Talk:Rachel Zilberberg

Sources

The main article writer is new to wikipedia. I shall move most of his sources here and then reintroduce as references in the article--File Éireann 09:34, 26 April 2013 (UTC)

Quotes on Moshe and Sarenka Kopito from various books “The Underground”, Chaika Grossman,

This time I didn’t come to Warsaw alone. I came with Sarenka. I needed to get Sarenka from Vilna to Warsaw, after the catastrophe with Moshe Kopito, her friend. We decided to transfer her to a family in Warsaw and have her join the action there. Sarenka is short and very thin. A small, light face with a short nose. She has the face of a girl. Her hair is light, too, but what can be done about her burning black eyes, the eyes of a Hebrew, and how can she correct her curly hair? We dressed her as a child and braided her somewhat unruly hair and tied the ends with red ribbons. In my fake transfer pass, we noted “Sahalina Wenowicz and child” are going to Warsaw on the occasion of… etc. At least we got through the border check safely. Sarenka, who was a year older than me, was traveling as a child escorted by me (it wasn’t written down, G-d forbid, that she was my daughter, but could be understood as such). In any event, the Germans paid no attention. This time my sister dressed me to the nines. I wore a great top hat that made me appear older, by at least five years. My lips were colored, I wore an elegant coat and carried an expensive leather bag (which I got from a friend who took it from her mother). All of these things added importance to the way I looked, but a dreadful situation developed at the border crossing. One needs to wait an entire night at the Malkinia station, where they watch over you constantly. The Polish police wander around freely (the “Galina”), as do the German border police. Anyone could be suspicions of you, turn you over, and there’d be no escape, no way to. It was a stormy night, and the station was wide open to the winds. We were both shivering with cold. Sarenka displayed amazing courage. She didn’t panic, didn’t get shaken in any way, even though our situation was very risky. (1) page 109

The days flew by. Moshe Kopito came and went from my home, and I presented him as ‘my Hanik’. He brought news, instructions; sometimes he just came by to visit. He would troll the yards seeking milk for his baby daughter. I spoke to him with great sincerity, entreating him to take care of himself. I tried to convince him that Moshe or I would provide what he needs, but he wouldn’t agree. He was the one who looked like a “sheigetz”, a non-Jewish man, and the least likely to cause a link between us and the ghetto. “Adek can't wander around outside like a lion. All the worry about ‘cooperation’ is on his shoulders, but he can't even handle the concerns of one baby girl”, he’d claim. One day he came to inform me that Adek had changed his work place because they’d started talking about him: “They see I'm really needed here, which would be my downfall, if you kept coming to the same place.” “In that case, we need to fix you up with papers,” I remarked. But he paid no attention to my comment, and left. Since then, I saw him no more. Moshe was a member of the Warsaw unit, part of Mordechai Anilewicz’s brigade and one of his best friends. (2) page 26

“Youth Under Fire”, Aliza Wittis-Shomron

One day we were called to our brigade meeting with the new young woman delegate from the Vilna Ghetto. I think her name was Sarenka (or perhaps Rachel?) We all sat on the floor and before us stood a young woman, about 22 years old, whose hair already showed white streaks. In the twilight she looked so pretty and noble, but her eyes seemed extinguished. “It was a night of horrors. We – the members of Hashomer Hatzair [The Young Gurad] hid in one apartment. We listened to the voices coming from the street. The Germans’ vehicles stopped and then we heard voices, shouts, shots, heart rending crying. This is how they evacuated one street after another. To where? To the forests near the city, Ponar, no doubt the valley of slaughter. “Thousands of Jews had already been taken there. We have witnesses who fled from the pit itself and described how they stood men, women and children in rows along the mouth of the pit, then shot them. We live in constant fear. I came to tell you to be wary of them. We have secure information on liquidation of the ghettos throughout east Poland, Ukraine and Lithuania. We have decided to defend ourselves, we youth left in the ghetto have decided not to go like sheep to the slaughter. Half of us will stay in the ghetto, and the rest will try to break through to the partisans. Abba Kovner wrote a poster calling to us to fight. It calls to us to arm and oppose the Nazis. We will not go as sheep to the slaughter. We have decided that when our end comes, we will not die without defending ourselves. And if we will have no weapons, we will spit in their faces. At least we will show them the derision we hold for them: and that is how we will fall. But at least our actions will not go unremembered. The Warsaw Ghetto Rebel. She spoke easily, though sometimes her voice would break and a troubling silence would fall over us. We were in shock. It was difficult to believe – was it possible they were killing women and children? pages 74-75

