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A letter to a leader of the Warsaw Ghetto InsurrectionSunday 11 Aug 2002
author: Shraga Elam ([email protected])
summary
There are many reasons and which require you to consider sending a sharp letter to the aggressor, to the Israeli government and High Command of the military, who bear the main responsibility for the very dangerous situation.
Zurich, 10. August 2002
Dear Mr. Edelman
Thank you for sending me your open letter to the Palestinian military leadership. I appreciate very much your courageous past and present. I know that it really needs a lot of courage and honesty to imply, like you did, certain similarities between your struggle as a partisan against the Nazis and the Palestinian fight against the State of Israel.
With all due respect, I have the feeling, reading the rest of your letter, that you are not completely aware that your comparison, with all the differences between the present and past situation, has a broader validity.
There are many reasons and which require you to consider sending a much sharper letter to the aggressor, to the Israeli government and High Command of the military, who bear the main responsibility for the very dangerous situation. They are doing so, while claiming to represent at that our relatives who were murdered by the Nazis. You know better than me that they are not legitimized to do that, that the Zionist leadership abandoned the European Jewry and sabotaged rescue efforts.
You know, out of your own history, how even the struggle of your anti-Zionistic organization Der Bund (my grandmother was also a member) against the Nazis was �colonized� by the Zionist movement.
Surely you know that the Palestinian military leaders wrote a letter, that was to be published on July 30, In this letter they pleaded to stop the killed. This serious initiative was sabotaged by the Israeli generals who answered by bombing Gaza and declared openly (e.g. in the daily Ha�aretz) that they are not interested even in a cease fire.
Studying the Israeli strategy, one cannot avoid the conclusion that the Israeli high command is pushing constantly towards an ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians. Through the suicide bombings and other violent actions the Palestinians just supply the Israeli generals and other right radicals the necessary pretext to escalate further towards the desired goal of a bloody mass deportation of the whole Palestinian population.
This criminal intention gets constantly a growing support inside Israel and also from the Bush administration. Following closely the public discussion in Israel one cannot avoid the conclusion that ideologies which are closely affiliated with the German National-Socialism prevails strongly in this country. There prevails a situation which reminds strongly, even though not completely, the circumstances in Nazi Germany of the 1930s. Please be not be distracted by the democratic traits of Israel. These features deteriorate rapidly and from the victims� optic it does not matter if they are murdered by a democracy or dictatorship.
It is our obligations as Jews to protest sharply against this dangerous and disgusting development.
In the name of the victims of the Nazi-Judeocide we have to protest against the very concrete Israeli intentions to deport the Palestinians.
I�d like to remind you that the Nazis escalated continuously the policy against the Jews. Till 1938 they tried to achieve �only� the �voluntary� Jewish emigration (please note the very different in alarmingly too many points from the present Israeli policy). We don�t have to await for a further disastrous escalation.
There is no questions that immoral Palestinian strategies should be criticized. Their role as victims doesn�t justify committing atrocities and the Palestinian leaders, should not be freed from responsibility for crimes. I agree with you that the Palestinians should not supply Israel the necessary pretext. Without giving up their struggle against annihilation, for freedom and for just peace they should develop effective non-violent activities.
It is our duty to help, support and take part in such activities. I believe that our role at that is at least to protest against the Israeli abuse of the Nazi-Judeocide for getting support for its criminal activities.
By your comparison of your heroic struggle against the Nazis with that of the Palestinians against the occupying forces, you touched a real sensitive Israeli point. I hope that you�re ready to continue along this line and join the efforts of a small group of Palestinians, Jews and other human rights and peace activists, who protest against the Nazi tendencies in the Israeli policy while using the heavy loaded symbols of yellow stars of David and/or wearing concentration camp clothes (see my enclosed piece from March).
I believe that such an action with your participation and that of your comrades might be a very important and meaningful support for the efforts to reach peace, especially in this very dangerous moment.
