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IN-DEPTH FEATURES
Part II -- The Final Period
Pesach 5703 (1943). The rebels barricaded themselves on
the rooftops. They had arsenals of weapons. Rumor had it that
the morning following the first night of Pesach had been
designated for the liquidation of the ghetto. The purpose: to
give the Fuhrer a birthday gift. 19 Nisan, 5703. Sixty years
ago.
Days of Awe
Elul 5702. The yomim noraim were on the threshold. For
the ghetto people, these were tangible days of judgment when
life literally hung in the balance. The enemy's sword was
loosed upon the city. The howling of the bloodthirsty beasts
of prey out for Jewish blood had become part of the daily
existence of those remaining. No one knew what fresh terror
the new day might bring and what would be on the morrow.
Their very moments were numbered. People lived under the
constant dread of death. Everyone was in bereavement,
orphaned from mother or father, for no house had escaped the
sword of death. The universal mourning compounded the fear,
and morale was at its lowest ebb. The dregs of the cup of
hemlock were being downed to its last drop in Warsaw; whoever
was still alive, could not help but drink his portion. No
hour was free of its bad tidings, no minute in which a Jew
could comfort himself of better times to come; death had
become a constant reality, a leeching companion to every
person, a permanent boarder in every house.
Nevertheless, the hope that the decree would still be
mitigated and that Heaven would relent, still burned and did
not dim for a moment. This is what gave the Jews of Warsaw
the endurance to hang on. Emunah and bitochon
are our power of endurance, of survival and people grasped on
to these like lifebuoys. "If a person sees that trouble is
overtaking him, he should examine his deeds (Brochos
5a)." "If one of the group dies, the entire group should be
concerned [for itself] (Shabbos 106a)."
This was the atmosphere in which people prepared themselves
for the Days of Awe. Oh, those selichos! Where is the
mighty pen that could describe the cries that burst forth
during those prayers, in their respective places? The
waterfall of tears that cascaded at those wee hour sessions
were but a small indication of the turmoil in people's
hearts. Cries of misery and helplessness could be heard from
all sides, all directions. From the women's section, the
sighs of broken women, widows, bereaved women who had lost
dear ones.
Their only hope -- Hashem's forgiveness -- was the common
denominator that united them all. "They are terrified from
all the troubles imposed upon them by their blasphemers and
oppressors . . . Do not abandon them, Hashem, G-d of their
fathers . . . For You are munificent of pardon and Master of
mercy . . . (Selichos)" The words sounded different
in this context. The hearts screamed, the very walls of the
synagogues wept and shuddered as the chazzan led his
flock and together they pleaded, "Do not forsake us, Father .
. . Do not abandon us, Creator . . . Do not neglect us, You,
Who formed us, and do not allow us to be annihilated for our
sins . . ." Like beggars at the door, like doomed men
standing before the judge, pleading for their very lives.
With such emotional preparation did they arrive at Rosh
Hashonoh.
On erev Rosh Hashonoh R' Menachem passed from one
person to the next, encouraging, fortifying, upholding the
tottering in faith lest they fall into despair, not letting
them succumb. "There is still hope!" he would say in certain
tones. "Do not despair of Heavenly mercy!" was his parting
sentence to one and all.
And he would add with a piquant note: "It is very easy to
prove that next year will be better than this one! Poland no
longer has three-and-a-half million Jews to be destroyed.
Next year must be better!"
The remnant community gathered on Rosh Hashonoh in R'
Menachem's home on 4 Pravda St. R' Yitzchok Rosenstreich led
the prayers but his mighty voice dissolved into tears. Sighs
rent the air; R' Moshe was gone, R' Dovid was no longer, not
a single one of R' Chaim's children were still alive. A
single infant survived the entire clan of Family X and from
the many- branched Family Y, not a soul. These pictures stood
before the eyes of the surviving worshipers who poured out
their broken hearts before their King, afraid of what the
future might yet bring to their own ranks.
Had it not been for R' Menachem, their strength and guide,
they would not have been able to continue. Still, both he and
his flock found hidden reserves of endurance. So long as
their soul still burned within them, they were still
obligated to stand before their King and to crown Him with
Malchuyos. The voice of the chazzan
reverberated and ricocheted off the walls, "Ovinu Malkeinu
k-r-a-a -- tear asunder the harshness of our decree."
"Have mercy on us and our nurslings and young ones." " . . .
For the sake of those who were killed sanctifying Your Name.