The Book of Jewish Partisans, “Rahel (Sarenka) Zilberberg was born in Warsaw, Poland in 1920 and was a member of the Hashomer Hatzair Jewish Youth Movement. With the outbreak of WWII, she left for Vilna, then returned to Warsaw and joined the underground. She was a member of the Hashomer Hatzair combat unit. She fell in that war.” Volume 2, pg 707

“Destruction and Rebellion of the Warsaw Jews”, Melech Neustadt, 1946

Zilberberg, Rachel (Sarenka – listed among the fallen of the ghetto. When she joined Hashomer Hatzair, there were several girls in her unit named Rachel. Because she was so small and yet so full of life she was given a Polish nickname, Sarenka, meaning gazelle). Born in Warsaw on 5 January 1920, to orthodox parents who sought to raise her according to their outlook but she insisted they send her to the “Jewish Gymnasium” and her wishes were accepted. In this way she overcame her parents’ resistance to joining Hashomer Hatzair. She was part of the “Front” brigade, excelled in her studies and showed excellent organizational abilities. She was also an outstanding sportswoman. In later years she became ill and weakened, but rejected all offers of special treatment. From 1938, she became a group leader for the younger levels and was much loved by her cadets. When war broke out she moved to Vilna with her younger sister Ruth (who now lives in Israel) and other friends and was part of the large Hashomer Hatzair kibbutz movement. For a while she joined the Hamanof kibbutz in Kaidani. Well educated, she held an important role in the kibbutz. With Vilna’s conquest by the Nazis, her life companion, Moshe Kopito, was murdered: Moshe had been the closest friend of Mordechai Anilewica, and together they joined Hashomer Hatzair. In was in this period (February 1941) that she gave birth to her daughter Maya. For a while she hid together with the infant, eventually depositing the child into hiding and she herself returning to Warsaw. However, she was forced to assist her mother, who owned a small grocery store at 34 Novolippa Street. She participated in underground activities, was a member of a Hashomer Hatzair fighting unit, and fell with her weapon upon her. Her name is listed among the fallen of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. (1) page 294-295

Frenkel, Tova. Tied to actions, and in friendship, with Mira Fuechrar, Rachel Zilberberg (uprising leaders) and others. (2) page 368

Anilewicz, Mordechai. Joined Hashomer Hatzair [The Young Guard] at age 14 or 15 as the best friend of Moshe Kopito (murdered in 1941 in Vilna). (3) page 221

“Holocaust and War”, Professor Dinah Porat

Simultaneously, the nine Dominican nuns and the leading monk, with glowing faces, welcomed the Jews seeking refuge. Among them were members of Hashomer Hatzair [The Young Guard Movement], including Kovner, Aryeh Vilner, Joseph and Tzipporah Ritter, Huma (Nechama, later Gadot), Serenka Kopito and Teivel Gelblum. A total of some 15 to 20 men and women were kept in the wooden structures. page 71

Schmeltzovnik, by Moshe Domb In the book, Sarenka appears under the name of Ruth. What are you busy with? What’s happening to you?! Ruth cried in an outburst of anger at the first meeting in the movement’s quarters. “Are you living in an imaginary world?” she slammed hard at Mira. “Our nation is being destroyed, and you're playing with maybe, diverting your attention from reality!?” A wave of horror swept across her and she described to Mira the images of atrocity she’d experienced in conquered Vilna. “Have you not heard Abba Kovner’s call? ‘Do not go as sheep to the slaughter’ ? Hitler’s plotting to exterminate all Europe’s Jews and the Germans are doing that methodically and cleverly. Warsaw’s turn will also come! Does it not penetrate your minds that you need to prepare to defend yourselves and die nobly through some kind of opposition? You live in a fools’ paradise, you shut your eyes and delude yourselves like all those who momentarily avoid the inferno, then convince themselves: ‘it’ll never happen to us!’” (1) page 90

