Comments (0)Polish Hero
October 16, 2009Dr. Marek Edelman, hero of the Warsaw ghetto.
The recent passing of one of the heroes of the Warsaw Ghetto Dr. Marek Edelman should remind us of his unprecedented act of heroism. It started on April 19, 1943 when out of several hundred thousand Jews in the Warsaw ghetto, only 56 thousand remained, the rest having been shipped to death camps. It was the most heroic and self-sacrificing acts of bravery, when the SS troops prepared for a cakewalk when given the order to totally liquidate the ghetto including all the inhabitants in it.
It was Marek Edelman, a well known cardiologist, and Mordechai Anielewicz, when they decided not to be subjugated to be tortured by the Nazis when captured. With a minimum of arms, some pistols, and Molotov cocktails, they confronted oncoming SS troops and started shooting at them. This act of defiance lasted over a week. The Nazis then thought of a prolonged battle, brought in under the command of SS General Jurgen Stroop, a battalion of SS troops with heavy artillery and tanks, destroying the remnants of the Warsaw ghetto.
After the war Dr. Edelman was awarded the highest civilian award by the Polish government. Even so he was very skeptical of the good will of the Poles, having experienced their ugly anti-Semitism before, during, and after the war.
The loss of Marek Edelman should be memorialized no less than the heroism of Bar-Kochba mentioned in American synagogues during any holidays. Is there a guilt complex somewhere for doing nothing in America between 1933 and 1945?
Joseph Kryszpel
Baltimore