Do unto us charity and kindness, and save us."
Immediately after Yom Kippur, R' Menachem was forced to leave
his home. He moved to an apartment on the top floor of a
building on Moranov St. He took the risk of creating a
succa by removing some roof tiles. It was only a small
succa, but the thousands of Warsaw Jews who heard
about it, came and passed through.
The head of the Jewish archives brought him a kosher
esrog on erev yom tov, one of the three that
had been smuggled out of Switzerland at great risk. R'
Menachem exulted over it like the great treasure it was and
news of this esrog spread rapidly throughout the city.
Hundreds of Jews made it somehow to R' Menachem's
succa, performed the mitzva and returned home.
The massive traffic displeased the heads of the Jewish police
who lived in that building and these assimilated, misguided
Jews arrested R' Menachem. He was imprisoned in a Jewish jail
and was only freed upon the intervention of the president of
the community, R' Isaac Ber Ackerman. But his release was
dependent upon his relocation. R' Menachem moved to 37
Nalbaki St., another way station in his long road of
peregrination.
The organization "Ezras Torah" was founded here on the eighth
day of Chanukah, 5703. Its purpose was to solidify the ranks
of all the refugees from the cities whose Jewish population
had been evacuated and to help support them. At the
foundation gathering, R' Menachem spoke about the
preciousness of the cruse of oil that had remained from the
terrible destruction in the times of the Greeks. "So long as
this single vessel remained pure," he said fervently, "it had
the power to illuminate the entire world!"
R' Yosef Koenigsburg, former administrator of Yeshivas
Chachmei Lublin, organized the refugees into groups and
actual yeshivos were established within the ghetto walls. R'
Tzvi Arye Frommer Hy'd, the goan of Kozglov,
began again to disseminate Torah in public and was joined by
R' Arye Leib Landau Hy'd of Kolodail, who gave regular
shiurim.
A new committee of the Ezras Torah organization was formed to
support these yeshivos, headed by R' Menachem. They received
their funds from the Joint Distribution Committee (JDC).
Thus, the flame of Torah resumed its burning in the cellars
and attics of Warsaw and the sound of Torah did not cease as
many dozens of youths studied at great risk to their lives.
They would occasionally be rewarded by a visit from the
living force, the merciful father-figure, R' Menachem Zemba.
He encouraged, inspired and supported these shiurim;
he learned with and taught the youths and strengthened them;
"This is my comfort in my misery; from Your Torah I did not
veer."
The Rotzachto Vegam Yorashto ("Shall You Murder and
also Expropriate") gang, as they were called, tried to take
over Nalbaki St. Those who learned of the plan in the middle
of the night hastened to R' Menachem's house and, taking
rooftop and subterranean routes, they came to spirit him away
to safety. R' Menachem gathered up his possessions and, with
his work Machaze Lamelech and his personally annotated
copies of the Rambam tucked safely under his arm, he
relocated to another refuge. This was several days after
Chanukah.
A Saintly Death
"This proposal should be taken seriously," announced Stulzman
the architect to the members of the Judenrat. This time, the
Polish clergy was offering to remove the three main rabbis:
R' Menachem, R' Dovid Shapira and R' Shimshon Stockhammer
Hy'd, from the ghetto. "We are able to do this; it is
up to you to decide to carry it out." This was the text of
the offer presented to the board of the Judenrat.
The rabbis remained silent. The chairman suggested that the
representatives enter into an adjacent room to take counsel.
They unanimously decided that "the ghetto has no more need
for its rabbis. We are unable to help anyone any more. But
the very fact that we are here together with all the Jews
lends them a modicum of moral support." This, then was their
decision. They went out and informed the chairman of the
Judenrat, "We are staying here! We will not abandon the
community in these mad days. Hashem is ubiquitous, and if
this be the Divine will, we will die alongside all the Jews
of Warsaw!"
The End of the Ghetto
The 20th of April was designated as the day the Warsaw ghetto
would be wiped out; this was the Fuhrer's birthday. Chief
executioner Himmler ym'sh decided to give him this as
a "birthday present" and to exterminate the last Jews from
Warsaw. He issued an order which declared that Warsaw must be
Judenrein by that date.
The Jews began organizing themselves. The youth decided to
put up a fight. If the Germans continued to make selections
and deportations, they would rebel. They amassed large
amounts of arms and their intentions were noticeable from the
feverish activity in the ghetto. The German tactic was to lie
low for the meanwhile and give the impression that they were
biding their time. They offered to transfer whoever wished to
Lublin and even made plans to transfer the two major plants
that had employed Jews in the ghetto, the Schultz and Tabnes
works, to Lublin.
