Multidisciplinary Studies

Several trials conducted in Israel questioned the role of the Jewish leadership in the Holocaust and raised the problematic image of the Judenrat among the survivors. In the Barenblat trial (1963), the state prosecuted Hirsh Barenblat who had been the head of the Jewish militia in Będzin (Poland). Due to Barenblat’s high position and the attempt to impose comprehensive culpability on all Judenrat members, his trial became an important milestone in the development of Holocaust memory as it pertained to the Jewish leadership of the time. In Barenblat, the principle question raised throughout was the essence of the Judenrat and its members, and this may have been the only attempt to respond to it. This question split the survivors of Będzin: some witnessed against Barenblat and some witnessed for the defense. Although many of the witnesses condemned the Judenrat as an institute there was no consensus among them regarding the role of Barenblat. The rulings of both courts largely reflected the witnesses’ vacillations. The District Court convicted Barenblat and sentenced him to five years in prison. The Supreme Court exonerated him. Both instances believed that the rest of the job should be left to historians.
However, the absence of a resolution in the Barenblat trial symbolized the beginning of a process of change in the perception of the role of Jewish leadership and the Judenrat in the Holocaust — a perception that is neither accusatory nor apologetic and, instead, is mindful of the paradoxical complexity that envelops these institutions and individuals.

I Am Writing These Words to You reveals Chajka Klingers' soul-searching response to the existential conflicts that plagued her while writing her diaries. Still in the grip of the nightmare of the last deportation, of torture by the Gestapo, and of the death of her comrades, she had no idea if anyone would read her words.
Chajka Klinger (1917-1958), who was born into a Hasidic family, joined Hashomer Hatzair and became a major activist in the Jewish Fighting Organization (20B) in Bedzin. She was chosen by her comrades to survive and to document their history to ensure their memory. "Condemned to live," she fulfilled her obligation to them by writing her diaries in hiding in 1943.
Chajka Klinger's diaries are among the earliest comprehensive documents to reach the Jewish public outside of occupied Poland during the war. The notebooks provide a window into the activities of the Jewish youth movements during the Holocaust, and convey vastly important information about the 20B in Bedzin and in Warsaw, the relationships between the underground organizations and the Judenrat, the response of the Jewish public to the extermination, and about Mordechai Anielewicz. They are also a primary source of information about the battles in the ghettos.
In March 1944, Chajka immigrated to Eretz Israel, where she attempted to rebuild her life on Kibbutz Haogen, but despite her tenacious efforts, her strength gave out in April 1958, and on the fifteenth anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, she put an end to her life. Her diaries were published posthumously in a shortened and censored edition.
Published in full for the first time, this volume contains the English translation of the original diaries. Chajka's son Prof. Avihu Ronen edited the volume and provided an introduction and annotations that shed light on the circumstances under which Chajka Klinger wrote, and offer a greater understanding of her fate and that of her underground comrades

