Mendl Fiszelewicz

The first armed appearance of the fighters' organization, which was poorly organized, was on 4 January 1943. According to Degenhardt's order, all the Jews who worked in the ghetto proper were required to report to the “Small Market.” Only Mendel Fiszelewicz, who represented the Battle Company, “Nadrzeczna 66” in the general headquarters of fighters' organization in Częstochowa, was in the ghetto at that time.

Most of members of the battle company “Nadrzeczna 66” were in the ghetto and several members of the general battle company. After a long consideration, the fighters decided by the majority of opinions to also go to the “small market”. They had no weapons in their hands. The few pistols, which were already in the organization's possession, were distributed among the members of the headquarters who were outside the ghetto for special missions. One pistol was in the hands of Mendel Fiszelewicz. He took this pistol with him, and his closest friend, Isidor [Yitzhak) Fajner, only took a knife with him.

In the days of the ghetto, on 66 Nadrzeczna Street, was a collective of young people from Częstochowa. When the fighters' organization was established there, the collective became a fighting group. Armed with these weapons the young fighters went to the “small market.” Only Polia Szczekac remained on guard in the ghetto. All the Jews of the ghetto had already gathered in the square.

The aktzia, under the command of Lieutenant Rahn, was already in full force. Dozens of elderly, mothers and babies were already imprisoned, under the guard of Ukrainian fascists.

On Rahn's order, the entire group of young people was immediately surrounded, and as punishment for being late, they were transferred to the groups of imprisoned Jews. Immediately, this group of fighters decided to die an honorable death. When they took them out to the square, and began to arrange them in a row to lead them away, Fiszelewicz attacked Rahn with his pistol and Fajner - with a knife on Lieutenant Sapart. Rahn was injured in his hand, and Sapart left the square with a stab wound and his coat and boots were cut off. Fiszelewicz's pistol suddenly jammed - the cartridge of the fired bullet remained stuck in the barrel. Fiszelewicz began to fight with his teeth and fingernails, but his flesh was pierced by the burst of bullets the Germans fired at him from an automatic weapon, and he fell. Fajner also fell, critically wounded. With that, the murderers did not finish their bloody lesson. They removed another 25 people from the row, divided them into two groups and shot them to death in front of everyone.

Only after they all died, the rest of the gathered Jews were allowed to return to the ghetto. The camp, of approximately three hundred arrested Jews, was led to the commissariat of the Polish police on 21 Pilsudski Street. Among these three hundred people was also the group of fighters, who during the tragic struggle was unable to escape from the encircled Jewish camp. Only the young woman fighter, Dosha Szcekac, managed to escape later from the commissariat.

The headquarters of the fighters' organization did not know rest, and sent tools to the members to saw the window grates. The next day, all the prisoners were taken under strict guard of gendarmes to Radomsk. The fighters decided to escape on the way. The first to escape was Sara Gotthold, the second was Yadsza Mas but she tripped and fell during her escape. She was immediately captured and the guard around was increased. This incident ended the continuation of the escape attempt.

But the fighters' headquarters did not remain quiet, and sent two messengers to Radomsk, Yitzchak Windman and Tzvi Lustiger, to t strengthen all the forces there in order to get their members out of prison. The messengers arrived in Radomsk at the height of the aktzia and couldn't do anything. The Ukrainians received the bribe money, but later threatened to shoot those who will try to escape from there. The female fighters decided to commit suicide and not enter the train cars. The first, Yadsza Mas, hung herself. The second, who was about to commit suicide, was Marisa Rosenzweig, but the rest of the Jews, who were with them, opposed it by force and did not allow additional suicides.

For this reason, the female fighters decided to take the last measure - to jump off the moving train. They all got into one car with the tools given to them by the headquarters in Czestochowa. On the way, they broke open the bars of the horse-car, and started jumping out of it, one by one. Other women also used this option. Only a few women, among them also the active fighter, Cesha Borkowska, arrived in Czestochowa. Most of them were shot while jumping from the cars and the rest perished on the way back to Czestochowa.

Mendl was born in Radomsk on Reymonta Street. His father was Menakhem Wolf Fiszelewicz (Pitsele [little one]). There were three children in the house, he and his two sisters. While in school, his strong capabilities were already in evidence; he was one of the best students and the leader in various games. The children did not start any game unless they had consulted first with Mendl, always asking what the Pitsek [variation of pitsele – using his father's nickname] had to say.

From his earliest youth, he belonged to Zionist youth organizations, but he never was a member


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of one organization for more than several weeks. He always changed to another and took with him many of the young people. At the end, he found his place in Betar [Revisionist Zionist youth organization founded by Ze've Jabotinsky]. While studying in Wejntraub's Jewish gymnazie [secondary school], he undertook strong Zionist work there and convinced many of his school friends to join Betar. When Masada [vocational school associated with Betar] was created, Mendl was at its head. He was full of energy, never could sit idly, always looked for something to do. He created courses in modern Hebrew. Every day he gathered young people together, not only friends from Masada, but whoever had a desire to learn, he led into his room and there they studied modern Hebrew. At first, he sought out an adult, who was the teacher; later, he taught his friends himself.

