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Warsaw: A Microcosm of Polish Jewry: Eighty-Five Years Since the Erection of The Wall of The Warsaw Ghetto
by S. Cohen
Famous picture of a child in the Warsaw Ghetto
Part II
This article was first published 30 years ago.
For Part I of this series click here.
For Part III of this series click here.
In Part I we learned that Warsaw was a major metropolis of Jewry in the period between the wars.
1939: The Germans Come to Warsaw
"September, 1, 1939. A New World War. During the morning hours of the first of September 1939, war broke out between Germany and Poland, and indirectly between Germany and Poland's allies, England and France. We are witnessing the dawn of a new era in the history of the world. This war will indeed bring destruction upon human civilization."
This is the opening paragraph in the diary of a Warsaw Jew who perished in 1942. The diary was found after the war among kitchen utensils stolen by the Germans.
When the Germans attacked Warsaw in 1939, almost 400,000 Jews were living there. The German air force bombed Warsaw and the Polish army tried to retaliate but they were no match for the Germans. The German army had technologically advanced ammunition. The Germans dropped poison gas in the streets while the Poles could barely outfit and arm their militia. Within three weeks, Poland surrendered and two million Polish Jews fell into the hands of the Nazis, ym'sh.
When Poland was bombed, there was a mass exodus of Jews from all parts of Poland into Warsaw. Erroneously, these Jews from Posen, Katowice, Bilitz, Benden and Kalish believed that in the Polish capital they would be safe. But the first day of Sukkos, September 29, 1939, the Germans invaded Warsaw and within a few days nearly eight thousand Jews were buried in the Warsaw Jewish Cemetery.
A cheder in the Warsaw in 1917
In 1939, the Germans introduced forced labor. Jews were forced to clear the German army tanks. Obviously this was a degrading job for those who had previously been merchants, rabbonim, and the like. The Jews in Warsaw were forced to dig one common grave, and were told that they were digging their own grave. Subsequently, many were in fact shot and buried right there.
"The Jews brought about the Second World War," declared the Nazis. In this way, they justified all forced labor and they forced the Jews to clear the debris of the Luftwaffe bombing in September, 1939.
Elsewhere in Poland, in Piotrkow Kojawski, in 1939, Jews were rounded up for a working force when their personal garments were robbed and they were given working clothes instead. In Cracow, 1939, the Jews were forced to sweep the streets, while in Lodz the Jews were forced to fill in antiaircraft trenches.
Another significant antisemitic measure at this time was the order that every Jew wear a white arm band with a blue Mogen Dovid on it. All Jewish businesses had to be marked, and Jewish real estate was confiscated. Soon SS men began plundering homes, taking valuables and jewelry as they saw fit. The horrified Jews watched as their opponents helped themselves to their life's possessions and jeered at their misery. On December 1, 1939, the Governor of the Warsaw District, Ludwig Fischer, decreed that Jews must wear a special insignia.
In his book, Yevein Metzulah Hachadash, Moshe Prager estimates that one billion zlotys worth of property and valuables passed from Jewish to German hands. Only weeks earlier, the Poles were fighting against the Germans assisted by Jewish officers. But as soon as they saw the German antisemitic aggression, they jumped on the bandwagon. They were only too happy to assist the Nazis and would point out where the wealthy Jews lived so that they could make a good haul.
Another phase was segregation of transportation. Jews were forbidden to use the railway or other public transportation. The Jewish tramway, the Muranow was one tramway which operated very infrequently and on the front windshield it bore a Mogen Dovid. As the Jewish tramway would embark on its journey down the streets of Warsaw and the abused Juden, with their white arm bands, would enter, the Polish riffraff threw eggshells and litter at them, scoffing at the Zyddim.
Soon, public parks became forbidden territory. "Juden eintritt in die Parkanlagen verboten," read one large poster on a public lamppost. (Jews are forbidden to enter the park.) Beneath this German writing, the Polish equivalent followed: "Zydom Wstop do Parku Wzbroniony!" The Germans were sure to write all antisemitic notices in both German and Polish, so as to incite the Polish public against the Jews and inspire them to report violations of the laws.
"Jews are forbidden to walk on this side of the street," read one sign in Warsaw.
Map showing Warsaw
Besides the degradation experienced, Jews found it difficult to travel from place to place, to earn even meager wages and obtain medical assistance.
