A SURPLUS OF MEMORY: CHRONICLE OF THE WARSAW GHETTO UPRISING (Sheva' ha-shanim ha-hen: 1939-1946)

Memoir by Yitzhak Zuckerman, 1990

Yitzhak Zuckerman's A Surplus of Memory: Chronicle of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising (1993; Sheva' ha-shanim hahen: 1939-1946, 1990) is a work that deserves many more accolades than it has received. It is an amazingly detailed chronicle of the bonds of brotherhood against the Nazi machine bent on destroying the Jews of Poland. Zuckerman (whose underground name was "Antek") was a key figure in the organization of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising and was one of just a few to survive the ordeal. Given the chances that he and the others in his group took, it is surprising that any of them lived to tell the tale. Zuckerman leaves behind a very clear and detailed chronicle of the events that took place and pays homage to the brave souls who assisted him in the attempt to beat the odds and rise up against Nazi aggression in the ghetto. This work was actually assembled from numerous voice recordings of his recollections of the period and was not released until after his death (at his request). The most striking feature of this work is the ages of those who participated. Most were in their twenties and early thirties. Zuckerman stated that he liked working with young people. "I thought we should start all over with a younger, more ideological generation, who were more willing to sacrifice, that we should start all over and not endanger the generation of activists that I knew," he said.

Zuckerman was a member of the movement He-Halutz Ha—Tza'ir (Young Pioneers), a Zionist Socialist movement that later united with Frayhayt (Hebrew: "Dror" ; English: "Freedom") and a member as well of Żidowska Organizacja Bojowa (ŻOB; Jewish Fighting Organization). He was dedicated to the education of youth so that appreciation for Jewish life, lore, and history could grow and further foster a movement against those who sought to destroy Europe's Jews. What he could not have foreseen was that he was up against something that he himself could never have imagined. In fact, his most difficult problem was persuading other Jews to believe what was going on outside of the Warsaw Ghetto walls. After having survived a week in a labor camp, which was slowly becoming more of a concentration camp, he realized that the future for the Jews of Poland was very grim. Further reports from other members of his movement, scattered all about Europe, brought further atrocities to light: gassing in Chelmno, mass killings in Vilna (including the annihilation of all of Zuckerman's family, including distant relatives, which almost brought Zuckerman to his knees). With the support of his faithful assistants, including his wife, Zivia Lubetkin (to whom Zuckerman referred as "the backbone of our group"), he began to rise from depression to action. Three factors were present that made the ghetto uprising come together: The various movements involved were very fraternal, consisting of young people who had known one another almost all of their lives, making infiltration nearly impossible to accomplish; the strength and courage of those surrounding Zuckerman; and his ability as an underground figure to move about rather freely, always changing addresses, in order to survive.

The work is divided into fifteen chapters, ending with the pogroms in Kielce. Because it was originally an oral chronicle it can be repetitive in places, and the history of the time is sometimes confused. Zuckerman, however, presents an excellent eyewitness view of ghetto life that haunted him for the rest of his life. "The establishment of the ghetto meant a revolution in our life. Suddenly you saw poverty in a concentrated and harsh form. You got used to it," he said. Zuckerman never got used to the fact that many others seemed to ignore the presence of the ghetto and the cruelty therein. He admonishes those in the know for having done nothing to help, but he is also quick to praise those Poles and others who were sympathetic to his cause and risked their own lives to procure weapons and monetary support for the uprising. Still the world seemed to ignore the plight of the Jews. As Zuckerman stated in A Surplus of Memory: "Various people were thinking the same: if the world only knew! Up to now, no one took the initiative or said anything. Then we thought that, as soon as the world hears what is going on, things will change. And the truth was that when the world did find out, it was silent."

Before reading A Surplus of Memory it is advised that one study the names of the various movements and their functions as presented in the beginning of the work. The footnotes are also helpful in straightening out any confusion about those involved in the uprising. Barbara Hashav, translator and editor, has done an admirable job of making an oral history come alive in print. This is a work that should be combined with Lubetkin's In the Days of Destruction and Revolt, Zuckerman's The Fighting Ghettos, and Yisroel Gutman's The Jews of Warsaw, 1939-43 for a more complete understanding of the Jews of Poland.

—Cynthia A. Klíma