People continued to stream to R' Menachem's home, each one
with the problems pressing upon his heart. If people had a
chance to escape, he urged them to do so. If they didn't,
they were told to go into hiding. Tragic scenes were taking
place in R' Menachem's home. Couples came to get divorces.
What was happening? A husband had found the opportunity to
smuggle him and his wife out of the ghetto but the wife was
fearful; she had a typically Jewish face. She was also
reluctant to leave her parents, but on the other hand, she
did not want to stand in the way of her husband's safety. And
so they had decided, against their will, to divorce. R'
Menachem arranged it for them, weeping along with them as he
did so. The Mizbeiach also sheds tears in such
situations.
A young man came to R' Menachem with his elderly mother. He
told of a religious Christian who was prepared to hide them
both, but with one stipulation: that they convert to
Christianity! The Jewish mother wept, "I would rather die as
a Jew than live as a Christian!"
R' Menachem turned to the young man and said, "Your mother
insists that she is prepared to die as a Jew. Shall I tell
her to go and convert? I cannot do that!"
And he added bitterly, "Cursed are the wicked ones, whose
favors are worthless."
Doomsday was quickly approaching. At a gathering of rabbis it
was decided to declare a public fast day on the Monday of
erev rosh chodesh Nisan. This day was proclaimed for
teshuva, tefilloh and tzedokoh. On that day
there would also be a pidyon shvuyim fundraising
campaign whose proceeds would go for kimcha dePischa.
A special prayer was prepared and the fast was proclaimed.
Jews gathered in all their places of prayer. Everyone had
heard of the proclamation, even though the word had only been
spread secretly, by word of mouth. This day was kept
throughout the ghetto as one wholly sanctified to its
threefold purpose.
Many gathered in R' Menachem's home. The people wept and
wailed and their tears rent the very heavens. R' Menachem
called upon everyone to be staunch in their faith, for
Hashem's succor could come in a twinkling. "Do not despair!"
he urged. "`Hashem knows the ways of the righteous
(Tehillim 1:6),'" he quoted, and proceeded to invert
the verse: "The way of the righteous is to know Hashem. We
must rest assured that Hashem knows what He is doing; and if
so, we should trust in Him." "`And the ways of the wicked
shall perish.' It is the rosho's tactic to sow despair
and fear of perishing, to say that there is no hope. But one
must not succumb to hopelessness!" he exhorted repeatedly.
Preparations for the coming Pesach were made regardless of
the situation, as best as could be done under the
circumstances. R' Menachem asked the askonim to
prepare wine and matzos for the Jewish families. He, himself,
distributed vouchers of kimcha dePischa and people
left his home loaded with these commodities. There was no
lack of `bitter herbs' that year.
Notwithstanding the situation, the holiday made itself felt.
The Jews in Egypt had also been removed from bondage to
freedom, from suffering to redemption, from darkness to
light, in a twinkling. Their sorrow had also turned to
festivity.
On the night of the fourteenth of Nisan, bedikas
chometz night, the Polish police received orders to
report to the Warsaw ghetto. The Jewish resistance prepared
for action and were ready to lay down their lives in self
defense. When the Nazi forces reached the ghetto gates, they
were repulsed by a fusillade of shots. They were caught off
guard. They were fired upon from all sides and had to retreat
temporarily.
That evening, the Jews gathered for snatched yom tov
prayers. R' Menachem did not forget to ask every person if he
had at least the required kezayis measure of matzo. He
had prepared pocket-sized matzos in advance for "who knows
where we will be on the seder night . . . " Those who
still did not have matzo were given some by R' Menachem.
The Seder was carried out in R' Menachem's house
according to ritual, with intense fervor. He read from the
Haggodoh feelingly and when he came to the words
"Vehi she'omdoh," he raised his voice with holy awe.
The words took on a very poignant significance: " . . . for
not only did one [enemy] intend to annihilate us . . . But
Hakodosh Boruch Hu rescues us from their hands." The
Seder carried on in its usual routine until the very
end.
On the morrow, the Germans again attempted to enter the
ghetto and, despite heavy losses in their ranks, succeeded to
penetrate it.
