“We are disconnected and separated from the world…”

November 16th marks the 80th anniversary of the closing of the Warsaw Ghetto. Eighty years is not a long time in historical perspective. From the perspective of an individual, it's a very long time, sometimes a lifetime. What has passed fades from memory, details are lost, dates and facts are confused.

But there are events we must not forget, events we should not forget, even though we did not witness them. Among them is the tragic history of the Jewish community during World War II. Its beginning for Warsaw was the creation of the so-called "Gated Jewish District." Jews were forced to live there—defined not by religion, but by nationality, as defined in the so-called Nuremberg Laws.

In Warsaw, there were approximately 350 people, a figure that rose to 450 after the ghetto's first year. Among them were women, men, and children. Orthodox Jews, a large group of non-religious Jews, and a small community of people practicing other religions. Shopkeepers, artisans, traders, artists, art collectors, scientists, doctors, lawyers, financiers, and bankers. It's impossible to tell the story of each of them, but we can try. This was the attempt of MGW employees: Dr. Martyna Grądzka-Rejak, Dr. Jacek Konik, Dr. Wiesława Młynarczyk, and Dr. Halina Postek, who participated in a seminar for teachers and educators on November 14th, " We Are Excluded and Separated from the World, Exiled from Human Society ," organized on the Zoom platform in cooperation with the Przystanek Historia (History Stop) Educational Center of the Institute of National Remembrance.

Dr. Grądzka-Rejak presented the history of women forced to live in the ghetto and demonstrated how their situation differed from that of their husbands, fathers, sons, and brothers. It was the woman's responsibility to ensure a reasonably normal family life: preparing meals, ensuring cleanliness, and clothing. At the same time, her financial situation compelled her to take up paid work. While religious, she was obligated to fulfill all the requirements placed on women, sometimes downright impossible in the ghetto, such as monthly visits to the mikveh. In extreme situations, she faced the greatest danger. Weaker and less useful, she and her children became the first victims of German decrees. This is borne out by the horrifying statistics showing the ratio of men to women in the ghetto after the so-called Great Liquidation Action. The problems of unwanted pregnancies, forced sexual services, rape, and prostitution—these are topics awaiting reliable research, made all the more difficult by the scarcity of documents that could be helpful in such research.

Dr. Jacek Konik told the stories of Jewish art collectors, forced residents of the Warsaw Ghetto, and their collections, some of which they took with them to the ghetto. Some of the works of art in their possession were discovered only decades after the war, such as Peter de Greber's "Portrait of a Reading Man ," which belonged to the renowned pre-war antiquarian Abe Gutnajer. He, his household, and the doctors in his apartment, Dr. Pollak and Professor Raszeja, who were summoned to a consultation, were shot by the Gestapo during an operation aimed at stealing, among other items, this painting. The Mortkowicz and Sakiel families, also ghetto prisoners, handed over their antique shops and galleries to Polish friends, who donated the profits to the ghetto. Aleksander Enholc, Rafał Scherman, Julisz Klejman, Abe Gutnajer, Andrzej Rotwand, Natan Sakiel – these are just some of the names mentioned by Dr. Konik.

A much longer list of names is presented by Dr. Wiesława Młynarczyk, who discusses cultural life in the Warsaw Ghetto. Actors, singers, musicians, writers, painters, sculptors. Famous and lesser-known. Rooted in Jewish culture or assimilated into Polishness. Their fates were similar: poverty, hunger, work performed below their skill level, but not providing sufficient means for survival. Their lives ended similarly – in Treblinka. Few managed to escape the ghetto and survive the war. These included Władysław Szpilman, Wiera Gran, Jerzy Jurandot, Stefania Grodzieńska, and Diana Blumenfeld. Władysław Szlengel, Marysia Ajzensztadt, Gela Seksztajn, Hersz Danielewicz, Izraele Sztern, Artur Gold, Szymon Pullman, Abraham Ostrzega, and many, many others perished.

The majority of the Christians living in the ghetto – a minority numbering over 2 – also failed. Their situation in the ghetto was best captured by Piotr Matywiecki, who wrote: "to the Jewish community in the ghetto, they were what Jews were to non-Jews in a world of racial prejudice." Dr. Halina Postek presented the story of the ghetto stay of "neophytes," "converts," and "meches." " Alien to this nation. Rejected by the crowd as a Christian, " wrote Professor Ludwik Hirszfeld, a bacteriologist, immunologist, and discoverer of the laws of inheritance and blood types, in " History of One Life ." Professor Hirszfeld was one of 219 people whose names were included on the so-called Ronikier List. Presented to the Germans, it was intended to exempt a group of Jewish Christians from the repression imposed on Jews. Unfortunately, the Germans' promise proved to be a trap, and all the converts listed, who had rendered great service to Poland, found themselves in the ghetto in the winter of 1941, like other Jewish-Christians. Received with suspicion, they were disliked not only because of their renunciation of faith and tradition. They were accused of antipathy toward Jews, and sometimes even anti-Semitism; the privileges they enjoyed in the ghetto were criticized, and the high positions they held in the ghetto administration were envied. Their fate was the same as that of the rest of the Jewish community in the ghetto: the Umschlagplatz and Treblinka. Only a few survived.

53 teachers and educators from all over Poland took part in the seminar, which was rated very highly by the participants.

Dr. Halina Postek

Photo: JHI