Study Guide Ben Kamm: Determined to Fight

“ When looking back today and thinking what the Into the Ghetto partisans did, I am absolutely amazed. I cannot believe that I am here in America and able to A year after the German invasion of Poland, tell my story. How I played a part in resisting the Polish Jews were forced into ghettos— the Germans, the Polish and Ukrainian butchers. forced mostly by superior German strength Our group also saved a few hundred Jewish men, but persuaded to go through lies about eventual women and children.” freedom. Warsaw, the Polish capital, was divided —Ben Kamm, Jewish partisan. into “Aryan” and “Jewish” sectors that were separated by an eleven-foot wall capped by On September 1, 1939, German tanks broken glass and barbed wire. Within weeks, and army units poured across the Polish close to a half million Jews had been uprooted border, while German bombers took to the and squashed into apartments lining the 73 skies to pound Poland’s cities. Four weeks streets that constituted Warsaw’s ghetto. The later Poland surrendered, bowing to vastly Kamms packed a few bags of clothes and a superior forces. handful of mementos for their relocation. After their victory the Germans wasted They said goodbye to their spacious apartment little time in launching their war on the in Warsaw and moved into a single room with Jews. Businesses were confiscated. No seven other people in the ghetto. Jews were allowed on the streets between The ghetto itself was quickly overrun by hunger, 9 p.m. and 5 a.m. Jews were not allowed disease and death. According to one document, to use public transportation. They were whose accuracy can not be fully ascertained, the forced to wear armbands with a Star of daily official ration of calories allotted to Germans, David and made to perform forced labor. Poles and Jews was 2,400, 1,800, and 184 calories But the worst was still to come. “The respectively. According to the US Food and Drug Jews must be “finish[ed] off,” declared Administration, adult calorie intake should be Poland’s new rulers. 2,000 calories. Smuggling food or goods into the Ben Kamm in Chelm, Poland after liberation, 1945. Source: Jewish Ben Kamm was 18 years old when the Germans ghetto was punishable by death. In fact, just after Partisan Educational Foundation the Kamms had moved into the ghetto, notices archives. invaded. Life had been good to him until that point. He had a nice room in a comfortable went up announcing that the death penalty would apartment he shared with his parents and four be given out to any Jew who was simply caught younger brothers. Owned by his grandfather, leaving the ghetto without permission, smuggling the building also housed his extended family. or not. As Ben explains, “They kill you if they find His father ran a thriving meat business that you, but you have to do it to survive” and Ben had been in the family for generations. And yet, wanted not only to survive himself, but to help antisemitism had been a constant feature of his feed his family. Flouting Nazi orders, Ben began daily life. In Ben’s memory, he and his fellow Jews smuggling. As the war intensified and conditions from Warsaw were taunted consistently. As he put worsened, starvation and disease stalked the it, “We were abused every single day—they called ghetto. The future looked bleak. me ‘dirty Jew, lousy Jew’—and every single day we Ben’s appearance helped him out: with his blond had to fight.” Having fought against antisemitic hair, blue eyes, and perfect command of Polish, neighbors throughout his youth, Ben was well he was able to move among Christian Poles prepared to fight as a partisan. without arousing suspicion. Moreover, Ben’s aunt lived in the “Aryan” section of town. None of her neighbors knew she was Jewish, having

1 These shaded areas highlight Ben’s journey as a partisan. Map drawn using pre-war borders,1939.

RADOM LUBLIN KOVEL

Swietokrzyski SARNY Krasnik CHELM

Valdimir-Volynskij Janow Lubelski Zamosc

Luck BALTIC SEA LITHUANIA ROVNO Cervonograd Dubno Novograd-Volynskij Rzeszow

PRUSSIA Sepetovka

Przemysl LVOV

WARSAW

LUBLIN GERMANY POLAND KRAKOW USSR The young men set out for Lublin without a single gun or piece of ammunition. In the

CZECHOSLOVAKIA town of Krasnik they found Grzezor Korczynski, a partisan commander who had been an HUNGARY ROMANIA experienced former Polish officer. Korczynski could have easily rejected the possibility of for years lived as a Christian married to a Polish new recruits given their lack of arms. As Ben officer. She too was blond and blue-eyed and was explained: “If you don’t have a gun, no way you willing to risk her own safety to help her family on can survive.” Because Korczynski’s group was the Jewish side of the wall. The aunt had a son who small, though, “with [only] maybe 5 to 8 people,” owned a print shop and who began printing false according to Ben, he accepted the newcomers identity papers. Ben was “conscripted” to deliver whose first job was to procure arms. Guns were the forgeries. In return, his aunt provided meat and not only necessary for killing Germans, they marmalade for his family. While it was dangerous offered protection against “Polish bandits… work, Ben enjoyed defying the enemy and hungered because they were thirsty to kill Jews just like the to contribute more to hasten its defeat. Germans.” Guns could be used, too, to persuade farmers to give up food and provide them shelter.

