Ir HaMetim (Town
of the Dead- The
Extermination of the Jews in the Zaglembia Region). Translated by A. Sz. Sztejn. Tel Aviv 1946. Translated to English by Ada Holtzman.
Dedicated to the memory of the comrades
Dora Hercberg
Aliza Zitenfeld
Sara Kukelka
Szmuel Rozencwajg
The modest heroes who died on a foreign land on their
way to Eretz Israel
(...)
INDEX compiled by Ada Holtzman
(...)
119. Kukelka Renia - member of "Dror"; sacrificed herself for the underground.
120. Kukelka Sara - sister of Renia; heroine of the underground.
(...)
DEFENCE
pages 123-129
On the
outside, it seems that the Ghetto returns to its routine, to its worries and
sufferings, as before, but it was not but a delusion. We lacked peace of mind.
The methods of the Germans were now transparent: first use the power and labor
ability of the young; then rob all the Jewish property; and finally take the
soul.
There are
some who ask why didn't you escape? Those who ask this question ignore the fact
that there was no where to run away in this world full of hatred and animosity.
We thought we are the last Jews of Europe, and sometimes we saw ourselves, here
in the Ghetto, the last Jews of the world' short of any help and assistance,
isolated and cut off human ties, and we cannot trust but ourselves - us, few
Jews, weak in body and broken in spirit' after four years of torture and
oppression, starvation and humiliation under the Nazi boots, surrounded by the
armed enemies, equipped with the newest and technologically the most advanced
arms. And in spite of this, the Jewish youth of Zaglembia who survived decided
to fight and defend himself. Unfortunately we did not
know that a very short time was left before the next Aktion (akcja), and we
truly had faith that we shall materialize our plans - and we had grand plans,
like the plan to encircle the Ghetto in a belt of mines and blow it together
with the Nazis. The comrades from Warszawa sent us instructions to make bombs
and mines - but the storm of the deportation prevented us from fulfilling it.
The groups
who prepared themselves to the defense and uprising were from members of the
youth pioneer movements ("tnuot hanoar hakhalutziot"):
"Gordonia", "Hashomer Hatzair", Kibbutz "Dror",
"Hanoar Hatzioni" and "Hashomer Hadati". But we had no
arms. In spite of that, preparations were made to self-defense, even before the
last deportation and by the guidance of members of the Kibbutz we started
training of the use of weapons. To get the desired arms we were forced to send
members to Warszawa - a matter of great danger and huge difficulties; we worked
to obtain foreign false passports bearing Christian names, smuggling the border
in Zarki and more.
Three
young women volunteered to sacrify their life for this holy mission: Edza
Pesachson, Una Gelbard ("Hashomer Hatzair") and Renia Kukelka
("Dror"). The first one, Edza Pesachson, was caught in a train
station at Czestochowa and severely
tortured, but did not reveal who was she, for whom and for what did she carry the weapons. According to what comrades from Czestochowa
told us - she was hanged in the local prison as a Christian. Second one, Una
G, (...) finally failed and was caught in Zawiercie
and there she was shot. R[enia] was captured while she traveled for the second time to
Warszawa and succeeded, after four months of torture, by the help of her
courageous and heroine sister Sara (member of Kibbutz Bedzin) to escape from
the prison in Myslowice.
(...)
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