Memoirs of a Warsaw Ghetto Fighter [Hardcover]

Kazik (Simha Rotem) (Author), Barbara Harshav (Editor)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0300057970 | ISBN-13: 978-0300057973 | Publication Date: December 28, 1994

When the Nazis decided to liquidate the Warsaw Ghetto in 1943, five hundred young Jewish fighters within the Ghetto rose up to defy them. With no weapons, no influence, and no experience in warfare, they managed to resist the Germans for almost a month. In the end, when the battle was lost, the surviving Jews were led out of the ruins through the sewers by a nineteen-year-old fighter known as Kazik. As head courier of the Jewish Fighting Organization (ZOB), which had planned and executed the uprising, Kazik spent the rest of the war helping to care for the several thousand Jews who still remained in Warsaw. This book - an extraordinary story of courage and perseverance - is Kazik's wartime memoir. In stark, spare detail, Kazik reports on the efforts to prepare for the defense of the Warsaw Ghetto, the calamitous battle with the Germans, and the rescue of the few Jews who were still alive after the Ghetto was destroyed. He describes how he assumed a false Aryan identity in order to pass through the city as he collected money and found hiding places for the survivors. Constantly on guard, fearful of informers, his life always in danger, he nevertheless plotted resourcefully to aid his fellow Jews. He tells how he joined the Poles during their ill-fated uprising against the Nazis in Warsaw in 1944, had further brushes with death assisting the Polish underground, and returned to Warsaw to watch its liberation by the Russian army.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

As a courier protected by his gentile looks and false indentity papers, and as a leader of the daring group of 500 poorly armed, untrained men and women of the Jewish Fighting Organization (ZOB), the author, known as Kazik, helped stave off the Nazi liquidation of the Warsaw Ghetto for a month in 1943, an operation the Germans expected to complete within three days. This affecting account recalls the terror and danger of the period and how, after the battle for the ghetto was lost, 19-year-old Kazik led the escape of fighter-survivors through the sewers to safe houses on the Aryan side or to a nearby forest. He later fought with the Polish underground in their unsuccessful 1944 uprising against the Germans to free Warsaw. He and his family now live in Israel. Photos not seen by PW.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From School Library Journal

YA?Readers share the horrific account of the Nazi destruction of Warsaw's Jewish Ghetto as told by Kazik (Simha Rotem). Kazik was a 19-year-old freedom fighter who helped resist the Nazi takeover and helped smuggle the surviving Jews out of the ghetto through the sewers of Warsaw. Most died, as did the teenage heroes and heroines who had the strength and conviction to fight to the death for freedom. He "conveys things as I saw them," leaving readers to reflect on the times and the courage of the Jews. Kazik writes to honor those gone and help those remaining to appreciate freedom.?Linda Vretos, West Springfield High School, Springfield, VA
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 196 pages
• Publisher: Yale University Press (December 28, 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0300057970
• ISBN-13: 978-0300057973
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.7 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,516,233 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The young man that survived, July 18, 2005

By 

Inger Watts (Trondheim, Norway) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Memoirs of a Warsaw Ghetto Fighter (Paperback)

Kazik was a 19-year-old Jewish lad who survived the Nazi terror and systematic mass killings of Jews, the Warsaw ghetto uprising of 1943 and the Warsaw uprising of 1944.
He was also led many fighters out of the ghetto through the sewer, and he was responsible for the care of many Jews who were hiding in Polish homes. Kazik also managed to find shelters for his parents and his two sisters, and after the war he was one of the very few Jews whose parents were still alive. After the war, Kazik, his sister Raya and parents all immigrated to Israel. Kazik's other sister, Dina, was killed during the Warsaw ghetto uprising. Kazik didn't at that time know that his sister was in the ghetto.

I found the book interesting and heart gripping at the same time. It is amazing to read how Kazik manages to stay alive, and always seems to stay one step ahead of the Nazis and their helpers.

Kazik writes how he found one thing difficult when he arrived in Israel: When he told people that he was one of the very few survivors, it seemed like some almost blamed him for having survived. Kazik tells how people kept on asking him about people who had died, but never about those who had survived. This made him reluctant to talk about his past.
He writes about how one man told him that he (= Kazik) screamed every night in his sleep.
If Kazik had made a volume II about his life after the war, I surely would have read the book. His history is fascinating, and I hope his life was mainly a happy one after he immigrated to Israel.
I liked this book, and I found Kazik's story very interesting. Kazik tells us that he is not much of a talker, and that it was therefore difficult to dictate this book to the writer. Kazik may not be a talker or a skilled writer, but his story is one it is hard to forget.

11 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars touching and powerful, February 23, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Memoirs of a Warsaw Ghetto Fighter (Hardcover)

Being a decendant of a Holocaust survivor and also a Warsaw Ghetto survivor this book brough to life the pain struggle and courage that they all went through. This is one of the best books i have ever read and i would recomend it to anyone

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great First Person Account!, April 19, 2005

By 

M. Voorheis (Michigan) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Memoirs of a Warsaw Ghetto Fighter (Paperback)

Memoirs of a Warsaw Ghetto Fighter, written by one of the surviving members of the ZOB was a well-written account of not only life as a resistance fighter but also what life was like for the few that fought in the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. This is an easy read and I would recommend it to anyone who is interested in learning more about this period and what the Jews and all victims of the Nazis had to endure.