Yitzhak Zuckerman ( pl, Icchak Cukierman; he, יצחק צוקרמן; 13 December 1915 – 17 June 1981), also known by his
nom de guerre "Antek", was one of the leaders of the
Warsaw Ghetto Uprising
The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising; pl, powstanie w getcie warszawskim; german: link=no, Aufstand im Warschauer Ghetto was the 1943 act of Jewish resistance in the Warsaw Ghetto in German-occupied Poland during World War II to oppose Nazi Germany' ...
in 1943 against
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...
during
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...
.
Biography
Zuckerman was born in
Vilnius
Vilnius ( , ; see also other names) is the capital and largest city of Lithuania, with a population of 592,389 (according to the state register) or 625,107 (according to the municipality of Vilnius). The population of Vilnius's functional urb ...
,
partitioned Poland (then part of the
Russian Empire
The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended the Great Northern War. ...
, now the capital of
Lithuania) into a
Jewish
Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...
family. As a young man he embraced the concepts of
socialism
Socialism is a left-wing Economic ideology, economic philosophy and Political movement, movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownership of the means of production as opposed to Private prop ...
and
Zionism
Zionism ( he, צִיּוֹנוּת ''Tsiyyonut'' after '' Zion'') is a nationalist movement that espouses the establishment of, and support for a homeland for the Jewish people centered in the area roughly corresponding to what is known in Je ...
.
After the
German and Soviet invasion of Poland in 1939 he was in the area overrun by the
Red Army
The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army ( Russian: Рабо́че-крестья́нская Кра́сная армия),) often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic and, afte ...
and initially stayed in the Soviet zone of occupation, where he took an active part in the creation of various Jewish underground socialist organisations. In the spring of 1940 he moved to
Warsaw
Warsaw ( pl, Warszawa, ), officially the Capital City of Warsaw,, abbreviation: ''m.st. Warszawa'' is the capital and largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the River Vistula in east-central Poland, and its population is officia ...
, where he became one of the leaders of the
Dror Hechaluc youth movement, along with his future wife
Zivia Lubetkin
Zivia Lubetkin ( pl, Cywia Lubetkin, , he, צביה לובטקין, nom de guerre: Celina; 9 November 1914 – 11 July 1978) was one of the leaders of the Jewish underground in Nazi-occupied Warsaw and the only woman on the High Command of the ...
. Zuckerman was issued a false passport by the
Ładoś Group
Ładoś Group, Bernese Group ( pl, grupa berneńska or ''grupa Ładosia'', french: groupe bernois) is a name given to a group of Polish diplomats and Jewish activists who during Second World War elaborated in Switzerland a system of illegal prod ...
.
In 1941 he became the deputy commander of the
ŻOB resistance organisation. In this capacity, he served mainly as the envoy between the commander of ŻOB and the commanders of the Polish resistance organizations of
Armia Krajowa and
Armia Ludowa
People's Army ( Polish: ''Armia Ludowa'' , abbriv.: AL) was a communist Soviet-backed partisan force set up by the communist Polish Workers' Party ('PR) during World War II. It was created on the order of the Polish State National Council on 1 ...
. On 22 December 1942 he and two accomplices attacked a café in
Kraków
Kraków (), or Cracow, is the second-largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River in Lesser Poland Voivodeship, the city dates back to the seventh century. Kraków was the official capital of Poland until 1596 ...
that was being used by the
SS and
Gestapo
The (), abbreviated Gestapo (; ), was the official secret police of Nazi Germany and in German-occupied Europe.
The force was created by Hermann Göring in 1933 by combining the various political police agencies of Prussia into one orga ...
. Zuckerman was wounded and narrowly escaped, and his two comrades were tracked down and killed.
In 1943, he was working on the "
Aryan" side of
Warsaw
Warsaw ( pl, Warszawa, ), officially the Capital City of Warsaw,, abbreviation: ''m.st. Warszawa'' is the capital and largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the River Vistula in east-central Poland, and its population is officia ...
to procure guns and ammunition when the
Warsaw Ghetto Uprising
The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising; pl, powstanie w getcie warszawskim; german: link=no, Aufstand im Warschauer Ghetto was the 1943 act of Jewish resistance in the Warsaw Ghetto in German-occupied Poland during World War II to oppose Nazi Germany' ...
erupted. Unable to enter the ghetto to join his comrades in battle, he nonetheless proved a crucial link between resistance forces within the ghetto and the
Home Army
The Home Army ( pl, Armia Krajowa, abbreviated AK; ) was the dominant resistance movement in German-occupied Poland during World War II. The Home Army was formed in February 1942 from the earlier Związek Walki Zbrojnej (Armed Resistance) est ...
on the "
Aryan" side. Along with
Simcha "Kazik" Rotem, he organized the escape of the surviving ZOB fighters through the sewers to safety. During the later
Warsaw Uprising
The Warsaw Uprising ( pl, powstanie warszawskie; german: Warschauer Aufstand) was a major World War II operation by the Polish underground resistance to liberate Warsaw from German occupation. It occurred in the summer of 1944, and it was led ...
of 1944, he led a small troop of 322 survivors of the Ghetto Uprising as they fought the Germans in the ranks of the
Armia Ludowa
People's Army ( Polish: ''Armia Ludowa'' , abbriv.: AL) was a communist Soviet-backed partisan force set up by the communist Polish Workers' Party ('PR) during World War II. It was created on the order of the Polish State National Council on 1 ...
