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Translated by Yael Chaver
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by A. Gelberg
“The Zygelboym Book” compiled by Y. S. Hertz. Title page art by Y. Shloss. 408 pages, pictures. Published with the aid of the Bund members in Mexico, by “Undzer Tsayt,” New York, 1947.[1]
The conventional amount of reviews and critiques is impossible for a book of this kind, especially one devoted to Zygelboym. In its 408 pages of text, and additional pictures, we must make sure that the compiler included all the material relating to the significant stages of our hero's life, arranged and sorted so as to present us with the most important features of the person who will be known eternally as the martyr Arthur Zygelboym.
The compiler, Y. S. Hertz, seems to have done so in most of the book. His introductory words, presented below, lead us to an elevated, clear place of sanctity and admiration.
“He rose from the depths of the people to the highest peaks of the nation's dreams. He was one of the vanguard who leaped to war first, ready for sacrifice. The pages of this book contain his thoughts and feelings. Let us once again hear his heart beat, let his voice sound again
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and his figure not disappear from our vision. Life breathes once again through his words and deeds.”
Reading the first 29 pages, in which Hertz describes the course of his life, the link to his suicide in London is logical. The last words of his farewell letter, “I cannot be silent. I cannot live while the remnants of the Jewish population of Poland, of whom I am a representative, are perishing,” are a fitting final expression for this son of the nation, whose life was dedicated to the joys and sorrows of his people. When his people were murdered, his own physical existence was impossible; when death and murder reigned, continuing his own life was immoral.
This is clear from his articles, which are assembled in this memorial book under the heading “The Man and the Movement.” The essays radiate the socialist ethic dreamed of by generations and longed for by all those for whom the concept of Socialism is different from the game played by the authorities and the seekers of state or imperial power. The essays delineate Arthur as Bundist, and his socialist heart.
The book also includes Zygelboym's essay for the Yiddish General Encyclopedia, which deals with the Jewish professional movement in Poland. This important essay is written very correctly.[2]
The most dramatic part of the book is that which describes the first part of the vicious German rule over Warsaw, and the writer's escape abroad through Nazi Germany, of all routes. One reads the 211 pages that delineate the early German occupation with bated breath. In contrast, the account of his flight through Germany is written in a matter-of-fact tone. The descriptions, which are often quite colorful, constitute another book about the beginning of our devastation, and help us to understand the later development of the catastrophe. Most importantly, they tell us about the of the heroes who later gave their lives in the service of heroic resistance and death.
The 69 pages that constitute the most tragic section of the book contain materials and documents under the heading “For the Ears of the World.” They present Arthur's appearance in international forums, his activity as the Bund representative in Poland's government-in-exile in London, and his desperate appeals to the deaf, indifferent world to stop the Nazi crimes
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against the Jews of Poland. These documents sear, for all eternity, the brand of shame onto mankind (in addition to Germany, the cannibal), shame for a period that was one of utter lack of scruples and unbelievable human depravity.
The Arthur Zygelbojm memorial book concludes with a section of poetry and epic poems by Z. Shneour, Arn Glatnz-Leyeles, Zusman Segalovitch, Avrom Nochem Shtentsl, and Władysław Broniewski, as well as a series of pictures. It is a tragic, sacred book.[3]
Yiddish journalism has often argued about whether Zygelboym's behavior was proper, especially in light of his socialist and Bundist beliefs. His suicide impelled some scholars to see his suicide as the philosophical end to one ideology of Jewish life, rather than excitement and enthusiasm about the future of our history. The book also includes letters, proclamations, and eulogies of people such as Jan Karski, Professor Kot, H. Leyvik, Zygmunt Nowakowski, Marek Orczynski, and others (in addition to Arthur's family).[4] It is these connections that add an aura of sanctity to Zygelboym's name.
As we learn from Orczynski's article, “the recent tragic death of the ardent Bund idealist, Deputy Zygelboym, has shaken the English-speaking world… This action has become a turning point in the attitude of the Allies to this issue. Since then, Poland received various types of aid, which helped the rescue operations. Understanding the severity of the problem was followed by requests for information about the condition of Jews in Poland.”
We know that the assistance was great, and we, of course, witnessed the end… Characteristically, Arthur's last bang of his head against the solid wall sounded loudly in the deaf ears. However, the main thing that we and the coming generations will realize is that his suicide was not only a last act of desperation, a last theatrical gesture to jolt the conscience of the world, but, more importantly, an act of profound devotion and love towards his people. It was a love that overcame the boundary between life and death.
This was the figure of Arthur Zygelboym. Thus was his character formed. The Zygelboym book is a well-balanced work that is worthy of his multifaceted personality.
Translator's footnotes:
by Y. Sh. Hertz
Translated by Yael Chaver
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Shmuel Mordkhe Zygielbojm was born on September 21, 1895, in the village of Borowice, Lublin province, near Krasnistaw. He spent his first four years in that village.
The family moved to the nearby town of Krasnystaw in 1899, where Shmuel Mordkhe lived until he was fourteen. His childhood years were difficult.
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His father, Yoysef, known in the town as Yoske Teacher, was a dedicated smoker. He was sickly, tall and thin, and coughed constantly. The man, with his distinctive yellowish, pointed little beard was well known to the young people and the general population. He taught them how to read and write. Though Yoske Teacher was religiously observant, he was considered modern, as he read secular books and newspapers.
Shmuel Mordkhe's tall, broad-shouldered mother, Henya, was the daughter of Yekl the ritual slaughterer, who was also the mohel and cantor in the town's study house. The frail Yoske Teacher could not feed the family, and their survival fell to Henya. She came from a family of scholars; she herself was a seamstress who made dresses on her Singer sewing machine. She was therefore known in the town as Henya the Seamstress. The mother's strong hands and shoulders were the pillars of the home, into which boys and girls were born, eleven in all.
Yet both occupations, teaching and sewing, combined, were not enough to feed the family. Shmuel Mordkhe's childhood was one of hunger and shortage. Yet he enjoyed as much childish joy as was then possible in this town. They lived near the Wieprz River, near the synagogue of the Turisk Hassids. The beauty and fascination of the river joined the prayers and song of the Hassids to create an atmosphere of fantasy for the child.
It might have been here, on the banks of the Wieprz, that Shmuel Mordkhe began to develop his thoughts and feelings for the people of Poland. Their landlord was Christian. The father and mother barely earned enough to feed their large family, let alone pay rent. However, the Christian landlord was kind enough to let them live in the apartment rent-free. This was probably a major factor of young Zygielbojm's positive attitude to Gentiles.
