{"id":23108,"date":"2018-03-13T14:51:04","date_gmt":"2018-03-13T14:51:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jewishaction.com\/?p=23108"},"modified":"2025-07-28T16:33:28","modified_gmt":"2025-07-28T16:33:28","slug":"the-warsaw-ghetto-an-eyewitness-account","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jewishaction.com\/holocaust\/the-warsaw-ghetto-an-eyewitness-account\/","title":{"rendered":"The Warsaw Ghetto: An Eyewitness Account"},"content":{"rendered":"

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Clandestine photograph of the destroyed Warsaw ghetto. Tad Brezkis was a Polish photographer. Having witnessed the destruction of the Warsaw ghetto, he returned a few months later to take almost forty clandestine pictures of the destroyed ghetto with a Leica camera. Photos courtesy of the Amud Aish Memorial Museum<\/span><\/i><\/em><\/p><\/div>\n

<\/div>\n

Dr. Hillel Seidman (1914\u20131995) was a researcher, author and Chassidic Jew who kept a diary chronicling daily life in the Warsaw Ghetto. Written between July 1942 and January 1943, the diary, miraculously rescued from Nazi hands, records the Ghetto\u2019s last days. Dr. Seidman managed to escape the ghetto in January 1943, and ended up in Vittel, a prison camp in Vichy, France. He secured a false Paraguayan passport and survived the war, one of only twelve prisoners to survive Vittel. He died in 1995. <\/span><\/p>\n

Loaned to the Amud Aish museum by the Seidman family, the diary provides an eyewitness account of life in the Ghetto and attests to the extraordinary spiritual heroism of those who perished. Below are excerpts from Dr. Seidman\u2019s diary, courtesy of the Seidman family:<\/span><\/p>\n

July 19, 1942\u2014Meeting of Activists and Personalities<\/b>
\nWith rumors of impending mass \u201cresettlement\u201d beginning again . . . a top secret meeting of activists and personalities gathered . . . the first item on the agenda was: Were the frightening rumors at all accurate? . . . The optimists argued that our strength lies in our sheer numbers. Warsaw itself is a force to be reckoned with. They would not dare destroy half a million people! Various suggestions are put forward: Maybe we should collect huge sums of money or many kilos of gold to bribe the Gestapo . . . Perhaps we should consider setting up many factories and workshops to show Jews as a productive element and thus save them from deportation. Rabbi Yosef Konigsberg . . . and Rabbi Zisha Friedman propose sending a courier to Switzerland to alert World Opinion . . . We must persuade the Pope to publicize a special appeal. We must . . . We should . . . \u00a0Slowly but surely realization dawns on the gathering that all our plans are unrealistic, impossible to carry out . . . .<\/span><\/p>\n

July 21, 1942\u2014The Gestapo Prepares for Deportations<\/b>
\nCrowds fight for labor cards . . . Everybody rushes back and forth seeking employment in the workshops . . . Men seek social marriage certificates to protect their wives, since there is also a rumor that those holding marriage certificates will not be deported . . . Incidentally, in the house of Rabbi Yitzchak Meir Kanal at 6 Twarda Street are also large crowds busily getting married! Bachelors who have work cards marry women who have no work, to save them from deportation. These mass marriages are conducted in great haste . . . Women still unmarried seek \u201chusbands.\u201d The ancient prophesy rings true: \u201cAnd on that day seven women will clutch at one man saying we will eat our own bread, wear our own clothes, just allow your name to protect us\u201d (Isaiah 4:1).<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

A page of Dr. Hillel Seidman\u2019s diary.<\/em><\/p><\/div>\n

The Night of Tears <\/b>
\nCrossing our courtyard, I notice our small <\/span>shtiebl. . . . <\/span><\/i>About twenty men sit on upturned benches\u2014it\u2019s Tisha B\u2019Av tonight! Two flickering candles at the temporary <\/span>amud<\/span><\/i> dimly light up the bent heads, with their eyes staring into the far distance, as that heartrending tune wells up: \u201cEichah<\/em> . . .\u201d the tune that was perhaps first composed at the exile from Jerusalem and has since absorbed the tears of generations . . . How true, how real those ancient lamentations read; how accurate they describe our present catastrophe. That was when it all started, when we were driven from our land and lost our sovereignty 1,872 years ago. Today is but another link in a long chain. <\/span><\/p>\n

August 12, 1942\u2014Death March of Korczak\u2019s Orphans <\/b>
\nToday Dr. Janusz Korczak was ordered to \u201cvacate\u201d the orphanage. Korczak himself could really stay, since doctors are considered essential, and the Judenrat still retains enough clout to save him. But Korczak refuses to save himself alone. He cannot bear to leave his orphans and decides to accompany them on their final journey . . . All the children assemble in front of the orphanage on Sliska Street\u2014so many children, from the almost adult to the very tiny\u2014and though they are starved and weak they remain disciplined and well behaved . . . \u00a0All eyes follow the \u201cdoctor\u201d; with him at their side they feel almost safe. Korczak attends to his children with a frightening intensity: he buttons up the coat of one child, straightens the cap of a second and adjusts the satchel of a third\u2014then he goes up to another child and carefully wipes away his tears . . . The column of children begins to move, marching to their unknown destination . . . Who knows how much potential, skill, talent, and Jewish treasures are contained within these precious young souls, now condemned to death . . . At their head marches Janusz Korczak\u2014the symbol of selfless love and charity overwhelmed by the cruel and evil enemy who knows no mercy. <\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