The article examines the history of only one document, but one
from which a painful and far-reaching historical episode radiates,
a three-tiered episode: the event itself, the struggle for its
memory or oblivion, and the serpentine ways in which it was
documented in the historical literature. I refer to the “Tabenkin-Ya’ari”
or “Tabenkin” cable, therein, according to the existing documentation,
Yitzhak Tabenkin, the HaKibbutz HaMeuhad (United Kibbutz
Movement) leader, and Meir Ya’ari, head of HaKibbutz HaArtzi, of
the HaShomer HaTza’ir Movement in Palestine, instructed the Jewish
Fighting Organization (ŻOB) members in occupied Poland to “pursue
all ways to emigrate” — an expression construed at the time as an instruction
to desist from further uprisings after the Warsaw ghetto. The
cable itself has never been found. However, as this study will show, its
existence is corroborated by many documents and testimonies.
Most important, the story of this document and the way it was
referred to during the Holocaust, the political controversy it ignited
in the 1950s, and the historiographical dispute that followed all go to
the roots of the problematic relations between the Yishuv and the Jews
of Europe during the Holocaust. The Tabenkin cable, which appears
in the wartime diaries of Chajka Klinger in Poland and was corroborated
afterwards in Różka Korczak’s testimony, is noted in the context
of the profound isolation and disillusionment that the ŻOB fighters in
Będzin felt toward the Yishuv and the pioneering (HeHalutz) movements
there, and it reflects one of the most severe grievances that the
fighters nurtured against their leadership in the Yishuv.
The stormy political debate that erupted when the existence of
the cable became known in Israel in the 1950s illuminates the ways
2 • Avihu Ronen
in which memory was shaped in that era and, particularly, how rescue
was perceived as sharply dichotomous and inferior to fighting and
morally and politically contemptible. The cable is also intimately related
to the way the early historiography of youth movements during
the Holocaust was produced and, in particular, how the historiography
that mythologized the uprisings was edited, pruned, and censored,
obscuring the painful questions concomitant to the subject of ghetto
fighting.
This article discusses all aspects of the cable, but not in chronological
order. It begins with the political and ideological polemics surrounding
the cable’s existence, from the time it became a significant and
controversial topic, and continues with the development of the political
controversy as historiography, initially as a value- laden movement
historiography and later as a more neutral one. Finally, it addresses the
historical discussion itself, namely, the circumstances under which the
cable was written, sent, and received.
In light of this painful controversy that spanned many years and
in the interest of full disclosure, the author states at the outset that he
is Chajka Klinger’s son and this article was written when he studied
and published her diaries.1 Most of the article, however, is based on a
focused and thorough discussion of a specific question that is largely
overlooked both in the book and in new documents discovered since
the book was published.

This article deals with a short period in the life of the Central and Eastern European Jewish communities after the Holocaust and focuses on a unique chapter which appears to be relatively neglected at present: the relations between the new Communist regimes and the radical Zionist youth movements. The evolution of these complex relations through time was based on a common struggle against Nazism led by groups of Zionists and Communists during the war, and on a common belief in the future of Socialism, but one which was contradictory about how this would be implemented in Europe and in Palestine.
However, this short period, 1944 to 1950, ended abruptly with the fall of the "Iron Curtain" and the prohibition of Zionist activity. This was a tragic finale to the memory of a common past and the illusion of "the world of tomorrow" which had formed the basis of these relations.
The article will focus on events characterizing three countries: Poland, Czechoslovakia, and Hungary.

The subject of my paper is a problematic one. Regarding the place of the Judenrat in the context of the holocaust collective memory, we find that it is still confusing and intriguing one.
We can feel deep sorrow for the millions of Jews who were liquidated in the death camps; we can feel sympathy and respect for the hundreds of thousands who struggled to survive in the Ghettos; we can feel admiration for the few who dared to resist with arms; but we have ambivalent feelings for those Jews who stood in the leading positions during this period.
How should we remember these people: as an instrument in the hands of the murderers or as a naive and helpless leadership, trying to save its people in an impossible situation? How should we locate their policy and actions in our Jewish and Israeli history: as a kind of rift in the historical succession, or as a kind of continuation? Is our modern identity rooted not only in the memory of Jewish martyrdom and heroism, but also in the memory of those who played such an unfortunate role in our History?