Shmuel Mordkhe studied in the kheyder until the age of ten, after which he continued on to Talmud study. However, he did not become a scholar. His interests lay elsewhere, though he was considered a gifted student. He learned quickly, yet he was not interested in his subjects. His heart and mind called him to the street, the river, the fields, pranks, games, and dreams.
He was always the leader of his classmates, from early childhood on. He
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was very energetic, and was the leader in every project.
His family was so poor that he, the grandson of Yekl the religious leader, could not continue his studies. At that time, several Krasnystaw Jews formed a partnership and opened a large factory that manufactured wooden pill containers. Some people in town said that the boxes were designed to hold ointments for filthy people suffering from skin diseases. The factory was in the Grablie quarter, the poorest in town, across the Wieprz and near the road to Zamość. It employed some one hundred workers, almost all of them children. The children came mostly from poor families of Grablie, except for some from across the river, whose families had been well off but had become impoverished. One of the latter was Yoske Teacher's little boy, whose family couldn't afford to pay tuition, and who wasn't interested in further education in the study house.
Both boys and girls worked at the factory. The boys cut the thin strips of wood for the boxes, and the girls glued them together to make round containers. They earned twenty or thirty groschen a day.[2] Shmuel Mordkhe would bring all of his earnings home, as his contribution to the family. He was always hungry. This was the impetus for one of his exploits at the factory, which made him many friends among the children but annoyed the owners.
One day, the workers realized that the glue used to make the boxes had become useless. The glued strip ends separated. An investigation revealed the reason: the flour was always mixed with some soft cheese. One day, 11 year-old Shmuel Mordkhe showed his hungry co-workers that they could add less cheese to the flour, and could enjoy the leftover cheese. The children began doing so. The children gradually reduced the amount of cheese in the glue, until the disaster occurred. When the owners discovered what was happening, one of them, Chayim Borekh the wood merchant, found a primitive solution. He spat into the mixture of cheese and flour while the children looked on; they then gave up the habit.
Young Zygielbojm had a terrible experience one day, when the angel of death hovered nearby. He was very capable, and volunteered to do things that went beyond his abilities. He was given one of the most responsible – and most dangerous – tasks in the factory: operating a wood slicer that ensured the proper size of the strips. He accidentally
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sliced off the tips of two fingers, cutting through flesh and bone. That was the first time he was exposed to such danger. His fingers healed, but his flat fingertips were a constant reminder of the accident and pain he had experienced. Shortly after this mishap, the boy started working for pay in his aunt's bakery. He worked there for some time and left; he was only twelve.
That was the end of his childhood at home. From now on, constant poverty dictated his actions. In 1907, the boy went into the world, first to the big city of Warsaw, without the care and love of parents, all alone into a roiling sea of people at a very fraught time. But he realized that he could no longer rely on the meager shoulders of his ailing father, while his hardworking mother produced more children who required her constant attention and drained her of energy. He hoped to become independent and support himself, and try his luck in the enormous hubbub of Warsaw. Shmuel Mordkhe Zygielbojm spent seven years of his youth in the metropolis, years that were lean, and hadn't been preceded by years of plenty.[3]
He learned a new trade in Warsaw, apprenticing himself to a glove-maker. He lived with his master for a while, doing all the household chores, and often being beaten. This made him so desperate that he once fled from the house and lived on the street for a week, spending nights on a bench in the Krasiński Garden. He later found lodging with a family from Krasnystaw that had moved to Warsaw, on Karmelicka Street (later called Lubeckiego Street), in a poor part of town. The impoverished woman from Krasnystaw (a sister of Menachem Rozenboym, who later became known as a Bundist activist) knew Shmuel Mordkhe from their hometown, and provided help and support in his time of need.
The adolescent young man liked to write poetry in his free time. His “poetic creations” did not only meet his need to express his thoughts and moods and foster his hope to become well known, but were also a way to pass the time. The young glove-maker was unemployed for months. The best day of the week was Shabbat, when natives of Krasnystaw living in Warsaw would gather for companionship, and to hear the latest news from home. They were Shmuel Mordkhe's audience, listened to his poetry, gave their critiques, and sometimes encouraged him. And, though his friends
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advised him to take the poems to a publisher, he did not have the courage to do that.
His life changed radically with the outbreak of World War I, when he decided to return to Krasnystaw. But he did not stay there long; his family left the town in 1915, due to the effects of the battles between the Russian and Austrian forces, and settled in Chelm. That is where he began his social activism, to which he devoted himself with all his heart, and for which he eventually gave up his life.
At the mature age of 20, Shmuel Mordkhe began to serve in a Russian military hospital. He now became acquainted with two very smart physicians, who encouraged him to acquire an education. Very soon, he became passionately interested in the developing Jewish labor movement.
As a child in the pillbox factory in Krasnystaw, he had experienced a strike. During his Warsaw years, 1907-1914, he took part in economic actions. He also participated in a political protest strike announced by the Bund, in connection with the blood-libel trial initiated in Kiev by the Czarist government.[4] He was not, however, a member of the Bund. The first Bundists he encountered were the leaders of the glovemakers' union in Warsaw, but he never became close to the organization. His general inclination was nationalist; he did not believe in Socialism at all. His feelings were profoundly changed in 1915, in Chelm.
When Austrian forces took over Chelm, the labor movement emerged from its clandestine existence and its numbers increased. Veteran Bundists in Chelm from the period of Russian rule, who had survived all of the Czarist repressions as well as persecutions by Jewish informants and collaborators, were murdered in 1906-1907, in the local manner.[5] Informers supplied a list of those who read the Bund's newspapers; everyone on the list was arrested.
Once the town was under Austrian control, a “workers' home” was established for members of various parties.[6] Zygielboym was elected a member of the organization's leadership. It was the first arena of his social activities. The “workers' home” later came under Bund control, and attracted most of the city's Jewish workers. At that time, the Bundist
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activists Dr. Mirlas of Warsaw and Dr. S. Fensterbloy of Cracow, who had served in the local garrison as an Austrian army officer during the occupation, were living there at the time. Zygielbojm threw himself enthusiastically into the practical aspects of the Jewish labor movement, which was flourishing.
