I sit down to write to you, and now it’s already the eve of Independence Day. On the surface, we should be celebrating and rejoicing, and indeed, some people somehow manage to do so. But for a very large part of the Jewish people, there is no reason for joy or pride today. Our forces are still fighting in Gaza, more than 100,000 people are still displaced from their homes, and Hamas is still holding 133 men and women captive, people who did nothing but live their lives.
About ten days ago, Israel observed its national Holocaust Remembrance Day. It was even harder than usual, as we are still at war. Seven months ago, we experienced the darkest day in our history since the Holocaust, and once again, we saw our brothers and sisters murdered without mercy. This time, however, the blow was even more severe, as it happened to us at home, when we already had an army and a state.
This year, I did not watch the ceremonies or listen to the speeches. To me, all those still in the government, with blood on their hands, are not worthy of appearing at any state ceremony, especially not those commemorating our loved ones.
I want to tell you a bit about someone truly worthy of being written and spoken about, someone who is no longer among the living but whose name is etched in our memory and preserved from generation to generation: Mordechai Anielewicz.
Mordechai was born in the town of Wyszków near Warsaw, Poland. He was the eldest son of his parents, who moved to a poor neighborhood in Warsaw after his birth. From a young age, Mordechai helped support the family, but his mother ensured he continued his studies at the Jewish gymnasium ‘Laor.’
As he matured, Mordechai joined the Hashomer Hatzair youth movement, starting as a participant and rising to become an outstanding instructor and natural leader.
Aliza Vitis-Shomron, a participant in the Warsaw Ghetto, testifies about Mordechai: “Mordechai was admired, he was head and shoulders above others, outstanding in every respect. He stood out for his originality of thought, delivering political lectures with depth, not just conveying information. He was a man of great speaking ability, a handsome, tall, upright young man, not looking like a Jew at all, with blonde hair and bright gray eyes.”
In the Hashomer Hatzair movement, Mordechai organized guards from the stronger members to protect the younger ones, even engaging in violent altercations with Polish bullies when necessary.
When the war broke out, Mordechai, along with hundreds of thousands of other refugees, fled to the Russian-occupied zone in the east, believing that the Poles would fortify their defenses against the Germans there. The goal was to find ways to save Jews from the terror of German occupation, but letters from his participants in the Warsaw ghetto convinced him to return.
Dr. Avihu Ronen, a historian, says: “For Mordechai Anielewicz, the decision to return to Warsaw was completely rational. That’s where his comrades, his participants, and his branch were. Anielewicz’s consideration of where to be active was very clear: wherever the central activity was, that’s where he needed to be.”
It is important to note that Mordechai consciously chose to return to the walls of the Warsaw Ghetto.
On September 21, 1939, Reinhard Heydrich, head of the Nazi Sicherheitspolizei (Security Police), and later head of the Reich Main Security Office in the SS, sent a “quick letter” defining procedures and treatment towards Jews in the Polish-occupied territories. The guidelines stated that Jews living in towns and villages should be transferred to cities where Jews were concentrated in ghettos.
In October 1940, the Nazis established the largest ghetto in Europe in Warsaw, Poland. By November 1940, 380,000 Jews were confined in the Warsaw Ghetto. The ghetto covered only 2.4 percent of the city’s area, and the many refugees deported to Warsaw from surrounding towns and villages increased the number of inmates to 450,000!
The Jews were required to build the wall surrounding the ghetto with their own hands, and under strict and violent guard, they were cut off from the world. Within the ghetto, life oscillated between a desperate struggle for existence and death from disease and starvation. In Warsaw, the crowding was severe—six to seven people lived in one room, and the food rations were worth only about a tenth of the daily caloric value needed by a person (around 180 calories per day). More than 80,000 Jews died from the horrendous conditions, crowding, and starvation.
It was to this reality that Mordechai chose to return, to be with his participants.
“Know that we live here, we were put in a cage, and this cage’s purpose is to starve us, to turn us into subhumans. But the worst thing is to get used to what is here. Do not accept this reality; if we get used to the reality of the ghetto with all its poverty, hunger, and diseases, we become slaves, slaves in spirit, their slaves, the Germans. That’s how they want to see us. We need to remain free people. Our role as the vanguard youth is to rebel against this.”
In July 1942, the large deportation of Jews from Warsaw began. More than 300,000 Jews were deported to the Treblinka extermination camp.
In the winter of 1943, two Jewish military undergrounds existed in the Warsaw Ghetto: the Jewish Military Union (ŻZW), led by Paweł Frenkiel, and the Jewish Fighting Organization (ŻOB), led by Mordechai Anielewicz.
