Honoring the Fallen: The 70th Anniversary of the Destruction of the Ghetto By Dr. Mitch Glaser, President, Chosen People Ministries

Editor’s Note: This article on the 70th anniversary of the de- struction of the in 1943 also includes portions from Dr. Glaser’s 2012 article, “Heroes of : , the Warsaw Ghetto and Yeshua.” An excerpt of that was published in the May 2012

Bulletin (Issue 108, p. 15). The full earlier article can be down- loaded at the LCJE.net website under “Papers” (2012). The Great Synagogue - Warsaw

Overview beyond usual duty in destroy- were unbelievable. An unforget- The achievements and witness ing the Ghetto: table allegory of the triumph of Jewish believers during the Stroop was the archetypal over Jewry. The Warsaw Ghetto Holocaust and especially in the Nazi - a sadistic anti-Semite has ceased to exist. Because Warsaw Ghetto are essentially who took joy in hunting , that is what and unknown to most present-day whom he considered sub- wanted.” (1) Jewish believers. We stand on humans. He remained unrepen- the shoulders of these heroes tant right up to his execution in This is a Tish B’av anniver- of the Holocaust - the Jewish Warsaw, after being convicted sary – another day when we believers of the Warsaw Ghet- of war crimes. In the Warsaw remember that the enemies to - and their story, as much Mokotow prison awaiting his of Israel tried to destroy the or as little as we know, must trial, he regaled his cellmates Jewish people. They failed be told. First, we shall look at with stories of how he had because the God who chose a brief history of the destruc- succeeded in liquidating the the Jewish people preserved tion of the Ghetto itself. Warsaw Ghetto. them. And so we say, She- hechiyanu, “Blessed are You, Destruction of the Great One of those cellmates was a Lord our G-d, King of the Uni- Synagogue in Warsaw Pole named Kazimierz Moczar- verse, who has granted us life, On May 16th, 1943, the Nazis ski. Moczarski was accused at sustained us and enabled us forces, led by General Jürgen the time of conducting activity to reach this occasion.” Stroop, blew up the Great against the Polish Communist Yet, at the same time we Synagogue on Tlomackie regime. In his book titled, grieve over what we lost. street in Warsaw and de- Conversations with the Hang- According to reports, 56,065 stroyed what remained of the man, Moczarski recounted Jewish people were captured, Jewish presence in the Ghetto Stroop’s description of how he 5-6,000 killed in the fighting, after 27 days of intense fight- had dynamited the great syna- 7,000 were shot and thou- ing. The Great Synagogue was gogue on Tlomackie Street. sands of others were sent to destroyed to symbolize the tri- Moczarski wrote that Stroop’s Treblinka, where the Jewish eyes “sparkled with enthusi- umph of Stroop’s troops over people of the Ghetto had been asm. ‘What a wonderful sight!’ the Jewish Ghetto fighters. sent over the last year to their I called out ‘Heil Hitler!’ and deaths in the gas chambers. According to Moshe Arens, pressed the button. A terrific writing in the Jerusalem Post explosion brought flames right article in 2003, Stroop was up to the clouds. The colors a committed Nazi who went The hero of the Jewish resistance was Mordechai sands are concealing them- Anielewicz, who was a young selves it is not possible to light Jewish political activist. (2) a candle for lack of air. With The organization led by the aid of our radio we heard Anielewicz was called the the marvelous report on our Zydowska Organizacja Bojowa, fighting by the “Shavit” radio known as the ZOB - the Jew- station. The fact that we are ish Combat Organization. Its remembered beyond the ghetto counterpart organization was walls encourages us in our called the Zydowski Zwiazek struggle. Peace go with you, Wojskowy; ZZW – the Jewish my friend! Perhaps we may still Military Union. The ZZW grew meet again! out of the Jewish Revisionist Party (Betar), a more right- He concluded with what has Mordechai Anielewicz become a rallying cry for gen- wing Zionist group. Flickr.com photo Combined, these two erations of future defenders of Last letter to a friend groups had approximately the Jewish people: In his last letter to his friend 750 fighters, poorly armed “The dream of my life has and co-leader of the ZOB, and with minimal support risen to become fact. Self- Yitzhak Cukierman, penned defense in the ghetto will have from the Polish resistance. (3) on April 23, 1943, Anielewicz been a reality. Jewish armed