The first convention of Bundist organizations in Poland was held in Lublin at the end of December 1917. At the time, Poland was occupied by Germany and Austro-Hungary. The Bundists of Chelm sent Zygielbojm as their delegate. This was the young activist's first chance to meet the most important leaders and members of the Bund. He made a very good impression with his factual report on his city, and his deep interests in the issues being discussed. He was particularly interested in the question of nationalities, and asked the convention for clarification. This interest stemmed from his personal strong Jewish national feeling, as well as from the situation in Chelm, where there were residents of three nationalities: Jews, Poles, and Ukrainians. At that moment, there was a strong conflict between Poland and Ukraine over Chelm.
The Chelm Bundist movement grew, and Zygielbojm was one of its most capable and active members. The Bundist organization was able to obtain a building for itself and for the professional unions aligned with it. This achievement was largely thanks to Zygielbojm's efforts. The movement's ongoing growth spurred him to more social activism.
His private life, however, was marked by poverty. He had married during the war, and continued to work as a glovemaker. His wife Golda was a seamstress. Their earnings were so meager that they could afford only a basement apartment. He divided his time between the large building of the movement and the basement, where he, Golda, and their first child, Yosef-Leyb, lived.
His hard life as well as the constant party activity that occupied him day and night did not stop the young activist from continuing his own education. Although his father was a teacher, Zygielbojm had not received a regular education, and lacked even basic knowledge. He now began to devote energy to catching up with what he had missed in his childhood and youth. In Chelm, he became friendly with a young Polish female intellectual (the wife of the veteran Socialist, Professor Zygmunt Hering), who began to teach him Polish. He later continued his studies and mastered the language.
Zygielbojm left Chelm in 1920 and settled in Warsaw. This marked the start
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of wide-ranging new activities. The large number of Jewish workers allowed him to increase his capacities and develop his authorial, speaking, and organizational skills. The name of Zygielbojm did not become well known among Jewish workers in Warsaw, but his party alias, Comrade Artur, quickly gained popularity.
It was the period of the Polish-Russian war. The Bundist movement was being harshly repressed, and new activists were vital. The central committee decided to admit the young provincial activist to its ranks. He was soon given two responsible positions: secretary of the Jewish metal workers' professional union, and a member of the Warsaw Bund committee. This marked the beginning of his rapid rise within the movement. Zygielbojm soon became one of the central activists of the Jewish Labor movement in Poland.
He would leave his apartment every morning and enter the crush of the poor Jews who lived on Stawki Street, returning late at night, after a day of exciting experiences, many impressions and efforts, making new acquaintances and encountering new problems.
Artur tried his hand in several fields. He was active in politics as well as in propaganda, and rose to the highest levels in both areas. He proved to be an organizer, teacher, and writer -- talents not often found in the same person.
During the first decade of his Bundist activities in Warsaw, he took up major positions in the movement. At the party convention of December 1924, he was elected a member of the Bund's Central Committee, and continued to be a major figure of the movement's leadership; he was re-elected at each convention.
The office of Secretary of the Jewish metalworkers' union was the beginning of his professional activity. He later attained higher positions. For a time, he was the Secretary of the Council of Jewish Professional Unions in Warsaw, and thus was in touch with Jewish workers in various professions, learning about their lives and needs, and familiarizing himself with their efforts and struggles. In this capacity, he was able to connect Jewish and Polish workers in the Warsaw council of professional unions.
Zygielbojm was also active in the national council of professional unions of Jewish workers (the association of Polish Jewish workers).
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As a member and long-time Secretary of the National Council, he was able to influence the work of all the professional unions of Jewish workers in Poland. Until 1930, he was also the editor of Workers' Problems, the journal of the Jewish workers.
This was not all his professional activity. He carried out two more important functions. For over ten years, beginning in 1926, he was the chairman of the national professional union of leather workers. This organization included Jewish, Polish, and other non-Jewish workers. He made a remarkable contribution to the development and growth of the International Professional Union, which significantly helped shoemakers, tanners, and other leather workers in Poland to improve their conditions. As a member of the leather workers' union, Zygielbojm spent many years as a member of the highest authority of the nation-wide professional union: the Central Committee of the Federation of all professional unions in Poland, which included all professional workers, regardless of national affiliation. Beginning in 1924, he was a member of the Central Committee of Professional Unions. His contributions, in word and deed, helped to develop the Polish Labor movement.
Beginning in 1927, a new field of social activity became available. That year, there were elections to a new Warsaw city council. The Warsaw Bund slated him as a candidate. Together with other Bund leaders, he was elected by the Jewish workers of Warsaw as their representative in the city administration. As a member of the Warsaw City Council, he justified the trust placed in him, and carried out the position admirably. The role of city council member was extremely important, because the Warsaw city council dealt not only with community matters but was also a top political expression of the mood in the country's capital.
Many Bund activists traveled to the cities and towns of Poland. Strikes, election campaigns, party conventions, and other important occasions, as well as general lectures, were reasons for such visits by important activists. Zygielbojm was one of these frequent travelers. In addition to carrying out his mission, he always brought news. He was not only interested in the local affairs that had direct bearing on his mission; his experienced, perceptive gaze penetrated the depths of local life and sensed local features. After returning to Warsaw, he wrote down his impressions of everyday life in provincial areas, and
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published them in the Bundist press as Z. Artur. The writer in him could not remain passive in the face of these portraits of daily life, or stay silent about the mistreatment by petty strongmen and local fixers, whom he called “Berl Kutshmes”. In speech as well as in writing, Artur was not only persuasive but also inspiring and uplifting.
The Jewish Labor movement in Poland was multifaceted, tumultuous and emotional. It provided people with an outlet for their talents. Organizers and speakers, theoreticians and writers were able to express themselves. Not everyone could pass the test of public perception of the Labor movement; and not all those who passed the test had the will to continue the highly demanding work that was required. Many lacked the stamina, and perhaps the idealism as well, needed to survive the difficult struggle of the Jewish Labor movement.
During the grim period of need and loneliness that Zygielbojm suffered during his childhood and youth, he constantly dreamed of distinguishing himself. He set himself serious goals, and strove to achieve them. He was very grateful to the Bund for providing him with the chance to set free his latent powers, develop his capabilities, and be of service. Although the young man achieved much very quickly, and became one of the main leaders of the movement, and believed in his powers and abilities, he was never smug about his achievements. On the contrary, he always felt some unhappiness. This was not a result of any bitterness, but rather stemmed from low self-esteem. The Jewish Labor movement was distinguished by its broad scope and strong idealism, but was far from perfect. The sober realist in him went hand in hand with the dreamer. He was excellent at judging what could and could not be achieved. Yet he was never satisfied with merely achieving the possible. Constantly striving for greater achievements was in his nature.
