Commemoration of the Warsaw Ghetto, 2020
I come from the Nazi Holocaust in France born under Nazi occupation. There, an anti-Jewish French regime, called “Vichy,” was allied with the Nazi invaders. The Nazis considered the Jews, Roma, people of colour, anyone not of German origin, “untermenshen” lower than human.
The French authorities campaigned against immigrants and refugees, blaming them for unemployment. Vichy passed harsh laws against Jews, including my parents.
In July 1942, a massive police raid in Paris imprisoned 13,000 men, women and children in the sports arena, Vel D’hiver. Among them were 4,000 children. Disoriented and stunned, they were all transported to concentration camps. They knew not what was in store for them.
The fact is that up to that point, the Jewish people believed the transports were taking men to Germany as slave labour. There was much discussion on the separate transport of women and children. Where were they going? Would their families reunite? How would they live? They did not know.
In Paris, survivors of the raid anxiously debated what to do. Jewish families passed on the word, “Save the children by dispersing them.” And so spontaneously, individually or with the aid of an organization, they found solutions.”
I was two years old, living in Nazi-occupied France, my mother placed me in the care of a Jewish anti-Nazi group, the Union of Jews for Resistance and Mutual Aid (UJRE). It organized my rescue by hiding me with a farm family in rural France.
The Nazis had marked me down for death because I am Jewish. They feared that if I lived, if the Jewish children lived, we would seek vengeance.
Tragically, the Nazis killed ten thousand Jewish children in France. Yet far more survived – seventy thousand – how was this possible?
This success was possible through massive unity against racism. The Union of Jews was supported by the French Communist Party, but also worked together with other groups in the Jewish mainstream, Zionists, and with non-Jews in the MNCR—National Movement Against Racism.
They allied with anti-Nazi forces among Catholics, Protestants, and Muslims. Many who helped out were government employees, in schools, health care, and especially in social work, acting to undermine the policy of the pro-Nazi French authorities.
Most hidden Jewish children like me were not concealed in attics or cellars but lived in plain view – going to school, church, and local festivities – protected by the community’s good will.
That anti-Nazi movement had many weaknesses but it provides an example of the power of a broad united force under attack by fascism.
A turn of events
In mid October 1942, a couple of months after the Vel D’hiver raid, a leader of the MNCR Jewish Section of the French resistance – Adam Rayski received news from a reliable source, a Spanish comrade from the Gurs French concentration camp.
As a truck driver for a high command of the Nazis he heard their conversations about the experimentation of gas to kill the Jews. This distinct gas was used as an asphyxiate on incarcerated Jews sealed in freight trains. Our Spanish truck driver confirmed that this gas had, for the experiment, proven its worth and was going to be used in Auschwitz for the final solution.
Should the MNCR make this public? What to do? How to warn the Jews? It would frighten and horrify them and perhaps create panic and plunge everyone in despair and resignation. If the leaders did not make this news public however – It would be a terrible irresponsibility. The reality had to be told – but how?
J’accuse, the MNCR newspaper made the decision to publish. Rayski wrote: “The torturers, the bastards intend to burn and asphyxiate the millions of Jews deported from France. 11,000 bodies [on which they have experimented] have been brought by train to Poland. This was the work of the cannibals of the Nazi order. “These were not isolated crimes carried out by junior officers, but premeditated, worked out, and organized plans,” Rayski wrote.
Many years later, he recalled, “I did not speak frankly of the final solution. However, a few months later, this announcement was again echoed and in it was final solution was explained.
In December 1942, the allies declared themselves against the persecution of the Jews but did not include the full reality of their knowledge.
In April 1943, the entire leadership of the Jewish MOI – the immigrant organization — met in a secret all-day conference. After it ended, Rayski climbed to his attic to his radio transmitting from the BBC in Poland. He heard the following:
“For the last six days, the Jews of Warsaw have resisted with arms in hand, against the assaults of the Nazis.” The Jews had heard about the final solution and responded.
All night, little by little, the militants of the MOI heard a reconstructed detailed report. At five o’clock in the morning, the MOI leadership realised what was happening: It was an insurrection. The Warsaw Ghetto uprising.
In History, the Warsaw Ghetto uprising is reputed to be the emblem of resistance for the Jewish people. How was the news of the uprising received by the Jews in France?
Rayski and the leaders of the MNCR and MOI took resolve and courage to spread this news widely.
This insurgence was a major turning point of the war for the French Jewish people and their resistance organizations, social — and armed.
An anonymously authored Bund internal document reached London in June 1943 stressing the Ghetto’s leadership’s “exemplary” political unity and “fraternity” – despite their political disagreements – in the Warsaw Ghetto fighting force. These militants, led by those committed to left-wing ideals, brimming with hope for a better world, pushed beyond their limits alongside their community. They united with everyone in battle against their murderers.
In France, driven onward and inspired by this news, Rayski wrote in “J’accuse” drawing the lessons of the uprising. “The Jews of France send greetings to their heroic Warsaw Ghetto brothers” (and sisters – because there were women fighters as well).