The Call of the Partisans Obtaining a gun was not that difficult—once In the spring of 1941, Ben’s aunt had a piece you already had one. “So we decided to make of exciting news; partisans were rumored to be an ambush on the Polish police. They used to ride fighting the Germans near Lublin, approximately 100 on bicycles. We used to go in the forest. When miles from Warsaw. “I didn’t know what a partisan the three policemen passed by, we grab them, was,” Ben recalls. “I just wanted to go fight the take away their guns.” Germans because of what they did to the Jews.” Electrified, he convinced nine of his friends to escape Life on the Run the ghetto and to attempt to join the fighters. Ben was barely twenty and had never been away from The transition from city-dweller to partisan was his family for any length of time, but neither he nor difficult for Ben. “Everyone slept in a barn,” he his family members expected the separation to be recalled. “During the day we talked about how to long. “We thought the war would be over in a ambush the Germans, how to get food, and how to couple of months. Russia and England and France get rid of the lice. One million lice! Everybody had are in the war, they’re gonna crush Hitler. So we lice. Do you know that for three years I never took didn’t expect this, the war to last.” a shower or bath? I didn’t know what a bath was.”

2 Worse than lice was the danger that came from rushed in and killed the guards. The mission More Information one’s fellow humans. One day, while the partisans came off exactly as planned. To mark the event on the Jewish were eating in a barn, the Polish police “came and in his memory, Ben took the gold cufflinks off partisans shot five of them.” The barn’s owner had betrayed the commandant of the camp, later donating them. The incident prompted three of Ben’s men to them to the Russian war effort. The Jewish Partisan quit being partisans and to return to Warsaw. Only Educational Foundation recommends these Ben decided to stick with Korczynski, determined to With the opening of the Janow Lubelski camp, resources for further fight until there were no Germans attacking. the Jews interned there were free to leave, but at great peril. “We couldn’t take them with us,” information. Despite his conviction, however, Ben too, was explained Ben. “We didn’t have the guns. We soon headed back to Warsaw. A letter from his didn’t have the food.” Some inmates ran off to Books mother, delivered through an intricate system the forest, while others remained in the camp. The Partisan of couriers, made it plain that they were starving. “They were scared. They didn’t know what to by Yitzhak Arad Ben sewed pockets into his pants and shirts and do, where to go. They stayed there. Next day filled them “with beans, beans, beans, beans, and Germans came in, took them someplace else.” The War of the Doomed: Jewish Armed Resistance all kinds of other packages.” Using the familiar While it might seem that escape was the best in Poland 1942-1944 smuggling routes, he snuck back into the ghetto. option, it is important to bear in mind that by Shmuel Krakowski What he saw filled him with horror. “People— the local population was hostile, the terrain dead people—laying in the streets. Children difficult, and provisions absent. In the camp, Films begging. People begging. Horrible. Horrible.” the prisoners at least knew what to expect. Flames in the Ashes, a film Thousands of Jews had already been deported. Germany was at war and workers were in short by Ergo Media. Available As his mother had indicated, Ben’s family was supply. The irrigation system they were building for rental in VHS in some in dire straits. They lived in a single room with was nowhere near complete. Their labor was still independent video stores. three other families and were close to despair. in demand. Most importantly, the Jews at the The following short films camp could not have known that the Germans are available online at: Ben spent only two days in the ghetto after intended to leave no Jew alive. While sixty of www.jewishpartisans.org/ which he never saw his brothers and parents the escapees managed to avoid recapture, the movies again. Looking back, he regrets not trying to rest were rounded up and executed. take his younger brothers with him when he Introduction to the Jewish Partisans left. At the time, though, he felt it would be The number of people fighting with the partisans safer for them to stay behind and believed that varied from week to week. One day, sixteen men Partisans Through the his family would survive. As Ben put it: “I think found their way to the partisans. “They were Polish Eyes of the Soviet that the human mind cannot comprehend what Jews, soldiers who were prisoners of war in a Newsreel happened. That they were going to take people camp in Lublin. They ran away and came to the Living and Surviving in and gas them and kill them by the millions, it forests and they found us. They were so happy,” the Partisans: Food, didn’t even come into my mind.” Ben recalls. But that happiness was short lived as Winter, Medicine and Korczynski had them shot. At his postwar trial, the Shelter former partisan commander defended the decision, Back to the Woods arguing that the men had refused to obey his Web Sites order to join the unit. Ben believes, though, that Ben rejoined the Korczynski brigade with Jewish Partisan Educational they were killed because they refused to turn over a renewed sense of purpose, volunteering Foundation: for one dangerous mission after another. money and gold they had with them. www.jewishpartisans.org Among the most dangerous was the Simon Wiesenthal Center: liberation of a forced labor camp. The http://motlc.wiesenthal.com Janow Lubelski camp was situated in a meadow close to a forest. Inside were The United States Holocaust Memorial approximately 1,000 Jews working on Museum: a vast irrigation project. The partisans http://www.ushmm.org/ surveyed the camp and planned their outreach/jpart.htm attack. “We stayed in the ravine all day until the sun went down,” Ben remembers, and “when it got dark we crawled up to the camp.” They waited patiently for the signal to attack. When it came, they Jewish partisans emerge from a Polish forest. Source: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.