He was immersed day and night in his community work, yet he always sought something new. His interest in literature and theater – and cultural activity in general – during the early 1930s led him to spend a year in the United States, in order to distribute Jewish books. He continued this work later in Poland, when he became the official representative of the Jewish Encyclopedia.[7]
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He approached the older, veteran leaders of the Bund, whose concept of leadership was extremely democratic and straightforward, with love and respect. The relationship of these leaders to others erased all boundaries between themselves and ordinary party members, and all trace of patronization. Members who looked up to the veteran leaders did so out of pure, profound esteem, great love, and deference.
This was also the case with Artur, who was now part of the movement's leadership. He inspired people to treat the old-time leaders with veneration; they remained his teachers and guides, though his views did not change.
In the Fall of 1936, Artur took his activism elsewhere. He left Warsaw and moved to Lodz.
For years, the acknowledged leader of the working Jews in Poland's largest center of workers had been Yisroel Likhtenshteyn, one of the finest and noblest persons ever to emerge from among the Jews of Poland. The Jewish Labor movement of Lodz, to which Yisroel Likhtenshteyn had devoted his pure heart and sensitive soul, expanded even more after his death in 1933.
The Jewish workers of Lodz produced many outstanding leaders. The local Bund movement – the political party as well as the youth organization – included a large number of youth activists, who expressed their moral strength and capacity during the years of World War II, under the hellish conditions of the ghetto that was established by the Nazi authorities.
Likhtenshteyn, however, was irreplaceable. The large movement required leaders. This led to the idea of relocating a central Bund activist in Lodz. The Bund Central Committee believed that Artur would be the best person for this mission. He was enthusiastic, and, as a loyal member of the organization, carried out the directive of the Central Committee.
He settled in Lodz, and began working with all his energy and devotion. Although his official title was Secretary of the Lodz Bund, Artur was connected with all the sections of the Bund. In late 1938, he was elected a member of the Lodz city council; as such, he was authorized to speak in public. His speeches in the city council were remarkably knowledgeable, and displayed the movement's principles as well as the militancy that characterized broad swaths of the Jewish workers throughout Poland.
Lodz, the second largest city in Poland, was then headed by a council and
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a judiciary, both with a Socialist majority. The Bund had considerable representation. The minority, however, consisted of staunch, anti-Semitic “Endeks.”[8] Zygielbojm's courageous speeches in the Council revealed the reactionary face of the Endeks and their partners, as well as their hatred for the common people. He defended the Jewish population and demonstrated the hypocrisy of the anti-Semitic demagoguery, pitting it against the solidarity of Jewish and Polish workers.
Zygielbojm carried out his important task in Lodz until the storm of war began, in September 1939.
Five days after the start of the war, German forces stood at the gates of Lodz. Faced with this pressure, the Polish forces retreated, along with large portions of the civilian population; all of them headed towards Warsaw. Zygielbojm was part of these crowds.
He was witness to unprecedented, enormous, and terrible events that were happening in and around burning villages, under fire and bombs from the enemy airplanes. These were the terrible conditions of his trip to Warsaw, the city where he spent the best years of his life and developed his social conscience. He came now as a mature man, with almost twenty-five years of turbulent social activity in the Labor Movement which had raised him. Dust and sweat now covered the face that had been furrowed by a hard life.
Impelled by the need to reach Warsaw before the arrival of the swiftly advancing German forces, his thoughts ranged from memories of the near and far past to the terrible images of the panic that had seized the roads and towns between Lodz and Warsaw. At times, he was sometimes able to escape, and distance himself from the nightmarish reality, but the great historical task that destiny had assigned to him was as yet unrevealed. He approached the future with the same questions that occupied him every day.
His arrival in Warsaw radically changed the picture. He saw new tasks that were huge and difficult, and happily took them upon himself.
At 2:00 a.m. on Thursday, September 7, 1939, Artur, limping on his swollen feet, neared Warsaw. He came through the
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quarter of Wola, and knocked at the door of his comrade, Avrom Kastelanski, on Leszno Street, where he was able to rest after his arduous journey.
Artur planned to continue eastward, like the tens of thousands of people who believed that somewhere on the other side of the Vistula there would be a strong line of defense to resist Hitler's armored corps. He didn't want to be forced into passivity while the people in the country were actively battling the Nazi terror. He realized that he needed to be better informed about the situation before going any further. With this in mind, he went to the leader of the Polish Socialist Party, Mieczysław Niedziałkowski, and learned that the decision had been reached to surrender Warsaw, the capital, without a fight. The defensive forces were weak, and the prospects of victory meager. Nevertheless, Warsaw would not surrender.
Artur was upset when he returned from his meeting with Niedziałkowski, and announced to a few of his close friends that he would not be leaving Warsaw. Tears ran down his face, as he told them that he would stay to help in the defense of the city.
He began working with fresh energy. A group of Party leaders had made a work plan for the next few days. Among other tasks, the Bund's daily newspaper Folks-Tsaytung would continue to appear during the siege, which was expected to begin any day. Artur was designated as liaison with the Polish Labor movement, and met daily with Niedziałkowski and Zygmunt Zaremba.[9]
There was much to do. Over one million people lived in Warsaw, among them several hundreds of thousands of Jews. These Jews needed to be disciplined in their fight against the Nazi enemy; they also needed major help in the struggle. Just as among the Poles, the Jewish activists in the three-week-long defensive battle were the workers.
Artur headed this major undertaking. He wrote a call to the Jews to participate in the defense of the city, and to enlist in the volunteer battalions. He wrote a daily article in the Folks-Tsaytung about urgent everyday needs, and actively participated in practical aid to the Jewish population.[10]
His work was wide-ranging, from battling the Nazis in the trenches to establishing kitchens for the hungry. Artur was at the head of
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all these efforts. He was also entrusted with representation of the Jews of Warsaw in the city's general defense committee. The best of the young Jewish Socialists, who were members of the young Bundist's Tsukunft organization, were members not only of the armed resistance units, but also of the special fire brigades. Dressed in their organization uniforms, the young Bundists were stationed in attics or on roofs during bombardments, prepared to extinguish fires started by bombs.
The inevitable end came after a heroic, hopeless battle, which the defenders fought to their last breath. After 21 days of battle, Warsaw had no choice but to surrender. At the last moment, Niedziałkowski – the Bund's representative in the defense committee – refused to sign the capitulation document, declaring, “The working class does not surrender.” However, this prideful gesture could not change the situation. Warsaw and its brave population were now at the mercy of the Nazi forces. The Jews of Warsaw faced the worst chapter ever to occur in history.
