The ceremony to remember the 80th anniversary of the start of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, a major event during World War II in which Jewish people imprisoned in the Warsaw Ghetto put up a major act of resistance against the occupying Nazis, was marked in the Polish capital on April 19 by survivors, Polish citizens and world leaders.
They came together to remember the heroism of hundreds of Jews who took up arms against the German occupiers in a futile show of resistance. It was an unequal struggle anyway, but there were brave Jews who rather left their lives there than be transported to camps where they knew they would die in the gas chambers. Indeed, for them, the idea of so-called labour camps had already been debunked. With all their might they fought against the apprehensive Germans who also did not mind one or more deaths in the camp of the Jews. It only took three weeks after the final uprising, for nothing to remain of the ghetto and its inhabitants.
None of the fighters are alive today, and the survivors attending the event in Warsaw were mostly children during the uprising. Descendants of ghetto and internment camp survivors had descended from several countries to witness this remembrance.
Israel’s President Isaac Herzog (C-L), Polish President Andrzej Duda (C) and German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier (C-R) during the official celebration of the 80th anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising in Warsaw, Poland, 19 April 2023. EPA-EFE/Leszek Szymanski
Polish President Andrzej Duda was the host and welcomed several presidents of other states and all the visitors.
Speaking during the ceremony, the German president Frank-Walter Steinmeier drew parallels between Nazi Germany’s aggression during the World War II and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Today we face again the aggression of one nation bringing a threat to several nations of the European Union.
German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier speaks during the official ceremony marking the 80nd anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising at the Monument to the Ghetto Heroes in Warsaw, Poland, 19 April 2023. EPA-EFE/Leszek Szymanski
“You in Poland, you in Israel, you know from your history that freedom and independence must be fought for and defended. You know how important it is for democracy to defend itself,”
Steinmeier said.
Władysław Szlengel, Polish poet, lyricist, journalist, stage actor and the son of a Warsaw painter who made film posters.
Marian Turski, Chairman of the Museum of the History of Polish Jews POLIN, reminded us that before the outbreak of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising on 19 April 1943, the Polish poet Władysław Szlengel, a Jew imprisoned in the Warsaw ghetto, titled his poem “Counterattack”. Turski in his peech quoted:
“Clenching in the fist a stick, a stone,
we beg you, oh God, for a bloody battle.
We implore you for a violent death.
Let our eyes not see, before we expire,
the stretch of the train tracks,
but let the precise aim of our hand, oh Lord,
stain their livid uniforms with blood […].
This is our Spring! Our Counterattack!”
It is not for us to determine whether there could have enlisted the help of God to do battle. Normally we should not take up arms, but here God’s People were threatened. We can also wonder if it is not a form of Kiddush Hashem to go down fighting rather than getting killed passively. In the position they were placed, they could have an idea that it was nearly impossible to win the battle, so we can also wonder if their actions taken would have been some form of suicide.
The poet himself spent the beginning of the Uprising hiding in a bunker not far from the place of commemoration is — on Świętojerska Street. Pulled out of the bunker on 8 May, he was murdered by the Germans…
80th anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising – Marian Turski clenching the fist like the Polish poet Władysław Szlengel.
Marian Turski reminded us that our civilisation has acquired over a dozen — if not more — symbols of resistance and valour. He believes he has the right to say that 80 years ago, the Warsaw Ghetto Fighters transformed the streets
that surround us — Gęsia, Miła, Niska, Muranowska — into Jewish Thermopylae, into yet another Jewish Masada, into Jewish Westerplatte.
Monument to the Ghetto Heroes, front view. Photo credit: Florida Center for Instructional Technology
Meeting there last Wednesday in front of the Monument to the Warsaw Ghetto Heroes designed by Natan Rapoport, graduate of the Warsaw Academy of Fine Arts, Turski believes there are three reasons why we have gathered there.
He explained:
The first reason is to show our respect and pay tribute to the residents of the Warsaw ghetto for their heroism, determination, suffering and martyrdom.
He asked us to take a look at the Monument and wondered what we saw from the front side
— what we are all looking at right now — are the silhouettes of the fighters, each holding a knife, a grenade, a rifle.
But do take a moment later to look at the other side of the Monument, the side which shows the last march of the civilians—those who until the very end did not want to part with their nearest and dearest, defenceless elderly people, women.
“Exodus.” This bas-relief sculptue on the posterior wall of the Monument to the Ghetto Heroes shows a procession of Jews moving toward their deaths. The primary intent of the Warsaw Ghetto Monument is to commemorate the heroism of the fighters. One must walk around to the back to see this refrence to the victims. Photo credit: Florida Center for Instructional Technology
Surely we must not forget the many victims of that ghetto. More so, it should also remind us how we must be careful that such a horrible thing cannot happen again. Before man’s animal comes out to harass other people to death, oodles of sanity must intervene so that nothing wrong can happen again.
Mordecai Anielewicz, hero and principal leader of armed Jewish resistance in the Warsaw ghetto during World War II.
Turski spoke to the distinguished guests, telling them that we could find ourselves there together in Warsaw, anno 2023, to pay tribute to the individuals who symbolise resistance, such as Mordechai Anielewicz from the Jewish Combat Organisation, or Paweł Frankel from the Jewish Military Union.