Mendl never relinquished his Jewish self-respect; he never lowered his head, but with pride reacted to yet another anti-Semitic event. In the last years, before the outbreak of the Second World War, when anti-Semitism raged in Poland, Radomsk was plastered with anti-Jewish slogans and anti-Semitic appeals. Mendl gathered the members of Masada and urged them to voluntarily report to go out at night and smear the slogans. Thirty members came; Mendl divided them into groups of four. Each group was given a bucket of tar and a brush. Two smeared and the other two stood guard and warned if the police were coming.

The group came back from this action smeared in tar and without the [buckets and brushes] because the police had chased them. They had had to throw away the gear, but they remained full of daring. Mendl always argued to his comrades that they must not leave, they must fight back; it was not important who it was. It was the same when strolling on Czakczewer Street or at the Babres when they bathed. Every Shabbos [Sabbath], the Gentile boys waited for the Jewish boys who went to bathe and provoked a quarrel. Many ran back home, but not Mendl. He came home more than once with a lokh in kop (hole in the head). But the next Shabbos, he again went and again fought with the Gentile boys.

Mendl's main goal was to travel to Eretz Yizroel. That is why he studied Hebrew and wanted to learn to shoot. He joined F. W. (the youth organization for military preparation) and every Sunday he spent the whole day learning to shoot. When illegal immigration to Eretz Yizroel began (1938), Mendl did everything possible to be allowed to go, but he was too young and he was not permitted to go. When the war started, Mendl was sixteen. His parents went to Czenstochow and he went to Kolomyja, but he returned from there to the Czenstchower ghetto.

Mendl Fiszelewicz was the first young person to join the resistance movement in the small ghetto in Czenstochow. In November 1942, at Nadrzeczna 66, a collective with six young girls was organized with the purpose of creating a resistance group around themselves. These six girls drew into the collective their young friends with whom they had worked before, in the large ghetto, in the TOZ [Towarzystwo Ochrony Zdrowia Ludności Żydowskiej – Society for Safeguarding the Health of the Jewish Population], and in spreading illegal literature. Among the first four friends who joined the above-mentioned collective was Mendl Fiszelewicz. Later, the number of members of the collective grew to 23 young people, aged from 17 to 20. They began to prepare for the resistance. They were satisfied with eating just dry bread, saving and collecting money for weapons. After they acquired two revolvers, they declared themselves a fighting-group, dividing themselves in “fifths” and voted for a commander. This was the second youngest fighting-group that arose in December 1942 in the small Czenstochower ghetto. This group called itself “Nadrzeczna 66.” It became known in the ghetto a month later during the first armed appearance of the fighting organization, in which Mendl Fiszelewicz played the main role.

A precise description about this armed appearance appears in L. Brener's book, Vidershtand un Umkum in Czenstochower Geto [Resistance and Death in the Czenstochower Ghetto] (published by the Jewish Historical Institute in Poland),^[1] where the following is told:

“The first armed, but weakly organized appearance of the fighting organization occurred on the 4^th of January 1943. On [Hauptmann [Captain] Paul] Degenhardt's order, all of the Jews who worked in places within the ghetto proper had to appear at the ryneczek [market square]. Only Mendl Fiszelewicz of the fighting-organization “Nadrzeczna 66,” which he represented in the general command of the fighting organization in the ghetto, was in the ghetto. Of the fighting groups in the ghetto, the largest number were from “Nadrzeczna 66” and some members of the miscellaneous fighting groups. After a long deliberation, the fighters decided by majority vote to go out to the ryneczek. They had no weapons with them. The few revolvers that the organization then had were distributed among the members of the command, who were found outside the ghetto with special assignments. Mendl Fiszelewicz had one gun. This revolver he took with him, and his closest comrade, Izidor (Yitzhak) Fajner, had taken only a knife with him. With these weapons, the young fighters went out onto the ryneczek. While on watch in the ghetto, only Polya Szczekasz remained.

All the Jews in the ghetto were already assembled on the Platz. The aktsia [action, usually a deportation], which was carried out by Lieutenant [Felix] Rohn, had already occurred. Dozens of old men, mothers and children were already separated under


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the watch of the Ukrainian Fascists. On Rohn's order, the entire group of young people was surrounded and, as punishment, which they later received, as did all Jews, they were taken to the group of Jews who were already confined. Here this fighting group decided on the spot to die with honor. As soon as they were being led out to the Platz and were being placed in rows to be taken away, Mendl Fiszelewicz threw himself with the revolver on Rohn, and Yitzhak Fajner threw himself with the knife at Lieutenant Soport. Rohn was wounded in the hand and Soport suffered a stab wound. He retreated from the Platz with a cut uniform and boots. Mendl's revolver jammed while the casing from the fired bullet remained stuck in the barrel of the gun. Mendl Fiszelewicz began to fight with his teeth and nails and fell, pierced with holes from a series of bullets that the Germans fired at him from an automatic weapon. Yitzhak Fajner also fell, severely wounded.