As soon as the enemy entered the city, they demanded twelve representatives of the population as hostages who guarantee with their lives to ensure that the community's obligations would be carried out and that order would be maintained.
The city's president, Stefan Starzyński, who had behaved so admirably during the siege, summoned Ester Iwanska, the Bund activist (Wiktor Alter's sister), and announced that the Jews, too, needed to provide representatives as hostages. He suggested two Bundists and one unaffiliated resident. The outcome of this conversation was that the Jews should supply two representatives, one Bundist and one resident. City president Starzyński demanded that Ester Iwanska be the Bundist hostage. Her response was that she could not make that decision herself, but had to consult with leading members of the Bund. She promised to return soon with an answer.
A meeting of the leading members was immediately convened. Artur declared that he would never allow a woman to be taken hostage, and actually offered himself as a hostage. The other participants in the meeting agreed. The meeting of Bund leaders had previously discussed whether the Bund should agree in principle to a member's becoming a hostage. They resolved that a member could become a hostage, so as not to abdicate their responsibilities as representatives of the Jewish population.
Comrade Ester went to the city's president, and told him of the
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Bund's decision. President Starzyński did not oppose the change of hostage, but pointed out the difficulty of Zygielbojm's status as a non-resident of Warsaw but rather a citizen of Lodz. They finally decided to falsify his documents. He was described as a member of the city council on behalf of the Jewish workers. While Zygielbojm was becoming a hostage in Warsaw, the Gestapo was searching for him in Lodz, where they had already arrested a number of Bund activists.
Thus did Artur volunteer to respond to the first danger, providing himself as a guarantee for the Jews of Warsaw. The second Jewish hostage was Avrom Gefner, the leader of the merchants.
One day in October 1939, the police spread out through Warsaw in search of Zygielbojm. They had several addresses for him, but, as they did not find him anywhere, took temporary hostages instead. Other people were arrested at their homes. Among them was Zygielbojm's first wife, Golda, from whom he had been separated for years.[a] That was when Hitler came to visit the large cities of Poland, and observed his soldiers' victory parade.
As a hostage guaranteeing the good behavior of the population, Zygielbojm was one of the first people to lay the foundation for the underground Jewish Labor movement. The first convention of the underground Bund in Warsaw, the secret organization that was destined to play such a heroic, tragic role, took place in mid-October 1939, about two weeks after the enemy had taken the city. The convention took place in the workers' kitchen on Zamenhof Street, with the participation of twenty-some delegates who represented all the trades. Their first task was to organize connections with all sections of Jewish workers. The delegates sat at the table with bowls of soup, so that a Gestapo raid would think that it was a meal for the poor. Artur opened the founding convention of the underground Bund in Warsaw under Nazi occupation.
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One of the resolutions was to create workers' kitchens in all locations of the trade unions, and establish tea-halls there. This was done not only to help the workers but to ensure that they would not become widely scattered. The resolution was implemented immediately, and facilitated the widespread activity of the underground Bund.
Artur was also a member of the first Warsaw committee of the underground Bund. The other committee members were Engineer Avrom Blum (Abrasha), Luzer Klog, Sonia Novogrudska, Viktor Shulman, Bernard Goldshteyn, Tsluva Krishtal, and Yisocher Aykhenboym (Oskar). Only one, Bernard Goldshteyn, continued his leadership position for the full five years. Zygielbojm later wrote about Bernard, describing him as the bravest man he had ever known. After the uprising of the Warsaw Ghetto, in 1943, Avrom Blum was arrested by the Gestapo, and was murdered while in their custody. Luzer Klog was murdered during the Warsaw Ghetto uprising. Sonia Novogrudska was murdered in the gas chambers of Treblinka. Yisocher Aykhenboym later fought the Nazis in Italy with the Polish army. The veteran Bundist Viktor Shulman found his way to America, and Tsluva Krishtal went to China.
One of the functions that the underground Bund entrusted to Zygielbojm was work in the Jewish community. Zygielbojm, as a hostage, had already been legitimized as a Jewish leader of workers. He was now given another responsibility that required legitimacy: representing the Bund in the new Judenrat that had been established by the German occupation authorities.[11]
An unforgettable occasion was one of his appearances at a meeting of the Jewish community council. In the very first weeks after the fall of the city, the Germans wanted to enclose the Jews in a ghetto. They required the community itself to implement this.
During the few days when the community's leaders were discussing the creation of a ghetto, Zygielbojm was fervently opposed to the idea. Fearing that refusing this order would cause new problems for the community, the majority resolved to carry it out. The moment the resolution was adopted by the community's leadership, Zygielbojm declared as follows:
“This has been a historical resolution. Apparently, I was not strong enough to convince you that we must not do it. But my moral strength will not allow me to participate. I feel that I would lose the right to continue living if the Ghetto was created and I would survive
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unharmed. I therefore declare that I am renouncing my position. I know it is the chairman's duty to inform the Gestapo immediately of my resignation, and I am aware of the personal consequences that might follow. But I cannot do otherwise.”
This declaration had an enormous effect. Fear receded, and people felt their moral responsibility for the importance of the Jews and their fate. The community council's resolution was annulled, and the debate whether the community should carry out the Gestapo's order concerning the ghetto began anew, in a very grave atmosphere. A compromise proposal was now adopted, as follows: the community council would not carry out the decree, but would send messengers to tell the Jews about the order, so that they would be able to leave homes that would be excluded from the Ghetto.
The morning after the Warsaw Jewish community learned about the order, thousands came to the community building on Grzybowska Street and waited for concrete information on whether they had to leave homes that were not within the area designated for the ghetto. Zygielbojm talked to a crowd of over ten thousand Jews, calling on them to be courageous and stay in their homes until they would be forced out. The crowd dispersed with the resolve to refuse the order to enter the ghetto.
The talk on the street, as well as the resolution by the Jewish community council, did not go unnoticed by the Gestapo. Zygielbojm was summoned by the Gestapo and told to appear the next day, as the representative of the Jewish workers, to talk about important affairs.
The meaning of the invitation was clear. Naturally, Zygielbojm did not go, and from then on was not seen in public. The Gestapo strengthened its resolve to arrest him, regardless of the cost. There were indications that he was being spied on.