wrote, resistance and revenge are Mass deportations It is impossible to put into facts. I have been a witness to The Ghetto was sealed off words what we have been the magnificent, heroic fighting on November 16, 1940. Mass through. One thing is clear, of Jewish men in battle. (6) deportations continued from what happened exceeded our July 22 through September boldest dreams. The Germans Last Stand: Mila 18 12, 1942, when more than ran twice from the ghetto. One They made their last stand 300,000 inhabitants of the of our companies held out for at Mila 18, an apartment that Ghetto were killed in the Tre- 40 minutes and another for served as their headquarters blinka concentration camp. more than 6 hours. The mine (which was the inspiration for Only 60,000 Jewish people set in the ‘brushmakers’ area the book, Mila 18, by Jew- then remained in the Ghetto, exploded. (5) Several of our ish author, Leon Uris), and and the Germans reinitiated companies attacked the dis- it was there that Anielewicz deportations on January persing Germans. Our losses and dozens if not hundreds of 18, 1943, when the Jewish in manpower are minimal…I his fellow fighters committed fighters under young Aniele- feel that great things are hap- suicide rather than fall into the wicz’s leadership (4) began pening and what we dared hands of the Nazis – a modern do is of great, enormous their active resistance. They Masada! He died on May 8, importance.... Beginning from were successful in disorient- 1943. This signaled the end today we shall shift over to the ing the Germans and at first of armed resistance by those partisan tactic.” they believed that they had Jews left in the Ghetto. stopped the deportations, but He next emphasized their operational needs: “...What A stone lies at the site of unfortunately, they had not. the bunker adjacent to Mila The Nazis regrouped we need urgently: grenades, rifles, machine-guns and ex- Street and commemorates the and planned to destroy the fallen. The text on the stone is Ghetto within three days. plosives. It is impossible to describe a moving and fitting testimony They were going to begin the conditions under which the to those brave Jewish fighters their renewed efforts on April Jews of the ghetto are now who fought to their deaths: 13th, the beginning of Pass- living. Only a few will be able “Grave of the fighters of the over. However, those plans to hold out. The remainder will built changed: the Jewish resis- die sooner or later. Their fate from the rubble of Mila Street, tance fought valiantly and is decided. In almost all the one of the liveliest streets of held out for a full month. hiding places in which thou- prewar Jewish Warsaw. These ruins of the bunker at 18 Mila to the missionaries and the Street are the place of rest of Jewish believers in in Poland the commanders and fighters and Warsaw especially who of the Jewish combat organiza- endured such terrible suffering tion as well as some civilians. and death. Among them lives Mordecai Martin Parsons, a non-Jewish Anielewicz, the commander-in- ordained missionary to the chief. Jewish people with CMJ, the “On May 8, 1943, surrounded historic British mission to the by the Nazis, after three weeks Jewish people, provides a The Mila 18 Stone grave marker* of struggle, many perished or thumbnail sketch of Jewish took their own lives, refusing achieves that which not all missions in Poland two years to perish at the hands of their masterpieces can achieve. For prior to the Nazi invasion in a enemies. There were several it gives in serious, purpose- paper presented to the meeting hundred bunkers built in the ful, reticent words a record, of the International Missionary ghetto found and destroyed by simple and unostentatious, of Council Christian Approach to the Nazis. They became graves. a common martyrdom, of its the Jews: They could not save those who entire involved course. It is “The American Board of Mis- sought refuge inside them, yet also an authentic document sions (Chosen People Ministries they remain everlasting sym- about perseverance and moral today) has a center in Warsaw bols of the Warsaw Jews’ will to strength kept intact during the on the east of the river. They live. The bunker at Mila Street greatest tragedy in the history have room for some inquirers, was the largest in the Ghetto; it of mankind. (8) in addition to general evan- is the place of rest of over 100 gelistic work. The Mildmay fighters, only some of whom A personal pilgrimage Mission (Messianic Testimony are known by name. Here they This past March I travelled to today) has a hall in the Jewish rest, buried where they fell, to Warsaw with my wife Zhava quarter in Warsaw and their remind us that the whole earth and Vladimir and Inna Pikman, work mainly touches poorer is their grave. who lead Beit Sar Shalom (part Jews. The American Euro- of Chosen People Global Minis- pean Fellowship is in Warsaw Marek Edelman, who wrote tries) in Berlin, Germany. The and works particularly among extensively about the Ghetto Pikmans have family in Poland, children. They have a villa at and the Resistance in the and Zhava is working on her Radoso, which is used in the pamphlet, “The Ghetto Fights,” doctoral dissertation on the Summer for children’s work. (7), co-founded the ZOB with Holocaust and related themes. The Bethel Mission in Lodz has Anielewicz and survived the I completed my Ph.D. disserta- an evangelistic center and a destruction of the Ghetto. He tion more than a dozen years colony. remained in Poland and later ago and wrote on Jewish Mis- In addition, in Poland there is became one of the leaders of sions during the first 50 years one Pentecostal evangelist, one the Solidarity movement. The of the 20th century, focusing member of the Open Brethren, woman who initially published on Continental Europe. Quite a one member of the Closed the document wrote the fol- bit of my research focused on Brethren and a few private lowing about Edelman’s brief the role of Jewish missions and evangelists living by faith. The history: “I am not acquainted Messianic Jews in the Holo- four missions in Warsaw work with the young author of this caust. together in close cooperation. booklet, one of the leaders The shape of this is in the form of the Jewish Uprising. He The Messianic movement of monthly-united prayer meet- brought me a typewritten copy, in Poland ings and monthly evangelistic and I read it all at once, unable It was at that time that I first meetings. to interrupt my reading for a came to learn about the Mes- In Lvov there is active co- single moment.” sianic movement in Poland operation between the Church The text read as follows: and throughout Europe. I was Mission to the Jews (CMJ) and “I am not a writer. This has especially moved by their tes- the Danish Mission (DIM) with no literary value. However, timony in Poland and gradually their joint monthly evangelistic this non-literary narrative developed a heart connection meeting. (9)