“The Germans have carefully crafted a fierce plan of total extermination of the Jews of Europe. But we will respond following the example of our brothers and sisters of Warsaw with all our implacable will to defend our liberty and our lives. TAKE UP ARMS. We will organize our defense and resist all efforts to arrest and deport us. Join with the people of France, fight the barbarians without merci. GLORY TO OUR HEROIC BROTHERS AND SISTERS OF WARSAW! This is the time of vengeance and punishment. It’s the hour of liberation for our people and for immortal glory.”
The revolt in the Warsaw ghetto motivated the Jewish underground cells and fighting organizations in France to fight and maybe die rather than fall into the hands of the Nazi conquerors. It also inspired others to escape to the forests, where they joined the armed partisan groups.
The revolt in the Warsaw ghetto became a beacon for all of humanity. It exemplified how a small handful of fighters, without hope, in complete isolation, and in a depressed physical and mental state, overcame all obstacles and embarked on a heroic struggle.
Role of MOIS, UJRE in Resistance
The Jewish citizen of France realised that they had to unite with the Jewish immigrants and fight for their lives as one. A new organization, the UJRE, Jews united for the resistance and aid, was formed in April of 1943 in that endeavor. The Jewish population largely departed Paris and went to other regions such as the city of Lyon and agricultural area of Auvergne in the south of France. The UJRE leadership organized an armed battalion there and a civilian resistance and gained broad influence and collaborating with other Jewish currents.
Although there was a xenophobic current in France, the Nazis failed to win the population to their anti Semitism. They ran into a population that as whole did not consent, and instead help the Jews and other persecuted to survive.
Civilian wing of UJRE – pattern of alliances
The civilian resistance organized through their networks but their survival heavily depended on the ties with the non-Jewish population. This success was possible through unity and massive support. The UJRE — Union of Jews – close to the Communist Party, worked together with other groups in the Jewish mainstream, Zionists, and with non-Jews. While they placed the armed struggle first, social service to the community was also primary.
They allied with anti-Nazi forces among Catholics, Protestants, and Muslims. Many who helped were government employees, in schools, health care, and especially in social work, acting to undermine the policy of the French authorities, which were then pro-Nazi.
For instance, saving the children who were dispersed meant finding women who would pass as non-Jewish or who where in fact non-Jewish. There women would mind a child for pay, and false ration papers. By the end of the war, in France it is estimated 10,000 Jewish Children were saved and largely dispersed in rural areas. Finding ways to save the children were done mostly individually, although organizations also assisted.
Reassembling – reconstituting after the war
Without a sufficient broad support in the French population, expressed by unknown people whose names will remain unknown to historians — the UJRE could not have been able to hide so many people.
There was a second armed resistance, that of support for the return of De Gaulle. The two groups worked towards the same end of ending the war but the UJRE focused on Jewish liberation with a new government. The De Gaulle forces wanted the glory of ending the war and De Gaulle as the head of the government.
Returning the children to their origins
Finding a hiding place was important, but so too was not losing tract of those who been hidden. After the war, the task was to reunite the Jewish community – reconstitute their families. It took time for the prisoners of the concentration camps to attain physical strength and health and to locate the remnants of their families. They got in touch with organizations and individuals with whom their children had been in protection. Some institutions and families that had heartily accepted the children, were not so keen on returning them. The government declared that families should reunite but those who had only shreds of their family or no family could not. Europe had 50,000 orphans at the end of the war.
My father returned from his prisoner camp in Germany with an irreparable war wound. His friend’s wife posed as my mother to support his claim. I was unwilling to leave my farm family whom I had grown to love and care fore me during the war. So, my father had to wrench me from their grasp. He was determined, as were the Jews of France, to reunite the Jewish community which the Vichi and the Nazis had thrown asunder.
My life after the war
I entered the CCE orphanage compendium, an organization close to the UJRE and also the Community Party. They helped organize this difficult unification. The counselors of the orphanages had fought as partisans and now were our educators. They did not speak of the war per say but educated us to recognize our heroes and especially of our victory in the Warsaw Ghetto. They introduced us to Judaism.
When I landed in the US and adopted by an American couple, I found it strange that they and their friends didn’t speak about the war experience of the Jews. However, they also celebrated the anniversary of the Warsaw ghetto. Israel was beginning to be touted as a Jewish homeland. The honorably story of the Jewish resistance was being dumped on the ashes of history’s many forgotten heroes.
Today we must renew our homage to the Warsaw Ghetto
Facing the pandemic of the Coronavirus, we see new heroes rising, such as the Cuban doctors who have gone to 38 countries to save lives of ordinary people. Today we face climate change that does not recognize borders and threatens a calamity for humankind and the world as we know it.
We must find new ways of collaborating with all who fight white supremacy, the underlying xenophobic philosophy of the right wing and Nazi agenda. Racism has been used in this Coronavirus calamity and will be used to blame others than white for climate change horrors and new viruses which will accompany it. We must find ways to unite in common for our lives, the lives of our future generation, for a future that appreciates our differences. That is the lesson of the success of the Warsaw Ghetto.
To purchase Holocaust to Resistance: My Journey order from Fernwood publishers: https://tinyurl.com/qlbfdq6