If in 1948, Rapoport’s sculpture was meant to serve as a roadmap for present and future commemoration of the uprising, then the figure of Anielewicz had to be portrayed as a mythical one, embodying the entire ideal of Jewish heroism and sacrifice.
None of the fighters is with us anymore. However, there are still very few people who were imprisoned in the Warsaw ghetto, those who were children at the time.
Hena Kuczer is here with us today. She was 11 years old at the time. Her two elder brothers had been taken to Umschlagplatz long before the Uprising — two blocks from here, only in the other direction. And yet, before they were deported and murdered in a gas chamber, they had endured several days of torment and humiliation at Umschlagplatz, inflicted by the Germans as well as the Ukrainians and Lithuanians who collaborated with the Nazis. They had to pay with a watch or hundreds of zlotys for a sip of water.
Krystyna Budnicka
Towards the end of the Uprising, to flee the sea of fire that surrounded them, 11-year-old Hena accompanied her father and brother in their escape through the sewers. The father and brother died. Fortunately, Hena Kuczer managed to survive. In order to stay alive, she had to hide her identity and take a new name — Krystyna Budnicka. Today, she is an Honorary Citizen of the City of Warsaw.
Krysia has Turski’s utmost admiration and respect. He said:
I honour you, my companion in suffering and misery.
Turski also spoke about the second reason why we were standing there. Still today, many of us have questions how it could have been possible that it came so far. How was it possible that such hatred could be incited with ease against a certain group of people, Jews, Gypsies, Jehovah’s Witnesses and other non-Trinitarians.
How could it happen that no churches or associations were calling to stop this madness of hatred towards others?
Many are still left wondering how it was possible for one man to turn such a large group of people against others.
Turski said:
I am not going to downplay the blame of the Germans — entangled in fascism and supporting Hitler, their culpability towards many countries, nations and social groups. They did bring about something absolutely unimaginable — the near-total extermination of a nation — the Jewish nation.
However, the foundation of such an atrocity had been built over centuries! Antisemitism was the very foundation. And here, I cannot refrain from asking—why?!
Why do people fear someone who has been deemed ‘the Other’?
Why prejudices and superstitions towards ‘the Other’ lead to their alienation from society?
Why this alienated human being is later being dehumanised?
Why has antisemitism evolved from distrust towards ‘the Other’, through excluding him from the society, through fanatic hatred to extermination?
Why today do we still have to combat antisemitism?
Honourable guests,
Here comes the third reason.
Every generation interprets facts from the past from their own perspective. They compare what happened in the past with the present-day.
I’ll share with you what comes to my mind today when I reflect upon the events from April-May 1943.
I wasn’t in the Warsaw ghetto. I was imprisoned in another ghetto, in Łódź (Litzmannstadtghetto). I was sent to Auschwitz and I survived two death marches — the last one from Buchenwald to Theresienstadt. There, I was liberated by the Soviet Army, which consisted mainly of Russians. My gratitude towards them, towards those who liberated me from the German camps, will live as long as I live…
And yet… how could I remain indifferent, how could I remain silent when today the Russian Army invades our neighbour and annexes its land? Can I remain silent when Russian missiles demolish Ukrainian infrastructure — residential buildings, hospitals, monuments of culture? All this will result in a drastic rise in mortality rate and will reduce the lifespan of hundreds of thousands of civilians!
How can I be silent when I see what happened in Bucha, knowing how the Germans annihilated Polish Michniów, Belarussian Khatyn, Czech Lidice or French Oradour?
Marek Edelman, Polish political and social activist and cardiologist, at around the time of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising
Marek Edelman, one of the commanders of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising — I was privileged to know him personally and I talked to him on numerous occasions — used to repeat these significant words:
“Life is of utmost importance! Once you have life—freedom is of utmost importance! And then, often, you must sacrifice your life again to fight for freedom!”
125 years ago, in response to the antisemitic Dreyfuss Affair, Emil Zola shouted:
“J’accuse!”
I accuse!
Zola’s cry sent shockwaves across France and — in some way — across Europe. I do believe, in fact I am deeply convinced that today — in order to pay tribute to the Warsaw Ghetto Fighters — a loud cry should be repeated from here, from Warsaw:
J’accuse!
Against antisemitism!
Against violation of human rights!
Against discrimination!
Against aggression on your neighbour’s territory!
Against falsifying history!
Against disrespecting the interests and will of a minority (whatever it may be) by a majority in power (wherever it may be)!
J’accuse, I accuse people indifferent to evil.
People, be alert! It’s easy to gather support by means of hatred. And yet, will this hatred not spell doom—upon myself, upon you, upon your children and grandchildren?
That is why I accuse those who incite hatred. J’accuse!
Chairman of the Museum of the History of Polish Jews POLIN, Marian Turski, speaks during the official ceremony marking the 80nd anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising
Being a creature of the Most High Maker, wanting to know His Word better and to see clear in the many religious groups this world has.
+ Een schepsel van de Allerhoogste Maker, die Zijn Woord beter wil leren kennen en duidelijk wenst te zien in de Goddelijke Boodschap en in de vele religieuze groeperingen van deze wereld.
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