Announcing the Jewish Partisan Webcast - April 17, 2011

We’re happy to announce a rare opportunity to bring Jewish partisan Sonia Orbuch to your classroom or desktop via a live Webcast with Q&A.

• Tuesday, April 17th, 2012 ~ 10:00-11:00am PST (1-2p EST)
• Sign up to reserve your spot: www.jewishpartisans.org/rsvp
• Tune in day of: www.jewishpartisans.org/webcast
• Registration is open until the hour of the webcast.

More resources on Jewish Women in the Partisans - including online videocourse, film and study guides:

• E-Learning Course: www.jewishpartisans.org/elearning
• Resource Page: www.jewishpartisans.org/women
• Writing Contest: www.jewishpartisans.org/contest

Students can ask questions ahead of time. Twitter #JPEFWebcast or e-mail webcast@jewishpartisans.org. If you are unable to make the live event, we will send you a link so you can access the videorecording online.

"There is such a thing as fighting back… If I was going to die, it would be as a fighter. Not as a Jew."
– Sonia Orbuch

Ask a Partisan Q&A: Part 2

Last week, we posted the first half of JPEF's Ask a Partisan Q&A with students from Blantyre Public School in Toronto. This is the second half of the session.

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Michael, age 9: What were your responsibilities as a platoon commander?

Frank Blaichman: On a day-to-day basis, I was responsible for 45 men and 4 women who were under my command. Every day we moved around to another area in order to deprive the enemy of our whereabouts. This required logistical planning, the gathering of food, the finding of suitable shelter and to make sure that all weapons were in working condition, clean with enough ammunition on each person. I was the one who delegated these jobs among our platoon.

In battle and in sabotage attacks I oversaw any intelligence information between the Polish Partisans (the AL), our other Jewish Partisan groups and ourselves. Armed with this information I made decisions on where and when we should hit and when and where we should run after the attack. I sometimes had to make quick decisions in the field regarding our movements. Whether to pull out or continue the attack.

Azaria, age 13: What was it like being a female partisan?

Sonia Orbuch: You feel isolated from the world. You feel all the eyes of the male partisans on you. You feel afraid even though you are in the partisans — you feel afraid they might not like you and tell you to go somewhere else.

Braydan, age 12: What happened to your family?

Frank Blaichman: My immediate family, my parents, my siblings, my grandparents etc., were deported on Friday, October the 9th, 1942 to a death camp. It was most likely either Majdanek, Sobibor or Treblinka. I do not know which one and I do not know the date of their deaths.

Of my entire extended family, only 3 cousins survived the war. One survived with me as a partisan fighter. One was captured in Russia and ended up in a camp near Hamburg where he managed to survive. And the third survived as a laborer in Germany on false non-Jewish papers.

Daniel, age 12: How did you know which peasants were the good guys?

Frank Blaichman: This is a very good question. At first we didn't know who we could trust — we were in the dark and we did think that all Poles would want to kill us. When we went to town, for example, to buy food, we were chased by bullies with pitchforks.

Once we organized into a Partisan group, and after we acquired firearms, we were seen as having some power — the dynamic changed. There were still German collaborators who hunted us and wanted to kill us, but there were also good, decent Polish people who provided support to us and risked their lives to do so. They became our informers, telling us who they thought were the German collaborators in their area, and warning us of Nazi troop movements. They also helped us immeasurably by providing us with food and shelter. Had they been discovered as helping a Jew they would have faced severe punishment from the Germans: immediate death or deportation, and the burning down of their homes. We could not have survived without the help of good, local Polish people.

Once we captured collaborators and were able to interrogate them, they provided us with the names and addresses of other collaborators. We were then able to bust up their spy ring and prevent them from functioning in our area. A number of Polish peasants felt that we had in fact liberated them as well from the terror of these Nazi collaborators.

Click here to read Part 1 of the Q&A.

Part 3 coming soon!

Ask a Partisan: Teacher Tips from Toronto

This letter comes from Monica Nelson, who co-created a lesson for her Special Education class based on JPEF’s “Ask A Jewish Partisan” resource. You’ll find answers to her students’ questions at the end of this article.

Our school is Blantyre Public School in Toronto, Ontario. Wendy Klayman is the teacher and I (Monica Nelson) am the education assistant in a class of 12, grade 4-8 children with various special education needs such as learning disabilities, attention deficit disorders and autism. In October we started a language unit incorporating character education, empathy, digital technology, art and research.

We decided to focus on the Jewish partisans because of the empathy that can be instilled from this topic, because it helps young people understand the difficult concepts involved in discussing this topic, helps them with research, can incorporate technology and e-learning. Also, our teacher (Wendy) has a personal connection to the Holocaust. We spent a great deal of time on JPEF’s site, researching the various topics. The stories and videos were fascinating and the students particularly enjoyed finding out which partisan was most like them and writing to that person.