There is so much more than can be said about these minis- tries, but for our purposes it is simply important to know that a vibrant Messianic movement and missionary effort amongst the Jewish people existed before the war.

Naturally, I was drawn to ask whether or not there was some type of active presence of Jewish believers in the

Warsaw Ghetto. It seemed to make sense that there would have been a strong pres- ence of Jewish believers in

Ghetto as there were probably more than a dozen Messianic congregations and missions operating in Warsaw alone The author at the Warsaw Ghetto, March 2013 during the years between the two World Wars. I wondered and humble Rachmiel Fryd- book, Jewish Christians in the about what happened to these land who went to be with the Warsaw Ghetto (2005), by a Jewish believers? My as- Lord a number of years ago. devoted Catholic historian, Pe- sumption was that most were His book, Joy Cometh in the ter Dembowski, who taught at forced into the Ghetto and Morning, and other articles and the University of Chicago until died there or were sent to Tre- personal stories I had the privi- he passed away a few years blinka and certain death along lege of hearing were about all I ago. (11) In 2012, I wrote a with their fellow Jews. knew about life in the Warsaw paper that drew in part from But what may have hap- Ghetto for Messianic Jews. Dembowski’s book. That paper, pened in the Ghetto? Did Frydland recounted his in- written for the LCJE North their testimony end with the credible visit in and out of the America conference that year formation of the Ghetto walls Ghetto: ”By God’s enabling, I - which had the Holocaust as or did it continue through- secretly slipped into the ghetto its theme - was titled, “Heroes out these few terrible years. and was able to speak comfort of the Holocaust: Poland, the There is considerable evidence to a few of the Jewish believers Warsaw Ghetto and Yeshua.” that their witness continued. still alive. Other Jewish breth- This can be read in its entirety I have always wanted these ren heard the message and in the online LCJE archives. heroes of the faith to have the believed in Messiah Jesus. My (12) But at the time I wrote opportunity to tell their story friends in the ghetto insisted that paper, I had not yet per- and to hear what happened I leave. They said that if God sonally visited Warsaw. during the sad days of the had preserved me thus far, As stated in my earlier paper, Ghetto. I also want to find I would be a witness to the Dembowski’s work is both some way for the testimonies woes they now experienced. monumental and informative. of these Jewish believers to be At the end of the war, I could It is perhaps the best source of shared with future generations tell the story of their suffer- information in English regard- of Messianic Jews and other ing. I was probably one of the ing Jewish believers in the believers. last to leave the ghetto. It was Warsaw Ghetto, gathering only shorty afterward that the together what limited material Rachmiel Frydland and the Germans obliterated the entire is available. Clearly this was a Warsaw Ghetto Jewish area. (10) labor of love and devotion in At one time, all we really the case of Dembowski, who knew about this time were the Peter Dembowski’s History lived through these terrible stories told by the very godly Later, I also came across the events himself. (13)

The Walls Still Speak: This apartment building façade in one of the few remaining structures of the Warsaw Ghetto memorializes some of the residents who never returned