A creased piece of jacket lining that Dr. Hillel Seidman smuggled out while he was in the Vittel internment camp in Vichy, France. Dr. Seidman cut this piece from the lining of his jacket and wrote on it a desperate plea for rescue. He smuggled it out with the help of a non-Jewish woman who sent it to Rabbi Yaakov Rosenheim in New York. Written partly in Hebrew and partly in English, the note begs for passports.<\/em><\/p><\/div>\n

August 27, 1942\u2014On the Death March <\/b>
\nAnd so we sat\u2014squashed, hungry, and completely cowed\u2014all of us had surrendered to total despondency and apathy . . . Suddenly, my elderly, white-bearded neighbor with his <\/span>tallis<\/span><\/i> and tefillin straightened up and began to speak: at first quietly, but soon with growing strength . . . “<\/span>Jews, do not worry yourselves! Do not fall prey to depression or sadness. Can\u2019t you see we are marching towards Mashiach? Can\u2019t you see that? If only I had a glass of <\/span><\/i>mashkeh<\/span>, I would drink a <\/span><\/i>lechaim<\/span>, here and now! <\/span><\/i>Lechaim Yidden<\/span>!” . . . .<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

Hoshana Rabbah, October 2, 1942\u2014Torah and Avodah<\/em> at One Bench<\/b>
\nI arrive at the Schultz factory when the assembled \u201cworkers\u201d are <\/span>davening<\/span><\/i> and reciting Hoshanos. The Schultz works now \u201cemploy\u201d the cream of Orthodoxy\u2014Chassidic <\/span>rebbes<\/span><\/i>, <\/span>rabbanim, talmidei chachamim, <\/span><\/i>religious activists, and prominent Chassidim. At one workbench, officially repairing shoes . . . sits Rabbi Aryeh Zvi Frumer, formerly <\/span>rosh yeshivah<\/span><\/i> at Chachmei Lublin. He might be sitting here but his mind is miles away; his lips are constantly moving, obviously he is studying Torah by heart. Every so often, he throws a question to his neighbor opposite, Rabbi Kalonymus Kalmish Shapira of Piaseczno, author of the <\/span>Chovos HaTalmidim<\/span><\/i>, and they begin a whispered dialogue in Talmudic study quoting Chazal and <\/span>posekim.<\/span><\/i> The spirits of the Rishonim and Acharonim hover above this workbench\u2014for these \u201cshoemakers\u201d are really <\/span>geonim <\/span><\/i>and Talmudic giants. Who worries about the German overseers or the SS? Rapidly, they forget the continual hunger, the ongoing persecution and oppression, the ever-present threat of death. They are no longer in a factory at 46 Nowolipie Street, but inside the Temple\u2019s Hewn Chamber at a sitting of the Sanhedrin. While some succumb to their maltreatment, these <\/span>gedolim<\/span><\/i> rise to new spiritual heights . . . <\/span><\/p>\n

January 14, 1943 <\/b>
\nI remember one famous Chassidic Rebbe once said why the Beit Hamikdash was built on Mount Moriah rather than Mount Sinai. A place where a Jew had been <\/span>moser nefesh<\/span><\/i> was more important than the site where the Torah was revealed. And where else had so many Jews fallen <\/span>al kiddush Hashem<\/span><\/i> than these roads of the Warsaw Ghetto? Every street is a Mount Moriah, every stone an <\/span>akeidah.<\/span><\/i> If, by some miracle, I survive this madness, perhaps I should bring a stone from Nalewki Street to Eretz Yisrael and place it alongside the Kosel Maaravi<\/em>. When Jews come on pilgrimage to that sacred site, they could also weep over this stone for the loss of all their loved ones, for the destruction of a large segment of Klal Yisrael. They will bewail the extinction of a central powerhouse in Judaism\u2014Polish Jewry\u2014as they mourn the <\/span>churban<\/span><\/i> of the holy Temple. <\/span><\/p>\n

[The final entry] January 18, 1943\u2014The First Resistance <\/b>
\nNobody puts any trust in German documents and permits. Instead they stow away anywhere they can\u2014in lofts, bunkers and hiding places . . . A unit of ZOB (Zydowska Organizacja Bojowa\u2014the Jewish Resistance Organization) lives at 7 Wolynska Street. When the Latvians and Ukrainians approach the building, a few hand grenades are thrown at them from the windows. A number of them are killed, including their SS officer. They immediately panic and run blindly in all directions. An eerie silence descends on the street. Yet all know this cannot last, the Germans won\u2019t give up so easily. The Resistance instructs all Jews to leave the street immediately, and everybody evacuates the area. As darkness falls, a few SS arrive. They proceed down the street holding electric pocket torches, which they shine at every apartment entrance as they pass . . . There is no hope, no escape, nowhere to hide. And the merciless enemy seeks to destroy everything. <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Text courtesy of the Seidman family.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Excerpts from the journal of a Chassidic Jew’s life in the Warsaw Ghetto<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":567,"featured_media":16343,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ep_exclude_from_search":false,"_cloudinary_featured_overwrite":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,192,26,34,118],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23108","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-history","category-holocaust","category-jewish-living","category-people","category-yom-hashoah","issues-spring-20185778"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nThe Warsaw Ghetto: An Eyewitness Account - Jewish Action<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Excerpts from the journal of a Chassidic Jew's life in the Warsaw Ghetto\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/jewishaction.com\/holocaust\/the-warsaw-ghetto-an-eyewitness-account\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Warsaw Ghetto: An Eyewitness Account - 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