Isaac's Army (69 page)

17
“I had a hard rule. I only rescued those I knew”
Edelman,
I Juz nie Bylo jak Przedtem
, Gazeta Wyborcza, April 22, 1999.

18
“In order to pull someone out of the lines”
Krall,
Shielding the Flame
, p. 43.

19
“They weren’t all sons of bitches”
Mark Edelman, author interview, Lodz, May 2007.

20
“People—your friends, your neighbors, your co-workers”
Boruch Spiegel, author interview, Montreal, October 2007.

21
“Mostly I was hiding on the roof”
Ibid.

22
“Street by street, building by building, they were emptying the Ghetto”
Ibid.

23
“Do not be deceived! You are being taken to death and extermination”
Goldstein,
Five Years in the Warsaw Ghetto
, p. 102.

24
“Everybody’s eyes have a wild, crazy, fearful look”
Lennart Lindskog,
Living Testimony: Marek Edelman
,
Torah.org
, online at
http://www.torah.org/features/firstperson/livingtestimony.html
.

25
“They held her by the hands and legs”
Edelman,
I Byla Milosc w Getcie
, p. 98.

C
HAPTER
23: O
NE
G
UN

1
“I was accompanying Abraham Schneidmel”
Rudi Assuntino and Wlodek Goldkorn,
Straznik: Marek Edelman Opowida
(Krakow: Znak, 2006), p. 54.

2
“You can’t shoot from two fingers”
Mark Edelman, author interview, Lodz, May 2007.

3
“He looked like a nobleman”
Ibid.

4
“didn’t know the Zionists, didn’t trust the Communists”
Ibid.

5
“I don’t believe [it will be] a whole wagonload, but we’ll get something out of this”
Beres and Burnetko,
Marek Edelman
, p. 105.

6
“He said that I should wait by a phone”
Assuntino and Goldkorn,
Straznik
, p. 55.

7
11-92-28
Ibid., p. 55.

8
“Suddenly I saw a large mob on the street below”
Assuntino and Goldkorn,
Straznik
, p. 55.

9
80 degrees even after dark
Engelking and Leociak,
Getto Warszawskie
, p. 683.

10
“There wasn’t a single Jew on Valiant”
Zuckerman,
Surplus of Memory
, p. 200.

11
the bullet entered one cheek
Gutman,
Jews of Warsaw 1939–1943
, p. 239.

12
“It didn’t occur to a Jew that Jews would use weapons”
Zuckerman,
Surplus of Memory
, p. 203.

13
he looked like a regular
“sheygetz”
Adolf Berman,
Underground Days
(Tel Aviv: Hamenora, 1971), p. 191.

14
eight hand grenades and five handguns
Lubetkin,
Zaglada I Powstanie
, p. 73.

15
“I’ll never forget the drinks in honor of that event”
Zuckerman,
Surplus of Memory
, p. 201.

16
“I gave orders to bring the weapons to us”
Ibid., p. 200.

C
HAPTER
24: L
ITTLE
A
NGEL

1
“wet myself, I was so frightened”
Simha Ratheiser-Rotem, author interview, Jerusalem, March 2009.

2
“You are outside the area!”
Ratheiser-Rotem,
Kazik
, p. 15.

3
“I was standing ten feet away”
Simha Ratheiser-Rotem, author interview, Jerusalem, March 2009.

4
“I remember the blood pooling on the ground near my feet”
Simha Ratheiser-Rotem, author interview, Jerusalem, March 2009.

5
“was the first time that I really understood what was happening to my people”
Ibid.

6
“So many of our comrades were gone, and we were too ashamed”
Lubetkin,
Zaglada I Powstanie
, p. 75.

7
departed on September 21, 1942—Yom Kippur—carrying two thousand Jewish policemen
Engelking and Leociak,
Getto Warszawskie
, p. 689.

8
The shops housed the 34,969 Jewish slave laborers
Krzysztof Dunin-Wasowicz, ed.,
Organizacja Wladz Niemieckich na Terenie Dystryku Warszawskiego 1939–1945: W Raporty Ludwiga Fischera
(Warsaw: PAN, 1987), p. 600.

9
the Wilfried Hoffman Works, where twelve hundred Jewish tailors sewed SS uniforms
Engelking and Leociak,
Getto Warszawskie
, p. 474, appendix.

10
“We were consumed with shame”
Lubetkin,
Zaglada I Powstanie
, p. 75.

11
Of 51,458 Jewish children under the age of ten in Warsaw, for instance, only 498 remained alive
Kassow,
Who Will Write Our History?
p. 308.

12
“We hid like mice in holes”
Zuckerman,
Surplus of Memory
, p. 213.

13
“I don’t remember who spoke first”:
Yitzak Zuckerman,
In Ghetto and Uprising
(Tel Aviv: Ghetto Fighters House Ltd., 1986), pp. 80–81.

14
“Let’s go out in the streets tomorrow”
Ibid.

15
“Ari must go back to the Aryan side. We must look for new contacts”
Ibid.

16
“We started organizing again”
Zuckerman,
Surplus of Memory
, p. 215.

17
“Jews considered it the underworld suburb”
Ratheiser-Rotem,
Kazik
, p. 3.

18
the Rozenwein and Bromberg families had small shops down the street
Kasprzycki,
Korzenie Miasta
, p. 330.