After three days of pitched, very bloody battles, the Germans
began bombing the ghetto from the air. They set fire to large
sections of the city. Houses collapsed, roofs caved in and
from the burning windows one could see women leaping with
their children in an attempt to save themselves. Those who
had hid in bunkers were asphyxiated by the smoke. The rebels
began weakening, their stores of ammunition depleted. The
Germans opened the city gas mains and set them afire and soon
the entire city had turned into a massive, hellish bonfire.
House after house exploded.
The flames did not skip over the house on 7 Kupitchka St.,
where R' Menachem was now staying. Thick smoke penetrated the
bunker and the people inside panicked to get out for air. R'
Menachem remained calm and tried to extinguish the flames
with buckets of water, but the smoke thickened; there was no
escaping it.
The occupants decided to move to another bunker; the danger
was too great. German soldiers were posted at all street
corners to watch Jews emerging from their hiding places. They
lay in ambush and waited to shoot at their victims. R'
Menachem's daughter slipped out and when she made it to
safety, others prepared to follow in her footsteps. R'
Menachem headed the line, holding tightly to his five-year-
old grandson, Yankel Ber.
Suddenly there came a fiendish shrieking, as a volley of
shots rang out. R' Menachem lurched and fell. The shots
forced the people back into their bunker. Only later, under
cover of darkness, were they able to retrieve R' Menachem's
saintly body, stretched out lifeless on the sidewalk.
The people were devastated by the tragedy. "How the mighty
have fallen!" This blow was too much to bear; R' Menachem,
last remnant of the glorious period of Warsaw, the last of
its rabbis, lying ravaged, in his blood, on the ghetto
ground.
The news spread rapidly. Several minyanim of Jews
arrived and in the middle of the night, when everything in
sight was a mass of flames, the glowing torch which had been
extinguished was temporarily laid to rest. This pillar of
fire had illuminated the way for Warsaw Jewry until his very
last day.
R' Menachem Zemba: may Hashem avenge his death!
The Final Resting Place
On Rosh Chodesh Tammuz 5718 (1958) R' Menachem's bones were
brought from Poland to Eretz Hakodesh. Following an enormous
levaya in Tel Aviv he was laid to rest in Jerusalem.
At his graveside he was mourned by the rov of Lutsk, Moetzes
Gedolei HaTorah member Rav Zalman Sorotzkin, zt'l.
"`As mourning for an only child make a bitter eulogy
(Yirmiyohu 6:26).' It is the way of the world that in
wartime when many soldiers die on the battlefield the nation
would like to accord them honor but cannot gather them
together. Therefore the nation tries to obtain the corpse of
one of the casualties and buries him at a choice gravesite in
an effort to express the honor and esteem of all of the
soldiers -- and this is our situation today.
"After the dreadful Holocaust here and there, the wicked have
continued to torment [us] with suffering worse than death,
and since this is the first time since the European Holocaust
that holy bones have been brought [to Eretz Yisroel] from
Poland, we must view them as the bones of all of the Jews of
Poland and Europe that were incinerated and turned into
fertilizer, spread across the face of the earth. And perhaps
in this case [I] am not `mourning an only child,' for these
bones which we are laying to eternal rest today do not belong
to a normal individual, but to a unique individual among the
gedolim of Poland, and therefore I am uncertain
whether Rosh Chodesh has the power to delay delivering this
hesped.
"Perhaps it is a great merit for him that his grave was
carefully kept [there] for 15 years, as is written, `But
surely His salvation is near for those who fear Him, that
they may dwell in our Land in honor' (Tehillim 85:10).
Hashem's salvation is near for those who fear Him even
regarding `dwelling in our Land in honor.' And we say to you,
`Happy is your lot, R' Menachem, that you merited this, happy
is your lot, gaon and tzaddik, that you gave
over your life to sanctify His Name.'
"His bones did not arrive alone, but the Torah he learned
with such fabulous shekido preserved them and
undoubtedly accompanied them to Jerusalem. And it is a great
merit for us, too, for the multitudes will be able to come to
pour out their hearts in prayer at the holy gravesite. I
hereby beseech the holy gaon to pass on the nation's
pleading to the Heavens. If you were unable to annul the
terrible decree sealed in blood, tzadikim are greater
in their death than during their lifetimes, so may he be a
meilitz yosher for us, and may Hashem deliver us from
our dire plight until those lying in dust exalt Him and sing
His praise."
A massive gathering of Beis Yisroel participated in the
levaya, led by the Brisker Rov, the Tchebiner Rov and
the roshei yeshivos of Chevron, Mir and Ponevezh
zt'l.
