Jews in the Polish army

[Bonobo]

Jews lived in Poland for hundred of years and it is natural they took part in Polish wars and risings. They fought and died for Poland like other Poles.

One of them best known Jewish soldiers was

Berek Joselewicz (September 17, 1764 – May 15, 1809) was a Jewish-Polish merchant and a colonel of the Polish Army during the Kościuszko Uprising. Joselewicz commanded the first Jewish military formation in modern history.[1][2]

Dow Baer (Berek) Joselewicz was born in Kretinga, in the county of Kowno, part of the Troki Voivodeship of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. He worked as a financial agent for a local Polish magnate, Prince Massalski, the lord of Kretinga, and bishop of Wilno. Joselewicz often traveled abroad in pursuit of various tasks, during which he learned to speak French. He spent some time in Paris during the beginning of the French Revolution, and it is thought that this may have later inspired him to join Tadeusz Kościuszko, who advocated similar causes of brotherhood and equality.

Joselewicz initially served in the Polish militia before petitioning Kościuszko for permission to form an all-Jewish unit. On September 17, 1794, Kościuszko officially announced the creation of the unit. Joselewicz, along with another Jew named Joseph Aronowicz, issued a patriotic call-to-arms in Yiddish denouncing Russia and Prussia, eliciting hundreds of volunteers, mostly poor tradeworkers and artisans. Five hundred men were eventually accepted and formed into a cavalry regiment. At Joselewicz's request, they were allowed to keep their religious customs, including access to kosher food, abstaining from combat on the Sabbath when possible, and growing their beards. Joselewicz's unit was popularly known as "the Beardlings". They took part in the 1794 defence of Praga, in which the unit was wiped out, with only few men (including Joselewicz) surviving the battle. Joselewicz himself was taken prisoner by the Russians.[1]

After the defeat of the Kościuszko Uprising, Joselewicz left for Galicia and then for Italy. There he joined the Polish Legions under Henryk Dąbrowski. As a commander of a sabre company in Polish cavalry units, he fought in various battles of the Napoleonic period. Among them were the battles of Trevia, Novi, Hohenlinden, Austerlitz and Friedland. He was awarded the Knight's Cross of the Virtuti Militari medal and the Legion of Honour with a Golden Cross for his merits. He remained in the army as squadron leader in the 5th Mounted Riflemen Regiment following the constitution of the Duchy of Warsaw (Księstwo Warszawskie) in 1807. From 1807 he fought in various battles in Poland. He was killed in the Battle of Kock in 1809 during an encounter with a unit of Austrian hussars, and today his grave has become a popular tourist attraction.
The Death of Berek Joselewicz, by Henryk Pillati

Berek's son, Josef Berkowicz (1789–1846), also fought in the Battle of Kock, and later served as a squadron chief during the November Uprising of 1830, during which he also attempted to convince Jewish soldiers to desert the Russian army and join the Poles. Berkowicz later moved to England and wrote a novel. Berek's widow and son had received a pension until 1831.

The common Polish expression "like Berek at Kock" ("Jak Berek pod Kockiem.") describes a hopeless situation to this day.

He was honored by a postage stamp as a "A Jewish Fighter for Polish Freedom", issued jointly by Polish and Israeli postal services.













Streets in Polish cities

[Bonobo]

Another rising

Jewish City Guard
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jewish Security Guard, a 1831 engraving by Fryderyk Krzysztof Dietrich


Jewish City Guard (Polish: Gwardia Miejska Starozakonna) was a paramilitary militia force in Poland during the November Uprising. On 20 December 1830 the representatives of the Polish Jews demanded that their community be allowed to join the Polish Army along with followers of other denominations.[1] The government agreed and Jews were allowed to join all sorts of military formations, including the Polish Army, Security Guard paramilitary organisation and the National Guard.[1]

However, soldiers and officers of all Polish forces were expected to shave their beards when in uniform, while Orthodox Jews argued that "shaving beards adds neither love for one's country nor bravery".[1] To allow them to serve in the armed forces in accordance with their faith, on 28 February 1831 Jewish City Guards were created in each voivodeship capital.[1] By August 1831 the Warsaw Jewish City Guard had 1098 soldiers.[1] The unit took part in the Battle of Warsaw of 1831.[1]

[pjotr]

Dear Bo,

It is good that you mention them. Jews have been Poles, Germans and Dutch people and were patriots like the Poles, Germans and Dutch. Polish jews are Poles after all, and therfor they served Poland.