We were both thrilled to hear answers to our questions and fascinated with such honest, informative answers. Not only did we focus on the reading, writing, critical thinking and empathy part of this unit, but we incorporated extensive artwork in the form of empathy posters that tied together the story of the Jewish partisans and another book that we studied at the same time, written by a native Canadian on the theme of teamwork and perseverance. Thank you for sharing this topic with us.

—Monica Nelson

Partisan Q&A: Part 1

Sarah, age 10: Where did you hide the bombs?

Sonia Orbuch: The mines were used by our demolition teams to derail trains which were being used by the Germans to re-supply their army. The teams had horses and wagons which were used to transport their supplies and to keep them hidden when we were under attack.

Vanessa, age 10: What would have happened if you were caught spying?

Frank Blaichman: As a partisan - one of our tactics for survival was to gather information - to watch the movements of our enemies so we could know where it would be safe for us to move to. We also needed to gather information in order to successfully attack or sabotage our enemy.

If I had been caught spying on either the Nazis or the Polish authorities, I would have faced the same fate. I most likely would have been killed on the spot. At the very least, I would have been taken to a death camp.

Kurtis, age 12: How did it feel running through the woods being attacked by Nazis?

Sonia Orbuch: I felt frightened and scared....especially when my family was alone in the forest. Later, when we joined the forest we felt stronger because we were fighting back.

John, age 13: Did you ever NOT want to be a partisan?

Frank Blaichman: NO. I liked what I was doing. I was into it. I couldn't stop.

As an example, one group of Jews among many that we helped to shelter, were hidden in a Polish farmhouse. The farmer created a bunker for them in the barn. This group included Itka Hirschman, a young woman and her child David, a small boy who now lives in Israel. I would bring food around four times a month to the ten people in the bunker. One day Itka asked me: "You are risking your life bringing us food, why don't you come and stay with us?" and my answer was: "I cannot do it, it is in my blood. I along with my men cannot stop doing what we are doing - fighting the Nazis and their collaborators and helping others, including Jews to survive."

Click here to read Part 2 of the Q&A.

Partisans in the Arts: Abraham Sutzkever, Poet (1913-2010)

In 1984, the New York Times declared Abraham Sutzkever, “the greatest poet of the Holocaust.” His poems (which are written in Yiddish and have been translated into 30 languages) possess a subtlety met with powerful imagery, his language stripped down by the directness that comes from witnessing far more horrors of reality in a few years than most do in the span of their lives. Before he was a universally acclaimed figure in poetry, Sutzkever was a renowned poet in Vilna, known as the Jerusalem of Lithuania because of its intellectual and cultural development.

Sutzkever, who lost his mother, his newborn son, and his city of Vilna in the occupation, did not give up his fight or his art. He smuggled weapons into the ghetto and composed poems whatever the conditions. Sutzkever even hid in a coffin to write, during which he witnessed the liquidation of a smaller ghetto. These lines were composed here:

I lie in this coffin
The way I would lie
In a suit made of wood,
A bark
Tossed on treacherous waves,
A cradle, an ark.

Sutzkever and a group of intellectual friends, who were known as the “Paper Brigade”, rescued cultural works from destruction by the Nazis. Originally tasked with collecting Jewish cultural documents for the Nazi-created Institute for the Study of the Jewish Question, which intended to study the Jewish race after they were annihilated, Sutzkever instead carefully hid the works, including drawings by Chagall and the diaries of Theodore Herzl.

Before the ghetto was liquidated, Sutzkever, his wife, and a few of his friends escaped through sewers. They joined with partisans and fought against the Germans and collaborators until the end of the war. Sutzkever recalls, "conditions for the Jewish partisans in the forest were very difficult. A typical Jewish partisan had to prove himself to the partisan headquarters. They gave these Jews missions that were almost impossible to fulfill in order to test them."

After the war was over, Sutzkever returned to Vilna, resurfaced the precious cultural treasures he had hidden during the occupation, and with these works launched the Museum of Jewish Art and Culture. Sutzkever also testified at the Nuremburg trials (click here to watch a video of the testimony). In a 1985 interview with the New York Times, Abraham Sutzkever said: “When I was in the Vilna ghetto, I believed, as an observant Jew believes in the Messiah, that as long as I was writing, was able to be a poet, I would have a weapon against death.”

"A Wagon of Shoes”:

The wheels they drag and drag on,

What do they bring, and whose?

They bring along a wagon

Filled with throbbing shoes.

The wagon like a khupa
In evening glow, enchants:

The shoes piled up and heaped up,

Like people in a dance.

A holiday, a wedding?

As dazzling as a ball.

The shoes — familiar, spreading,

I recognize them all.

The heels tap with no malice:

Where do they pull us in?

From ancient Vilna alleys,

They drive us to Berlin.

