Faith Over Reason

By Steve Rodan

On Rosh Hashanah it is inscribed, and on Yom Kippur it is sealed – how many shall pass away and how many shall be born, who shall live and who shall die, who in good time, and who by an untimely death, who by water and who by fire, who by sword and who by wild beast, who by famine and who by thirst, who by earthquake. [Jewish New Year liturgy]

Everybody knew they were coming, yet few had any idea what to do.

On Sept. 1, 1939, the German Army invaded Poland with hundreds of thousands of soldiers, thousands of main battle tanks and aircraft. The Germans moved swiftly east until Warsaw. The Polish government and most of the military command fled.

Twelve days after the invasion, on Sept. 13, marked the Jewish New Year, or Rosh Hashanah. Nearly 400,000 of the 3.3 million Jews lived in the besieged Polish capital, and they were the priority for the German military. The Jews joined gentiles in erecting barricades and digging trenches. The Wehrmacht stalled and Warsaw was under siege.

The German military, however, held precise maps of the city. As the number of Polish military assets were destroyed or abandoned, the Jews became the number one target. The first civilian building struck in the German campaign was a Jewish hospital.

"The bombers flew low," recalled Aleksandra Pilsudski, the widow of Poland's war hero, Marshall Josef Pilsudski. "And it could not have been an error." [1]

The Luftwaffe bombed the Jewish quarter in northern Warsaw, leveling homes and sparking huge fires. Most of the Jews who bore the brunt of the attacks were women, children and the elderly. Everybody else had been drafted and sent to the rapidly disappearing western front.

The peak

The German air campaign reached its peak on Rosh Hashanah. Some 230 aircraft, many of them dive bombers, were ordered to destroy the Jewish community, particularly the synagogues. On the way to Warsaw, the Germans had torched virtually every synagogue they came across. On one of the German military trains to Poland was written, "We are coming to Poland to deal with the Jews."

Witnesses later recalled the incessant bombing of the Jewish quarter. There was no protection for the civilians. The huge bombs dropped by the Luftwaffe tore through buildings down to the basements.

"Yesterday, between the hours of 5 and 7 [p.m.], before the onset of the Rosh Hashanah holiday 5700, there was an air strike on the Northern Quarter, the great majority of the residents Jews. " [2]

What the Luftwaffe couldn't manage was assigned to the Wehrmacht. The German Army deployed thousands of artillery guns to shell Warsaw. The bombs penetrated homes, severing electricity and gas lines.

Expulsion

As the bodies piled up, the Polish military disintegrated. The early and unprecedented camaraderie between gentile and Jew ended. Military officers expelled Jewish soldiers from combat units, took away their weapons and assigned them to build trenches. Polish commissars kicked Jews out of food lines and ordinary gentiles refused to let Jews into bomb shelter. [3]

Throughout, the Jews did not forget to pray. Tens of thousands crammed into makeshift synagogues even as the bombs fell on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. Any standing building or shelter was used for the High Holy Days. The Jews formed quorums for prayer along the war front. The elderly and the children, dressed in traditional caftans and hats, were given permission to stop digging trenches and pray. The youngsters were part of the "Children's Battalion, 30 percent of whom were comprised of Jews.

Even while digging, many of the Jews said the Vidui, or confessional prayer before death. When the bombs fell on their positions, they cried the Shma -- "Hear O Israel, the Lord is our G-d. The Lord is one."

They were quite reconciled to death after the days of Nazi siege with insufficient food and sleepless nights. [4]

Not concerned with danger

The worshippers left behind those who had stopped observing Judaism and were now huddling in the cellars of Warsaw. Apolinari Hartglass had left the faith of his family. He acquired a secular Polish education, and in 1939 was one of the heads of the Zionist movement in Poland. But months later, now safe in Palestine, he could not help express admiration for the Jews who had long embarrassed him.

"Also on Yom Kippur, there was a terrible bombing. It must be pointed out that the devout Jews were not concerned with the danger and gathered in the synagogues for prayer, while at the same time that we and the Poles were scared to go out on the streets and assemble for meetings." [5]

The Germans were amazed at how a defenseless Warsaw continued to resist surrender. On Sept. 25, three days after Yom Kippur, the Luftwaffe staged its biggest attack. The Junkers and Stukas conducted 1,150 sorties and dropped 560 tons of high explosive bombs and 72 tons of incendiary bombs. A day later, the Germans were reported to have destroyed the entire Jewish quarter; 1,000 Jews were killed.

The devastating strike, however, did not bring Warsaw to its knees. The Luftwaffe aircraft, hindered by low clouds, fire and dust, dropped much of its payloads on the German infantry, who was approaching the Jewish quarter from the north. The friendly fire sparked sharp words between the air force and the army.

On Sept. 27, the Polish commander of Warsaw surrendered. The ceasefire was set for noon on that day, also the eve of Tabernacles or Sukkot. The Jews emerged from the rubble and the devout began taking the broken doors and window frames to assemble Sukkot in commemoration of the booths built in the desert by the Israelites more than 3,000 years earlier. Later, the Jews would violate the new German curfew as they lined up to hold one of the four citrons, or Etrog, left in the shattered city.

Rabbi Yitzhak Zev Halevi Soloveitchik owned one of the citrons and watched the Jews wait for a chance to bless the fruit.

"How could anyone think, in those moments, of any mitzvos?" the rabbi, known as Reb Velvele, asked. "How can I compare myself at all to these ordinary Jews who were such great men of faith, to those Jews of Warsaw!" [6]

Notes

1. Aleksandra Pilsudski to the London Evening Standard. Oct. 5, 1939.

2. Diary of H.A. Kaplan, teacher. Cited in "The Jews of Warsaw, 1939-1943. Yisrael Gutman. Page 21. Hebrew University, 1977.

3. Memoir of Zelman Kawa, a Jewish reservist assigned to an officer's bureau in Warsaw.

4. "Jewish Defenders of Warsaw Hold Yom Kippur Services on Barricades." Jewish Telegraphic Agency. Sept. 25, 1939

5. Hartglass to Jewish Agency Executive. Feb. 11, 1940. Central Zionist Archives, Jerusalem

6. Sukkot in Warsaw, 1939. Arachim. http://arachimusa.org/ArticleDetail.asp?ArticleID=1944

Below: A boy saves his canary from the rubble. [Julien Bryan]