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Memoirs of a Warsaw Ghetto Fighter
"In the first three days [of the Warsaw Ghetto uprising], the Germans didn't take a single Jew out of the buildings. After their attempts to penetrate the Ghetto had failed, they decided to spare themselves casualties by destroying it from outside with cannon and aerial bombings. A few days later the Ghetto was totally destroyed. . . . The 'streets' were nothing but rows of smoldering ruins. It was hard to cross them without stepping on charred bodies."—Kazik
When the Nazis decided to liquidate the Warsaw Ghetto in 1943, five hundred young Jewish fighters within the Ghetto rose up to defy them. With no weapons, no influence, and no experience in warfare, they managed to resist the Germans for almost a month. In the end, when the battle was lost, the surviving Jews were led out of the ruins through the sewers by a nineteen-year-old fighter known as Kazik. As head courier of the Jewish Fighting Organization (ZOB), which had planned and executed the uprising, Kazik spent the rest of the war helping to care for the several thousand Jews who still remained in Warsaw. This book—an extraordinary story of courage and perseverance—is Kazik's wartime memoir.
In stark, spare detail, Kazik reports on the efforts to prepare for the defense of the Warsaw Ghetto, the calamitous battle with the Germans, and the rescue of the few Jews who were still alive after the Ghetto was destroyed. He describes how he assumed a false Aryan identity in order to pass through the city as he collected money and found hiding places for the survivors. Constantly on guard, fearful of informers, his life always in danger, he nevertheless plotted resourcefully to aid his fellow Jews. He tells how he joined the Poles during their ill-fated uprising against the Nazis in Warsaw in 1944, had further brushes with death assisting the Polish underground, and returned to Warsaw to watch its liberation by the Russian army.
Suspenseful, moving, and remarkably heroic, Kazik's memoir is only the second source to be published on the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. It will help demolish the image of Jews as submissive victims in the Holocaust.
When the Nazis decided to liquidate the Warsaw Ghetto in 1943, five hundred young Jewish fighters within the Ghetto rose up to defy them. With no weapons, no influence, and no experience in warfare, they managed to resist the Germans for almost a month. In the end, when the battle was lost, the surviving Jews were led out of the ruins through the sewers by a nineteen-year-old fighter known as Kazik. As head courier of the Jewish Fighting Organization (ZOB), which had planned and executed the uprising, Kazik spent the rest of the war helping to care for the several thousand Jews who still remained in Warsaw. This book—an extraordinary story of courage and perseverance—is Kazik's wartime memoir.
In stark, spare detail, Kazik reports on the efforts to prepare for the defense of the Warsaw Ghetto, the calamitous battle with the Germans, and the rescue of the few Jews who were still alive after the Ghetto was destroyed. He describes how he assumed a false Aryan identity in order to pass through the city as he collected money and found hiding places for the survivors. Constantly on guard, fearful of informers, his life always in danger, he nevertheless plotted resourcefully to aid his fellow Jews. He tells how he joined the Poles during their ill-fated uprising against the Nazis in Warsaw in 1944, had further brushes with death assisting the Polish underground, and returned to Warsaw to watch its liberation by the Russian army.
Suspenseful, moving, and remarkably heroic, Kazik's memoir is only the second source to be published on the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. It will help demolish the image of Jews as submissive victims in the Holocaust.
196 pages, Paperback
First published June 1, 1994
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Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews
December 23, 2018
An inspiring and gripping real life account by a Warsaw Ghetto fighter of the Jewish Fighting Organization (ZOB)-easy to read and absorbing. A real life stroy of sacrifice, cunning, and ultimate courage, as well as an important eyewitness of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprisings.