The murders did not stop with that. Twenty-five more men were removed from the rows, divided into two groups and shot before everyone's eyes. Twenty-seven more young lives were annihilated. Among them: the two young fighters, Mendl Fiszelewicz and Yitzhak Fajner; also – Herszl Fridman, the well-known militant since 1905, the lawyer Natan Rozensztajn, Wernik, Rodal Szeltser, Trambacki, Haptke, Sztalp, Wigodzki, Zilberszats, Eksztajn, Goldberg, Rodoszicki; and thirteen unknown men. Not all of the fallen died immediately from the bullets. Some of them, including Yitzhak Feyman, suffered for hours in death convulsions. Immediately after this, when all had breathed out their souls, the remnant of the gathered Jews was let back into the ghetto. The assembled Jews, of an estimated 300 men, were taken away to Pilsudski Street 21, where the commissariat of the Polish police was found. In the morning, all those being held were taken to Radomsk under heavy guard by the gendarmes, where the expulsion of the last assembled Jews took place.

On the first of May 1945, 10 days before the Second World War officially ended, the Yiddish weekly, Dos Neye Lebn, which was published in Lodz, published a list of 50 heroic ghetto fighters, among whom was found the name of Mendl Fiszelewicz. These 50 Jewish ghetto fighters during the [first] anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising (April 1945) had award orders bestowed on them by the general headquarters of the Polish Army for their heroic fight again the Nazi occupiers.

Mendl Fiszelewicz gave his young life in Czenstochow as a hero, in the fight for Jewish honor, in harmony with the ideas that he absorbed and spread among the young in Radomsk.

Translator's footnote:

1. The English translation of this book appears on the JewishGen website at https://www.jewishgen.org/Yizkor/Czestochowa4/Czestochowa4.html Return

If there is power in the words, written from a vibration of holiness to embody the radiant image of Tuvia, the little that was quickly and lovingly collected by his friends, from the vast collection, will be included in the bundle of memories of the wonderful star that shone in the sky of Radomsk.

The articles, written by people who saw his actions up close and knew the secret of his greatness, will come and tell the generation that knew Tuvia, and those that will come after him and did not know him, about a man of noble qualities, about the dear friend who passed away and his noble memory will not be forgotten.

Tuvia was born in 1911 in Radomsk )Central Poland(. At the prime of his youth he joined Freiheit, the youth movement of Poalei Zion Zionist Socialist. He fulfilled responsible positions in the movement Eretz Yisrael Haovedet [Working Land of Israel] in his city. He was the last librarian in the library named after Sholem Aleichem and saved it from destruction. He participated in seminars as a lecturer on Yiddish literature and the history of the workers movement.

After the Nazi occupation, in the spring of 1940, he was called to the Halutz center in Warsaw and to Dror's underground movement. He participated in the organization of illegal seminars, in the underground press, and developed an extensive educational and instructional operation. In 1942 he left for a Hakhshara company and managed the cultural work there. At the end of that year, he returned to Warsaw Ghetto and integrated in the operations of the “Jewish Combat Organization.” In January of 1943 he participated in the organization's first armed action. During the Great Uprising he fought in the central ghetto and was among those who left through the sewers. In the days of the Polish uprising, in August 1944, he fought in the ranks of the Jewish company of the “Jewish Combat Organization.”

Immediately after liberation he resumed his public activity among the survivors and the youth who returned from the Soviet Union. In dozens of articles in the movement's newspapers he brought the matter of fulfilling Zionism. In the new reality of the Republic of Poland, in the days of the great exodus he stood at the gate facing the enemy. In 1949, the Halutz center in Poland published his book Tsvishn Falndike Vent, the first book of testimony about the fighting in Warsaw Ghetto. In 1950, the book was published in Hebrew translation under the name “Between Tumbling Walls” by Hakibbutz Hameuchad Publishing Group.

In 1949, he immigrated to Israel and joined his kibbutz, Kibbutz Lohamei HaGeta'ot in Western Galilee. He combined his work in the branches of the kibbutz with public and literary activity until the day he became ill. He was among the founders of Beit Lohamei Ha-Getaot [The Ghetto Fighters' House] named after Yitzchak Katzenelson. During his illness he continued writing his memoirs about the first years of occupation.


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The badge of honor “The Order of the Cross Grunwald III” awarded to Tuvia Borzykowski on behalf of the President of the State of Poland

The first grave was dug in the soil of Kibbutz Lohamei HaGeta'ot in Western Galilee when a kibbutz member, who was among the participants the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, was laid to rest.

