Armed Resistance of the Jews in Europe (1944)
First Edition of
Armed Resistance of the Jews, 1944
Apenszlak, Jacob and Polakiewicz, Moshe. Armed Resistance of the Jews in Poland. New York: American Federation for Polish Jews, 1944.
Octavo. Paper Wrappers. 1st Edition.
First edition of this meticulous cataloguing of armed Jewish resistance in occupied Poland during World War II. Jacob Apenszlak was the editor-in-chief of the Polish newspaper Nasz Przeglad until he fled to American in 1939 to escape the Nazis. He was a frequent co-writer with Moshe Polakiewicz. Together, working for the American Federation for Polish Jews, the pair produced this work on the armed resistance of the Jews in Poland. While most know about the Polish partisans, the Polish Jewish community was also heavily involved in trying to disrupt and destroy the Nazi occupation as partisans and also as guerilla fighters in the ghettoes (Lublin, Vilna, Warsaw) and in the death camps (Majdanek, Trawniki, Poniatow). The authors devote a substantial section to relating the horrors of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising in chronological order, from the uniquely cruel murders of the inhabitants to various individual stands against deportation to the death camps. In addition to focusing on those resistance efforts, this work serves as an honest journalistic report on the state of Jewish life in Poland and the existential threat imposed by the Nazis. Contemporary book stamp on title page with a couple faint ink smudges of David Klementinowski, author of Life and Annihilation of the Bialystok Ghetto, 1948. Fine condition.