I must not ask you whose,
My heart, it skips a beat:

Tell me the truth, oh, shoes,

Where disappeared the feet?

The feet of pumps so shoddy,

With buttondrops like dew —
Where is the little body?

Where is the woman too?

All children's shoes — but where

Are all the children's feet?

Why does the bride not wear

Her shoes so bright and neat?

'Mid clogs and children's sandals,

My Mama's shoes I see

On Sabbath, like the candles,

She'd put them on in glee.

The heels tap with no malice:

Where do they pull us in?

From ancient Vilna alleys,

They drive us to Berlin.

Figures of Resistance: Bei Dao (born Zhao Zhenkai, 1949)

Bei Dao’s poetry may not appear subversive, however his writings and his involvement in the publication of a literary journal brought dangerous attention to him during China’s Cultural Revolution. Without conceding to governmental pressure, Bei Dao was exiled in 1989.

Bei Dao, whose pseudonym means “Northern Island”, once wrote: “Poets must not exaggerate their own function, but even less should they underrate themselves.” Similarly, Bei’s resistance did not come inherently from his words, but rather from the fact that he unapologetically created and disseminated them despite the threat of persecution. He came of age during the Cultural Revolution and like nearly all youth at that time joined the Red Guard, Mao’s indoctrinated movement - which was oftentimes violent. In 1969, however, Bei Dao’s mindset changed when he saw the so-called idyllic countryside of contemporary propaganda — which, in reality, he found to be backwards and poverty-stricken. His enthusiasm for the Cultural Revolution waned; he instead became interested in reading and writing.

While living as a construction worker, Bei met with friends who exchanged their writings. They founded the journal Jintian and took turns posting it around Beijing in broad daylight; they could not do so at night, as they were likely to “disappear”. Bei recalled, “I and two others volunteered to put up the pages, knowing that we were taking great risks in doing this. But the thing that was even more anxiety-inducing was that we didn't know what kind of reception the writing might get!”

According to Bei, the “Misty Poets”, as he and his friends were called, troubled the government with their writing because of the language it used, “which differed greatly from the official language to which people were accustomed.” In addition, the poetry was attacked as being too subjective and promoting individualism. Bei Dao’s writing became popular, especially among Jintian’s core fans: university students.

Bei’s writing was tacked on to the Democracy Movement, which he once apparently supported in the 1976 protests at Tiananmen Square. Over a decade later when the 1989 events of Tiananmen Square occurred, the government exiled Bei who happened to be at a literary conference in Berlin. Months earlier, Dao began a letter project which included thirty-three other signers, asking for the release of political prisoners in China.

As a poet, Bei Dao’s separation from home—and six years separation from his wife and daughter—would not stop him from writing. In Stockholm, he revived Jiantian in reaction to the 1989 Tiananmen Square events. The journal’s revival gave a voice to other Chinese writers who had been exiled or were unable to publish their work to a Chinese audience. Bei Dao’s writing, even in translation, is brilliant, widely published, and has been repeatedly nominated for a Nobel Prize. Its existence alone is a symbol of resistance against government censorship.

The Jewish People Has Lost a Warrior - Joseph Fox (A''H)

By Steve Fox

On January 14, 2012, there is one less Holocaust survivor to tell his story. That was the day that my father, Joseph Fox (A''H) a survivor of the Warsaw Ghetto, a proud Partisan, loving husband, father and grandfather, passed away at the young age of 89. I say young because he was rarely sick and had his full faculties until the very end. He worked until 3 years ago and he could still talk politics and sports with opinionated authority. Fortunately, his illness was short and he did not suffer very much when he died. This was in stark contrast to his youth when, as a 16 year old, he was forced to participate in forced labor groups building the walls of the infamous Warsaw Ghetto and, after escaping the Ghetto, witnessing death and destruction as he and his family hid from the Nazis.

In September of 1942, while he hid in the forest with his brother and father, the Nazis exterminated all of the Jews of Zdzhilovice, Poland, a small farming village near Lublin – including his mother, sister, and 5 cousins, whose bodies were then buried in a mass grave. I asked him how he felt when they returned to the town shortly thereafter and made the grisly discovery. He told me that they didn’t have time to mourn but had to focus on ways to survive. It seems that G-d wanted my father to survive the war and raise a family, despite many close calls and 2 bullet wounds. He emerged from the war a victor and not a victim, having joined the Stalin Brigade of Russian partisans.

He spent the last 2 years of the war blowing up supply lines and attacking Germans in the difficult terrain of the Carpathian Mountains. He once told me that the first time he had a gun and was chasing a Nazi soldier, it was a revelation to him that the soldier was scared of a Jew and could run and bleed just like anybody else. It was this realization that gave him the strength to continue and fight. Having lost both of his parents and a sister, he and his brothers made their way to the United States after the war, where his uncles were already established in the sewing machine business. After working for them for a number of years, he opened his own sewing machine business in the Garment Center and would help some of the biggest designers in the industry such as Halston, Calvin Klein, Anne Klein and many more set up their first shops in New York. He later private-labeled a line of dress forms, which found their ways into factories, colleges and productions for TV and theater.

