Dive Bombers Over Poland 1939
Although there are many things of wide current interest I'd like to discuss, I first ought to get back to the account of the long march through Poland at the beginning of WWII. It ought to start with a diversion to what happened to my brother's group as they went east from outside Warsaw; as recounted in (Antek's) Yitz(k)hak Zuckerman's book (and as outlined in violet on the map below). They took off about the time -give or take a day or two- when we crossed the bridge over the Vistula as it was being destroyed by dive bombers; or the next day, when I was detained on getting off the ferry crossing the river San.
As Antek described it, they left Warsaw {1 on the map} in response to an appeal broadcast in the name of the Polish army for able bodied men to leave eastward, possibly a German inspired provocation that resulted in hundreds of thousands clogging the roads needed for Polish army traffic. He had missed that appeal, since he had been working all that night on a defense trench digging project in response to an earlier appeal by mayor Starzinski. When they got to their Grochow kibbutz, it turned out that all had left. Somehow the other trench diggers also took off with the horse and wagon that had been left; so Antek had to march off by himself. As he described it:
To view a larger, more detailed version of this image click on it. If you are using Internet Explorer, click then on the icon at the lower right of the resulting image.
based on MSN Encarta - World Atlas - Map of The World
"I started walking with the masses streaming on the roads at the height of the bombings. I think I reached Minsk-Mazowiecki {2} at nightfall. I was hungry and worn out after a night of work, mad at myself, and without a cent; I was close to passing out. I sat down against some fence, and suddenly Oskar Hendler appeared, like a guardian angel."
In the text itself, there is no explanation who that angel is, whose name comes up in that same form repeatedly later in the book (which came about by taping conversations with close comrades of Antek's before his early death; somehow almost all these foremost resistance fighters / organizers seem to have died young, including Oskar Handler, as the name surely was spelled.
Notes may have been added for the Hebrew original, but certainly for the English translation). A footnote identifying Oskar could use improvements; which I could offer to provide, if there were a prospect for a second edition of this book. But that is very unlikely to happen, although there is no more important source about the Jewish fate and resistance in WWII. I do hope to add something later here.
Oskar "dragged" Antek into a courtyard' where he encountered his comrades from Warsaw (including those who had taken the wagon without him) . He ate and rested before they continued eastward. After a short while he suddenly saw "people from Grochow ...... a group of children from Zbaszyn who had been expelled from Germany" (with Frumka, a leading Polish member; she was killed a few years later [August 3, 1943] in a ghetto uprising in Bedzin, southwest Poland, which she had helped organize). They were looking for food. Antek, now with some money, got off the wagon and continued with this group; that included my brother Friedel (later Avshalom), then 15.
The severe bombing they experienced near Kaluszyn {3} has been mentioned, but not that "German spies were alsoswarming around there, signaling to German pilots" about the location of Polish troops. After the raid, it turned out to be important that Antek was one of the leadership people who had received a facilitating document from the Polish authorities when Zionist organizations in a meeting with them had pledged that all their resources countrywide would be made available for the defense effort.
"For as darkness came on, Polish gendarmes surrounded the woods searching for spies and caught us. Many of our young people didn't know a single word of Polish and spoke only German. I was their spokesman, and the document I had received from the central authorities helped us get away from the gendarmes." After that they decided to travel at night. There was some problem in Wlodowa {5} before they managed to cross the river Bug, which became the new Soviet border a few days later. He does not describe the route in greater detail, so I cannot know with any confidence where to locate what follows.
"On the way, before we got to Kowel, we had a single casualty, and I found out about that only later..... We tried to circumvent any place Polish soldiers were liable to be since these youths spoke German; so we traveled dozens of extra kilometers......One of the youths had relatives in Brisk [Polish: Brzesc} (but more widely known as Brest Litovsk, now just Brest), and he asked permission to go to his relatives, but I forbade him to go. Nevertheless, he left the ranks and went to Brisk where Polish soldiers captured him; and, because he didn't know Polish, they thought he was a German spy and executed him. The rest of the group reached Kowel safely." A footnote, with reference, adds: "Later, they learned of a few other victims among the Zbaszyn Halutzim" (pioneers), but that needn't mean that more were killed as spies. Even with that one, it sure is good that I couldn't have known about it when I was detained a few days earlier near Sandomierz; to which I ought to return now, leaving a few threads here to be tied up later; including finally something about what Zbaszyn was all about.