Another key source for in- cited by Dembowski is by Jew- was left of the Ghetto. This formation about Jewish believ- ish historian Havi Dreyfus Ben- included some of the remain- ers in Jesus in the Ghetto, and Sasson and her article titled, ing walls, the churches where in particular, Catholic Jews, “Christians in the Ghetto,” pub- the Protestant and Catholic may be found in the book lished in Yad Vashem Studies. Jewish believers worshipped titled, The Story of One Life, Ben-Sasson is a staff member and much more! We visited the written by Dr. Ludwik Hirszfeld of the International School for Jewish Heritage Institute where and published in English in Teaching the Holocaust at Yad the full works of Emmanuel 2010. (14) Hirzfeld penned Vashem (16) Ringelblum, the archivist of the this work in 1943-44, having Warsaw Ghetto, are preserved. escaped the Ghetto immedi- Visiting what remains of Ringelblum wrote the Jour- ately before the Nazi Aktion. the Ghetto nal from the Warsaw Ghetto According to Dembowski, the Finally, my dream of visiting (Togbukh fun varsherver geto). most important chapters in Warsaw came true this past This journal and a trove of this book are those that de- year. Thanks to the efforts of source documents were hidden scribe the life of the author as Kazimierz Barczuk (who also from the Nazis in milk cans and a Christian Jew in the Ghetto. works with Chosen People discovered after the war. (18) It is unique as it is a rare Global Ministries) and whose We also visited the site where biographical work by a Jewish testimony can be read on the a tall glass building now stands, Christian. (15) LCJE web site (17), we had a at the place where the Great Another work of interest great guide and toured what Synagogue on Tlomackie street

sent to their deaths in Treblin- is still much to be discovered ka. Standing there demanded about their lives and witness in a holy silence, and you could there. It is comforting to know almost hear the walls telling that one day the full story the story of Jewish suffering of Messianic heroism will be and heroism. known, and I look forward to that day. It is difficult to discover the Until then, it is good to honor silver lining in this dark cloud. and remember the heroes of But, remembering the heroes the Ghetto and to be inspired of the Holocaust, those who by their bravery and courage. fought for their people and those who stood for Yeshua in- Mitch Glaser One of the Ringelblum milk cans side the Ghetto gives me some [email protected] degree of comfort. We might *Photos by the author unless noted other- never know a lot about the used to tower magnificently wise in the text or endnotes over Jewish Warsaw. Jewish believers in the Warsaw We visited Mila 18 and the Ghetto, but I do believe there site of the traditional memorial to the Warsaw Ghetto. While there, we also visited the new Museum of Polish Jewry which opened on April 19, 2013, to commemorate the 70th an- niversary of the Warsaw Ghetto uprising. It is well worth visit- ing. (19) A recent article in the Jewish Week newspaper pro- vides an excellent overview of the museum and the pertinent information needed if you find yourself able to visit what is now one of the most important Jewish sites in Europe. (20) One site in the Ghetto area is an apartment house where the faces of the residents are emblazoned on the brick of the façade and the apartment house is left standing as a memorial to those who never returned home.

The Walls Still Speak One of the most moving experi- ences we had on our brief tour of the Warsaw Ghetto was standing at the few remaining walls of the Ghetto. I can barely describe the emotions I felt, knowing that just 70 years ago, my people were herded like ani- mals inside this red brick cage and the only relief from their horrid imprisonment was to be ENDNOTES