Considering these developments, the leadership of the underground Bund decided that it would be better for Zygielbojm to leave Poland. He was now entrusted with a special mission: informing the world about the atrocities the Germans were perpetrating towards the Jews. Although the escape route from Poland was dangerous, and the chances of success were slim, Zygielbojm set out, and overcame considerable difficulties to fulfill his mission.
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At an international forum, Shmuel Mordkhe Zygielbojm addressed a session of the Executive Committee of the Socialist Workers International, and described the actions of the Nazis in Poland and towards the Jews in particular. His report made a huge impression. For the first time, the free world heard an authentic report from the locked, tortured, and murderous land that the Nazis had made of Poland.
The impression of this report, made in the first weeks of 1940, was described by D. Abramovitsh in the Forverts of New York:
“Here in Brussels, a few weeks before the invasion and ten days before the invasion of Norway, several dozen delegates of Social-Democratic parties in Europe assembled to consider the problems caused by the war.[12] Unexpectedly, among them was a man from a different planet. Speaking plainly, almost calmly, he painted a picture of a country under Nazi occupation. The horror and outrageousness of this war was in complete contrast to the positive, calm atmosphere of Brussels at the time. The listeners were shaken to the core.”
“The people of Europe find themselves in a new world, one they never imagined, as they ignored all the press reports. They discovered the entire truth of the facts as reported by Artur, although human imagination refused to believe such terrible things. One can say that Artur was the conduit for the truth of the war, revealed for the first time as actual experiences, to the workers of Europe.”
“From that moment on, Artur became a respected figure in the international Socialist movement.”
After six weeks in Belgium and four weeks in France, where he experienced the military catastrophe of the Allies in 1940, Zygielbojm reached New York on September 12 of that year.
In the United States as well, Zygielbojm acquainted the public with the horrific actions of the Nazis in Poland. He traveled through the country under the auspices of the Jewish Labor Committee, and informed his listeners about the scale of the torture and horror. In 1940 and 1941, the Forverts also published a series of his reports informing the Jews of America of the bitter fate that had overtaken their brethren across the sea.
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Artur briefly worked in a New York garment factory as a machine operator, and then became the manager of the monthly Di Tsukunft. However, his heart and soul were on the streets of Warsaw and Lodz, Cracow and Lublin. Despite his limited mandate, he did what he could for the Jews of Poland. He was an active member of the American Bund office in Poland; at that time, the American Bund had already begun to receive information from the underground Bund about the terrible fate of the Jews in the ghettos.
He, who had witnessed the savage murderousness of the Nazis, was the person best equipped to understand the information that trickled in. He felt the pain of Jewish hearts, and identified with the tenacity of the brave underground fighters; after all, he had been one of them. On several occasions, he emphasized the courage and heroism of the Jews under Nazi occupation, especially of those Jews who were fighters. Describing the calamities of the first months of German rule, he noted:
“In addition to all this, one must be amazed at the fortitude and pride with which the Jews of Poland bore their unimaginable suffering.”
Writing about the activities of the Jewish Labor movement, he notes:
“The secret emissaries who volunteered to risk their lives in order to help others manifested to the entire Jewish population extreme idealism, readiness for sacrifice, and courage. Their example had a tremendous effect; people found it easier to bear their own suffering.”
Zygielbojm lived in London from the spring of 1942 to the spring of 1943. He went there on the important mission of representing the underground Bund of Poland in the Polish Parliament-in-exile.
This body already included a Jewish delegate, who represented all the Jewish political parties except the Bund. Zygielbojm immediately took a different stance than that of the previous Jewish delegates. Agreeing with the position of the underground Bund of Poland, as well as of the U.S. Bund representative, Zygielbojm recognized the Polish government-in-exile as the legitimate representative of Poland. However, he opposed it, both because of its composition (it included reactionary figures) and because of its political stance towards the Jews. He expressed his positions in his speeches as well as in his votes. Zygielbojm was the only deputy in the Polish National Council who did not support the government budgets.
In his speeches in the National Council, he touched on general national
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issues, bearing in mind the interests of the working classes and fighting for democratization. He made passionate demands to aid the Jewish population that was languishing in the ghettos and being tortured and murdered by the Nazi sadists.
He called for action by the government-in-exile regarding the murder of Jews. Artur intervened with Premier General Władysław Sikorski and with Interior Minister Stanisław Mikołajczyk. He also did so at the meetings of the National Council, where he ceaselessly demanded, asked, aroused, and presented practical suggestions. For example, he presented the following three suggestions at a meeting of the National Council at the end of November, 1942:
Zygielbojm ceaselessly fore-grounded the tragedy of the Jews in the ghettos and camps. He did so not only in the arena of the Polish government-in-exile, but also for the British public. He was able to present his information concerning Poland in London's most influential newspapers, and demanded that they publish the news of the horrors. This was one of his most difficult tasks, as he encountered strong refusals and disbelief. He was luckier with his efforts to bring the grim situation of the Jews before the British Labor Party and the representatives of other European Socialist parties. He presented his tragic information from the underground Bund at many mass rallies and conferences. Artur also appeared at many meetings of Jewish institutions throughout England, and tried to be active in efforts to help to rescue the Jews of Europe.
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He considered his continued liaison with the Jews of Poland to be his most sacred mission, as it enabled him to send help and important information, as well as giving the caged Jews the chance to tell the world about their needs and suffering, and the dangers they faced. The liaison was created with the help of the government-in-exile. The Jewish Labor committee of the United States sent large sums of money through these underground channels. Once the money arrived in Poland, it was directed towards helping Jews to continue their underground fight against the Nazis and purchase protective gear and weapons. The underground Bund also sent out reports about the murders of Jews, the gas chambers, and other calamities. For a long time, these reports were the only call for help from the Jews of Poland that reached the outside world. Thanks to them, people discovered what Hitler's murder machine was actually doing to the Jews of Europe.
On the other hand, Zygielbojm attempted to contact his suffering brothers and sisters. He did not do this only by means of letters delivered thorough underground channels, but over the radio as well: the words he said in London reached the Jews in Poland. They were heard in secret by special listeners, and their content was spread by word of mouth. His people, who were mourning their nearest and dearest as they awaited their own gruesome fate, heard words of comfort, cheer, and hope.
