Marek Edelman - The Ghetto Fights

The Germans tried again. They attempted to enter the ghetto at several other points, and everywhere they encountered determined opposition. Every house was a fortress.

In one of the attics we are suddenly surrounded. Nearby, in the same attic, are the Germans and it is impossible to reach the stairs. In the dark corners of the attic we cannot even see one another. We do not notice Sewek Dunski and Junghajzer who crawl up the stairs from below, reach the attic, get behind the Germans, and throw a grenade. We do not even pause to consider how it happens that Michal Klepfisz jumps straight onto the German machine-gun firing from behind the chimney. We only see the cleared path. After the Germans have been thrown out, several hours later, we find Michal's body perforated like a sieve from two machine-gun rounds.

The brush-makers' area could not be taken.

Now something unprecedented took place. Three officers with lowered machine-guns appeared. They wore white rosettes in their buttonholes-- emissaries. They desired to negotiate with the Area Command. They proposed a 15-minute truce to remove the dead and the wounded. They were also ready to promise all inhabitants an orderly evacuation to labour camps in Poniatowa and Trawniki, and to let them take along all their belongings.

Firing was our answer. Every house remained a hostile fortress. From every storey, from every window bullets sought hated German helmets, hated German hearts.

On the fourth storey, at a small window, our old soldier Diamarit is at his combat post. His is a long rifle whose glorious history reaches back to the Russo-Japanese War. Diamant is phlegmatic, his movements are slow but deliberate. The young boys near him impatiently try to hurry him along. But Diamant is imperturbable. He aims at the stomach, hits the heart. Every shot finishes off another German.

At the second storey window is Dwojra, firing away rancourously. The Germans spot her: "Schau, Hans, eine Frau schiesst!" They try to get her, but somehow their bullets miss. She, apparently, does not miss often, for, strangely enough, they withdraw quickly.

On the first floor, on the stairway (Post No. 1) are Szlamek Szuster and Kazik throwing one hand grenade after another. After a while the supply of grenades becomes exhausted, while two Germans are still moving about the courtyard below. Szlamek reaches for an incendiary bottle and throws it at the German so accurately that the latter, hit squarely over his helmet, instantly catches fire and is burned to death.

The partisans' stand was so determined that the Germans were finally forced to abandon all ordinary fighting methods and to try new, apparently infallible tactics. Their new idea was to set fire to the entire brush-makers' block from the outside, on all sides simultaneously. In an instant fires were raging over the entire block, black smoke choked one's throat, burned one's eyes. The partisans, haturally, did not intend to be burnt alive in the flames. We decided to gamble for our lives and to attempt to reach the central ghetto area regardless of consequences.

The flames cling to our clothes which now start smouldering. The pavement melts under our feet into a black, gooey substance. Broken glass, littering every inch of the streets, is transformed into a sticky liquid in which our feet are caught. Our soles begin to burn from the heat of the stone pavement. One after another we stagger through the conflagration. From house to house, from courtyard to courtyard, with no air to breathe, with a hundred hammers clanging in our heads, with burning rafters continuously falling over us, we finally reach the end of the area on fire. We feel lucky just to stand here, to be out of the inferno.

Now the most difficult part remains. There is only one possible way into the central ghetto--through a small breach in the wall guarded from three sides by gendarmes, Ukrainians and "navy-blue" police. Five battle groups have to force their way through this breach. One after the other, their feet wrapped in rags to stifle the sound of steps, under heavy fire, tense to the utmost, Gutman 's, Berlinski's and Grynbaum's groups force their way through. Success! Jurek Blones' group covers from behind. While the first of this group emerge on the street, a German search-light illuminates the entire wall section. It seems as if not a single person more will be able to save his life here. Suddenly Romanowicz's single well-aimed shot puts out the search-light and, before the Germans have time to collect their wits, our entire group manages to cross over to the other side.

We continued the fight in the central ghetto in cooperation with the battle groups existing in that area. As in the brush-makers' area before, it was almost impossible to move freely through the area. Entire streets were sometimes blocked by tremendous fires. The sea of flames flooded houses and courtyards, wooden beams burned noisily, walls collapsed. There was no air, only black, choking smoke and heavy, burning heat radiating from the red-hot walls,from the glowing stone stairs.

The omnipotent flames were now able to accomplish what the Germans could not do. Thousands of people perished in the conflagration. The stench of burning bodies was everywhere. Charred corpses lay around on balconies, in window recesses, on unburned steps. The flames chased the people out from their shelters, made them leave the previously prepared safe hide-outs in attics and cellars. Thousands staggered about in the courtyards where they were easy prey for the Germans who imprisoned them or killed them outright. Tired beyond all endurance, they would fall asleep in driveways, entrances, standing, sitting, lying and were caught asleep by a passing German's bullet. Nobody would even notice that an old man sleeping in a corner would never again wake up, that a mother feeding her baby had been cold and dead for three days, that a baby's crying and sucking was futile since its mothers arms were cold and her breast dead. Hundreds committed suicide jumping from the fourth or fifth storeys of apartment houses. Mothers would thus save their children from terrible death in flames. The Polish population saw these scenes from Swietojerska Street and from Krasinski Square.

After such exemplary lessons in the central ghetto and in the brush-makers' area, the Germans assumed that other shops would no longer oppose a "voluntary" evacuation from the ghetto. They, therefore, announced a deadline for appearing at the collection points threatening with like persecutions in the event of disobedience. By now, however, neither pleading nor threats could convince the population.

The partisans were on the alert everywhere. In the Tobbens and Schultz area they first of all attempted to disrupt the regular movements of German units into the central ghetto. From balconies, windows, and rooftops they showered the moving truckloads of SS-men with hand grenades and with rifle and pistol fire. Once even a truck speeding on the "Aryan side" was blown up. On one occasion Rozowski and Sziomo, during the course of an area inspection, noticed an approaching German truck. They thought for an instant and then swiftly climbed to a balcony. From here they threw a four-pound powder charge straight down into the truck killing all but five of the sixty SS-men in it.

After five days the deadline for "voluntary" evacuation passed and the Germans once again began to "subdue" the area. They again met with determined opposition. Unfortunately, the previously planted mines could not be set off because by now there was no electric current in the ghetto. But heavy fighting took place. Partisans, barricaded in the houses, kept the Germans from advancing into the area. As was the case in the other areas, every house fought. Particularly heavy fighting occurred in the following apartment houses: 41 Nowolipki Street, 64 Nowolipie Street, 67 Nowolipie Street, 72 Leszno Street, 56 Leszno Street.