Surviving Jews in Warsaw are now waging a grim battle on the streets of the Polish capital, together with the Poles, against the German occupation units, it was reported here today by Tomasz Arciszewski, chairman of the executive of the Polish Socialist party who has reached London from occupied Poland and was named by the Polish Government-in-Exile as successor to the Polish President.
Arciszewski estimates that no more than 200,000 Jews have remained alive in Poland. Forty thousand of them, he said, are in concentration camps and 160,000 find protection in hiding places. These figures do not include a number of Jews in Lodz, he stated.
“The mass-murder of Jews by the Germans in Poland is still proceeding,” the Polish leader reported. “Nazi hangmen are still searching for hidden Jews who, when caught, are executed on the spot together with those who hide them. A council to aid Jews has been established by the underground movement in Poland. This council in which members of the Jewish Socialist Party “Bund” are represented, is greatly helping Jews in escaping and in hiding in various localities.”
IMMEDIATE HELP FOR JEWISH AND NON-JEWISH FIGHTERS IS ASKED
Arciszewski gave his report at a conference with the delegation of leaders of the “Bund” party in London. His review of the Jewish situation in occupied Poland – the first to be given by a recognized Polish leader who left Poland only a few weeks ago – lasted for more than an hour. He appealed for immediate help for Jews and non-Jews “who are fighting alike” and emphasized that he just received an appeal for urgent help from those now fighting in the streets of Warsaw.
Fully confirming previous reports of German atrocities against Jews, the Polish leader gave harrowing details of the German annihilation of Jews in all parts of Poland and of the pitiless Gestapo methods of tearing Jewish children away from their parents. Arciszowski himself concealed several Jewish children who were thus saved from Gestapo hands.
The Jewish revolt in the Warsaw ghetto, Arciszowski continued, made a strong impression upon the Polish population. All felt that they should join in the battle of the ghetto and launch immediately an all-polish uprising. “But we could not do it,” the Polish leader reported. “We had no arms. The general situation on the front and inside Poland made it impassible.” He added that the Jewish Socialist Party “Bund” played a decisive part in the battle of the ghetto and was the main force which organized and led the battle.
“Only one of the fighting Jewish detachments in the ghetto, numbering about seventy men, some of whom are members of the ‘Bund,’ managed to escape from the burning ghetto furnace. All others perished,” Arciszowski stated. The underground “Bund” is still continuing its activities, he declared.
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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.