The coffin, wrapped in the ghetto fighters' flags, was placed before the funeral procession in the temporary building of Beit Katzenelson, and many of the deceased's friends and admirers paid their last respect. Bura, a kibbutz member, who parted from the deceased in the name of his many friends, stated in his words while holding his tears: “More victims are added to the six million who perished in Europe, more human lives are collapsing before their time. Tuvia was among those who raised the uprising and the people to save the soul of man, and the man to save the soul of the people.

Members of the kibbutz, members of kibbutzim from the area, ghetto fighters from various locations in Israel, members of the board of HaKibbutz HaMeuchad, the center of Achdut HaAwoda – Poalei Tzion, and workers from Acre and Nahariyya walked after the coffin which was wrapped in bouquets of flowers. Words of the eulogy were delivered by members who accompanied the deceased on his path of life full of suffering, from his youth until now.

Yitzhak Tabenkin, who eulogized the deceased before filling the grave, said: “Tuvia, we are digging a grave under the earth and ashes, the Nazis wanted to put all the Jewish people under earth and ashes, but Tuvia, and his friends, discovered the fire, and individuals before everyone they raised the standard of revolt against the Nazi beast. “He could have died a thousand times, Tabenkin continued his words, from hunger, from the Nazi bullets, in the sewers and during the uprising, but he came to here, to the State of Israel, to Kibbutz Lohamei HaGeta'ot, and so we stand on Tuvia's grave knowing that there is fire under the earth.”

Now he met his end, with death. And death was no stranger to Tuvia who came to us “Between Tumbling Walls.” The two years he wrote in his book, from “lightnings on January day” 1943, to “spring in January” 1945. Two years in the annihilated and rebellious Warsaw, among ruins, on roofs, in bunkers and trenches - those two years were just one long meeting with death. And not with our “friend” who has been walking around our house ever since, the eternal reaper and his innocent scythe in his hand - but with “modern” total death, equipped with extermination equipment, striking his blows with a German arm.

A meeting with death, eye to eye, face to face - standing against it, and rebelling against it. This death had many faces: horror, bullet and fire, hunger, persecution and darkness, thirst and distress, loss of friends and annihilation of people - and a space that was emptied of everything, just not of terror. Here it approaches, attacks and crushes - deterring and putting on a mask. It does not want the submissives and the defeated: it will seek the proud and the brave, those who revolt against it.

There are many faces to this rebellion: to come on sly and hide from death, and even run towards it. To make way for it, to let it pass - and meet it in the middle of the street, to throw the rest of the strength and fury against it - and even to curb the anger. “Until it passes.”

A book of meetings with death - what imaginary realism, what a reality that all hope was lost, that there is absolutely nothing after it. And yet, this desert-life is full of movement, and breathes a heavy breath of effort and preparedness. It has ups and downs and sharp turning points. The sections cut like Żelazna Street in the book, which is a desolate mound on the Jewish side and not damaged on the Aryan side. Next to the paths of fire and paths of snow, alongside the extreme situations of scorched earth, deathly dens and sewage - a grove behind Warsaw and green trees and grass. Beautiful Żoliborz, and a summer day in Bialana playing in the great outdoors and enjoying it. Islands in a sea of fire, meadows in the desert! And even during recent situations - exchanges of shades and light and shadow, hopes and wishes, anguish that relaxes, a strait that opens. A woman in the underground lights Shabbat candles, the sound of prayer rises from the yard next to the hideout, and the heart is awake to the voice of the world. And words of wisdom, Torah and jokes behind confined walls, and this is the assistance, and this is the risk of those who are not allies, passionate and guardians of the ember! Indeed, there are evergreen moments in the autumn of our days, there are also hours in this place, and in this time, for them maybe there is a future and hope also in this universe.


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Indeed, the book is entirely ours, of our Jewish destiny: the annihilations under the sky – and the will to live of the one who rose from his mourning and his ashes. Clinging to every scrap of life - and the fear of benevolent grace that can be deceptive. And even the words of gratitude to the righteous of the world – in ungrateful and merciless world - the few and lonely in their world, like that last pioneering group that was not controlled by fire. Now they are trying to help the Jewish destiny, to save the survivors for the sake of history and dissuade them from continuing to tempt fate. The boys respect this fear, but do not shy away from one last “mission,” they return and sail to the turmoil of life and towards more trials. However, no matter where they go, they will no longer escape from that mission that clings to them, the refugees of the annihilation and its rebels.

“Even many days afterwards” - it is told in one of the last chapters of the book – “I could not calmly walk past a water tap, even though I had already drunk my fill.” The thirst for pure water did not stop and was not satisfied, it is the thirst for life that has awakening and renewal in it. The same thirst of the entire pioneering core, whose miraculous rescue is recounted by one of his sons with integrity and humility. Tuvia Borzykowski brings up this story, like other stories, with great concern for a character that will not be forgotten, for an event that will not be lost and for the feelings of the individual. This is a heavy burden, the burden of our loss.

