and the redemption
The waste
ZVIELLI
ALEXANDER
his
kapo in order to be able to
blindlyservingKonczal. No other kapo
and the
underground. Two prisoners'was judgedby such prejudices,
"honor courts" concluded
that there was
was
mutual.
The
task
of
animosity
kapo
about his kapo acwas
nothing exceptional
demanding one; it was difficultto
tivities and this allowed him to jointhe
keep order under terrifying
camp conditions and violent means
were
underground.
frequently
However,
his release from
Buneeded to keep order. Haredi Jews would
upon
each other?
chenwald,
on
,52
,5491
the Polish
not forgive
Eliezer for beatings
that they
Jewish Kapo in
slandering
May
Auschwitz,
well-written and documentCommunist
would suffer silently
under other kapos.
Partystarted to conduct an
the
ed biographyof Eliezer Gruenbaum,
extensive inquiry in Warsaw,
BuchenAfter prolonged and
costlyproceedCommunist
wald and Paris and found him guilty
of
Jewish kapo at Auschwitz,
ings,the French court had decided in
their ra1946 that it could not judge foreigner
proves that it was important to convey to
maltreating
prisoners,
stealing
us the whole
truth, no matter how bitter, tions. It denied that he had ever foughtin
whose alleged
crimes were
committed
in
of this conflict which
stillcontinues
to
his Communist
record
Spain,questioned
foreign
country.Eliezer was freed, but he
Tuvia Friling,
he was barred from rehad nowhere
to go. He could not remain
profes- and subsequently
separateJews today.
at
Ben-Gurion
Unisor of Modern
turn
to
bePoland.
This
was
bitter
in
France, Poland refused to take him in.
History
joke,
and fair cause
offers us an all-embracing
in refugees'
versity,
camps he encouraged Here again,his father secured from Hillel
of the painful
of some
other Jews to return to Poland and begin Seidman an Agudat Israelcertificate )!(
for
pages
presentation
of our history,
Palestine. Thus Eliezer arrived in Jerusagood lifethere.
Yitzhak Gruenbaum
was
In September
,5491
Eliezer was beaten
lem on May
,1
,6491
where he lived qui)0791-9781(
the leader of Polish Jewry,the organizer on
Paris street by
number
of Jewish
etlyand fellin defense of Ramat Rahel on
of the Bloc of Minorities in the Polish parsurvivors, denounced
"war criminal"
as
,22
.8491
The haredi version was that
May
of the
liament,
General Zionist, member
and arrested by police.
The new
shot him dead. His friend, Stefa
inqui- someone
of the World
Zionist Executive, chairman
committed
suicide.
ry ran along four different perspectives:Rosenzweig,
Rescue Committee
War IljewishAgency's
There was
the haredi (ultra-Orthodox) The Israeli Defense Ministry's
official
and interior minister in the provisional version that accused him of hatingreli- memorial,
agreedupon in close coopera.9491-8491 giousJews, murdering,beatingand hution with family,
tellsus that at the begingovernment of Israelin
in
His son, Eliezer, born in Warsaw
,9091
out of spite. ning of the War
of Independence,he remiliatingthem, sometimes
Polish-Hewas
educated
in "Tarbut,"
There was
the Communist
Guard,
Partyverdict
portedfor service with the People's
brew Zionist school.
former member
of
that accused him of spreading
fear that
and when
the fighting
intensified, for
CommuHashomer
Hatzair, he became
the Soviet Union
would lose the war and
regularservice. His militaryexperience,
nist and was
sentenced to four-and-half
his
sound judgment as an older man
blindly
serving Nazi masters.
among
But
who
there were
also witnesses
his friendliness, self-disciyears in Polish prison.After two years in
younger ones,
name
as
join the
due
jail,
Miriam's
to his mother
connec
grantedleave to recuperate
and was
out of Poland, through
spirited
Czechoslovakia,
to study in France. In
,8391
he joinedthe SpanishInternational Brigadeto fight
the fascists and upon
tions he
his return
was
was
interned in France, but his
again secured his release.