Jewish socialist solidarity in the Holocaust: Introductory remarks Solidarity is the cornerstone of every socialist idea. Therefore, research on Jewish socialist movements in the Holocaust, particularly the Zionist pioneering youth movements, presumes ab initio that a modus operandi centering on solidarity is at hand. In the context of these movements, then, the question is not whether solidarity existed under the extreme conditions of the Holocaust but whether it had the strength, resilience, and ability to cope with the conditions. Another question to ask when investigating the solidarity of the Jewish socialist movement concerns the extent to which one may consider it "Jewish." Even if one stipulates that a pattern of solidarity among Jewish organizations-"Jewish solidarity"-is at hand, the origins of this fraternity are universal, flowing chiefly from the idea of class and social solidarity. Therefore, Jewish solidarity may not originate in Jewish principles such as the idea of all Jews being responsible for one another. In the tradition of the youth movements, the French Revolution idea of fraternité, which jelled and metamorphosed into the famous rallying cry for proletarian unity, "Workers of the world, unite," 1 bonds with the principles of 'adat ha-ahim (fraternal community) or 'adat re'im (community of companions) in the educational group 2 to form a whole in which the value of the collectivity sometimes transcends that of its constituent parts. In this article, I will attempt to identify the main patterns of solidarity among alumni of the halutsic (Zionist pioneering) movements during the Holocaust, at the base of which stood communal self-organization or, as many such initiatives were called in Hebrew-kibbutzim. I will try to show that a broad range of communal configurations appeared during World War II, evolving in accordance with the conditions and with developments in the war: training collectives that came together in the Vilna rikuz (the Zionist pioneering center in Vilnius, Lithuania) at the beginning of the war; training communes that reorganized in the ghettos of occupied Poland; farms under the

A common cliché about writing in general and about the Holocaust in particular is that it provides catharsis, psychological relief and emotional release. In the case of the diary of Chajka Klinger, however, I wish to categorically deny the applicability of this generalization.

Hashomer Hatzair communication center in Switzerland (1941 – 1945), was the heart of a unique international network, which connected youth movements activists in occupied Europe, and their comrades in Palestine and in other Allies states and neutral countries. The center was voluntarily established in 1941 by a small group of young Swiss and German Hashomer Hatzair members who took on themselves the responsibility of keeping contact and supporting their besieged friends. These young people actually replaced the authorized representatives of their movement, who failed to keep contact with about 35,000 Hashomer Hatzair members all over occupied and Fascist Europe.
About 500 letters, reports and postcards were exchanged between Heini Bornstein and his colleagues in Switzerland, and Hashomer Hatzair leaders in Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania, France, Belgium and five more countries during 1941 – 1945. More than 200 other letters were exchanged between Switzerland and Hashomer Hatzair correspondents in Turkey, USA, England, Sweden and Portugal.
The correspondence, which was almost completely preserved, is a dramatic dialogue between youth movement activists reporting their desperate life and struggles, and their comrades in Switzerland who were trying to help them by encouraging words, money transfers, food packages supply and passports forms for falsified documents. Contemporary reading of the letters might produce new insights into the activity of Hashomer Hatzair and the possibilities of keeping international network during the Holocaust. Some of the letters concern most important cases of Jewish resistance and rescue actions during the Holocaust: The Ghettos uprising in Poland, the rescue operations in Budapest, the smuggling of the protocols of Auschwitz, the Partisan campaigns in Slovakia, the wandering of the "Villa Emma kids" from Croatia, via Slovenia and Italy to Switzerland, the rescue plan by South American passports.

Hashomer Hatzair communication center in Switzerland (1941 – 1945), was the heart of a unique international network, which connected youth movements activists in occupied Europe, and their comrades in Palestine and in other Allies states and neutral countries. The center was voluntarily established in 1941 by a small group of young Swiss and German Hashomer Hatzair members who took on themselves the responsibility of keeping contact and supporting their besieged friends. These young people actually replaced the authorized representatives of their movement, who failed to keep contact with about 35,000 Hashomer Hatzair members all over occupied and Fascist Europe.
About 500 letters, reports and postcards were exchanged between Heini Bornstein and his colleagues in Switzerland, and Hashomer Hatzair leaders in Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania, France, Belgium and five more countries during 1941 – 1945. More than 200 other letters were exchanged between Switzerland and Hashomer Hatzair correspondents in Turkey, USA, England, Sweden and Portugal.
The correspondence, which was almost completely preserved, is a dramatic dialogue between youth movement activists reporting their desperate life and struggles, and their comrades in Switzerland who were trying to help them by encouraging words, money transfers, food packages supply and passports forms for falsified documents. Contemporary reading of the letters might produce new insights into the activity of Hashomer Hatzair and the possibilities of keeping international network during the Holocaust. Some of the letters concern most important cases of Jewish resistance and rescue actions during the Holocaust: The Ghettos uprising in Poland, the rescue operations in Budapest, the smuggling of the protocols of Auschwitz, the Partisan campaigns in Slovakia, the wandering of the "Villa Emma kids" from Croatia, via Slovenia and Italy to Switzerland, the rescue plan by South American passports.