Marek Edelman, Bronisław Geremek and Adam Michnik were and are examples of Polish jews.

Cheers,
Pieter

[pjotr]

Young Jews from Trebzinia at the Polish military preparatory academy. Left to right: Mordechai Reich, Yosef Rosenbaum, Mendel Markovich

Jews were 10% of the Polish population, so many of them were soldiers and officers in September 1939 when Nazi Germany and the SovjetUnion invaded Poland. Many Polish jewish officers died side by side with their Roman-Catholic Polish fellow officers in the war with the Germans and the war with the Sovjets. Many of them were shot in Katyn.

Jewish soldiers and officers of the Polish army


General Anders salutes his fallen Polish Jewish soldiers of the 2nd Polish Corps at Monte Cassino

Approximately 1.5 million Jewish officers and soldiers in the ranks of the Allied regular armies, in Underground national resistance movements, and in Partisan units participated in all theatres of the war fighting the Nazi Foe and Axis Powers. They fought bravely, proved their heroism, showed courage and dedication in their struggle. Their valor made a significant and impressive contribution to the ultimate victory of the Allied Forces in World War II.


Jewish soldiers in the Polish army practice shooting in 1937. The donor's husband, Majer Rozental, and his brother Nissan, are pictured in civilian dress in the center. Majer (the brother on the left) survived the war by fleeing to the Soviet Union. Nissan perished.

Nearly 200.000 Polish Jews fought against Nazi Germany in the ranks of the Polish Armies on Polish soil and in Exile. They defended Poland in September 1939 against the German aggression. They fought in the Polish Armies in exile; in the 1940 defense of France, in the Middle East, in North Africa in Italy and in the Netherlands at Market Garden in Arnhem. While serving in the Polish Tank Corps, Air Force and Navy they participated, together with the RAF and British Royal Navy, in the Normandy Landings. The Polish Forces, along with The Red Army, took part in the great offensive, eventually liberating Poland and conquering Germany.

In addition, many Polish Jews fought as part of the Polish, Russian, and French Underground movements. They were also a part of the Palestine Jewish Brigade. Polish Jews fought in the French Army, in the Red Army, and in the British Forces.


A group of Polish jewish soldiers

Despite the tremendous Jewish military contribution to the Polish war efforts, the official Polish historical bibliography of W.W.II ignores this Jewish phenomena.


A Polish jewish soldier in 1939 with his wife.

[Bonobo]

Jews bravely fought in the Polish army during WW2.

September 1939 - 100.000 Jews were soldiers in the Polish army. That was a great time when both Poles and Jews united against common enemy.

www.newsweek.pl/historia/ii-wojna-swiatowa-zydzi-walczyli-w-polskim-wojsku-we-wrzesniu-1939-r-,artykuly,396312,1.html


About 8- 10% Polish officers murdered in Katyń Massacre were Jewish.

www.sztetl.org.pl/en/cms/news/5141,polish-jews-victims-of-katyn-massacre/

Polish Jews – Victims of Katyn Massacre




Rabbi Baruch Steinberg, Second Lieutenant Mieczysław Proner... There were at least 438 Jews among Polish officers killed by the NKVD.

The exact number of Polish Jews taking part in Poland’s defensive war of 1939 is unknown. It is estimated that some 100,000 Jews defended the country as part of the Polish Armed Forces, and 6 to 7 percent of all the officers were Jewish.

A plaque commemorating Rabbi Baruch Steinberg in the Polish War Cemetery in Katyn (photo by Krzysztof Bielawski/POLIN Museum)


After the Soviet Union invaded Poland, between 232,000 and 255,000 Polish Army soldiers as well as officers serving in the State Police, Border Protection Corps and other uniformed services were taken prisoner. The Soviets placed more than half of them in POW camps. According to a report by the NKVD’s Board for Prisoners of War and the Interned of 5 December 1943, 130,242 Polish prisoners of war were held in Soviet camps in 1939-1941 – from this group 8,348 officers were singled out and sent to camps in Kozelsk, Ostashkov, and Starobilsk, and “placed [...] at the disposal of NKVD Boards”.