Indeed: the last events cross the border of the first ones. The War of Independence, “miracles” and acts of heroism captured our hearts and sometimes pushed tragedy and glory ahead of them. But nothing, a lot or little, fell on it from the light of the “lightnings in January” in April of 1943 in Warsaw, and from the “spring of January” in 1945. The Holocaust and the War of Independence - neighboring each other in time. The disaster “supported” heroism, and our victory was also drawn from the strength of the defeated. The books about the extinct people, and thee book “Between Tumbling Walls,” will unite, in the heart and the consciousness, with books written in Israel, and they will rise to the heights of victory.

It is possible, that from the pain of a person's death bright and glowing memories related to his character, arise in your mind. It seems that there is a mental need to remember the departed precisely in the best moments of his life, to see him again alive, vibrant and happy. As if the desire arises in us to remember him with his smile, in his laugh and his lack of seriousness. A meeting with the friend who is no longer brings him back into our lives, and even helps us to relive the great and deep experiences with him.

I will not talk about Tuvia's last years. A heavy curtain of tragedies covers the last period of his life. It was a chain of suffering and pain, which chained him in his terrible struggle with the disease, with fate, with helplessness.

I see Tuvia again as I knew him years ago, when he lived a full life precisely in a world of death and horror, living with a whole heart, and it seems that also out of deep satisfaction. The days of the Holocaust - were his most beautiful days. Then, he was revealed to us in full vigor and strength and his ability to struggle.

I saw him for the first time in our commune on 34 Dzielna Street where Dror's first seminar was held in the underground. Tuvia lectured about the Borochov theory. He spoke in Yiddish. He had no rhetorical ability nor a polished language. His words were plain as bread, but persuasion emanated from them that captured our hearts. Now, it seems to me that we swallowed faith from his words, because he gave us the theory of life. We all felt that Tuvia knew this, it would have been good for him to live in the recognition of the truth that he gave to those younger than him.

The movement's illegal newspaper was the most valuable thing to him. He always loved to write and found intense spiritual satisfaction in it to his last days. In the ghetto he was completely immersed in the newspaper's work and was proud of it.

I will never forget the image on the night of 17April 1942 – the night of the first massacre in Warsaw Ghetto. Dozens of Jewish public figures were then taken out of their apartments and shot to death at their doorstep. The men of the SS, who had some of our members on their lists, also went up to the commune's apartment.

Tuvia was sitting in one of the rooms leaning over the typewriter and in it were pages of our newspaper. When the f Germans' footsteps heard from the stairwell the young men ran to hide. To this day I see Tuvia's figure running to the hiding place in the attic with the typewriter in his hands. Even in moments of terror, he did not forget, did not abandon the newspaper, his friends, and his work in the movement.

And it was good for him then with this feeling of loyalty, activity, and face to face with death.

The war, and the concentration camp, cut me off from my friends and from jealous Tuvia, the warrior in chaotic and predatory days. I met him again in liberated Poland, in the days of hectic activity to renew the movement. I saw him again completely immersed in the newspaper's work, writing and editing. Stubbornly and zealously argues his opinions and listens eagerly to world events and what is happening around him. Always - faithful to his path, awake to everything new that is woven around him, believes in the forces of tomorrow despite the transformations and deviations in them. He did not get caught up in hasty disappointments, and fights fiercely against all signs of Zionism and socialism.

In the days of the struggle for Jewish immigration from Poland to Israel, in his debates with opponents while writing his book, Tuvia continued his full ideological life that flooded his entire being.

Sometimes, it seems to me, that in the last years only a memory and an echo of that period full of dangers and activity survived in his heart. But his alertness to what was happening did not fade even in his last days. The day before his death, he asked the friend who sat by his bed for the newspaper. He looked with dull eyes at the world that continues to live and seemed as if he was listening to the voices moving away from him.

Quiet and humble was Tuvia Borzykowski, maybe too quiet and humble. This trait did not stand as an obstacle for him in his life, and who knows if it indirectly hastened his untimely death.

The enthusiastic educator of the Dror's pioneering youth movement became, in the ghetto's gloomy years, a man of active struggle against the oppressor. A loyal soldier in the Combat Jewish Organization, and the reality of those days filled his whole being.

He was completely immersed in the experiences of the days of occupation and Holocaust - the annihilation and rebellion. In this manner it is possible to explain his great thirst to talk, whether in public or in a limited circle of friends, and his strong desire to write his memories. And here is the birth of his interesting book, Tsvishn Falndike Vent, which also excels in its historical accuracy. This book, which describes the preparations for the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, was published in 1948


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in its original language, Yiddish, and only later was translated into Hebrew and published in Israel.

