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