Mordechai knew that it was time to stop the educational activities. His focus was solely on one thing—preparing the “Jewish Fighting Organization,” forging and training it, even though they had nothing. They were in the ghetto, with no money, no weapons, and no ammunition. There was immense hunger and disease, but Mordechai was determined to establish the organization.
One of the underground’s first actions was to eliminate Jews who collaborated with the Nazis. Indeed, some Jews collaborated with the Nazis, not out of hatred for their brethren, but out of a survival instinct, sometimes even for a piece of bread.
Chajka Klinger writes: “Mordechai would always remind us, ‘First of all, finish off the Jewish Gestapo slaves.'”
The ghetto was full of informers and collaborators, and there was no choice but to kill the traitors.
Mordechai decided to dedicate the few funds the organization had to purchase weapons and prepare for the uprising, sometimes even at the expense of medicines.
Mordechai Anielewicz and his participants did not prepare escape routes from the ghetto. They wanted to fight until the last bullet and likely understood that they would find their deaths in this.
On January 18, 1943, the Germans entered the ghetto to collect Jews for deportation and encountered organized resistance from the underground fighters for the first time. Members of the “Jewish Fighting Organization” infiltrated the group designated for deportation and, at a prearranged signal, opened fire on the Germans.
Most of the fighters were injured, but Mordechai managed to escape and even snatch a weapon from one of the Germans.
Until now, their basic assumption was that if you fought the Germans, you didn’t come back alive. For the first time, there were clashes, and the Germans retreated, and members of the “Jewish Fighting Organization” survived. This exceptionally boosted the underground members’ self-confidence, and from there, they began building bunkers for hiding when necessary.
On April 19, 1943, Passover, the German army entered the ghetto intending to deport the remaining Jews to extermination. This time, Mordechai Anielewicz and his comrades executed their attack plan, thus starting the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising.
Zivia Lubetkin, one of the leaders of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising: “When the Germans approached our positions and passed by, we threw bombs and grenades at them, and lo and behold, the great German heroes retreated in great fear.”
The underground fighters did not expect such success or to scare away the Germans.
Mordechai wrote about this in his last letter: “My life’s last wish has been fulfilled, I lived to see Jewish defense in the ghetto in all its greatness and glory.”
At this stage, the Germans decided to change their combat style, avoiding face-to-face battles. They began destroying the ghetto from the outside, to which there was no defense. After three days, the ghetto was in flames.
On May 8, after four weeks of resistance, the bunker at 18 Mila Street was discovered. After being bombed, gas was injected inside, and together with many of his comrades from the Jewish Fighting Organization, Mordechai Anielewicz met his death.
Mordechai Anielewicz and his comrades did not show the Jews in the ghetto how to die but how to live, even in the hardest moments of life.
The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising was and remains a symbol of Jewish bravery and resistance to Nazi occupation.
Mordechai Anielewicz’s Last Letter
Yad Vashem – The Central Information and Research Center on the Holocaust Warsaw Ghetto, 1943, Mordechai Anielewicz’s Last Letter
Something has happened that is beyond our wildest dreams. What we have experienced cannot be described in words.
One of our platoons held out for over 6 hours. The Germans fled twice from the ghetto. The mine planted in the brush factory area exploded. Our platoons attacked several positions. Even this is an achievement. Our human losses are minimal. One of our heroes, [Yechiel], fell heroically in battle, fighting with a machine gun in his hand.
I feel that great things are happening, and the significance of what we dared to do is immense.
Starting today, we are switching to a partisan strategy. Tonight, three of our platoons will go out on reconnaissance and weapon acquisition missions. Short weapons are of no value to us. We urgently need rifles, grenades, machine guns, and explosives. We rarely use individual weapons.
I cannot describe the conditions in which the Jews of the ghetto are now living. Most of them are hiding in almost every hiding place imaginable. Their fate is sealed. The rest will perish sooner or later. Thousands are hiding, unable to light a candle due to lack of air.
Through our transmitter, we heard a wonderful broadcast from the “Voice of Fighting” station about our struggle. The fact that we are remembered beyond the walls of the ghetto encourages us in our fight! Jewish armed resistance and revenge have become a reality. The dream of my life has risen and become true! We will still meet again! I have witnessed marvelous and heroic combat by the fighters.
Mordechai Anielewicz
Warsaw Ghetto, April 23, 1943
Source: Documentation of the Holocaust: Selected Documents on the Destruction of the Jews of Germany, Austria, Poland, and the Soviet Union. Yad Vashem, Jerusalem, 135
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