The historical sense, with which Tuvia was gifted, is evidenced by the fact that when he sat in his hideout in the Aryan side after the suppression of the uprising, he wrote his notes in Polish and recorded the events of the days in them. He did not want to postpone this work for fear that he would forget them. Fortunately for us, these notes were saved from destruction and served as the basis for his book.

The book, like the man Tuvia, is not ambitious. His words are modest, and his voice is quiet. In simple words he describes what had happened. And although his share as a participant in the uprising was certainly not one of the small ones. He does not emphasize this, and in this he differs from many memoirists.

Not everything that happened in those days was known to the author - he did not write things in his book that he did not know. And this should be seen as a great advantage. Tuvia did not act like other authors, who put into diaries everything they learned after the fact. Tuvia only wrote what he saw and heard. He was confident in his words in his areas of knowledge and walked within his experiences as he saw them. This consistent position was expressed in the days of the great debate on the essence of the uprising, which was held at the Jewish Historical Institute in Warsaw in 1948. In this stormy dispute, Tuvia met with many opponents, some more serious and some less serious, who represented different streams and different ideas. Tuvia came out as the winner from this debate. None of his beliefs were denied, except, of course, for things that were outside the scope of his actions and knowledge.

In 1949, Tuvia arrived in Israel and here he encountered a completely different reality. Life did not let him continue his thread of memories from the days of the struggle in the ghetto. While still in Poland, he began to write his memoirs of Warsaw Ghetto, from the period before the uprising. He also continued this work in Israel but did not make a lot of progress in it. He lacked the strength to return to the ghetto period, although his friends encouraged him and tried to influence him to continue in this direction. On the other hand, general problems of the behavior of the Jews in the days of annihilation began to bother Tuvia. The philosophical questions pushed his memories to a corner. He wrote a comprehensive article on this subject, which was intended to be published in the third collection of “Pages for the Study of the Holocaust and the Uprising,” but, as is well known, this collection was not published.

And so, a chapter was not written in our modern history, and we don't know if anyone will fill the gap. In any case, what Tuvia could not give us and was his property - was lost.

- - - every day there's heroism, and all nations live the memory of heroism. Did we have greater heroism than the one that was revealed in the ghetto? After all, everyone thought that one can stand up to Hitler! And here, our young men, who did not have the Israel Defense Forces, and did not weapons, stood up and opened a war with the Germans. The first to revolt after four years of defeats. - - -

- - - The Jewish war in the days of the Second Temple, the War of Independence and the Sinai War, must stand still before this heroism, heroism without Israel Defense Forces, without a country without hope. - - -

- - - Tuvia participated in all the rebellions, later stayed in Poland and founded Dror. He has hundreds of students throughout Israel. Bless is the life that he did not fall in the ghetto, in the canals, in Auschwitz, but in an agricultural kibbutz in Israel. There is a lot of vitality from the life of such a man, for me, my son and grandson.

I remember my first conversation with Tuvia, and he was then fifteen years old, an alert boy, quiet and focused. In 1926, we established a Zionist-Socialists youth organization in our city Radomsk. I walked from house to house and collected teenagers. I called Tuvia to come outside - I could not talk about such things in the parents' presence. I invited him to the founding meeting the following Saturday. He asked: “What will they talk about there?” - I answered him: “About the connection of the Jewish youth to Eretz Yisrael,” and then he answered that he would willingly come.

He came - and was captured, in all his being, to the Youth Federation. He brought new members to each meeting. He listened to explanations and was always serious. He had a special attitude towards our printed word, to the newspaper of the Freiheit movement. He distributed it among the youth, and at the beginning of each month ran to the post office to receive the package of newspapers. He did not have the patience to wait for the postman to arrive.

A year later, at the age of sixteen he had already run a class, and diligently and seriously prepared for every conversation. He was no longer the lonely boy as before, and he was always surrounded by young people. On Saturdays he took them to parks near the city, to Zakrzówek Forest or to the “Swiss Valley.” He did not pay attention to disturbances and stones throwing by Polish boys and taught our ideology in the bosom of nature.

He was a tailor, the son of tailors. When he was a teenager, the youngest of the five children in the family, his father sent him, after several years of study in a traditional heder, to learn the tailoring craft. When he matured, in work and in the movement, he was assigned the role of active member of the Association of Tailors, a professional organization dominated by the anti-Zionist extreme left. Tuvia was elected vice chairman of the association. He appeared in Zionist speeches, his opponents heard him with gnashing of teeth, but also with an attitude of respect.

He had a great affection for the movement's cultural institutions, to the library named after Sholem Aleichem and the People's University. Years later, at the beginning of the Nazi occupation he, with a group of members, hid the library “for better times.” After the Holocaust he came to his orphaned city, where only a few of its ten thousand Jews survived, took the books out of their hiding place and transported them to Warsaw.