19
Mordechai’s mother had a stall that sold fish, and she could not always afford to buy ice
Mark Edelman, author interview, Lodz, April 2007.

20
his younger brother Pinchas, a brawny wrestling champion
Kurzman,
Bravest Battle
, p. 32.

21
the P or Z bus lines … his thirty-groszy, or nickel, fare
Kasprzycki,
Korzenie Miasta
, p. 328.

22
his future nom de guerre, Aniolek, or Little Angel
Callahan,
Mordechai Anielewicz
, p. 19.

23
“That didn’t fill me with pride”
Boruch Spiegel, author interview, Montreal, November 2007.

24
“It wasn’t important to me that I was alive”
Ibid.

25
“Father, mother, sister all burned, my Zille in Majdanek”
Goldstein,
Five Years in the Warsaw Ghetto
, p. 158.

26
“They had misjudged the situation very badly”
Boruch Spiegel, author interview, Montreal, November 2007.

27
With only five hundred employees it was one of the smaller shops
Ibid.

28
Toebbens factories, which had a combined twelve thousand workers and supplied 60 percent of the winter clothing
Engelking and Leociak,
Getto Warszawskie
, p. 707.

29
“She was all I had left”
Boruch Spiegel, author interview, Montreal, November 2007.

30
“Bernard didn’t grasp the reality of the conditions in the Ghetto”
Edelman,
I Byla Milosc w Getcie
, p. 47.

31
“As usual Mark was carelessly dressed”
Goldstein,
Five Years in the Warsaw Ghetto
, p. 139.

32
“We saw eye to eye”
Mark Edelman, author interview, Lodz, May 2007.

33
“They were subordinate to fringe [Polish] ultranationalists”
Ibid.

34
“sharply opposed us and was especially virulent against the Soviet Union”
Ber Mark,
Powstanie W Getcie Warszawskim
(Warsaw: Wydawnictwo Idisz Bukh, 1953), p. 104.

35
“you didn’t bring anyone in unless you knew them from childhood”
Mark Edelman, author interview, Lodz, May 2007.

36
“Mordechai Anielewicz wanted to be commander”
Zuckerman,
Surplus of Memory
, p. 228.

37
“What is there to say?”
Mark Edelman, author interview, Lodz, May 2007.

C
HAPTER
25: S
IMHA
R
ETURNS AND
J
OANNA
F
LEES

1
“I had a lot of confidence in my mother”
Simha Ratheiser-Rotem, author interview, Jerusalem, March 2009.

2
“He wasn’t an anti-Semite, quite the opposite”
Zuckerman,
Surplus of Memory
, p. 75.

3
“We wanted to save the people”
Ibid., p. 76.

4
he recognized a familiar face: Rivka Pasmanik
Ratheiser-Rotem,
Kazik
, p. 17.

5
“Would you go on a mission to the Ghetto?”
Ibid.

6
the Piastow Rubber Works, which had 1,070 employees
Grzelaka,
Warszawa we Wrzesniu 1939 Roku
, p. 69.

7
Tudor Accumulator Systems, stood next door, spilling out 450 workers
Ibid., p. 42.

8
“We moved in at dusk”
Olczak-Ronilier,
W Ogrodzie Pamieci
, p. 280.

9
“At first we found the heavy traffic that passed through the house”
Ibid.

10
“Miss Irene was in the A.K.”
Joanna Olczak-Ronikier, author interview, Warsaw, December 2008.

11
British officials thought the Poles seemed more intent on fighting one another than the Germans
Jan M. Ciechanowski,
Powstanie Warszawskie
(Warsaw: Bellona, 2009), p.118.

12
“If Irene sped off somewhere with a bag, she was sure to be taking supplies”
Olczak-Ronikier,
W Ogrodzie Pamieci
, pp. 280–81.

13
would result in the rescue of at least twelve hundred Jewish children
Ewa Kurek,
Gdy Klasztor Znaczyl Zycie
(Krakow: Znak, 1992), p. 102.

14
“Sister Wanda called us together”
Ringelblum,
Stosunki Polsko-Zydowskie w Czasie Drugiej Wojny Swiatowej
(Warsaw: Czytelnik, 1988), p. 83.

15
“I clearly remember my first encounter with that place”
Olczak-Ronikier,
W Ogrodzie Pamieci
, p. 281.

16
Breakfast and prayers followed punctually at eight. Between nine o’clock and noon, classes were held
Kurek,
Gdy Klasztor Znaczyl Zycie
, p. 71.

17
“This was the special skill of many occupation-era children”
Olczak-Ronikier,
W Ogrodzie Pamieci
, p. 282.

18
Referred to her torn undershirt as a
lejblik
Kurek,
Gdy Klasztor Znaczyl Zycie
, p. 64.

19
One in five Polish priests died at the hands of the Germans during the war
Lukas,
Forgotten Holocaust
, p. 9.

20
“When an internal bell rang during lessons”
Olczak-Ronikier,
W Ogrodzie Pamieci
, pp. 282–93.

C
HAPTER
26: B
ORUCH AND
R
OBERT
L
EARN
D
IFFERENT
L
ESSONS

1
“Because of the sun, the elegant people were housed on the shady, port side”
Robert Osnos, author interview, New York, April 2010.