In melancholic mood, Ruth met with Mordechai who served as head of the movement. Mordechai found it hard to soften her gloomy outlook. The conversation didn’t move along well, nor did his attempts at talking about Moshe help (Moshe Kopito, killed in Vilna, had been Ruth's partner, father of her child), even though they’d been closest friends since childhood. He tried to get her talk about what was closest to her heart, to no avail. She seemed paralyzed. Any attempt at changing the topic was unsuccessful. Her heart was too sorrowed and she couldn’t overcome it. Only when he talked about ideologies, and the movement’s teachings, she roused, and railed against him. “You sedate the youth and prevent them from seeing reality, but in the end they’ll be led like sheep to slaughter together with those Jews who delude themselves into thinking ‘it will never happen to us’.” This broke the ice. She had touched on the root of the problem of concern for the movement, and Mordechai answered equally sharply: “Should we join those who say, ‘Eat and drink for tomorrow we die’?” “We will die, we will die, we will die,” Ruth screamed back, “the only question is, how will we die? Without honor? Without opposing them? Leaving behind shame and disgrace? Bringing indignity upon ourselves and on the coming generations? History will remember us for eternal dishonor!”

Mordechai, familiar with her admonitions, ran the movement’s principles by her again: only creative activities, only work that numbs the senses, can save a person during such times. Just as people in the north pole need to constantly move around, otherwise they’d freeze, so we need to be alert over our youth, that they don’t get caught up in a defeatist atmosphere and undermine the belief that there is good in mankind. They shouldn’t be allowed to get to despair. “The good in mankind,” Ruth sighed, “what world do YOU live in?”

Mordechai rallied all his powers of persuasion but Ruth was not one of those girls who lapped up his every word. His comments, of a ‘nevertheless’ nature, never penetrated her cleft soul. She, on the other hand, spilled all that was bitter inside her, and talked of harsh things: blindness, dulled senses. “You sedate the youth instead of rousing them to action. Look at the Jewish police and there you will see the good in mankind. The best of young lofty minds voluntarily serving in this force, “Ordenonges Dunst” as the Germans called them. Like animals, prey to others of their people. Or those in entertainment and pleasure clubs, while their brethren wither, and the spark of life is taken from them: are they the good in mankind? Look at the Poles, the Lithuanians, the Ukrainians, they joy over what happens to us becomes a shout of murder and wildness. Their animal cruelty is not less than that of the Germans. Why does the fire of vengeance not burn in your bones? Why don’t you question me on what happened in Lithuania? Why doesn’t it penetrate your mind and that of the movement that the Germans have decided to utterly destroy all European Jews? Why don’t you believe Hitler, who has declared that all Jews of Europe will disappear by the end of this war? And they go about it persistently, with satanic planning and efficiency. Warsaw’s time will come! You fool yourself that it’s not possible that the Germans would destroy a half million Jews in Poland’s capital city. (2) pages 92-93

Ruth eventually returned to the movement. Initially she bowed to Mordechai’s pleas and agreed to appear before the brigades, talking about the destruction of Lithuania’s Jews, and about Ponar, where half of Vilna’s Jews were shot to death. She repeatedly showed that the murders in the east were not an occasional phenomenon but the implementation of an advance plan to eradicate Jews from all the conquered countries. The cadets were horrified. They were plagued by sleeplessness, and several days later returned to their own realities and carried on the routines of their lives. In these meetings with the cadets, Ruth experienced the trauma anew. She could not blithely accept the idea that while destruction of body and soul awaited those living in the ghetto, the movement continued to act as it had always done: young men and women looking normal, and dressed in the scouts ties and gear, gathering for regular activities: Assembly! Be strong and of good courage! Stand at attention! Stand at ease! Let’s sing together. Here is the anthem. What were they thinking? When they burst into song, she couldn’t control her emotions, and tears streamed down her face. The cadets understood her distress, and stopped singing, but the songs became more poignant. (3) page 93

When Ruth calmed down a little, Mordechai began to include her in the movement’s public activities. She realized that he maintained contacts with Zionist youth movements and the political parties. All the parties that existed prior to the war still exist with the same instruments: the central committee, the chair persons, the deputies, the shifters and doers. The world carries on the way it carries on…. Even the remarks of the leaders were accompanied by pathos, as though they were speaking at an assembly of a great many participants. They behaved towards the representatives of the pioneering youth movements with arrogance, as though they were the youth’s patrons. To her shock, she noticed that her friends related with pronounced respect towards these political activists. It made her angry, the appearance of the “Bonds” leader, who rattled off his party’s program: “The struggle against the conqueror is not the issue of Jews alone, but of the entire Polish nation….” (4) page 94

