A communication crediting the “heroic fight” of “Jewish insurgents” for temporarily halting the Nazi extermination campaign through the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising was sent to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency bureau here today by Andrezej Konopacki, First Secretary of the Embassy of Poland. The letter offered the JTA four articles by “distinguished Polish historians” for publication in connection with the 25th anniversary of the Ghetto Uprising. It revealed that the Polish Communist authorities, despite the current anti-Jewish campaign, have decided to celebrate the uprising publicly, although the letter made no mention of current developments in Poland affecting the Jews.
Mr. Konopacki said the Jewish revolt on April 19, 1943 was “the first time, in the eleventh year of the Nazi rule in Europe, when the criminal realization of the thesis of final solution of the Jewish question was suddenly stopped. For a month, the Jewish insurgents fought their heroic fight on the barricades of the Ghetto.” (This statement was in contrast to recent allegations in Warsaw that sought to minimize and debunk the Jewish resistance.)
The Embassy First Secretary said “the 25th anniversary of the uprising is being celebrated all over the world as the struggle that appealed to all the world.” He revealed that the anniversary would be observed this month in Warsaw. “On the eve of the anniversary, celebrations will begin in Warsaw the city which was the eye-witness of the heroism of the insurgents,” said Mr. Konopacki. The four articles were:
“The Uprising in the Warsaw Ghetto” by Wladyslaw Bartoszewski – an account of the Jewish combat organization and heroism that appeared basically factual.
“Passiveness vs. Armed Resistance for Self-Preservation” by Wojciech Sulewski – a pseudo-scholarly exaggeration of “the psychosis of non-resistance” and collaboration that minimized Jewish resistance but did give credit to the Hashomer Hatzair.
“Establishing the Ghetto in Warsaw” by Leszek Moczuski – condemned ” Jewish traitors who were dependable tools of Hitier’s policy of extermination, credited Polish non-Jews with “great sacrifices” to aid the Jews of the Ghetto, attacked American Jewish and Zionist groups for failing their Polish co-religionists. This was the most biased and distorted of the four articles.
“Commemorating the 25th Anniversary of the Ghetto Uprising” by Andrzj Szezypiorski – a philosophical essay that emphasized the enormity of German barbarism. It paid tribute to “my Jewish and Polish brothers who lost their lives in the fight against Hitlerism” and stressed the guilt of Germans. The writer portrayed Jews in a sympathetic light.
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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.