Despite being a Holocaust survivor, he was determined to give his family a normal life, devoid of the suffering that he endured as a youth. He did not transfer his scars onto us, but he believed very strongly in educating the next generation about the horrors of the Holocaust so that the world would never forget. To that end, he was a board member of the Warsaw Ghetto Resistance Organization (WAGRO) and helped organize New York’s largest Holocaust commemorations for over 40 years. It was at that gathering in April of 2011 that the first of three significant events took place in the final year of his life.

At the commemoration, now organized by the American Gathering of Holocaust Survivors, our family was chosen to light the first of 6 candles to commemorate the Shoah. In the past, they had only allowed one family member to accompany the survivor, but now our entire family joined him on stage. Three generations stood together to show the fruits of his life in America, despite overwhelming odds. Shortly thereafter, he was called by a fellow survivor in Israel, who informed him of the discovery of the mass grave where members of both their families had been killed. Not feeling up to making a long trip, he sent his children and grandchildren in his stead. My brother and I, along with my son, participated in the ceremony along with the Israeli family, 150 Israeli students in Poland for March of the Living, and government officials and students from the village.

From left to right: a representative of the President of Poland, Steve Fox, The Lasting Memory Foundation founder Zbigniew Nizinski, and Rabbi Michael Schudrich, Chief Rabbi of Poland.

In essence, we attended the belated funeral for my father’s family – complete with speeches, Kaddish, and Kail Maale Rachamim, read by the chief Rabbi of Poland. At the end, 200 of us sang Hatikvah in this killing field, showing the Nazis that we have indeed been victorious. After 69 years, my father finally got closure from that terrible part of his life.

In November, just 2 months before he died, he was one of 55 partisans honored at a dinner by the Jewish Partisan Educational Foundation. He was very excited to go and felt happy that partisans like him were being recognized for their courage and strength. At the dinner, he commented to actor Ed Asner, who read out the names of the partisans in attendance during the ceremony in their honor, that it wasn’t easy being a partisan – but it was the only way he could survive. At the end of the evening, when they sang the Partisan Hymn, he appeared to stand taller than his 5’7” frame would allow.

Joseph Fox with actor Ed Asner at JPEF's Partisan Tribute Dinner on November 7, 2011 in New York City.

To the outside world, my father was a proud survivor and a successful businessman. To us, he was a loving husband, father, and grandfather whose Chesed quietly extended to family and friends. He was successful, had a great sense of humor, and was a smart, well-rounded person. He was my mentor, my friend, my inspiration, and a role model for me and my children. May his memory be a blessing to all of us and may his heroism and compassion be an inspiration to all of Klal Yisrael.

Steve Fox is the president of Fox Marketing and Video Productions in Teaneck, NJ and Co-chair of the Teaneck Holocaust Commemoration Committee. He can be reached at foxy555@aol.com.

JPEF Education Manager Jonathan Furst visits Prague, Terezin

JPEF’s Education Manager, Jonathan Furst, traveled to Prague last week to attend the 2012 European League for Middle Level Education Conference. When he was not busy presenting at the conference, Jonathan attended a guided tour of Terezin.

Terezin is a fortress and a town that sits across from the Ohře river in the Czech Republic. Built in the late 1700s by the Hapsburg Monarchy, Terezin was a military town for over two centuries. It was first utilized as a prison in the second half of the 19th century, and housed political prisoners of both World Wars – including Gavrilo Princip, the assassin of Archduke Franz Ferdinand.

During World War II, the Gestapo converted part of Terezin into a Jewish ghetto, interning over 144,000 Jews throughout the course of the war – 33,000 died within its walls due to hunger, disease, and sadistic treatment; only 17,000 prisoners survived. It was also used as a transit camp for European Jews on their way to Auschwitz, and a part of Terezin called the Small Fortress also served as a Gestapo prison for Allied POWs.

Terezin also gained notoriety because the majority of Jews interned there were artists, musicians, professionals, and scholars – their captors encouraged them to lead “creative” lives and even erected and concert venues as a ploy to fool the International Red Cross.

During the guided tour, Jonathan led an impromptu seminar with over twenty European school-teachers participating.

“It was so moving to teach about the spectrum of Jewish resistance in the same place where Jews famously resisted through art, prayer, love and so many other ways – particularly in documenting the reality of the horrors behind the Nazi’s façade of ‘spa’ for elderly Jews.”

“Thanks to Trudi van der Tak for an informative and deeply moving tour, and for inviting me to teach about the wider spectrum of Jewish resistance.”