In the spring of 1940, following the order issued by Joseph Stalin, NKVD executed almost all of the imprisoned officers. According to various estimations, between 15,000 and 24,000 officers killed by the NKVD were buried in mass graves in Katyn, Tver, Bykivnia, Kharkiv, and other locations.

At least 4,421 officers were killed in a forest near Katyn. The NKVD perpetrators shot them in the back of their heads, with the victims’ hands tied up or their clothes thrown over their heads. The world found out about this massacre only three years later. In April 1943, German troops occupying the USSR’s Smolensk district, which included Katyn, started exhuming the mass graves, having been informed of their existence by local residents. They set up an International Medical Commission consisting of experts from German-occupied countries and Switzerland, and also summoned the Polish Red Cross. The Germans used the information about the Soviet killings of Polish officers for their propaganda purposes. In September 1943, when Soviet troops drove away the Germans from the Smolensk region, the NKVD started another exhumation, this time aimed to falsify evidence and put the blame on the Germans.

After the war many Poles did know about the crimes committed by the NKVD against Polish Army officers, but in the times of communist Poland speaking about it was forbidden. The communist authorities claimed that the Germans were responsible for the killings. They tried to make this lie believable by showing tourists the village of Khatyn, whose residents were massacred by the Germans in 1943. Only after the fall of communism did the Soviet authorities reveal the true course of events, presented the lists of those killed and indicated the locations of the killings.

Jews from the so-called Katyn list

Jews serving in the Polish Armed Forces and other formations also fell victim to the NKVD. Establishing a list of them was not an easy task – their names were not always a sufficient distinguishing feature, and archival documents were missing. In most cases contact with their relatives was impossible as they were killed by the Germans in the times of the Holocaust.


The lists of those killed were prepared, among others, by Prof. Marian Fuks of the Jewish Historical Institute, who published subsequent names in the Folks Shtime magazine in the early 1990s. Benjamin Meirtchak’s book Jewish Military Casualties in the Polish Armies in World War II included the names of 231 Jews killed in Katyn, 188 killed in Kharkiv and 19 murdered in Mednoye. They were both active officers and numerous reserve officers who normally worked as doctors, pharmacists, lawyers or engineers.

Among those killed in Katyn was Baruch Steinberg, the Chief Rabbi of the Polish Armed Forces, born in Przemyślany in 1897 in a rabbinical family. As a young man, Baruch Steinberg joined the Polish Military Organization, and during the Ukrainian-Polish war of 1919 he took part in the defense of Lvov. He studied at the University of Lvov. In 1928, he became rabbi chaplain of the Polish Armed Forces, first in Grodno, and then in Warsaw and Krakow. In 1933, he was named head of the Chief Office of Jewish Chaplaincy, and three years later – Chief Rabbi of the Polish Armed Forces.

Ilustracja

Rabin Baruch Steinberg [woman unknown] (anonymous photo, Katyn Museum’s collection, gift by Simon Schochet)


Baruch Steinberg was a supporter of Józef Piłsudski and he often attended patriotic ceremonies.

In 1939, after the Red Army invaded Poland, Rabbi Baruch Steinberg was taken prisoner. He was kept in the Starobilsk camp, in the Butyrka prison in Moscow, and in the Yukhnov and Kozelsk camps. It is known that he organized collective prayers in the camps.

“On Friday evenings we gathered outside a dilapidated shed where hundreds of Jews, led by Chaplain Dr. Steinberg, said fervent prayers in Hebrew,” Bronisław Młynarski recalled in his W niewoli sowieckiej (In Soviet Captivity) book.

On 11-12 April 1940, Rabbi Baruch Steinberg was “placed at the disposal” of the Smolensk District NKVD. He was killed in the Katyn forest probably on 12 or 14 April 1940. He was 42.

Memory

When on 13 April 1943, the Germans publicized the discovery of mass graves in the Katyn Forest, most family members of the Jews executed there were already dead, killed in ghettos and death camps, which made it even more difficult to preserve the memory of the victims.

One of the recollections of the Jewish officers killed by the NKVD is an account by Israel-based Prof. Janina Godhar, a daughter of Second Lieutenant Mieczysław Julian Proner, a pharmacy doctor executed in Kharkiv.

Ilustracja

Mieczysław Julian Proner (anonymous photo from Janina Goldhar’s private collection)


“We spent those days waiting for a message from the Father. If I remember correctly, we received the first signal that he had survived in October (1939 – eds.). We were visited by one of the soldiers who served in his unit and was taken prisoner by the Soviets. The Soviets released all the soldiers but kept the officers. Our father sent us a message that we was fine. My mom was pleased that he was detained by the Soviets because she thought this was better for a Jew than being arrested by the Germans”.

Ilustracja

Mieczysław Julian Proner with his wife and daughter (anonymous photo from Janina Goldhar’s private collection)



One day in December, we were delighted to receive a postcard from the Starobilsk camp, and then another one, in which he wrote that he was fine and asked for our photos (he also wrote he had my teddy-bear). The third postcard was written in early March. It came at the same time as a returned parcel with photos that my Mom had sent. We were upset by this, but my Mom thought that he must have been transferred somewhere. At that time we could not even imagine that he was already dead (source: Goldhar J., My story, Tel-Aviv, 2012, translated by K. Bielawski).

The Polish War Cemeteries in Katyn and Kharkiv feature thousands of plaques with the victims’ names. As one follows the long paths demarcated by them, one can see names of Polish Jews every few footsteps.

Author: Krzysztof Bielawski
Cooperation: Joanna Król






A description of a book about Jewish military effort in WW2 is here:

www.zchor.org/meirtchak/meirtchak.htm


JEWISH MILITARY CASUALTIES IN THE POLISH ARMIES IN WORLD WAR II

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Eng. Benjamin Meirtchak who was born in Wloclawek, Poland is the President of the Association of Jewish War Veterans of Polish Armies in Israel, the Chairman of the Central Committee of the Association of Disabled Veterans of Fight against Nazism in Israel, and the Secretary General of the Association of Polish Jews in Israel.

He is researching the history of active Jewish participation in fight against Nazi Germany in the ranks of the Allied Regular Forces and in particular in the Polish Army in Poland and Polish Armies in exile during W.W. II. He has published works on the subject in Polish, Hebrew, English and Russian.

During W.W. II, Mr. Meirtchak fought defending Warsaw in September 1939 and was imprisoned in Soviet concentration camps. In the ranks of the Polish Army in the USSR the author participated in the bloody Lenino battle and was in command of a tank battalion in the Bautzen-Elba Campaign as a Captain. He was wounded in battle and decorated with Polish and Soviet Army awards and medals.

On September 1st 1999 Mr. Meirtchak was awarded by the President of Poland with the "COMMANDERS CROSS, ORDER OF MERIT OF THE POLISH REPUBLIC".

On April 5, 2001 Mr. Meirtchak was promoted by the Minister of National Defence of Poland to Lieut. Colonel (Ret.) rank.

[pjotr]

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baruch_Steinberg

[Bonobo]

A few dozen Jewish fighters who first fought against Germans during Ghetto Rising 1943 also took part in Warsaw Rising 1944.

One of them was Symcha Rotem, probably the last still living survivor of the events.




Simcha Rotem (born 1925 Simcha (Szymon) Rathajzer , also known as Kazik his nom de guerre) is an Israeli veteran, who was a member of the Jewish underground in Warsaw, and served as the head courier of the Jewish Fighting Organization (ZOB), which planned and executed the Warsaw ghetto uprising against the Nazis. He was a member of the "Akiva" youth movement.

Contents

1 The Second World War
1.1 The Warsaw ghetto
1.2 The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising and aftermath
2 Post-war life
3 Awards and decorations
4 Bibliography
5 References
6 External links

The Warsaw ghetto

In 1942 he joined the ZOB. Rotem became particularly useful as a courier for the Warsaw Ghetto fighters. The nickname "Kazik"—an abbreviation of a Polish name "Kazimierz" (Casimir), which means in Polish "someone who destroys opponent's prestige/glory during battle".
A tribute to Simcha Rotem, Monument to Evacuation of the Warsaw Ghetto Fighters in Warsaw
The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising and aftermath

As a ZOB member, Kazik took part in the Warsaw ghetto uprising. He became the head courier, reporting directly to the ZOB commander on the Gentile side, Yitzhak Zuckerman. (The ZOB commander in general was Mordechai Anielewicz). When it became apparent that the Germans would prevail, he was sent via a secret passageway to the Gentile side of Warsaw where he met with Zuckerman to arrange an escape for the fighters. However, the passageway was discovered by the Nazis. Unable to return, he and Zuckerman were trapped on the Gentile side while the fighting raged and the ghetto burned. Desperate to reach his comrades, Rotem made several attempts to enter the ghetto through the sewers before finally succeeding. There he encountered Zivia Lubetkin, one of the last surviving leaders of the ghetto uprising, and he led her with her team of approximately 80 fighters through the sewers to the Gentile side and then to the forests outside of the city. Throughout the rest of the war he continued his underground activities with the resistance, in particular helping to care for the several thousand Jews, who still remained in Warsaw in hiding. In August 1944, he took part in the Polish Warsaw Uprising.
Post-war life

Immediately following the end of World War II, Rotem took part in the Beriha organization, that helped European Jews immigrate to Mandate Palestine, despite the restrictions imposed by the British Mandatory policies (White Paper of 1939). 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. He now lives in Jerusalem. As of 2013, he is one of three survivors of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising.[1]

[pjotr]

Behind the Headlines: Research Reveals Jewish Officers Among Katyn Massacre Victims

March 10, 1989
CHICAGO (Mar. 9)

At least 262 Jewish officers were among the over 4,000 Polish officers whom the current Polish government now states were massacred by the Soviet Union in World War II.

This was reported by Harvey Sarner of Chicago and London, an independent researcher, who is writing a book on Polish World War II General Wladyslaw Anders.

The Polish government recently reopened the issue on which their Soviet colleagues have thus far made no public comment.

When the Nazis discovered the victims of the Katyn massacre near Smolensk in 1943, they blamed the action on the Soviets, who in turn blamed the Nazis.

A major source of Sarner’s information is a 1988 periodical, “Niepodleglosc” (Independence) of the Pilsudski Institute of London, dedicated to the most recent information on Polish history. It includes several chapters by Simon Shochet about Jews in the World War II Polish military.

Shochet explains that Jewish victims of Katyn were identified by documents found on the bodies and by comparison with records of the London Polish Officers Association.

There is no listing of religion, but Jews are also identified by typical Jewish names, together with occupations.

Jewish Katyn victims included a colonel, two majors, 173 lieutenants and sub-lieutenants, and other ranks. In civilian life many were doctors, pharmacists, lawyers and diplomats.

One of the Katyn Jewish victims was Mieczyslaw Birnbaum, newspaperman and writer, who served in the IVth Division of General L. Zeligowski. He was the recipient of the Cross “Virtuti Military” (5th class), Cross of Valor, Gold Cross of Merit and the medal of “10th year of Polish Independence.”

A prominent victim of the Soviets was Chief Rabbi Major Baruch Steinberg.

TESTIMONY ON JEWISH VICTIMS
In November 1939, shortly after the German and Russian invasions of Poland, Steinberg spoke to a Polish unit, also addressed by the chief Catholic and Lutheran chaplains.

All three were taken to Moscow, imprisoned, and subsequently deported by the Soviets to an “unknown destination.”

Shochet refers to the “hearings before a Select U.S. Congress Committee on the Katyn Massacre” in 1952, where testimony was given about Jewish victims, apparently overlooked by most observers up to now.

The committee conducted extensive hearings in Washington, Chicago, London and Frankfurt.

Before 1989 it had not previously been widely known that significant numbers of Jews were among the Polish officer victims at Katyn.

In the eighties, the Polish Jewish Former Combatants Association participated in the annual ceremony at the Polish World War II monument in London, commemorating the Katyn tragedy.

Jews were represented by a Polish war veteran, Stanley Damazer, a layman, who recites the Kaddish at what was previously only a Catholic ceremony.

Source: Jewish Telegraph Agency (JTA)

More sources:
www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13501679308577736?journalCode=feej20