With solidarity
yours
Shraga Elam
http://www.redress.btinternet.co.uk/selam2.htm
http://www.friedenjetzt.ch/ShragaElam/yellowstar.html
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OD: MAREK EDELMAN* NR FAKSU: 09 SIE. 2002 16:12
To all the leaders of Palestinian military, paramilitary and guerilla organizations
To all the soldiers of Palestinian militant groups:
My name is Marek Edelman, I am a former Deputy Commander of the Jewish Military organization in Poland, one of the leaders of the Warsaw Ghetto Insurrection, In the memorable year of the insurrection - 1943 - we were fighting for the survival of the Jewish community in Warsaw. We were fighting for mere life, not for territory, nor for a national identity. We were fighting with a hopeless determination, but our weapons were never directed against the defenseless civilian populations, we never killed. women and children, In a world devoid of principles and values, despite a constant danger of death, we did remain faithful to these values and moral principles.
We were isolated in our fight, and yet the powerful opposing army was not able to destroy these barely armed boys and girls .
Our fight in Warsaw lasted several weeks, later we fought in the Underground and in the Warsaw insurrection of 1944.
Yet nowhere in the world can a guerilla force bring conclusive victory, nowhere can it be defeated by weapon-full armies, Neither can your war attain any resolution. Blood will be spilled in vain and lives will be lost on both sides.
We have never been careless with life. We have never sent our soldiers to certain death. Life is one for eternity. Nobody has the right to mindlessly take it away. It is high time for everybody to understand just that.
Just look around you, Look at Ireland. After 50 years of bloody war, peace has arrived. Formerly deadly enemies have set down at a common table. Look at Poland at Wales and Kuron, Without a shot being fired, the criminal communist system has been defeated. Both You and the State of Israel have to radically change your attitude. You have to want peace in order to save the lives of hundreds and perhaps thousands of people, and to create a better future for your loved ones, for your children. I know from my own experience that the current unfolding of events depends on you, the Military Leaders. The Influence of political and civilian actors is much smaller. Some of you studied at the university in my town ��d�- some of you know me. You are wise and intelligent enough to understand that without peace there is no future for Palestine, and that peace can be attained only at the cost of both sides agreeing to some concessions.
*The New York Review of Books
November 20, 1986
Review
The Survivor's Voice
By Norman Davies
Shielding the Flame: An Intimate Conversation with Dr. Marek Edelman, the
Last Surviving Leader of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising
by Hanna Krall, translated by Joanna Stasinska, by Lawrence Weschler
Holt, 124 pp., $13.95
Marek Edelman is one of several key witnesses who do not appear in Claude
Lanzmann's film Shoah, though he saw much more than most. In 1942 he had
stood every day by the gate of the Umschlagplatz in Warsaw and watched
400,000 people walk by to their deaths. He still works as a heart surgeon
in Lodz. Lanzmann interviewed him; but chose not to use what he said.
Among other things, Edelman wonders whether the fighting in the Warsaw
ghetto in 1943 can really be called an uprising. He describes Zionism and
the state of Israel as a "historic failure"; and he calls the Poles,
among whom he has lived all his life, "a tolerant people." Indeed, as a
heart surgeon he has devoted his career to saving Polish lives. "One is
supposed to speak with hatred and pathos," he says at one point. But he
cannot.
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Ha'aretz 9.8.2002
Warsaw Ghetto leader's letter to `Palestinian partisans' raises a storm among uprising survivors and Zionists
Many internationally renowned figures have asked the Palestinians to end violence and terrorism, but a letter from the deputy commander of the Warsaw Ghetto uprising is causing a particular fuss.
Dr. Marek Edelman, the last of the uprising leaders still living, wrote an "open letter" to Palestinians this week, asking them to stop the bloodshed and enter into peace negotiations. But the letter has prompted a dispute among the remaining survivors of the uprising and their families, since in his letter Edelman does not mention the word "terrorism."