He worked in London feverishly for a year. His life was dictated by the obsession to help, help, help. What would work to stop the murdering hands? How could he break through the indifference of the world at large? Just as day cannot be distinguished from night in the far northern latitudes, so Artur did not distinguish waking from sleeping. One thought constantly gnawed at him: how to help them? The reports from home continued: the ghettos were less crowded, their number was declining, and the camps were being emptied. Zygielbojm was troubled: The Polish Jews, whose mouthpiece he was, were becoming fewer. Their original number of three and a half million had dwindled to several hundreds of thousands. The death operation continued twenty-four hours a day. The mind of Artur, that indefatigable fighter, felt doubt, and there was a pain in his heart. The darkness and death of Treblinka blazed in his mind. His mood was tinged with the breath of death.
His letter of April 30, 1943, to the American representative of the Bund in Poland, contains his report of a telegram that he had received
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from the underground Bund through secret channels. Artur writes, “This telegram breathes the knowledge that everything is ending… The information rules out any kind of work, even life itself.”
The letters he wrote in his last days to his friends and comrades contain several thoughts and expressions of feeling. A letter to his younger brother in Johannesburg, South Africa, states, “I'm down to my last bits of strength, not because the work is hard but because of the unbearable helplessness. The reports from home are more terrible each day. I am tormented by the thought that I had been one of them – what right did I have to save myself? Why did I not share the common fate? I don't even have the relief of thinking that my work helped to save someone from the pitiless sword of extermination.”
As we know, the spring of 1943 was not the first time Zygielbojm had confronted the problem of death. During the years of World War II, this activist of the Jewish Labor movement had been in situations where he had to balance honor, life, and death.
During the very first weeks of the Nazi regime in Warsaw, Zygielbojm declared, in a Judenrat meeting, “I feel I would have no right to go on living if the Ghetto is established and I would not be affected.”
Zygielbojm had already decided that he would sacrifice himself in the struggle for honor, and the life of the Jewish population. That gave him the confidence and courage that he needed as a representative of the people. It was he who wrote about the early period of the Nazi reign of terror in Poland: “Believe it or not, but absolute readiness to die confers superhuman strength to fight for life. This complete readiness for death, which has empowered me since my first day in Warsaw under Nazi rule, has now restored my calm and resolve.”
There were difficult moments when he, who was ready to die, wanted to hasten the process. That was when he was thrust back from the Dutch border into the hands of the Gestapo. As Zygielbojm wrote, “For the first time in my life I thought about death as a savior. For the first time, I thought seriously about suicide.” He continued, several hours later, “What's the worst that could happen? I'll die. Haven't I been ready for it for the past few months?”
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All this was when and where he could have been seized by the murderous claws of the Gestapo. But Artur Zygielbojm ended his life in a free part of the world. Previously, over there, his readiness to die gave him the peace of mind to continue living through the worst dangers. Now, over here, the prospect of life made him restless and ashamed to go on living.
Speaking over London Radio on July 2, 1943, this emissary of Jewish pain said, “Imagine the terrible disaster of methodically murdering an entire nation! Each of us who grasps the horror of the catastrophe must be seized by shame for still being alive… Anyone who does not do everything in his power to stop the mass murders assumes the moral responsibility for them… The mass graves that fill daily with thousands of Jewish women, children, and elderly persons are constant burning wounds that every decent person must feel as a pain and defilement that can happen to him.”
When the Jews of Warsaw and Lublin were violated, Zygielbojm was violated in London. When the Jews of Lodz and Vilna were killed, he was killed in London. He was a small part of them, a slender thread in the large national web.
That intimate connection was so powerful that he declared, at a meeting in London in the Ohel Jewish center: “If the Jews of Poland are obliterated, I feel that I have no right to continue living.”
The early readiness to die became transformed into a duty, and finally – an inevitable obligation. An emissary from the Polish underground organization arrived in London, with a special message from the Jewish delegates (including the Bund delegate). The emissary, Jan Karski, passed him the following message that the Jewish delegates in Poland wanted to transmit to the Jewish leaders in the free world: “Let them go to all the major British and American departments and agencies. Tell them to stay there until they have guarantees that they are working on a way to save the Jews. Let them not eat or drink, but slowly expire before the eyes of an indifferent world. Let them die. Maybe that will shake the conscience of the world.”
Zygielbojm's response was: “Mr. Karski, I myself will do everything I can to help them. Everything! I will do whatever they ask, if I am only given the chance.”
During his year in London, Zygielbojm explored all the possibilities, but nothing resulted in rescue for the millions of victims. The emissary from Poland suggested
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a new “way.” This was actually a request and demand of the leading speaker for the murdered Jews: Die, on the chance that it might ‘shake the conscience of the world.’ Shmuel Mordkhe Zygielbojm, the working youth from Krasnystaw, the Labor activist of Warsaw, the delegate of the Polish Jews to the free world, was fully prepared to carry out the order that the leaders of the murdered Jews had sent from the vale of tears. He was the only one who fulfilled the order that the Jewish ghetto leaders directed towards the Jewish leaders of the free world. He was the only one to make the ultimate sacrifice. On the night of May 11-12, he ended his own life.
His death made a powerful impression far and wide. It was marked by hundreds of newspapers and magazines in many countries. The words of his last will and testament were noted by the U.S. Congress, and made their way through press and radio to all the countries of the world. For a while, their indifference cracked, and they were ashamed. Their consciences were shaken for a moment. The voluntary suicide of this one person agitated the remnants of the Jewish survivors in Poland, those who had witnessed the mass murder of their nearest and dearest while awaiting their own demise. A report by the underground Bund in Poland, on May 24, 1944, described Zygielbojm's suicide as a heroic act. Jewish workers in Warsaw, Lodz, and the labor camps assembled in secret and honored his memory with a few quiet words.
Thus did Shmuel Mordkhe Zygielbojm live with his people, and die for them.
Translator's footnotes:
Original footnote:
L. Grinberg, Winnipeg, Canada
Translated by Yael Chaver
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| Ben Tsukerman (Chairman of the Krasnystaw Natives' Committee, Los Angeles) |
Whenever I want to refresh my memories of my hometown, Krasnystaw (Lublin Province, Poland), of 40-45 years ago, I first think of our Study House, where I spent much of my time, and from which I gained all it could provide. I remember my
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friends in the Study House, who were the best friends I could have. I especially remember my friend Berl, or Benny, as he is now known in his new hometown.
Berl was remarkable for his pointed witticisms, shrewd intellectual conversation, strong character, and great courage.
His courage and sarcastic remarks were very helpful to us later, during our “Enlightenment” period, when we were persecuted by the community. I would like to mention a few episodes.
This was how Berl addressed one of our learned attackers, who were very learned, before a large crowd.