1. Moshe Arens, “The Changing Face of Memory: Who Defended the Warsaw Ghetto?” Jerusalem Post, May 2003 (this essay was written to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto uprising). See http://www.freeman. org/m_online/may03/arens.htm 2. “Anielewicz, Mordechai”. YadVashem.org. http://www.yadvashem.org/odot_pdf/Microsoft%20Word%20-%205739.pdf 3. Formed in the summer of 1942 in response to renewed deportation of Jewish people to Treblinka. See http://www. ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005188 4. Anielewicz was appointed commander of the ZOB in November 1942. 5. This was describing one of the areas where Jewish slave labor had to work on behalf of German industry. 6. M. Anielewicz, Ghetto, April 23, 1943 [M. Kann], ‘Na oczach swiata’ (“In the Eyes of the World”), Zamosc, 1932 [i.e., Warsaw, 1943], pp. 33-34. 7. See http://www.writing.upenn.edu/~afilreis/Holocaust/warsaw-uprising.html. Also see the YouTube video interview at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KkAPtRRk7Ts 8. Zofia Nalkowska, LODZ, November 1945, http://www.writing.upenn.edu/~afilreis/Holocaust/warsaw-uprising.html 9. IMCCAJ Vienna Conference (1937). 10. MessianicAssociation.org, http://www.messianicassociation.org/bio-frydland.htm 11. Peter F. Dembowski, Jewish Christians in the Warsaw Ghetto, An Epitaph for the Unremembered, University of Notre Dame Press, 2005. 12. Mitch Glaser, “Heroes of the Holocaust: Poland, the Warsaw Ghetto and Yeshua.” Paper presented at the 2012 Lau- sanne Consultation on Jewish Evangelism, North America conference held in San Diego, March 5-7, 2012. http://www. lcje.net/Heroes%20of%20the%20Holocaust_Poland_The%20Warsaw%20Ghetto%20and%20Yeshua.pdf 13. As noted in my previous “Heroes of the Holocaust” paper, Dembowski served as Distinguished Service Professor (Emeritus) in the Department of Romance Languages and Literatures at the University of Chicago. Born and raised in Warsaw, Dembowski was involved in the underground activities of the Polish Home Army and participated in the Pol- ish uprising. He was twice a prisoner of the Germans - first at the infamous prison known as Pawiak, where comrades bribed corrupt Gestapo officials to win his freedom, and later at Stalag XB Sandbostel, where he remained until the prison was liberated by the British. Upon liberation, Dembowski joined the Polish Army in the West. He was twice deco- rated with the Polish Cross for Valor and the Silver Cross with Swords. 14. Ludwik Hirszfeld,The Story of One Life, edited and translated by Marta A. Balinska, ed. William Schneider (Rochester, NY: University of Rochester Press, 2010). 15. See http://www.amazon.com/Ludwik-Hirszfeld-Rochester-Studies-Medical/dp/158046338X. 16. Havi Dreyfus Ben-Sasson. 2003. “Christians in the Ghetto: All Saints Church, Birth of the Holy Virgin Church, and the Jews of the Warsaw Ghetto.” Yad Vashem Studies 31: 153-173. See http://www.yadvashem.org/yv/en/about/institute/ studies/issues/. Ben-Sasson’s biography is at: http://en.auschwitz.org/m/index.php?option=com_content&task=view& id=537&Itemid=33. Dembowski also suggests the following additional sources: Marian Malowist, Assimilationists and Neophytes at the Time of War - Operations in the Closed Jewish Quarter - written in Polish and composed shortly before the summer of 1942 by a Jewish believer who later became a professor of history at the University of Warsaw. He translated his essay, and it is included in a collection of documents taken from the Ringleblum Archives. Other sources (primarily in Polish) include: Iwona Stefanczyk, Christian Jews in the Warsaw Ghetto (1997); Ruta Sakowska, The Chris- tians in the Ghetto (1993), pp. 138-140; Marian Fuks, “Christians in the Warsaw Ghetto,” found in From the History of the Great Catastrophe of the Jewish People (1996), pp. 63-67. Dembowski states that Fuks is a descendant of “baptized Jews.” 17. Kazimiercz Barczuk, “My Testimony.” www.lcje.net/KR2010Testimony%20-%20Kazimierz%20Barczuk.pdf 18. See Emmanuel Ringelblum, Notes from the Warsaw Ghetto: The Journal of Emmanuel Ringelblum, edited and trans- lated by Jacob Sloan (New York: IPicturebooks, 2010). See also: The Emanuel Ringleblum Jewish Historical Institute, http://www.jhi.pl/en. The photo shown of one of the milk cans used to store the Ringelblum Archive is found on Wikipe- dia at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Milk_can_used_to_store_documents.JPG 19. “Polish Jewish Museum Opens as Warsaw Ghetto Uprising 70th Anniversary Nears,”The Jewish Daily Forward, April 13, 2013. http://forward.com/articles/174913/polish-jewish-museum-opens-as-warsaw-ghetto-uprisi/ 20. Steve Lipman, “Turning a New Page in Poland’s Jewish History,” April 17, 2013,The Jewish Week, http://www.thejew- ishweek.com/news/international-news/turning-new-page-polands-jewish-history ------Note on Academic Programs of Interest to LCJE Members

Editor’s Note: This is a placeholder for a future page covering some of the key academic programs relevant to Jewish evangelism and the global Messianic movement. This will be a ‘work-in-progress.’ LCJE members and readers of the Bulletin are invited to send information on academic programs or related activities that they think might be considered for possible inclusion in this list. It is hoped that both the Bulletin and the LCJE website can serve as forums for dissemination of information about relevant academic programs. Send information to: [email protected] or to LCJE, P.O. Box 5501, Falmouth, VA 22403 USA.