Ruth was horrified to her core at the words coming from the mouth of Mauricei Ozach, leader of the Bonds. She could clearly feel the effects of these “socialist” Poles. It was a member of the Polish PPS, a “socialist” – Moshe’s friend (Moshe Kopito, father of Maya who I seek to this day) prior to the invasion, who brought the German over and pointed Moshe out: “There’s a Jewish communist”, and in one instant shattered his brain with a bullet. Ruth remembered the Poles as being even more cruel than the Germans, and rife with the danger of being informants as she wandered from Vilna to Warsaw. (5) page 95

Not only the leader of the “Bonds” – nor did the leaders of the Zionist political parties rush to initiate a fighting organization against the Germans’ plots, explaining that rash behavior on the part of the youth would endanger the existence of the entire ghetto, G-d forbid! The impression they made on her was that first and foremost, they were concerned with their own honor and devoted very little energy to public matters. Ruth gritted her teeth, feeling helpless. (6) page 95-96

At last Ruth held a heart to heart conversation with Mordechai. He was the one who poured out his heart to her. “It seems you are right”, she heard for the first time. He admitted that he had lost precious time, “and who knows if we aren’t too late. We didn’t see clearly at the start, we were swept along by the views of authority and leaders of miserable minds. Nor did we, members of Hashomer Hatzair [The Young Guard] relate to Abba Kovner’s warning with full seriousness. Who knows if everything we did over the past two and a half years is in vain? Will we too just disappear without leaving any member of opposition? Without fighting for our lives? Without avenging our own blood?” Mordechai wondered aloud. (7) pages 96-97

It was the first time Ruth had seen Mordechai pensive, tense and angry. It was actually she who calmed his conscience: “Time was indeed wasted, but you’ve strengthened a cadre of people who’ve nurtured norms and social values and who won't let you down, and when the order comes, they’ll stand by it and pit their souls in contra to save the nation’s honor.” (8) pages 96-97

As he continued talking, Mordechai disclosed his innermost thoughts. “Over two things I'm deeply sorry. One, I was wrong, and acted not in accordance with reality’s dictates. The second thing I'm sorry about is the trust and honor given to party leaders.” Once Ruth returned (from Vilna) and got her strength up, she was entirely swallowed up by her movement, and they saw her at home only on rare nights, though her face was looking healthier, and her friends made sure she had the best food they could get. (9) page 105

Ruth: “But we, this handful of young people, have determinedly decided that the Germans will pay with their blood for the blood of our lives. Jews will no longer be decimated without first giving a fight, we will avenge our downtrodden honor!” (10) pages 158-159

Ruth: “Explain to her that I cannot accept her generosity, I am set on my decision not to leave my comrades! I will fight together with them until my last breath for our nation’s downtrodden honor!” (11) page 159

“Better to die in physical opposition than to choke in the gas chambers of Treblinka!” was the motto. (12) page 168

When Mordechai Anilewicz took on command of the combat organization, he completely ignored the opinions and advice of the leaders of the parties and other public figures. He organized the combat units like an army that has no other authority above it to which it must submit. After the January rebellion, he diligently held HQ meetings and meetings with the unit commanders. (13) page 170

Anilewicz: “They must be read for their last battle, telling the world that the Jewish nation has youth that holds their heads high, and are brave; that rebelled and fought for their people’s honor until their souls’ last breath.” (14) page 171

“Ruth and Mira were busy day and night in feverish preparations for the last battle. They took on task after task, chiefly educational, encouraging and reinforcing the fighters’ spirit.” (15) page 172

Ruth: “I will never leave my comrades,” she said. “I am tied to them with a thousand bonds that will never unravel. If I go, I would see myself as worthy of eternal shame, and if I stayed alive, I would never forgive myself.” (16) page 173

Ofer Aloni - I have moved sentence about him here as it does not appear to belong in the main article

In commemoration of the social connection in the hearts of the Uprising’s rebels, “in death as in life were they never parted”, Sarenka’s nephew Ofer, named for his late aunt Ofra-Sarenka, a series of activities in Israel and worldwide, all tied to assimilating HOPE, at all levels: personal, social, marketing and political - exit2hope