Whatever Korczynski’s motivation, the incident Wanda Wasilewska Questions had far-reaching consequences. Ben was furious. was a Polish journalist who “Because he killed Jews, I was angry. Eventually, traveled and 1. What were some of the he would have done it to me,” Ben assumed. wrote about communism. Ben advantages that Ben possessed Soon after, he left the unit in protest, taking Kamm’s partisan that enabled him to escape his unit was named some of the other men with him. Determined by the Russians fate in the ghetto? to avenge the murder of fellow Jews, they went in her honor. on the attack, targeting Korczynski himself. In the 2. Most partisans fled to the fighting that ensued, both sides took casualties. forest only when it became Ben’s group eventually realized that staying in certain that there was no hope the region was too dangerous, and they decided for survival. Ben, however, took up arms before knowing about to move on. “We heard that in the Polish Ukraine, the Nazi’s “final solution”. Can a big partisan movement is forming, so we walked you give other examples from for two weeks, and we found the Russian partisan Ben’s experiences in which group.” It was winter and bitter, bitter cold. Ben a regular army… to use a machine gun, to use he takes action on his own initiative? What does this tell wore “a coat made out of sheepskin. A long coat. grenades, to place mines. …Our main job was to And rags around my feet, so my feet shouldn’t you about his character? How destroy the rail lines going to the Eastern front.” do you think these attributes freeze. The worst thing was rain. After rain you’re The platoon went out at night to blow up the contributed to his ability to soaking wet. I mean wet. And you never take a cargo trains that traveled between the towns of survive? shower, you never bathe. You stink! Unreal. Like Kovel and Sarny, planting mines under the tracks a dead animal. Just like a dead animal.” without being detected by the German guards. 3. When Ben participated in They targeted the heart of the locomotive, the the liberation of Yanov Lubleski train’s engine. A disabled locomotive would labor camp, he was aware of the The Fyodorov Brigade disrupt the flow of equipment, medicine and extreme difficulties facing its “freed” Jews. What do you think troops, weakening the German war effort and The camp they found was larger than they had motivated Ben to liberate the anticipated: 1,600 fighters, spread out over nearly hastening the war’s end. By the end of 1943, camp? Do you think it was the two kilometers. Ben and his company entered the Fyodorov Brigade had destroyed 549 trains. right decision? Why or why not? the sprawling compound and were welcomed as Debate both sides of the issue. The German response to the disruption of the armed and experienced fighters. The commander, supply lines was to cut down the forests around General Fyodorov, took them in and formed them 4. A famous philosopher the tracks, post more guards, and even put an into a separate platoon. Ben was glad to be with once stated, “Laws are silent empty freight car in front of the locomotive to the Russians, for the Russians showed greater in times of war”. When Ben protect the engine. The partisans stayed one step willingness to accept Jewish partisans into their reflects on the actions he ahead of these strategies and changed their tactics undertook as a partisan, ranks than did the Poles. Some Jews even rose to in response: “We got magnetic mines from Russia. he states, “If you think, you important leadership positions. Didn’t have to dig the hole, you just throw the wouldn’t do it, because human feeling wouldn’t let you”. The Fyodorov Brigade proved to be one of the mine, it got stuck to the machine, went about Discuss these two philosophies. best supplied partisan units behind enemy lines. 100 yards, and blew up.” Ben’s platoon then Do they relate to each other? By the end of 1943, Germany was in full retreat, sprayed the rest of the train with machine-gun How? What do they tell you enabling the Russians to support their partisans by fire and confiscated the supplies meant to sustain about human nature? Do you air. Ben still marvels at the scope of the unit. “We the German war machine. Once, he recalled, “there agree with this view? Are there situations in our world happened to be gifts for Christmas for the soldiers, had four different radios. If we needed help from today that relate to these Russia, the airplanes came. We used to get drops from their families. Sweaters, gloves, cakes, all perspectives? Have you ever with ammunitions, with guns, every day. They had kinds of things.” The loss of these precious holiday experienced this dilemma five doctors. They had a place where they used to presents surely had an effect on German morale. personally in any way? What fix shoes, fix clothing. We had the orchestra. We did it teach you? In addition to carrying out acts of sabotage, used to dance.” And instead of sleeping in barns or the Fyodorov Brigade practiced humanitarian on the ground in the woods, they slept in bunkers Questions continued on the aid, helping Jews who had escaped to the woods. called zemlyankas. “We dug a hole,” Ben described, following page Whenever they found “Jews hiding in the forest, “with about 50 people and covered it up with trees. we took them with us,” Ben related. “Jewish Like a room. You lay down and slept on your straw.” people—old, young, children. We took them For the first time, too, Ben and his men received with us and they survived the war.” professional military training. “They taught us like