Yated Ne'eman would like to thank Machon Menachem
Yerushalaim and Machon Gilad, Zecher Chachmei Polin and
Ginzach Kiddush Hashem for their help in obtaining the
material for this article. Also, use was made of the
excellent source, Geonei Polin Ho'acharonim by R'
Aharon Surasky.
by A. Ehrentreu
A sharp dispute rages over R' Menachem's opinion on the
Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. Some believed in a different type of
heroism and constantly sought ways to justify their stance.
For them it was important to prove that the uprising had many
supporters and they were glad whenever famous rabbonim
expressed support. They wanted to prove the course of action
taken had been the correct one.
Upon the release of A Diary of the Warsaw Ghetto, Dr.
Hillel Zaidman became the first person to publish along those
lines. He claims R' Menachem wrote a sefer on the
halochos of kiddush Hashem (a book no library has ever
uncovered) and that he saw a receipt for a donation by R'
Menachem to the Resistance Committee set up in the ghetto.
Apparently there was constant activity in R' Menachem's home
during the weeks leading to the Ghetto's liquidation, based
on a sense that a major event was soon to take place.
According to testimonials, R' Menachem advised anyone who
could leave to do so, but not to go to Lublin, which was
tantamount to suicide. R' Menachem gathered together rabbonim
and announced a taanis tsibur and a special
tefilloh. Dr. Zaidman's book also recounts the
proceedings at a meeting held in the communal building,
reporting that R' Menachem said, "We did not have to go
ourselves, but should have resisted; perhaps, we should have
understood from the start that oso rosho wanted to
wipe everything out and then we should have used every means
at our disposal to alert the entire world."
Writing in Hatsofe one year after the book's
publication, Y.L. Finegold claimed R' Menachem said, "We are
like sheep being led to slaughter and this is the greatest
calamity visited upon us from Heaven and we are set to
revolt." In his book on R' Menachem Zemba, S. Rothschild also
made similar remarks. Was there truth to their assertions?
On 15 Sivan 5744 (1984) Hamodiah published a scathing
article written by one of R' Menachem's close associates:
"The terrible distortion surrounding the Warsaw Ghetto
Uprising continues to increase from year to year. Bold and
astounding tales are fabricated and we are told new stories
of how spiritual leaders were the ones behind the uprising,
making the blood of the afflicted Jews seethe in their veins
and stirring them to vengeance. I would like to know from
whence they derived their information and on what source they
are relying when they quote a speech by the famous
gaon R' Menachem Zemba, zt'l. Who heard his
speech and wrote it down with such fabulous precision?
"The secular Jewish world has a need to study the [Warsaw]
Ghetto Uprising as a symbol of the height of heroics, but the
Torah-faithful Jew displayed his heroism every moment of his
life spent in the dismal ghetto by keeping a single Shabbos,
by obtaining one kezayis of matzoh through mesirus
nefesh; this is the untold heroism of the Jew carrying
the historical tradition. What reason is there to drag our
great luminaries into the ring of the Uprising?"
They will certainly not succeed in convincing this writer
that R' Menachem Zemba zt'l called for a rebellion.
Those who knew R' Menachem personally know that everything he
stood for was diametrically opposed to what various figures
try to attribute to him. His prodigious Torah personality
cannot be described through hollow imagining. The very
mention of his name should elicit trembling and deep awe, and
he should certainly not be transformed into a rebel hero.
All his life R' Menachem was a hero of Torah and as such he
will remain forever etched into the consciousness and memory
of Am Yisroel. His holy name cannot be desecrated by
attaching modern notions of rebellious of revolutionary
heroics to it. R' Menachem was holy in life and holy in
death. We must exercise greater caution when discussing or
writing about someone who was among Poland's leading
geonim.
Today it is difficult for us to pass judgment in this area,
for most of the foundations of chareidi Jewry of those days
went up in flames in the destruction of the Warsaw Ghetto. A
terrible injustice has been done to these Jews, Hy'd.
Innumerable tomes on the Holocaust have been published,
yet the role played by chareidi Jewry has received scant
mention or has been deliberately ignored.
The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising is one of the areas in which
terrible wrongs have been committed. An accusatory finger
suggests they went like sheep to slaughter. Clearly R'
Menachem Zemba need not be described as a rebel hero in order
to magnify his honor. What took place there we will never
know.
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