“It looks as though you're planning to lord it over us very soon.” When the person asked him how he had come to that conclusion, he said, “The Talmud explicitly states, ‘Anyone who distresses Israel will become a chief,’ and you are lording it over us like Haman the wicked did over the Jews.”[1] The man was silenced, and said nothing more against the Study House crowd. Another insolent man, who was far from learned, was countered by Berl as follows: “First, sit on the study bench for ten or twelve years, and be studious. Only then might you be entitled to speak against the Study House men.”
This was how Ben silenced the hypocrites and all those who enjoyed belittling others.
The Study House became too confining. People searched for new paths and new ways of thinking. Popular options were Zionism, Tze'irei Tziyon, and, later, Poalei Tziyon.[2] Berl was the most active everywhere. Yet he always remembered those of his friends who were in need, and often took them to his home for a meal; his parents had created a warm and welcoming environment.
During conscription to the army, Berl was drafted, but felt that he could not be part of the Czarist forces. Parting with him was painful, especially the very last goodbyes, which were rich in hope and heartfelt wishes.[3]
Once in New York, Berl found that he was not suited for work in sweatshops, peddling, insurance, and many other occupations. After several years of struggling to make a living, Berl and his family – wife and child – found their way to western Canada. Like many other idealists, he planned to become a farmer.
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He settled on a farm in the remotest part of the wilderness, where the government provided free land, subject to certain conditions. It was located miles away from the nearest farmer or any town – roughly thirty miles–and conditions were unbelievably primitive. He struggled stubbornly for several years, and relinquished the farm only when the health of his entire family became threatened. He moved to Saskatoon in the Province of Saskatchewan.
Benny was able to make a living in Saskatoon, and deserved to rest after each day's work. But how could he rest, when the few Jews who were there experienced no traces of a Jewish life? He soon began agitating tirelessly for a synagogue, a Talmud-Torah, and other components necessary to maintain Jewish culture.[4] He put great effort into this project, though he himself was a radical. Before long, a synagogue was built as well as a Talmud-Torah for children. A ritual slaughterer, who doubled as cantor, was brought in, as well as two good teachers.[5] Thanks to these institutions, the Jews of Saskatoon began to live as Jews, and strove to excel. Everyone in the community became active, and people were interested in holding responsible positions (unpaid). Thus, everyone was active, and Benny was happy.
Yet he was still not satisfied. After much effort, he established a local branch of the Poalei-Tziyon movement. His enthusiasm influenced others, who had previously avoided community activity out of principle, to become participants. People who had been fervent anarchists and Bundists joined Poalei-Tziyon. A culture of national, cultural, and political activity came into being. People began to spend their evenings and free days in the library created by the Poalei-Tziyon club. People were busy reading, entering into discussions, and becoming intellectually stimulated.
As a young boy, Berl began to be interested in the Bible as well as in Talmudic discussions. He loved Hebrew and Hebrew literature. At age 17 or 18, he published an article in the Hebrew weekly Ha-Kol, in the form of a letter. It was a response to the rich, Polish Hassidic hypocrites, whose newspapers published complaints that religious studies were doomed, basing themselves on the Talmudic precept that “Torah will issue forth from the poor.”[6] Over half of the poor young Jewish men in Poland had begun to abandon their religious studies in favor of learning a trade, or gaining a general European education. This was true of city Jews as well. They were all thinking in practical terms. In his response, Berl pointed out the hypocrisy of the rich Hassids: they married their daughters to rich professionals rather than to poor religious students. Several of these families had sons-in-law who were chemists, engineers, and lawyers. Berl's response made a great impression, as he was exposing actual aspects of community life.
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In 1918, at the end of World War I, Benny left everything and hurried to Europe to save his parents and the eight children who remained at home (they were a family of twelve).
He was literally one of the first people from the American continent to visit Poland at that time. Traveling to Europe was very difficult. Passenger ships carried limited numbers of people, and only as far as London. At that time, it was impossible to buy any travel tickets directly to Warsaw, but – if one pulled the right strings – a ticket to Paris could be bought. Once in Paris, it became clear that it was impossible to go to Warsaw, because the trains were almost exclusively for diplomats. Special train cars were earmarked for people such as the extremely wealthy, well-known bankers, and internationally famous manufacturers. Ordinary people could not travel. Getting a travel permit could take as long as three or four months. However, Benny contacted highly placed people, one of whom was an important Canadian diplomat. Thanks to his logical approach and personal appeal – or luck – Benny received permission to travel on the diplomats' train. Thus, he was literally one of the first ten passengers to arrive from America.
I will not linger on the various welcomes that were arranged for him, or the mood of celebration that overtook the town when he came. I heard about these in Warsaw, where I was living at the time. Let me just present a small example of an example of Benny's work, not for any reward but out of innate kindness and courtesy.
Achieving his goal – bringing his family out of Europe – met with many difficulties. Two of the four boys (they had been six altogether) were over 18, and the new Polish government did not allow them to leave the country. But Benny would not leave them behind. The new Polish government had no policy regarding emigration at that time. Even the shipping companies were not in touch with the government about carrying emigrants. But Benny let nothing stop him. He sent cables to Ottawa, London, and to every other location that might help. Finally, after unimaginable efforts, Benny received permission, along with all the required documentation, visas, etc., for his entire family of ten.
This was followed, naturally, by requests from relatives, friends, and acquaintances for help from Benny to leave Poland. These requests were accompanied by tears and entreaties, as the process was fraught with danger.
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Letting people know the truth, that help was impossible, was useless; he promised to do his best once he was back in Canada. He did explore every avenue while still in Poland. He selected some of those who were worthiest of his aid. By various means, ideas, connections, etc., he was able to take several young men with him. He swore solemnly that as soon as he came home, he would do everything in his power to get them out of Poland.
Benny returned to Canada. While looking for a new job, he also sought rich, compassionate people who would help him to bring over these people who had suffered during the war. He was able to collect funds (I don't know the amount) and buy passage, as well as sending people money to cover expenses. Benny knew which cases were the most urgent. I had to wait until February 1921. It was a long wait, but I knew that my turn would come. I received my ticket, affidavit, and fifty dollars for expenses. I arrived in Canada at the end of May, 1921. Three years later, I was able to bring over my wife and three children, with no help from anyone. I was one of the sixth group of ten people that Benny's compassion helped to bring to America, without their families. The families were all brought over later, thanks to the efforts of husbands and sons.
And every time we natives of Krasnystaw gathered, we spoke mainly of Benny's great compassion. We always said, “If not for Benny, where would we be?”
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Translator's footnotes:
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