On November 1, 1939, the Haupttreuhandstelle Ost HTO (Eastern Chief Receivers Office) plundered all Jewish factories and warehouses. The Nazis usurped ownership of the major jewelry wholesaler Leon Holzer in Cracow, the major pharmaceutical wholesaler A. Szpirak, and the baby carriage factory of Konkor in Czestochowa.
Jews were required to turn in all wedding rings and other gold and silver objects. On January 5 1940, Jews were ordered to pay a poll tax.
In the Lodz Ghetto, one form of mass plunder was the circulation of special Jewish banknotes, called "Ghetto money." These Ghetto notes could only be used in the Ghetto, but had no value outside of it. When the Germans asked the Jews to turn in their German marks for Jewish money, they were told it was new equivalent money. They soon found out otherwise. In this process, the Germans essentially robbed the Jews of all of their money. The Nazis in turn prepared a large shipment of stolen goods to Berlin for the use of The Third Reich.
Warsaw Ghetto wall
The Warsaw Ghetto
The next phase was a plan to herd Jews into ghettos in the large cities. In these ghettos, the Jews would be forced suffer intolerable conditions.
In April 1940, exactly eighty-five years ago, the Germans began constructing the wall to enclose the Warsaw Ghetto. The wall was a high brick wall which made entrance into and out of the ghetto virtually impossible except through the guarded gates. The Warsaw Ghetto was the largest ghetto in Europe. The erection of this wall was to subdivide the entire city of Warsaw such that the non-Jews lived in one area and the Jews lived only in the ghetto.
The Polish economy disintegrated on account of the ghetto because when the Germans forced the Jews into this ghetto area, the non- Jews residing there were forced to leave. This in turn meant that the non-Jews leaving the area had to uproot their homes and businesses and the entire city of Warsaw was in a state of upheaval. The same was true of all cities where ghettos were built. But even though the lives of the goyim were torn asunder by the Germans, the Poles continued in their antisemitic ways and sided with the Germans.
The ghetto area originally covered approximately 840 acres but eventually its size was reduced. In 1940, the basic parameters of the Ghetto were: Smetana Street right outside of the Jewish Cemetery, on the west, the Umschlagplatz on the north, (Dzika Street following into Zoliborska Street), and Ziota Street on the south. The eastern borders of the ghetto were Swietojerska Street continuing into Prezechodnia Street. The gates of the ghetto were guarded by German and Polish police from the outside and by the Ordnungsdienst from the inside. The Ordnungsdienst was the Jewish militia appointed by the Germans. Only those with a special permit could enter or leave the ghetto.
All financial and political dealings of the ghetto were handled by the Warsaw City Hall, the SS authorities and the Transfertelle, a special office appointed for Ghetto issues. Adam Czerniakow became the political leader of the Warsaw Ghetto. He was officially the Chairman of the Warsaw Jewish Council, the Judenrat. Czerniakow, assisted by German authorities, appointed twenty-four Jewish community leaders to join the Judenrat. Most of these people were assimilated Jews who had previously been part of the Jewish Advisory Council in Warsaw.
Supposedly, the Judenrat would act as a liaison between the Jewish people and the Nazi authorities and as such maintain social peace in the ghetto. In reality, the functions of the Judenrat were quite different, as they became the puppets of the Gestapo to oppress their very own brethren.
The Judenrat members were ordered to collect heavy ransom payments, to assemble Jews for labor battalions and arrange transportation to the slave labor camps. The Judenrat members obeyed Nazi orders because they thought that as such they would save their own skin, but even this was not true. When their usefulness was outlived, they too were killed.
The activity of the Judenrat in the ghettos was one of the most distressing aspects of this phase of the Holocaust. Jewish policemen wore a German style militia uniform and rounded up their fellow Jews daily for forced labor. Being abused by one's fellow Jew was more distressing than the abuse itself. A common joke passed around in the ghetto about the Judenrat went like this:
"The German Fuhrer asks Hans, the Gestapo Officer: `What evil and misfortunes have you brought upon the Jews of Poland?'
"He replies: `I took away their livelihood, I robbed them of their rights. I established labor camps and we are making them work very hard there. I have stolen all of their wealth and property.'
