Thousands of Warsaw Jews who participated in the heroic battle of the Warsaw Ghetto, which started a year ago this week, are still alive in Warsaw and are being sheltered there by Polish friends, according to a Polish lieutenant who escaped from occupied Poland two weeks ago. Addressing a press conference here today, the lieutenant, who has assumed the name of Jerzy Jur, said that he had met seven of his Jewish classmates in Warsaw shortly before he made his escape.
“Many Jewish men and women,” he said, are hiding in the woods. They are being aided even by Poles who were anti-Semitic before the outbreak of the war. A large number of Jews are in the guerilla units. Stories are circulating in Warsaw that armed Jewish groups are still hiding in cellars within the ghetto, necessitating continuous German guard around the ghetto walls.”
Describing the battle of the ghetto, the Polish officer said that the feeling among the population in Warsaw during the heroic Jewish resistance against superior German forces was one of “helpless anger” because they were unable to join the Jews and start a general revolt against the Germans in the city. The Blue-White flag, as well as the Socialist red flag and Polish banners waved over the ghetto buildings all during the battle, he stated.
“Of the 40,000 Jews who were in the ghetto when the armed revolt against the Germans started, about 8,000 were organized in active combat units,” Lieut. Jur said, “The remainder assisted the combatants while others joined them later. Women fought together with men; girls operated machine-guns. All Jews in the ghetto, irrespective of their former party affiliations, fought under a unified command. The German troops were ashamed and bewildered because they were forced to conduct a full-scale battle against those whom they had treated as inferiors.”
The Polish officer said that he met with members of the command of the Jewish underground movement who estimated that there are still about 500,000 Jews in Poland today. He added, however, that it is impossible to make an exact estimate of the number of Jews who remain.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
