The three-day observance of the 20th anniversary of the Jewish uprising in the Warsaw Ghetto against the Nazi Army–opened at an impressive ceremony by Prime Minister Josef Cyrankiewicz–concluded here today with most of the delegations from abroad proceeding to the sites of the former Nazi death camps in Auschwitz and Treblinka, where hundreds of thousands of Jews were gassed.
More than 5,000 persons jammed the great hall of the Palace of Culture and Science where the Prime Minister, Mayor Janusz Zarzycki of Warsaw and other top Polish leaders and members of the diplomatic corps participated in honoring the memory of the 50,000 Jews who perished in their hopeless three-week battle in the Warsaw Ghetto against the German armed forces. Attending the opening ceremony were also delegations from various countries representing Jews as well as non-Jews.
Special places were reserved in the audience for visiting Jewish delegations. A 10-man delegation from Israel was led by Israel’s former Attorney General, Gideon Hausner, the official who headed the prosecution in the Adolf Eichmann case. The British delegation consisted of 120 persons, non-Jews and Jews, headed by Sir Barnett Janner, president of the Board of Deputies of British Jews; Michael Cliffe, Labor Party member of the British Parliament; and the Rev. W. W. Simpson, general secretary of the Council of Christians and Jews in England.
The World Jewish Congress was represented by three officials from London, Geneva and Paris. Noted was the fact that there was no delegation from the Soviet Union and that the only Soviet Jewish citizen present was Miss Sonia Frei, a Journalist who is a member of the editorial board of the Yiddish-language publication “Sovetish Heimland” in Moscow.
The ceremonies began by awarding 91 state decorations to heroes of the battle in the ghetto. Included were Jewish survivors and Polish resistance fighters who aided them. Principal speakers at the opening ceremony were Mayor Zarzycki and Hirsh Smoliar, representing the Cultural and Social Association of Jews in Poland. The former spoke in Polish for nearly an hour giving an account of the uprising. Mr. Smoliar spoke in Yiddish. A moving artistic program followed, featuring the famous Yiddish actress, Ida Kaminska, and the choir of the Jewish Cultural and Social Council, which rendered Ghetto songs in Yiddish. The Symphony Orchestra of Krakow rendered Handel’s oratorio, Judas Maccabees.
SERVICES HELD AT GRAVES; 70 FLORAL TRIBUTES LAID AT MARTYRS MONUMENT
On Friday, precisely at the hour when the Jews in the Warsaw Ghetto opened their revolt 20 years ago, moving ceremonies got under way at the Gensza Cemetery, where many Ghetto martyrs now lie buried, as well as a number of Jewish partisans who lost their lives in battle. Two separate services were conducted–one in Yiddish, another in English, both interspersed with Hebrew liturgy.
Addresses were delivered by Rabbi Elias Katz, of Czechoslovakia; and Yitzhak Kallenberg, Mayor of Kiriat Tivon, Israel, a member of the Israeli delegation. Rites were conducted by Rabbi Asher Sibes of Poland and Rabbi A. D. Feffer, of New York. The Rev. Saul Amias, of the British delegation, conducted the English-language service, in which the leaders of the interfaith group from Britain participated.
In the afternoon, highly impressive ceremonies were conducted in front of the Monument to the Martyrs of the Warsaw Ghetto. Here, Polish soldiers had stayed on vigil all through the preceding night and during the entire day. A Polish general solemnly intoned the names of Jews who had died fighting in the Ghetto and in the Resistance movement. Delegations marched solemnly to the Monument, placing wreaths–a total of 70 floral tributes were laid there.
Last night, there was a special, commemorative performance given by the Yiddish State Theatre here. All of the oratory throughout the series of observances–from Thursday night’s events to today’s–emphasized the Jewish heroism in the face of certain defeat and the fact that the world did not come to the aid of the Jewish population being decimated in the Nazi holocaust.
Some of the Polish speakers emphasized the help allegedly given the Jewish fighters by the Polish Resistance. Throughout, however, there was a spirit of great solemnity, there were expressions of vast pride in the heroes of the Warsaw Ghetto who proved to the world that Jews could and did demonstrate a determination to make a powerful enemy pay dearly for their lives.
Two receptions for leading members of the foreign delegations were given here today, one by the Jewish Cultural and Social Association, the other by the Mayor of Warsaw, Many of the visitors, surfeited with the emotions of the last three days, visited the site of the former Treblinka death camp today. Yesterday the visitors attended Sabbath services in Warsaw’s only remaining synagogue.
Mr. Hausner, speaking on behalf of the Israel delegation, today expressed his regret over the failure of officials of the commemorative rites here to invite two surviving participants in the uprising who now live in Israel. He named them as Sylvia Lubetkin and Yitzhak Zuckerman.
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