Moreover, the letter is filled with hints of comparisons between the Palestinians' fight and that of the ghetto residents. He addresses "the commanders of the Palestinians armed organizations and the partisan organizations, and the soldiers of the armed Palestinian organizations."
Edelman, who still lives in Poland, sent his letter via his old friend, Simha Rotem - known as "Kazik," a well-known fighter in the uprising. Edelman starts his letter with an overview of the uprising against the Nazis, hinting at the difference between the Jews' struggle, and that of the Palestinians.
"In 1943, we fought for the life of Jewish society in Warsaw. We fought solely for life, not for territory and not for national identity ... our weapons were never aimed at a defenseless civilian population. We did not kill women and children."
He goes on to say that, "to this day, a partisan struggle in cities has never succeeded anywhere in the world, but the armies we fought against also never won. This war also will not lead to any solution. Once again, blood will be spilled needlessly and people on both sides will lose their lives."
Edelman further "rebukes" the Palestinians by comparing their deeds to those of the Jewish fighters by saying, "we never gambled with our lives. We never sent our soldiers to a certain death; after all, you only live once. A man must not take another's life. It is time for everyone to understand that."
He advises the Palestinians to learn from the Irish, where "ardent enemies sat round the same table," and from the fall of the Communist regime in Poland, "which was brought down without a single shot."
Edelman then addresses both sides: "You and the state of Israel must alter your approach ... You must want peace in order to save the lives of hundreds if not thousands of people to create a better future for your relatives and children." He explains that his decision to write to "the commanders of the armed organizations" comes from his experience which has found that they have the biggest influence, compared to that of civil and political elements.
Edelman says that a possible mediator does not have to be "a politician. A man with an unshakeable moral authority, who puts living in peace and honorably above all political goals, is preferable."
In this, Edelman is perhaps hinting at a hidden desire to be called upon as such a mediator, an idea that his friend Rotem does not reject altogether. "I don't think he would refuse to being a mediator, and as a non-Zionist Jew, he also has the right talents," says Rotem.
Edelman, a caridologist by profession, is now in his eighties. He was a member of the Bund, the Marxist-Jewish party that opposed Zionism, and represented the movement within the Jewish Fighting Organization (ZOB) when he joined it in 1942.
He viewed Poland as his homeland and remained there after the war and after Israel's independence. Edelman maintained contact with his fellow resistance leaders who moved to Israel, though there was always an ideological clash.
Edelman told Ha'aretz his use of the word "partisan" was not meant to draw comparisons between the Palestinians and the ghetto fighters, nor to put a positive light on their activities. "The word `partisan' denotes all war by citizens, and is not necessarily an expression of honor," he said.
Despite his views, Edelman has visited Israel on numerous occasions, especially after the collapse of the Polish Communist regime, the latest visit being just a few months ago.
Pnina Frymer-Greenspan, who fought under Edelman's command in the uprising, criticized the comparisons drawn between the Jewish fighters and the Palestinian terrorists. "There is no need for such a comparison," she said, "it pains me. I also think its very problematic that he does not call them `terrorists.'" She does however back his call for negotiations.
Prof. Israel Gutman, one of Israel's foremost historians on the Holocaust and himself a participant in the uprising, was far more critical. "Edelman has been filled with hate for Israel for years," he said. "At the time, he claimed that [former prime ministers Menachem] Begin and [Yitzhak] Shamir has massacred Arabs and that [David] Ben-Gurion was `a little Jew from a poor town' unworthy of being considered a statesman."
Gutman links Edelman's sentiments to his days with the Bund which he says was "so hostile to Zionism and stood out with their provocations against anything Jewish - opening soup kitchens even on Yom Kippur."
Rotem said Edelman met Palestinian representatives at his Lodz home yesterday. "The Palestinians telephoned Ramallah from his home and the response was, `we'll see soon.' He hopes this means they will agree to a meeting soon, and assumes that the Israelis will not refuse such a meeting," said Rotem.
By Yair Sheleg
http://www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=195737