.
After the war he worked as part of the ''
Bricha
Bricha ( he, בריחה, translit. ''Briẖa'', "escape" or "flight"), also called the Bericha Movement, was the underground organized effort that helped Jewish Holocaust survivors escape post– World War II Europe to the British Mandate ...
'' network, whose operatives smuggled Jewish refugees out of Eastern and Central Europe to
Mandate Palestine
Mandatory Palestine ( ar, فلسطين الانتدابية '; he, פָּלֶשְׂתִּינָה (א״י) ', where "E.Y." indicates ''’Eretz Yiśrā’ēl'', the Land of Israel) was a geopolitical entity established between 1920 and 1948 i ...
. In 1947 he himself made that journey, settling in what would soon be
Israel
Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...
. There he and his wife Zivia, along with other veterans of the ghetto undergrounds and former
partisans, were among the founding members of
Kibbutz Lohamei HaGeta'ot and the
Ghetto Fighters' House
The Ghetto Fighters' House ( he, בית לוחמי הגטאות, ''Beit Lohamei Ha-Getaot''), full name, Itzhak Katzenelson Holocaust and Jewish Resistance Heritage Museum, Documentation and Study Center, was founded in 1949 by members of Kibbut ...
(GFH) museum located on its grounds, commemorating those who struggled against the Nazis. GFH has a study center named for Zivia and Yitzhak Zuckerman. Zuckerman and Lubetkin settled in Lohamei HaGeta'ot and had two children, Shimon (b. 1947) and Yael (b. 1949).
In 1961 he appeared as a witness at the trial of Nazi
war criminal Adolf Eichmann in Israel. He died in 1981, in the kibbutz he had founded.
A record of a lengthy interview he gave in 1976 was expanded into the book ''Sheva ha-Shanim ha-Hen: 1939-1946''
ebrew: Those Seven Yearspublished in Israel in 1991, later translated into English and published as ''A Surplus of Memory: Chronicle of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising''.
His granddaughter
Roni Zuckerman
Roni Zuckerman (born 1981) is an Israeli who served as the first female jet fighter pilot for the Israeli Air Force.
Biography
Roni Zuckerman was born and raised on kibbutz Lohamei HaGeta'ot ("the Ghetto Fighters' kibbutz"), located near Haifa ...
became
Israeli Air Force
The Israeli Air Force (IAF; he, זְרוֹעַ הָאֲוִיר וְהֶחָלָל, Zroa HaAvir VeHahalal, tl, "Air and Space Arm", commonly known as , ''Kheil HaAvir'', "Air Corps") operates as the aerial warfare branch of the Israel Defens ...
's first female fighter pilot.
In 2001, the tale of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising was turned into a made-for-TV film entitled ''
Uprising
Rebellion, uprising, or insurrection is a refusal of obedience or order. It refers to the open resistance against the orders of an established authority.
A rebellion originates from a sentiment of indignation and disapproval of a situation and ...
'', with actor
David Schwimmer
David Lawrence Schwimmer (born November 2, 1966) is an American actor, director and producer. He gained worldwide recognition for portraying Ross Geller in the sitcom ''Friends'', for which he received a Screen Actors Guild Award and a Primeti ...
portraying Zuckerman.
See also
*
Marek Edelman
Marek Edelman ( yi, מאַרעק עדעלמאַן, born either 1919 in Homel or 1922 in Warsaw – October 2, 2009 in Warsaw, Poland) was a Polish political and social activist and cardiologist. Edelman was the last surviving leader of the ...
*
Izrael Kanal
*
Zivia Lubetkin
Zivia Lubetkin ( pl, Cywia Lubetkin, , he, צביה לובטקין, nom de guerre: Celina; 9 November 1914 – 11 July 1978) was one of the leaders of the Jewish underground in Nazi-occupied Warsaw and the only woman on the High Command of the ...
References
Bibliography
* Nir Itzik, "The Testimonies of Yitzhak (Antek) Zuckerman from Wartime to Those Seven Years: A Reassessment", Moreshet Journal for the Study of the Holocaust and Antisemitism, vol. 16/2019, pp. 135–183.
* Yitzhak Zuckerman, ''A Surplus of Memory: Chronicle of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising''; translated and edited by Barbara Harshav.
Berkeley
Berkeley most often refers to:
*Berkeley, California, a city in the United States
**University of California, Berkeley, a public university in Berkeley, California
* George Berkeley (1685–1753), Anglo-Irish philosopher
Berkeley may also refer ...
:
University of California Press
The University of California Press, otherwise known as UC Press, is a publishing house associated with the University of California that engages in academic publishing. It was founded in 1893 to publish scholarly and scientific works by facult ...
, 1993.
* Yitzhak Zuckerman, 'A life in the ghetto'; translated and edited by Barbara Harshav.
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Zuckerman, Yitzhak
1915 births
1981 deaths
20th-century Israeli Jews
Jewish Combat Organization members
Jewish Polish politicians
Jewish resistance members during the Holocaust
Jewish socialists
Kibbutzniks
Ładoś List
Labor Zionists
Polish emigrants to Mandatory Palestine
Polish Zionists
Politicians from Vilnius
Warsaw Ghetto inmates
Warsaw Ghetto Uprising insurgents
Warsaw Uprising insurgents