Eliezerearned
degreein law and
mother
War
volunteered
II, he
army, but
was
ish Sikorski
of France
for the
worked
French
and joined
the Polrejected,
brigadeinstead. After the fall
he refused to be
,0491
in
evac-
England,and joinedthe French
underground.Caught by French police.
under the name
he arrived in July,
,2491
of Eeon Berger,
in Auschwitz-Birkenau
and
uated
was
to
tattooed
No.
.75034
of his
prisoners,aware
and
experience,knowledge of German
other languages(butnot Yiddish),
recomThe
Block
that if plineand the good humor
with which he
made his comments
alldid much
to raise
necessary for the
common
,22
,8491
good, for the block's discipline his company's morale. On May
and cleanliness had to be keptfor the sake
concerted
attack was
on
made
Ramat
that he saved
he beat
of the
prisonersthemselves.
And
there
said he
who
They
vigorously.
being blamed
to Paris and
came
son
him
his father, Yitzhak
fending his
his
settled in Palestine in 1933
defended
was
was
Rahel. Eliezer volunteered
familynarrative;good
was
Zionists who
hated
lives, and
it was
someone,
and who
At the outbreak of World
journalist.
as
claimed
by
those
who
spent fortune de-
He firmlybelieved
beingblamed by those
formed
in the
Polish
Ukrainians,
comrades,
was
The
coveringhis
hit again.
Eliezer'sconduct
con-
tinued for the next
show
this
uniting Jews,
parliament,
and
until he
strifeabout
was
shoot,
that
of the Minorities,"
Belarusians
to
who
1920s, Yitzhak Gruenbaum
"Block
hit, but continued
50 years, duringwhich
books, films,newspaper articles,even
TV
hated his Polish activities.
had
with
to set out
and took his machine
gun with him. During the retreat he
Gruenbaum,
son.
During the
the reinforcements
Germans
40 percent of the population.
This angered the Poles suspiciousof planned
to
,2002
continued
in
to
elaborate
Haredi journalists
continued
tragedy.
blame
him
and
his father
as
partof
with two severe
larger
process of grappling
blows to their society:
the Holocaust and
the birth of the State of Israel.'Fheyargued
that
Zionism
asked whether
generated Nazism.
JEWISH
KAPO
on
They
Jews should have accepted
Jewish domination
and
also the Aguof responsibility
that served the
positions
da, which believed that he was
Nazi
"I'hefact
was
that
stirring
regime.
kaposhad
anti-Semitism, and that the Jews should
to be brutal, but they frequently
helped
mended
him as
assigned
kapo,(prisoner
interests only. l-'i- prisonerssurvive. Many witnesses who
by SS guards to superviseforced labor), look after their own
in 1926 Josef Pilsudski became
met Eliezer in the camps and in the underdeputy to the well-known murderer Block
nally,
,2491
he was
Chief Konczal. In August
dictator, but the Aguda struggle
against ground found him helpful.
sent to Block Officers School and appoint- Gruenbaum
and Zionism
continued unTuvia Friling
writes well and with deep
at Block
claimed
ed
.4
After he recuperat- abated. The haredim
The book
offers
substantial
clerk in Block
feeling.
as
that Eliezer inherited the hatred of reli- background historical information.
ed from typhushe returned to Block
We
Konczal's deputy.Later, in Blocks 39 and
watch
with understandingthe tragedy
giousJews in the house of his father.
as
he was removed
from his position
Itwas
fact that Eliezer,as
of
who started his intellec,02
good Comyoung man
laborer. From
block chief and placedas
munist, had littlerespectfor those Yidtual progress at Hashomer
Hatzair, but
him
1944 until January 1945 he toiled
reminded
fell victim to Communism
March
and betrayal.
Jews who
dish-speaking
and in Jawischowitz of the ghettohe sought to escape, and
in Buna-Monowitz
strangequirkof fate led this misguidmines,
and was
have
treated
them
more
ed
evacuated to BuchenJew to make the supreme sacrifice at
harshly.
may
he returned to Paris afBut many such prisoners
were
dewald. Eventually,
prejudiced Ramat Rahel, and thus he became
to him since they were
ter liberation,
taughtto despise fender of Israel, and this should not be
his father. They also found him arrogant
While stillin camps Eliezer had to clear
forgotten
By Tuvia Friling
Translated by Haim
Watzman
Brandeis University
Press
344 pages;
04$