In mid 1930s, a large group of active socialist-Zionist in our city immigrated to Israel. Tuvia promised - out of a sense of considered responsibility - to stay a certain time in the city and take care of the movement. We, all the immigrants to Israel, knew that our most precious property has been entrusted to me in faithful hands. He continued to carry our banner tirelessly.

His life was not easy. Poverty prevailed in his home and Tuvia worked day and night, and on Saturdays in the movement. Consistency, bordering on stubbornness, was in him. The term “flexibility” was not in his dictionary - we knew it and always forgave him. But apparently his fate was not as forgiving as us, his friends, and he broke.

He was happy when we welcomed him with joy when he arrived in Israel. Happy at the sight of the hundreds of survivors who took root in the homeland between solid walls that will never collapse. He promised to write his memories for the Yizkor Book for the community of Radomsk - and kept his promise in the years of his illness, wrote stubbornly and in pain.

We were proud of him, as we were proud of our three townspeople: Herschel Grynszpan, Mendel Fiszelewicz and Monjek Rayngewirc, revolted against the Nazi tyrants. We were happy that the fourth in the group, Tuvia Borzykowski, lived with us and among us.

And when Tuvia, the last one, left us the pain was sevenfold.

An autobiographical book. The book was published in the first years after the Third Destruction, and it is called “Between Tumbling Walls.” Who thought of this name for the first time? Maybe Hirsh Glik the poet of the Partisans Anthem, and maybe the author of the book before us - who knew the mysteries of the heart.

It is an account from the first source, written by one of the fighters in the Warsaw Ghetto who experienced, with almost stoic tranquility, all the sections of horror. One of those who sank up to their necks in the rubble on the ground and sank up to their necks when they passed through the filthy water underground - in the sewage infested with mice and worms. The book of truth and faith – the thoughts of a man who has a lot to reveal. The name of the author of the book – is both a Polish and Jewish name - Tuvia Borzykowski, such a Polish Jewish name. No artist with a fine taste and a perceptive ear could have given a more beautiful name for the book, and a more beautiful name to its main hero - the author of the autobiography.

A strong and substantial residential tent in Kibbutz Lohamei HaGeta'ot. Although the wind shakes its canvas walls, and yet its walls are strong… no longer falling walls, now they are walls vibrating in the wind… the incarnations of time.

A residential tent and in it a field bed, a small table, several chairs and a vase with flowers. And the main thing - various bookcases - from wooden crates and planks. The bookshelves are made of bricks and plywood and contain a treasure of books of modern Jew. Books in Yiddish, Hebrew, Polish and English, and among all of them a healthy young man of medium height and bright blue eyes. His face is open and cheerful, but the man is quiet and polite. A typical Slavic figure with some Semitic combination. The year was 1950. Many days have passed since he arrived in Israel, and the man's name - Tuvia Borzykowski.

Tel Aviv and the year is 1955. Every day I torment myself: a lot of time has passed since I arrived in Israel, I have already met a lot of different people, but I have not met Tuvia Borzykowski whose work and personality made such a strong impression on me. He is also tormented and says: many days have passed since Melech Ravitch arrived in Israel, we sent many letters to each other but, for some reason, we have not met yet. It is impossible, I must find him and see him.

A knock on the door and it opened. A young chubby man appeared in the doorway and remained standing in the dimness. At first glance I did not recognize him.

- May I ask for your name, Sir - I asked.

- Tuvia Borzykowski - was the answer.

And immediately there was great joy, and we were already immersed in a lively conversation. A conversation about the affairs of his kibbutz, Kibbutz Lohamei HaGeta'ot, which has taken upon itself to be the great maintainer of the mitzvah of remembrance: “You shall remember what Amalek did to you” - in the new version of the fifty-eighth century since the creation of the world…

…and just like then, among the ruins and the sewage, he was immersed up to his neck in his thoughts about the historical events of those days. Events written on thousands of pages and in hundreds of books.

In Tuvia Borzykowski's presence, and in the presence of those like him, the experiences between the tumbling walls fill us with great confidence, because their memory will be preserved forever.

To this day it is hard to get used to the thought that we are holding a memorial for Tuvia. We talked with him several times about ways to remember all those who were not granted to come with us. Suddenly, after the storm, we became a small number of living orphaned and bereaved people. We thought that we couldn't continue without them and swore to take them with us, to remember them all, memorialize them and erect a tombstone for them.

And now, we mention Tuvia together with all of them. Because his grave in our field belongs to millions, it is in the row of honor of graves that do not exist - graves of fighters in ghettos and forests that were not dug. Tuvia was a survivor, a remnant of the Jewish Combat Organization, a remnant of the glorious pioneering movement, which took out thousands of poor youths from their homes and towns and rooted them in an independent and free working life.

