Marek Edelman RIP
The Anthem of the Jewish Partisans: Zog Nit Keyn Mol
The news has just come through that Marek Edelman, leader of the Warsaw ghetto uprising has passed away. Edelman cut his political teeth as a leader of the Jewish Workers Bund – a mass Jewish Marxist organisation – in prewar Poland – fighting against an authoritarian and anti-Semitic regime. In the Warsaw Ghetto he, along with others, lead the heroic last ditch uprising against the Nazis attempts to exterminate its inhabitants. By this point the ghettos population had been reduced to a fraction of what it had been – by death, starvation and deportation. The Nazis planned to liquidate the ghetto in 6 days. Yet a thousand Jewish fighters armed with pistols and home made weapons held out for nearly a month.
There is far more to be said than I can say right now, and I’m sure in days to come there will be a proper obituary to Edelman on The Third Estate. But for now, let us pay tribute to this brave partisan and comrade.
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Reader Comments
I had the good fortune to hear Marek Edelman and briefly meet him in 1997 at a conference in Warsaw marking the 100th anniversary of the Birth of the Bund. He remained very proud of and close to its political principles – much to the chagrin of Israeli political leaders and pro-Zionist commentators.
They were angered that such a prominent figure in the Warsaw Ghetto resistance chose to continue to live in Poland after the war ( a place they regarded simply as a Jewish graveyard) and had the chutzpah not to take his political lead from less heroic Zionist spokespersons and cheerleaders.
According to Edelman “to be a Jew always means always being with the oppressed and never the oppressors”. He was angered by the attempt by Israel to appropriate the Holocaust and use it to justify its political actions, and he also opposed Israel’s continued occupation of Palestinian territory. He met with Palestinian political figures and expressed support for their struggle against occupation while at the same time urging them to firmly reject terroristic methods of advancing their struggle.
He remained sceptical of nationalism in general and of excessive state power. He had been an open critic of the Stalinist regime in Poland and in the ’80s was supportive of the Workers Opposition movement.
In 1983 – on the 40th anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto uprising, he snubbed the official commemoration in Poland attended by Stalinist dignitaries from Poland and Zionist dignitaries from Israel, in favour of an alternative ceremony.
He remained a consistent fighter for humanism, democracy and egalitarianism.
David, you seem to have met every famous lefty in history!
Memorial to Warsaw Ghetto Uprising:
http://www.columbia.edu/acis/textarchive/cjas/11/14.html