Simcha Rotem (Kazik) was a Jewish fighter and courier in the ZOB, one of the two primary Jewish armed resistance movements during the 1943 Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. ZOB was mainly made up of members of Socialist Zionist youth organizations, the religious Zionist Bnei Akiva movement and some Marxist Bundists. The other resistance movement was the Jewish Military Union (ZZW) made up of rightwing Betarist Zionists. My ONLY quibble with this book is that if barely covers the role in the uprisings against the Nazis of the ZZW. The ZZW was formed at the outset of the Nazi occupation of Poland, and was in fact the first Jewish fighting organization formed in Poland, the first to become alive to the Nazi danger, the first to institute military training and secure weapons and the first to go into action. Rotem acted as a courier from the Warsaw Ghetto to the Gentile or 'Aryan' Sector of Poland. Later he was a key commander of the Ghetto uprisings and was engaged in the moist dangerous and intense fighting with Nazi forces.
In August 1944, he took part in the Polish Warsaw Uprising ', mainly working with the with the communist resistance People's Army (Polish Armia Ludowa or AL), though there was some collaboration between the Jewish Fighters and the nationalist Armia Krajowa (Home Army)
He would not have survived without the help of several beautiful Jewish girls of Polish gentile appearance who had hidden in the 'Aryan' section of Warsaw. Afterward fighting with the brave men and women of the ZOB and ZZW he was a commander in the uprising.
Although his twelve-year old sister was murdered in the ghetto uprising, his parents and another sister survived in hiding and, in 1947, he and the surviving members of his family immigrated to Mandate Palestine and became an Israeli citizen when Israel gained its freedom in 1948. He lived in Israel until his death in 2018, the last surviving Warsaw Ghetto Jewish fighter.
Moist of those Jews who survived the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, including some of the key resistance leaders, moved to Israel, were their descendants still live today.
Let that be a reminder to those sick and evil people who try to equate the Israeli Jews with the Nazis.
Today Israelis are being abused and persecuted around the world and murdered in Israel and elsewhere simply for their existence as Israeli Jews, not for their deeds or opinions.
The international fury against the collective Jewish presence in Israel certainly mirrors the rise of Nazism.
If we can learn anything from the holocaust it is to defend Israel and her people from the hatred and boycott, divestment and sanction campaign that inevitably leads to mass murder.
Simcha Rotem (Kazik) was a Jewish fighter and courier in the ZOB, one of the two primary Jewish armed resistance movements during the 1943 Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. ZOB was mainly made up of members of Socialist Zionist youth organizations, the religious Zionist Bnei Akiva movement and some Marxist Bundists. The other resistance movement was the Jewish Military Union (ZZW) made up of rightwing Betarist Zionists. My ONLY quibble with this book is that if barely covers the role in the uprisings against the Nazis of the ZZW. The ZZW was formed at the outset of the Nazi occupation of Poland, and was in fact the first Jewish fighting organization formed in Poland, the first to become alive to the Nazi danger, the first to institute military training and secure weapons and the first to go into action. Rotem acted as a courier from the Warsaw Ghetto to the Gentile or 'Aryan' Sector of Poland. Later he was a key commander of the Ghetto uprisings and was engaged in the moist dangerous and intense fighting with Nazi forces.
In August 1944, he took part in the Polish Warsaw Uprising ', mainly working with the with the communist resistance People's Army (Polish Armia Ludowa or AL), though there was some collaboration between the Jewish Fighters and the nationalist Armia Krajowa (Home Army)
He would not have survived without the help of several beautiful Jewish girls of Polish gentile appearance who had hidden in the 'Aryan' section of Warsaw. Afterward fighting with the brave men and women of the ZOB and ZZW he was a commander in the uprising.
Although his twelve-year old sister was murdered in the ghetto uprising, his parents and another sister survived in hiding and, in 1947, he and the surviving members of his family immigrated to Mandate Palestine and became an Israeli citizen when Israel gained its freedom in 1948. He lived in Israel until his death in 2018, the last surviving Warsaw Ghetto Jewish fighter.
Moist of those Jews who survived the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, including some of the key resistance leaders, moved to Israel, were their descendants still live today.
Let that be a reminder to those sick and evil people who try to equate the Israeli Jews with the Nazis.