German Dive bombers over Poland.
http://www.achtungpanzer.com/blitz.htm
To view a larger, more detailed version of this image click on it. If you are using Internet Explorer, click then on the icon at the lower right of the resulting image.
As Antek described it, they left Warsaw {1 on the map} in response to an appeal broadcast in the name of the Polish army for able bodied men to leave eastward, possibly a German inspired provocation that resulted in hundreds of thousands clogging the roads needed for Polish army traffic. He had missed that appeal, since he had been working all that night on a defense trench digging project in response to an earlier appeal by mayor Starzinski. When they got to their Grochow kibbutz, it turned out that all had left. Somehow the other trench diggers also took off with the horse and wagon that had been left; so Antek had to march off by himself. As he described it:
To view a larger, more detailed version of this image click on it. If you are using Internet Explorer, click then on the icon at the lower right of the resulting image.
based on MSN Encarta - World Atlas - Map of The World"I started walking with the masses streaming on the roads at the height of the bombings. I think I reached Minsk-Mazowiecki {2} at nightfall. I was hungry and worn out after a night of work, mad at myself, and without a cent; I was close to passing out. I sat down against some fence, and suddenly Oskar Hendler appeared, like a guardian angel."
In the text itself, there is no explanation who that angel is, whose name comes up in that same form repeatedly later in the book (which came about by taping conversations with close comrades of Antek's before his early death; somehow almost all these foremost resistance fighters / organizers seem to have died young, including Oskar Handler, as the name surely was spelled.
Notes may have been added for the Hebrew original, but certainly for the English translation). A footnote identifying Oskar could use improvements; which I could offer to provide, if there were a prospect for a second edition of this book. But that is very unlikely to happen, although there is no more important source about the Jewish fate and resistance in WWII. I do hope to add something later here.
Oskar "dragged" Antek into a courtyard' where he encountered his comrades from Warsaw (including those who had taken the wagon without him) . He ate and rested before they continued eastward. After a short while he suddenly saw "people from Grochow ...... a group of children from Zbaszyn who had been expelled from Germany" (with Frumka, a leading Polish member; she was killed a few years later [August 3, 1943] in a ghetto uprising in Bedzin, southwest Poland, which she had helped organize). They were looking for food. Antek, now with some money, got off the wagon and continued with this group; that included my brother Friedel (later Avshalom), then 15.
The severe bombing they experienced near Kaluszyn {3} has been mentioned, but not that "German spies were alsoswarming around there, signaling to German pilots" about the location of Polish troops. After the raid, it turned out to be important that Antek was one of the leadership people who had received a facilitating document from the Polish authorities when Zionist organizations in a meeting with them had pledged that all their resources countrywide would be made available for the defense effort.
"For as darkness came on, Polish gendarmes surrounded the woods searching for spies and caught us. Many of our young people didn't know a single word of Polish and spoke only German. I was their spokesman, and the document I had received from the central authorities helped us get away from the gendarmes." After that they decided to travel at night. There was some problem in Wlodowa {5} before they managed to cross the river Bug, which became the new Soviet border a few days later. He does not describe the route in greater detail, so I cannot know with any confidence where to locate what follows.
"On the way, before we got to Kowel, we had a single casualty, and I found out about that only later..... We tried to circumvent any place Polish soldiers were liable to be since these youths spoke German; so we traveled dozens of extra kilometers......One of the youths had relatives in Brisk [Polish: Brzesc} (but more widely known as Brest Litovsk, now just Brest), and he asked permission to go to his relatives, but I forbade him to go. Nevertheless, he left the ranks and went to Brisk where Polish soldiers captured him; and, because he didn't know Polish, they thought he was a German spy and executed him. The rest of the group reached Kowel safely." A footnote, with reference, adds: "Later, they learned of a few other victims among the Zbaszyn Halutzim" (pioneers), but that needn't mean that more were killed as spies. Even with that one, it sure is good that I couldn't have known about it when I was detained a few days earlier near Sandomierz; to which I ought to return now, leaving a few threads here to be tied up later; including finally something about what Zbaszyn was all about.
German Dive bombers over Poland.
http://www.achtungpanzer.com/blitz.htm
To view a larger, more detailed version of this image click on it. If you are using Internet Explorer, click then on the icon at the lower right of the resulting image.
posted by solar_sol | 9:25 PM
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