Menachem Linder (1911-1942)

He was born in 1911 in Sniatyn, in eastern Galicia (now Ukraine). He graduated from a Jewish religious primary school and then a Polish high school. As a teenager, he and his siblings were members of the Zionist and leftist organization HaShomer HaTzair. His brother and sister emigrated to Palestine in the late 1920s. There, Oka's sister was one of the founders of the Mishmar HaEmek kibbutz in Israel. Menachem likely would have also emigrated to Palestine if not for his love of the Yiddish language and culture. He studied at the Jan Kazimierz University in Lviv, where he earned a master's degree in law. Due to legal restrictions imposed on Jews in practicing law, he did not become a lawyer but pursued further studies. In 1935, Linder won a competition for a monograph on Jewish towns organized by the aid organization Tsekabe, which made him recognized in the academic world. That same year, he became a doctoral candidate at the YIVO Jewish Research Institute in Vilnius, where he focused on economics. There, he married Sara, a Vilnius native and graduate of secular Jewish schools. Two years later, they moved to Warsaw, after Menachem was offered the position of secretary of the Warsaw YIVO Friends Association. He soon became a researcher in the economics and statistics department, under the supervision of economist Jakub Leszczyński. He was also co-editor-in-chief of the journal " Jidishe Ekonomik " (Jewish Economics). In the 1930s, he published research papers for YIVO publishing houses on social economics, demography, and economic relations among the Jewish population in Poland. He conducted, among other important studies, the role of Jews in the textile industry in Łódź.

Writer Chawa Slucka-Kestin remembers Linder as follows:

"I first met him during my aspirantship in Vilnius. He immediately approached the aspirants and me to get to know us during our second session. It was a cloudy winter day, but with Linder's arrival, joy and life entered. Thanks to his incredible simplicity and friendship, he immediately became a familiar face. At home, he was called Majni. In the world of schoolchildren and students, he was Maks, and in the YIVO circles, Menachem. (...) When I met him on Leszno Street, with his delicate, noble wife, a few days before my departure from Warsaw in October 1939, and proposed we go together, he refused, thinking he had to look after the (YIVO) branch and wanted to stay because of his social mission."

In the ghetto, Linder headed the registration department of the Jewish Social Self-Help (ŻSS) , with his office located at 3/5 Tłomackie Street. As part of his work for the ŻSS, he prepared statistical reports on the ghetto's inhabitants, their health, food, employment, as well as on the refugees and displaced persons arriving in the ghetto. As Emanuel Ringelblum wrote: "As a conscious socialist, he harnessed science to the work of everyday social assistance." Of particular interest is his research on the increased mortality rate among the Jewish population, a consequence of the German policy of systematic starvation and destruction of the Jewish nation. Together with Jerzy Winkler, he worked on economic issues as part of the "Two and a Half Years of War" project, the aim of which was to provide a comprehensive account of the lives of Jews in German-occupied Poland. He was a regular contributor to the Oneg Shabbat team documenting the lives of ghetto residents; some of his work for the ŻSS became part of the Ringelblum Archive.

Menachem Linder | Ghetto Fighters' House

Politically, Linder moved to the left of Hashomer Hatzair during his university studies after concluding that the Yiddish language was crucial to ensuring the survival of the Jewish nation. His circle consisted primarily of Bundists and sympathizers of the Poale Left, or Yiddishists . In December 1940, Linder founded the Commission for the Promotion of Yiddish in Jewish Public Life and subsequently co-founded the underground cultural society JIKOR. The organization's goal was to promote Yiddish culture and language and to curb assimilation (Polonization) among the Jewish intelligentsia. JIKOR was very active in organizing lectures on Jewish culture and history, concerts, dance evenings, and theater performances. Literary evenings commemorated important events in the history of Jewish literature, paying tribute to such classics as Mendele Moycher Sforim and Sholem Aleichem ; They also popularized contemporary Yiddish poetry and prose. JIKOR also established a network of Yiddish-language primary schools and a library of Jewish literature. Meetings were organized through House Committees in tenement courtyards, in ŻSS premises, and at the organization's headquarters at Tłomackie 5 (today's Jewish Historical Institute). Admission to the events was charged, and the proceeds were donated to help those most in need in the ghetto. The organization also fought to strengthen the position of the Yiddish language in public life. It appealed to Adam Czerniaków and the Jewish Community, demanding that Yiddish become the mandatory language of the Judenrat (Jewish Council).

Menachem Linder was the heart and soul, a dedicated promoter of JIKOR. Events organized by the organization enjoyed growing popularity. An underground press and cultural life flourished in the ghetto, and for a time, it seemed that the Germans were uninterested in the political and cultural activities of Jews. The night of April 17–18 , during which Linder died, shattered this illusion. The Germans murdered 52 people: social activists, printers, members of the intelligentsia, and members of the underground. These events were called "Bloody Friday." This first collective act of terror was a prelude to the Great Liquidation of the Warsaw Ghetto, which took place three months later, in July 1942.

Ringelblum wrote:

"Gestapo agents went from house to house in the evening with a list in hand, pulled out their victims, and shot them one by one. Around eleven-thirty at night, they came to Linder, asked about his research, behaved politely and in a gentlemanly manner, finally took him with them in their car and drove him to Mylna Street. Other Gestapo agents were already there, who ordered Linder to go ahead, lit the spotlight from behind, and put a bullet in his head. (...) His hot, young blood washed over the cold cobblestones."

After Linder's death, his terrified wife burned the diary he had kept for many years.

Ringelblum recalls that several hundred of Linder's friends gathered in the courtyard of the tenement house at 52 Leszno Street to pay their respects to the young Menachem. Several dozen people then managed to escape the ghetto and go to the Jewish cemetery to bury the young scientist. Menachem Linder's grave is located in the Jewish cemetery in Warsaw.

Bibliography:

• AZIH, Slucka-Kestin Report, 301-2581
• Rachela Auerbach, Warsaw Testament, Dalton MA 2024
• Icchak Cukierman, Excess of Memory, Warsaw 2023
• Ringelblum Archive, volume 11 "Oneg Shabbat", Warsaw 2013
• Ringelblum Archive, volume 1 "Letters about the Holocaust", Warsaw 1997
• Ringelblum Archive, volume 29, "Writings of Emanuel Ringelblum", 2020
• Miszmar Haemek: https://tiny.pl/6x2bt06c
• Lexikon Fun Der Nayer Yidisher Literatur: https://congressforjewishculture.org/people/3416/Linder-Menakhem-Menachem-July-8-1911-April-18-1942