Today Israelis are being abused and persecuted around the world and murdered in Israel and elsewhere simply for their existence as Israeli Jews, not for their deeds or opinions.
The international fury against the collective Jewish presence in Israel certainly mirrors the rise of Nazism.
If we can learn anything from the holocaust it is to defend Israel and her people from the hatred and boycott, divestment and sanction campaign that inevitably leads to mass murder.
January 11, 2008
This is the last book I finished before the end of the year. It was interesting. The author is a survivor of the Warsaw ghetto uprising. His experience indicated one means of survival (and resistance) involved extortion and other tough guy tactics. Made for a more three dimensional portrait of survival as opposed to some of the impressions you get of survivors as saints or victims.
November 20, 2017
This memoir was immersive, and really gave a clear idea of what it meant to be an underground Jewish soldier in Warsaw during World War II. Despite some jumping around in the storyline, this memoir is so important for the smaller moments notated, the realizations of luck, the good and the bad actions taken by so many people, and the emotional developments. I wish there had been even more details.
September 15, 2020
Not sure if the emotion got lost in translation, but this book reads more like a text book than a story. There’s lots of interesting and riveting information about the Ghetto fighters but it’s all very dry. I couldn’t get into it.
October 7, 2018
*3.5 stars
March 11, 2020
Great first hand account of German occupation of Poland and the day to day routines of the resistance. These men and women had true grit!
March 16, 2020
A different perspective on the Holocaust and WWII.
July 25, 2026
An excellent read from a true Warsaw Ghetto fighter.
June 29, 2015
An interesting account from a soldier's point of view of what happened in Warsaw, at least during the second ghetto uprising, and how the ZOB operated afterward in Warsaw. It is not a smoothly written book as it was mostly ghostwritten, I think, from interviews with Rotem. One fascinating aspect of his story is that his family was comparatively lightly affected by Nazi persecution because of their Aryan looks. Another is that Rotem and his colleagues preyed quite a bit themselves on other Jews to raise funds for their resistance efforts.
February 9, 2016
The title of this book is a bit deceptive; its not really about the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, but instead is about the experience of the author from pre-war Poland through to the Soviet liberation, and his immigration to Israel. The bits about the politics of the insurgent groups, and the relationships between them, is quite interesting. The writing is quite dry and matter-of-fact, however, and there seems to be little existentialist exploration into the meaning of the events recounted. They read more as a daily diary, and are surprisingly devoid of emotion.
July 30, 2015
The value of this book lies in the fact that it is a primary source for the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising and Jewish resistance against the Nazis in WWII. Otherwise, it's just not that engaging. The narrative is plain and incoherent, detail is inconsistent, and it has a off-hand quality to it. Nothing against Kazik, who is unquestionably a hero and an admirable man whose deeds speak for themselves, but he is no historian and no writer.
March 3, 2016
This book was very sad and moving. If you are looking for a book that has drama suspense and amazing writing this is not the story for you. Even though Kazik is not the best writer, his story is one worth reading. Kazik informs the reader of a persons death when they are introduced. He is not looking to tell a compelling story of heroics and romance, but the true account of heroic events. The end results of his true accounts are shocking and heart ripping.
December 17, 2019
A hard read because of the subject, but a well written memoir. I felt like at times he would gloss over events, but made up for this with details on more important ones. Definitely a perspective I enjoyed reading.
February 28, 2022
"Kazik, Memoirs of a Warsaw Ghetto Fighter" by Simha Rotem (2002, 196 pages). An important biographical account of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising and beyond. Suggest the reader also pick up Zuckerman's "Surplus of Memory" as both authors refer to each other quite a bit in each other's writings.
September 26, 2008
This book made you open your eyes to your problems.
September 11, 2011
A heroic memoir of a Jewish partisan fighter in and around Warsaw. The courage and spirit of Simha Rotem and his young comrades in confronting and fighting the Nazis is inspiring.
August 25, 2016
A different perspective than that usually in Polish resistance memoirs
Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews