The Pesach issue of Hamodia (Shabbos Hagadol/Pesach/March 20) came with a supplement titled “Beyond the Ghetto Walls: 70th Anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising.”
An important question addressed was the price paid for the revolt. What was heroic about it? What was the outcome in terms of survival?
Back then, in the middle of the terror, the unknown, decisions were made. Who heard about them?
At the center of the story is the legendary Rav Menachem Ziemba, Hy”d (1883–1943). It is concluded that there is no proof that he ever supported the uprising.
After the petirah of my father, Harav David Feuerwerker, I saw a file, which I quote from memory, containing a letter by Harav Elie Munk to my father, in the name of the Vaad Hatzalah, asking his help to save Harav Ziemba.
(Just a footnote: the caption of a picture [p. 22] including Harav Menachem Ziemba and Harav [Yerahmiel Eliyahu] Botchko [he spelled his name as Botschko] [1888–1956] contains misspellings: Yeshiva of Montreaux instead of Montreux, Switzerland and Mareinbad instead of Marienbad [Mariánské Lázn?] in the Czech Republic.)
This supplement is an important educational and remembrance tool.
Dr. Elie Feuerwerker
Highland Park, N.J.