The paper deals with the images and self images of the survivors in Israel during the creative years (1945-1960), as reflected in the Israeli newspapers.
The research focuses on two kinds of Israeli newspapers: (a) Leading daily Hebrew newspapers (Daver, Al-Hamishmar, Haaretz); (b) Newsletters of Kibbutzim which founded by survivors during this period.
The term "survivor" (Nitzol) appeared in the Hebrew newspapers at the end of the Second World War, denoting Jews who escaped the camps and the Ghettoes. Since then, the term was used only rarely, and the common expression for the Jews in Europe is "remnants" ("Sheerit Ha-pleta"). In the following years the survivors were described in the Israeli newspapers as: "displaces", "refugees", "maapilim", "new immigrants", "settlers" etc. The survivors and their situation were classified according to their social function in the Israeli society. Only few articles were written by the survivors themselves, but usually by "Ghetto fighters", "Partisans" or underground activists. They wrote as heroes not as survivors.
Newsletters of the kibbutzim which founded by holocaust survivors emphasized heavily the new identity of the survivors. The holocaust is mentioned only in a few articles, and usually discussed in the context of the collective heritage of the "movement" but not by narratives of individual suffering. The authors conceived themselves as "founders", "pioneers", "socialist fighters" - not as survivors. The crucial experience as reflected in the articles is the founding of the new home as part of social and national recovery, while the near past was suppressed, covered, and sometimes almost deleted.
These images were ideology-laden: the new kibbutznik had to get rid of his Diaspora mentality and petite bourgeois manners, and to adopt a new identity of social and national pioneers. Memories of the Holocaust were part of the old identity to be left out when the survivors "enter the kibbutz gate" (Kibbutz Haogen 1958).
However, the articles reflect an image of an active Avante-Garde which takes a leading role in shaping Israeli society, but not the image of miserable, passive, or alienated "survivors". Only 30 years later will the alternative narrative appear, exposing the suffering of the survivors and their longing to their lost homes: "perhaps, our grandchildren would understand the stories that we never told our children" (Kibbutz Gaaton 1985)

Gdy nie ma narodu, nie potrzebna tego 1 awangarda-bo dla kogo ona była, jak nie dla niego?!". Napisane przez Chajkę Klinger zdanie stanowi jaskrawe i rzadko spotykane ujęcie powstania w getcie, które przedstawiła w swych pamiętnikach. Pamiętniki Chajki Klinger są źródłem oryginalnym, istotnym dla zrozumienia żydowskich ruchów młodzieżowych w okresie Zagłady, rozwoju Żydowskiej Organizacji Bojowej w Będzinie i Warszawie, postaci Mordechaja Anielewicza, stosunków panujących między organizacją podziemną a Judenratem oraz reakcji ludzi pochodzenia żydowskiego na eksterminację. Pisane w ukryciu w okolicach Będzina latem i jesienią 1943 r., stanowią także jeden z pierwszych wyczerpujących zapisów dotyczących prób obrony gett. Dokumenty powstały w Polsce i dotarły w czasie wojny za granicę. Ukazały się jednak tylko w okrojonej, ocenzurowanej wersji po samobójczej śmierci Chajki w 1958 r.