"But the Fuhrer is still not satisfied and gives Hans a dissatisfied look, when suddenly Hans adds: `Oh, and the Judenrat.'
"The Fuhrer is now satisfied and smiles at Hans, `Now you hit the mark!' "
*
The Ordnungsdienst was the Jewish police whose chief function was to keep order in the streets and direct the traffic. The Jewish Ordnungsdienst, called the O.D., imitated the corrupt non-Jewish police they'd seen. They favored the client who handed over heavy bribes for a `favor.' They supervised unloading of baggage for generous tips, and they stole merchandise from Jewish baggage as they saw fit. They were even more cruel to the Jews than the Polish police and had the advantage of being familiar with Jewish ways so they could not be easily deceived. Not one frum Jew joined this Ordnungsdienst even though it promised relief at some level. This was their zchus.
Economic and Social Distress In The Ghetto
Living conditions in the ghetto were harrowing. Unfortunate Jews arrived at the ghetto with their lock, stock and barrel on a pushcart. Since his valuables were stolen by the authorities, he was left with only meager possessions which he put onto the pushcart along with his children, some seforim and blankets. Nearly half a million Jews were crowded into the ghetto in 1940, or "The Jewish Quarter" as the Germans called it. There was extreme overcrowding and thousands were left without any shelter at all. The average number of people per room was thirteen, and living conditions were simply unbearable.
Food allocation in the ghetto was a fraction of the allocation on the Polish side. The Jewish ghetto in Warsaw received 184 calories per capita a day, while Poles received 634 and the Germans 2,310. On top of this, the price of food for Jews in the ghetto was exactly double the price of the food on the outside. The bread which was sold in the ghetto was mixed with sawdust and potato peels and the average allotment per person was four pounds of bread per month!
Smuggling food from the outside became a big business in the Warsaw ghetto. The Jewish cemetery located in the ghetto was the smugglers' exchange place to bring in food and collect manufactured goods to be sold on the open market outside of it. Smuggling became possible via underground passageways dug by the smugglers and it was a very risky endeavor. The platzovniks were also a group of Jewish workers who left the ghetto daily to work for Jewish businesses under German jurisdiction. In this way, they were able to smuggle in bread and other provisions into the ghetto.
These conditions led to epidemics, especially typhoid. The streets of the Warsaw ghetto were strewn with corpses of those who perished from disease or starvation.
"November 19, 1940. If it were said that the sun has darkened for us at noon, it would not merely be a metaphor. We will molder and rot within the narrow streets and the crooked lanes in which tens of thousands of people wander idle and full of despair... Since communication between us and the villages is cut off, our food will be given to us by our conquerors. This will amount to ninety percent starvation. What good will ten decagrams of coarse bread a week do? Now, a ton of coal costs 800 zlotys, a loaf of coarse bread, 3 zlotys, a liter of milk, two zlotys, a kilo of butter, 30 zlotys."
On top of this, in 1941, the Nazis decided that it was time to relocate the remaining Jews of nearby villages and towns into Warsaw. In March 1941, the Jews of Grodzisk-Mazowiecki were ordered to move into the ghetto. Jews from the towns of Brwinow, Nadarzyn, Podkowa-Lesna and Milanowek were also moved into the ghetto. Thus, five thousand more Jews joined the tumultuous living conditions of the Warsaw Ghetto. The Jews of Grodznisk packed linens, blankets and pillows into heavy parcels and sent them to the ghetto via the Warsaw-Grodzisk train.
Prior to this, Jews were required to obtain permits to use the electric trains but now these orders were abolished, as the Germans were eager to see the Jews `get moving quickly.' Even the Poles were only too happy to assist their Jewish counterparts in loading the heavy baggage onto the trains. Within a few days, whole caravans of wagons loaded with the belongings of the Grodznisk exiles passed through the streets of the Warsaw Ghetto.
The refugees then had to search for shelter in the ghetto. Some found lodgings with friends and relatives, but most were housed in the refugee centers, or in the local prison on 109 Leszno Street. Some did not even secure a place in these quarters and lived in the streets.
A few women would try slipping outside in an attempt to find food or shelter, but often they were caught and turned over to the Germans. Many Jewish children smuggled food into the ghetto and this gave sustenance to thousands of starving Jews in the ghetto.
End of Part II
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