Tuvia Borzykowski's grave in Kibbutz Lohamei HaGeta'ot

The matter is strange and different, but it's true: the most beautiful period of his life was - the years of the Holocaust. It was a time that demanded a person in his entirety - and Tuvia gave himself completely. It was in 1940, when I got to know him closely and since then we were together for many difficult years. In the same 1940, Frumka began her search for activists. She was the one who brought Tuvia from Radomsk. The day after his arrival he already lectured at the seminar. We did not yet know what Tuvia brought in his conceptual wisdom, but from his first words we saw that he was like us in his approach to life and problems. And since then, Tuvia was the movement's educator.

He was steeped in faith also when evil ruled all around. I will never forget May Day inside the burning ghetto. It was Tuvia who demanded and urged people to rally on the holiday of faith in the victory of the working man. Everything around was burning, going up in flames - and Tuvia called us to a May Day assembly, to believe that, despite everything, a new world will be created in which man will rise and be exalted.

How will we perpetuate Tuvia's memory? His values will be the values of our lives.

Passover eve 5703 [19 April 1943]. A fresh spring day. The young men in their positions were very sorry that nature was laughing at them. We expected that our last battle would take place under a leaden sky in a raging storm. At six in the morning Yosef came running to our group's commander, his black eyes shining and his black forelock uncombed. He brings an order from the commander to start the attack. The Germans are already near our positions, in the corner of Nalewki Street and Gęsia the “fire” command was given! A hail of shots and grenades falls on the Germans' heads. The echo of exploding bombs rises like an echo throughout the ghetto. The battle rages in all three positions of our company. The liaisons run from position to position and passe on the commander's orders. Yakov, a tough guy, fires an automatic pistol through a window. Avraham (Bramer) and Moshe (Rubin) conduct the attack in the two remaining positions. The commander, Zecharia (Artstein), is everywhere, giving instructions and rousing enthusiasm for a fierce battle. Cywia (Lubetkin), brave in her judgment restrains any manifestation of nervousness. Rivka, acting as a scout, comes and announces that the Germans have retreated, and not a single German can be seen in the street. The commander, after surveying the battleground, informs us all that the Germans had left behind more than forty dead. There were no casualties on our side.

Joy in our company. Everyone knows that the decisive battle is yet to come, and despite the German casualties - we will all fall in the battle. Our only joy before we die is - the sight of the dead Germans lying on the road. In the meantime, there is a break…

Suddenly, Rivka came running and informs the commander that tanks are approaching from Muranowski Square, and German battalions are visible from the triangle Gęsia-Nalewki- Franciszkanska. The Germans are marching in an orderly line along the houses and hide in the shade of the walls. Commander Zacharias gave the order to prepare for a decisive battle. A hail of gunfire, which was directed at us from all sides, stunned me before the last words of command were given. The Germans set up a barricade in Nalewki garden and Franciszkanska and fired at our positions behind it. After heavy shelling, which lasted half an hour without a break, we happily determined that our bullets and grenades had once again brought down several dozen dead and wounded. None of the fighters fell. The Germans shot indiscriminately and were afraid to go out from behind the barricade. We shot and did not miss the target. We made sure that no shot would fail. The first day of fighting ended with our victory.

For several hours not a single German remained in the ghetto. At about twelve o'clock the Germans brought tanks into the battle. Also, this time, we let them approach very close to our positions and attacked them with Molotov cocktails. Two tanks went up in flames. The German infantry battalion, which advanced after the tanks, quickly retreated. We rained down a hail of bullets on them. That day the Germans no longer entered the ghetto.

After the battles and the first provocations, which ended in the fighters' victory, the Germans resorted to a new tactic - to set fire and destroy everything they met on their way. They brought into battle strong brigades of all types of fire. Therefore, the Jewish Combat Organization was also forced to change the methods of battle. Instead of large, concentrated attacks, they conducted small fighting groups. Frequent and incessant sorties against the German guards and their small companies. In the shelter, on 29 Mila Street, was one of the organization's largest bases and groups set out for combat operations from there. Not once they returned and many members were absent. However, their fighting spirit was not broken and each of the members volunteered to fulfill the most dangerous roles. - - -

Rozia Szapira

In 1942, before the liquidation of Radomsk Ghetto, Rozia escaped to Warsaw and managed to live there in the “Arian” side under a false Polish name. She was abducted during the abduction of Polish women in the street and sent to work in Germany. After eighteen months of hard labor in Germany she escaped with a Polish group to the Tyrol. From there she managed to contact the Yugoslav partisans of Broz Tito and joined one of their units called “The Heroes” (which later captured the Port of Trieste).

At the end of the war, the Yugoslav government awarded her several medals of distinction for her participation in daring battles and her acts of bravery. She married one of her partisans' members and remained with him in Yugoslavia.

The daring acts of Rozia Szapira, as a fighting partisan, became famous in the country where she was absorbed and built her home. Her name will not be forgotten among our townspeople in Israel and other countries. It will be preserved along with the other names of our townspeople, who were among the avengers and guardians of the pure Jewish blood, which was shed by murderers in the period of the terrible Holocaust.

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