4 The Final Battles Questions continued

Toward the end of the war, with the Germans 5. Describe the differences headed for defeat and the Russian front nearly between the Korczynski and liberated, all Polish partisans were ordered back Fyodorov brigades. Why was to Poland to carry on the struggle there. “We one unit more advantageous were 1,200 Polish citizens, mostly Jewish… we than the other? How did life just walked from the Ukraine back to Poland.” change for Ben when he joined the Fyodorov brigade? Do you The partisans reconstituted themselves into a new think he found what he set out group named for a well-known Polish Communist to ﬁnd when he left Korczynski? living in Russia, Wanda Wasilewska. The group continued to receive airdrops from Russia, More Information including such needs as ammunition, mines, on Ben medicines—even commanders. They also received regular reports from Radio Moscow. Ben made a To see a video of Ben and hear him speak in his own words go daily habit of listening to the news and became to www.jewishpartisans.org/ friendly with the radio operator who became his educationhb.html and click on steady girlfriend. “Hear and See Ben Kamm.”

The Wanda Wasilewska brigade had two objectives: to distribute weapons to the local Ben Kamm in 2004. Source: Jewish Partisan Educational Ask A Partisan Foundation archives. population and to get as many people to fight Ask a panel of as possible. Its troops fought the Germans in what they would lead him to do. “You know at partisans any what sometimes amounted to full-scale battles. question you that moment,” he acknowledges, “you don’t think. like and get a One such battle took place shortly before the If you think, you wouldn’t do it, because human personalized answer on-line. end of the war. “The Germans sent thousands of feelings wouldn’t let you. But also revenge, Or, read questions and answers soldiers to get rid of us. I listened to the news revenge, revenge…. I can’t forgive people [who] from others. Go to: www.jewish from Russia, so we knew they were coming.” killed innocent babies, innocent women, innocent partisans.org/educationhb.html and look for the ‘Ask A Partisan’ Having encircled miles of forest, trapping the people…. They killed the best of us.” partisans, the Nazis launched a fierce attack, section. using every weapon at their disposal. But the partisans held firm. Finally, after sixteen hours Not a Hero Sources of combat, they succeeded in breaking through Ben is proud of having fought with three different For a complete list of sources the German line and forcing their flight. for all the material found in partisan groups and of his part in destroying 549 this study guide, please consult A few months later Germany surrendered, and trains, which contributed to the defeat of the our website: www.jewish the war was over. Across Europe, the partisans Germans. But he is saddened as well. “I am just partisans.org/sources. very sorry,” he explains, “that more of our Jewish laid down their weapons and went back home. Teachers and students are But for Ben, and for many others like him, there boys and girls did not have the opportunity to do allowed to copy and distribute was no home to which he could return. the same as I did.” materials for educational use.

The sole survivor of his entire family, Ben now Making Choices lives in Los Angeles near his two daughters and Jewish Partisan three grandchildren. He’s the recipient of many Educational Foundation At a very young age, Ben faced some of the most honors and has been decorated by both the Polish 2107 Van Ness Avenue Suite 302 difﬁcult choices a person may be asked to make: and Israeli governments. When asked if he was a San Francisco, CA 94109 to leave a family that depends on you, to go off hero on account of all he did during the war, Ben into a world out to destroy you, to take up arms answers simply, “No, not a hero…. I was lucky I’m 415-563-2244 (tel) and kill and run the risk of being killed. Ben chose alive and can tell the story.” 415-563-2442 (fax) all of these risks, though he couldn’t have known [email protected]

THIS STUDY GUIDE MADE POSSIBLE BY THE CONFERENCE ON JEWISH MATERIAL CLAIMS AGAINST GERMANY-RABBI ISRAEL MILLER FUND FOR SHOAH RESEARCH, DOCUMENTATION AND EDUCATION, THE RICHARD & RHODA GOLDMAN FUND, AND THE KAMIN FAMILY