Eliezer Lipa Bloch (1899-1944)

Eliezer (Lejzor) Lipa (Lipe) Bloch was born in 1889 in Uman (present-day Ukraine), into a wealthy Hasidic family of industrialists. His grandfather, Zalman Hornsztajn, was a renowned scholar and philanthropist. Lipa attended a state elementary school and a cheder (Jewish religious school). After school, he studied Hebrew at home and became fluent in the language at a young age. He actively participated in the youth activities of the The General Zionists Organization.

In 1910, he married Hadassah Chaya Blank from Lublin, who also came from a Hasidic family. After their wedding, the couple settled in Lublin, where they had two children: Moshe (b. 1912) and Esther (b. 1920).

In Lublin, Bloch became involved in the work of the Jewish National Fund, an organization dedicated to raising funds for the purchase of land in Palestine. He worked for this organization in cities including Łódź and Vilnius. In 1926, he became the head of the Central Office of the National Fund in Warsaw and moved there with his family.

Ghetto Fighters’ House

He was a member of the leadership of the General Zionists in Poland and served as the party’s delegate to important Zionist congresses in Europe. He was also part of the central leadership of the Tarbut organization, which operated numerous Jewish schools. Notably, classes in these schools were taught in both Polish and Hebrew. Kopel Piżyc wrote of him:

“A man of deep intellect and a dove’s heart, he enjoyed great popularity and sympathy in Zionist circles. An excellent Hebraist and gifted speaker, he significantly contributed to popularizing the Tarbut organization in Poland.”

In 1933, Lipa’s son Moshe emigrated to Palestine and settled in Haifa. The family maintained close contact with him; Lipa and Hadassah visited him in 1937. The Ghetto Fighters’ House archive in Israel preserves their correspondence with their son. From the letters, Eliezer Lipa emerges as a deeply committed Zionist involved in building the Jewish state, while at the same time retaining a strong emotional connection to Poland—its landscapes, culture, and Jewish life.

In 1940, Lipa and Hadassah obtained documents allowing them to emigrate to Palestine, but they chose to remain in Warsaw to continue their social work for the Jewish community, which was facing increasingly brutal Nazi repression.

During the German occupation, Lipa, Hadassah, and Esther found themselves inside the ghetto, as their apartment was located at 19/20 Leszno Street, near Emanuel Ringelblum’s residence at 18 Leszno Street.

In the ghetto, Bloch continued to use his organizational and leadership skills, actively engaging in the work of the Jewish Social Self-Help (ŻSS). He served as the head of the Clothing Collection Department, collaborated with Ringelblum on the Relief Commission, and later also headed the Fundraising Department of the Jewish Social Welfare Society (ŻTOS). He was responsible for organizing clothing and fundraising drives to support public kitchens, shelters for the homeless, and children’s homes. He sought to involve former Tarbut activists in sponsoring soup kitchens for starving children.

As part of the Tkuma organization, which united enthusiasts of Hebrew culture, he co-organized a series of seminars, academic events, and lectures.

He participated in the founding meeting of the Oneg Shabbat group. Alongside Emanuel Ringelblum and Menachem Linder, he was part of the three-person editorial board working on the research project Two and a Half Years of War, in which he focused on topics related to social welfare.

He also collaborated with the underground youth movement HeChalutz, giving lectures at the first secret seminar in the ghetto, which aimed to educate future educators and underground activists.

After the start of the so-called Great Deportation Action in the Warsaw Ghetto (July 22, 1942), Bloch was one of the few older activists in the ghetto who recognized the necessity of armed resistance initiated by young underground leaders. Antek Cukierman, co-founder of the Jewish Combat Organization (ŻOB), recalled:

“I remember Bloch asking for a meeting with us and asking, ‘What should we do?’”

In September 1942, Lipa suffered a personal tragedy. His 22-year-old daughter Esther was caught and shot during a document inspection on a train while traveling with a group of chalutzim to the Dror kibbutz in Werbkowice. Following in her father’s footsteps, Esther had been active in the Dror (Hebrew: Freedom) youth organization as an instructor running collectives. Shortly afterward, the kibbutz in Werbkowice was liquidated, and most of the chalutzim there were murdered.

In the autumn of 1942, after the end of the deportations from the Warsaw Ghetto, Lipa resumed his social and underground activities. Together with a group of activists who had avoided deportation to the Treblinka death camp, he co-organized fundraising efforts for those in need. Initially, these efforts were limited to the Hallman workshop, where he still worked, but later expanded to other workshops under the Central Commission for the Support of Labor in the Workshops. From autumn 1942, he became a member of the Jewish Coordinating Commission (ŻKK)—a body uniting Jewish underground organizations and directing the actions of the Jewish Combat Organization. He was actively involved in fundraising for ŻOB.

During the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising in 1943, Lipa hid in a bunker at 54 Leszno Street. While attempting to escape to the so-called “Aryan side,” he was caught by the Gestapo and imprisoned in the forced labor camp in Budzyń. He remained in contact with the underground. Ringelblum offered to help him escape, but Bloch refused—out of solidarity with a group of fellow prisoners, former activists from the Warsaw Ghetto. He did not want to abandon his companions and feared that his escape would lead to the execution of the remaining group members.

In July 1944, he was transferred to the Plaszow concentration camp, and then deported to Mauthausen concentration camp. He was killed shortly before the camp was liberated. His wife Hadassah was murdered in the Buchenwald concentration camp.

Bibliography:

• Archiwum Ringelbluma, t. 11: Ludzie i prace „Oneg Szabat”, Warszawa 2013.
• Archiwum Ringelbluma, t. 27: Żydowska Samopomoc Społeczna w Warszawie (1939-1943), Warszawa 2017.
• Archiwum Ringelbluma, t. 29a: Pisma Emanuela Ringelbluma z bunkra, Warszawa 2018
• Archiwum Ringelbluma, t. 34: Getto warszawskie II, Warszawa 2016.
• Cukierman I., Nadmiar Pamięci, Warszawa 2020.
• Engelking B. i Leociak J., Getto warszawskie. Przewodnik po nieistniejącym mieście, Warszawa 2013.
• Kaplan Ch., Scroll of Agony, Bloomington 1999.
• Lubetkin C., Zagłada i Powstanie, Warszawa 1999.
• Piżyc K i M., Po Wojnie, z Pomocą Bożą, już Niebawem, Warszawa 2017.
• Archiwum Ghetto Fighters House w Izraelu: https://infocenters.co.il/ Numer rejestru 42041רמ
• From Warsaw and Lublin to Haifa The Letters of Hadassah and Eliezer Lipa Bloch:
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x5VcOSsjuWM