Isaac's Army (66 page)

15
“The Führer has awakened in me the consciousness of the German community”
Jan Karski,
Story of a Secret State
(Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1944), p. 214.

16
“Their gait and their whole appearance seemed to proclaim”
Korbonski,
Fighting Warsaw
, p. 12.

17
from six thousand weekly copies in December 1939 to forty thousand
Ozimek,
Media Walczacej Warszawy
, p. 50.

18
“Horrifying night”
Ringelblum,
Notes from the Warsaw Ghetto
, p. 38.

19
“Some Poles are beginning to wear Jewish armbands”
Hilberg, Staron, and Kermisz,
Warsaw Diary of Adam Czerniakow
, p. 147.

20
sixty-five hundred were snatched from their Warsaw homes and places of work
Wladyslaw Bartoszewski,
Warszawski Pierscien Smierci 1939–1944
(Warsaw: Swiat Ksiazki, 2008), p. 60.

21
“Hundreds were lying in the sawdust”
Korbonski,
Fighting Warsaw
, p. 50.

22
designed in 1835 by Henry Marconi
Peacock Prison Museum exhibit, author site visit, August 2008.

23
“You could hear them calling”
Boruch Spiegel, author interview, Montreal, October 2007.

24
the hundred thousand Poles imprisoned at Peacock (almost all of them Christians)
Andrzej Stawarz, ed.,
Pawiak 1835–1944
(Warsaw: Muzeum Niepodlegosci, 2002), p. 10.

25
thirty-seven thousand were shot on the spot or at Palmiry
Ibid.

26
the first Jews to settle there in 1564
Joram Kagan,
Polish-Jewish Landmarks
(New York: Hippocrene Books, 2001), p. 89.

C
HAPTER
13: M
ARTHA AND
R
OBERT
R
UN

1
“Another elegant secretary took Joseph to the right place”
Martha Osnos, unpublished journal, p. 22.

2
“He looked like Mephisto himself”
Ibid., p. 13.

3
“One kitchen, one bathroom, and all those people just waiting for me to leave”
Ibid.

4
“By a miracle”
Ibid.

5
“I prepared a lot of vodka Wyborowa”
Ibid., p.14.

6
“Berlin was full of sunshine, flowers, decorated with flags”
This and all other quotes from the Berlin to Bucharest trip are from Martha Osnos, unpublished journal, pp. 15–18.

7
“We can delay and effectively stop for a temporary period”
Valery Bazarov, testimony before the U.S. House of Representatives Subcommittee on Immigration, Citizenship, Refugees, Border Security and International Law, March 19, 2009,
http://judiciary.house.gov/hearings/pdf/bazarov090319
.

8
“The Department received information from reliable confidential sources”
Ibid.

9
fell from 43,450 in 1939, to 23,737 in 1941, to 10,608 the following year
Ibid., appendix I.

C
HAPTER
14: H
ANNA AND
J
OANNA
H
IDE

1
“Nowhere else but Valiant Street could we seat forty people for classes”
Zuckerman,
Surplus of Memory
, p. 61.

2
the lives of 274 teachers and faculty members
Dunin-Wasowicz,
Warszawa w Latach 1939–1945
, pp. 157–61.

3
Enrollment quickly grew to 120 pupils
Zuckerman,
Surplus of Memory
, pp. 61–62.

4
“Holding a seminar next door to Peacock”
Ibid., p. 56.
98 The Young Guard had five hundred members in Warsaw, while Isaac had eight hundred
Ibid., p. 43.

5
“They intend to starve us”
Lubetkin,
Zaglada I Powstanie
, p. 30.

6
113,000
Gentiles and 138,000
Jews
Gutman,
Jews of Warsaw 1939–1943
, p. 60.

7
a fifty-kilogram suitcase for each adult and a thirty-kilo bag
Arad, Gutman, and Margaliot,
Documents on the Holocaust
, p. 146.

8
“a) Open fires are to be extinguished; b) Water and gas supply is to be turned off”
Ibid.

9
“Reliable, discreet mediation in the exchange of all types”
Nowy Kurjer Warszawski
, October 11, 1940.

10
Jews owned 40 percent of what was described as “Category A” property
Fuks,
Mowia Wieki: Magazin Historyczni
, April 2008, p. 10.

11
“It was terrible”
Simha Ratheiser-Rotem, author interview, Jerusalem, March 2009.

12
fifty thousand inhabitants were spread out over an area more than twice that size
“Moja Dzielnica” (magazine insert to
Zycie Warszawy
), April 2009, pp. 14, 18.

13
“If you are ever in trouble and need help”
Simha Ratheiser-Rotem, author interview, Jerusalem, March 2009.

14
“I don’t think it ever crossed her mind to follow the [relocation] order”
Joanna Olczak-Ronikier, author interview, Warsaw, December 2008.

15
The Germans issued 11,130 arrest warrants for Jews
Gunnar S. Paulsson,
Secret City: The Hidden Jews of Warsaw 1940–1945
(New Haven: Yale University Press, 2002), p. 58.

16
“I don’t know if there had been a family-wide discussion about it”
Joanna Olczak-Ronikier, author interview, Warsaw, December 2008.

17
“As she was entering Gestapo headquarters”
Olczak-Ronikier,
W Ogrodzie Pamieci
, p. 273.

18
“As soon as the Poles were sent out we grabbed that job”
Zuckerman,
Surplus of Memory
, p. 132.

