from the grave.
19
Arthur's remains were brought to New York by faithful members of
the Jewish Labor Movement. A six-sided monument, representing the
six million massacred Jews, with the symbol of the eternal flame
inscribed with the words, "...My life belongs to the Jewish people
of Poland and I therefore give it to them..." was erected over
Arthur's grave. In Israel a street in Tel Aviv, Rehov S.
Zygelbaum, was named after Arthur, and in Montreal the Arthur
Zygielbaum Park was dedicated.
Much has been written about Arthur Zygielbaum including an
editorial in The Reconstructionist on June 25, 1943, in which the
author discusses Arthur's suicide within the context of the world
as he knew it:
Szamul (Arthur) Zygielbojm, Polish Jew, leader of the Bund(the Polish Labor Movement) and member of the PolishGovernment-in-Exile took his life in London. Suicides,unfortunately, are no novelty in these harrowing days. No oneknows, no one perhaps will ever know, how many sweet anddecent human beings have been driven by despair to self-destruction. But Zygielbojm's suicide was not an act ofdesperation. He left behind him a letter explaining hiscourse, a document that burns with so much passion and protest
20
that it deserves to be recorded again and again as an instanceof human nobility....
Zygielbojm's act runs, of course, directly counter to theauthoritative teachings of Judaism. The Jewish tradition hasalways inveighed against ham'abbed atzmo ledaat, one whodeliberately takes his own life....And yet there is in theJewish tradition precedent for his course. For it is notunknown in Jewish history that individuals, indeed wholecommunities, have taken their lives rather than acceptapostasy. And such individuals have always been regarded byJudaism not as sinful suicides but as martyrs. Such is Zygielbojm, a martyr on behalf of the Jewish peopleand the cause of humanity. What has he achieved by hisgesture of self-sacrifice? What has any martyr ever achieved? He has attested supremely to truth and goodness and he hasstirred, even if only slightly, the conscience of mankind. Itis out of martyrdom such as his and those of thousands ofothers that men collectively have in all issues been prodded,sometimes against their will, toward humaneness.
We salute the martyred Zygielbojm. May his sacrifice not bein vain. May it move the Jews of the world and thegovernments of the United Nations to a heightened awareness ofthe plight of Israel in its exile....
As we now know the world became aware of the plight of Israel in
exile and the governments of the United Nations established the
State of Israel in 1948.
21
And for Arthur, who saw everything he worked for virtually
destroyed, there is now a legacy. It is the state of Israel where
the freedom and opportunity for which he worked and of which he
dreamed have become a living reality and a testament to all those
lost without a trace whom Arthur represented.
Arthur dreamed of a Poland where Polish and Jewish people would
work and live together in equality and harmony. In Poland, where
virtually the entire Jewish population was slaughtered, that world
has yet to exist.
22
REFERENCES
Kaplan, K.J. & Schwartz, M.B. (1993). A psychology of hope.
Westport, CT: Praeger Publishers.
Ravel, A. (1980). Faithful unto death. Montreal, Que., Canada:
Arthur Zygielbaum Branch Workmen's Circle.
Editorials (June 25,1943). The martyrdom of Szamul Zygielbojm.
The Reconstructionist, 10, 3-4.
Shneidman, E.S. (1980, 1982). Voices of death, N.Y.: Harper & Row,
1980, N.Y.: Bantam, 1982.
Zygielbaum, F. (1976). Der koach tzu shtarben (The power to die).
Tel-Aviv, Israel: I.L. Peretz Publishing House.22