19
“We need to know what is happening to our brothers and sisters”
Lubetkin,
Zaglada I Powstanie
, p. 32.

20
seizing the 2,300
mostly Jewish-owned textile mills
Leszek Skrzydlo,
Rody Fabrykanckie
(Lodz: Oficyna Bibliofilow, 2001), p. 7.

21
“They had to have an Aryan appearance, speak Polish well”
Lubetkin,
Zaglada I Powstanie
, p. 49.

22
only 5 percent … classified themselves as native Polish speakers
19,300 of 353,000, per
Maly Roccznik Statystyczny
(Warsaw: Glowny Urzad Statistycczny, 1939), pp. 22–24.

23
“most Polish Jews could not speak Polish well”
Nechama Tec,
When Light Pierced the Darkness: Christian Rescue of Jews in Nazi-Occupied Poland
(New York: Oxford University Press, 1986), p. 38.

24
“These differences permeated all aspects of life”
Ibid.

25
“Your Aryan face is worth its weight in gold”
Zuckerman,
Surplus of Memory
, p. 121.

26
Isaac’s problem was his accent
Simha Ratheiser-Rotem, author interview, Jerusalem, March 2009.

27
“Her Polish wasn’t fluent”
Ibid., p. 104.

C
HAPTER
15: S
IMHA AND
B
ORUCH
P
AY THE
B
ILLS

1
“There are long queues in front of every food store”
Sloan,
Notes from the Warsaw Ghetto: The Journal of Emmanuel Ringelblum
, p. 86.

2
“On the first day after the Ghetto was closed”
Ibid.

3
provided an estimated 80 to 90 percent of the food consumed in the Warsaw Ghetto
Gutman,
Jews of Warsaw 1939–1943
, p. 67. See also Paulsson,
Secret City
, p. 61.

4
“It was not at all uncommon for ten- or twelve-year-olds to support entire families”
Simha Ratheiser-Rotem, author interview, Jerusalem, March 2009.

5
“Getting out of the Ghetto was not that difficult”
Ibid.

6
“At Goat Street smuggling is through a door in a wall”
Sloan,
Notes from the Warsaw Ghetto: The Journal of Emmanuel Ringelblum
, p. 127.

7
Seventy to 80 percent of the food sold in Warsaw outside the Ghetto was already smuggled
Dunin-Wasowicz,
Warszawa w Latach 1939–1945
, p. 113.

8
Ghetto residents were allotted a daily high of 400
calories
Barbara Kroll,
Opieka I Samopomoc Spoleczna w Warszawie 1939–1945
(Warsaw: PAN, 1977), p. 89.

9
A kilogram of sugar, for instance, purchased with ration cards, retailed for 1.6 zlotys
Wojciech Jastrzebowski,
Gospodarka Niemecka w Polsce 1939–1944
(Warsaw: publisher unknown, 1946), p. 367.

10
“I’d jump on and off moving trains to get there”
Simha Ratheiser-Rotem, author interview, Jerusalem, March 2009.

11
“The other Jews would think I was a Polish smuggler”
Ibid.

12
798,000
Poles—all Christians—were already working as slave laborers in Germany
Lukas,
Forgotten Holocaust
, p. 33.

13
109
don’t
come with us to Germany
Korbonski,
Fighting Warsaw
, p. 226.

14
“I remember the smell of the huge round loaves, freshly baked”
Simha Ratheiser-Rotem, author interview, Jerusalem, March 2009.

15
“Apparently I was rather successful”
Ratheiser-Rotem,
Kazik
, p. 13.

16
Insurance companies offered policies on the safe delivery of goods
Perec Opoczynski,
Reportaze z Warszawskiego Getta
(Warsaw: ZIH, 2009), p. 21.

17
“The Zionists had theirs. We had ours. All the groups looked after their own”
Boruch Spiegel, author interview, Montreal, November 2007.

18
actually consumed 1,125 daily calories in early 1941
Paulsson,
Secret City
, p. 68.

19
“The innumerable confectionery stores that have sprung up lately”
Sloan,
Notes from the Warsaw Ghetto
, p. 106.

20
“It would take even a fluent Yiddish speaker coming from the more distant parts”
Ewa Geller in Eleonora Bergman and Olga Zienkiewicz, eds.,
Zydzi Warszawy
(Warsaw: Zydowski Instute Historyczny, 2000), p. 115.

21
“Things were better”
Boruch Spiegel, author interview, Montreal, November 2007.

22
“Dating in the Ghetto was different”
Boruch Spiegel, author interview, Montreal, October 2007.

23
a musical comedy called
The Rabbi’s Little Rebecca
,
starring Regina Sugar
Ulrich Keller, ed.,
The Warsaw Ghetto in Photographs: 206 Views Made in 1941
(New York: Dover Publications, 1984), p. 47.

24
The twelve-hundred-seat Yiddish Artistic Theater, built in 1913 … a new play
,
Got Fun Nerume
,
directed by and starring Adam Samberg
Anna Kuligowska-Korzeniewska, “Swiat Ktory Odszedl,”
Stolica
, no. 4 (2193), April 2008, pp. 16, 17.

25
More than eighty former members of the Warsaw Philharmonic … two winners of the Chopin prize … and solo violinists like Ludwig Holtzman
Fuks,
Mowia Wieki
, p. 30.

C
HAPTER
16: J
OANNA
C
AUSES
T
ROUBLE

1
Every few weeks Monika brought money from the store, which was doing shockingly well
Joanna Olczak-Ronikier, author interview, Warsaw, December 2008.