A Doctor of the World and a Human without Frontiers

Alina Margolis-Edelman

TWO WARSAW UPRISINGS

“When the ghetto was burning, I was on the Aryan side, standing in the crowd. I could hear what the people were saying. These were terrible things. I can’t get it out of my head, but I don’t want to repeat this, either. What would be the point? There, by the ghetto walls, in this crowd, I finally understood that I was a Jewess. This was a revelation to me. I felt a strong bond with those people – after all, I was one of them. But I survived. And then, even more importantly, I realized that my life was not what mattered most. When you see scores of people about to meet their death, people burning alive, your own life ceases to be the supreme value to you. This is why I was never again afraid when I visited war-torn countries. God already gave me my share of good. I survived the ghetto, I did not die in a gas chamber, I started a family. I can work, my children are fine. Isn’t that enough?”

The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising erupted on 19 April 1943, when the area was still populated by around forty thousand people. When the Germans entered the ghetto on the Easter morning to ferry the remaining residents to death camps, they were surprised by the strong resistance mounted by the Jews. The Jewish fighters were mostly young people, who knew they could not win, but wanted to die on their own terms, fighting. “If we are to survive, then we shall only survive as free people, and if this is not possible, then we shall die as free people”, they insisted. The Germans had to retreat, but they soon returned, with flamethrowers, armored vehicles, and tanks. Fighting only lasted a couple of days, until the Jews ran out of weapons. The ghetto fighters hid in basements and hiding places prepared in advance. In order to flush them out, the occupiers went from building to building, setting each one on fire, pumping gas into basements, and rounding up or murdering those they had found. The uprising ended on 16 May 1943, when the Germans blew up a synagogue. “The Warsaw ghetto has run its course”, said Jürgen Stroop, the commandant of the German troops. Only a few dozen Warsaw ghetto fighters survived, having escaped through the sewers.

Alina Margolis was looking at the burning ghetto from the Aryan side, and the horror show that it was left a permanent mark on her. She started helping the Jews who were on the run, sometimes she put them up for the night in her room, she helped them move between hiding places, and provided them with food and money from underground organizations. On 1 August 1944, upon learning that the Red Army troops were nearing Warsaw, the Poles decided they would liberate the Polish capital themselves. Thus, the Warsaw Uprising against the Germans broke out. Joining the fight were civilians, as well as the few surviving defenders of the ghetto. Alina became a paramedic in the Old Town zone. She did what she could do best, helping the sick and the wounded.

The Warsaw Uprising lasted sixty-three days. It is one of the most tragic events in the Polish history, having claimed the lives of between 150,000 and 200,000 civilians and around 16,000 soldiers. Left-bank Warsaw was almost completely destroyed.

After the uprising collapsed, Alina found herself in the Pruszków transit camp, where she met her mom. Both worked as nurses. In November 1944, as part of a convoy organized by the Red Cross, she helped a group of her friends from the Jewish Combat Organization leave the Żoliborz district. One of the evacuees was Marek Edelman, the last commandant of the Ghetto Uprising – her future husband.

After the war, Alina Margolis was awarded with a Cross of Valor, in recognition of her uncommon courage.

Photo caption: The ghetto on fire

Photo caption: A roundabout by the ghetto walls. Photo by Jan Lissowski.

Photo caption: The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising in Michał Arkusiński’s comic book Edelman, text by Maciej Cholewiński

Photo caption: The Warsaw Uprising

Photo caption: A paramedic and wounded insurgents, photo by Eugeniusz Lokajski (public domain)

Photo caption: Paramedics of the Warsaw Uprising, photo by Eugeniusz Lokajski (public domain)

“It is very often said that the valor of the Warsaw ghetto fighters saved the honor of the Jews. But much less is said about the valor of those who fired no shots – of those who were sentenced to death in anonymity, but who retained their freedom and dignity until the very end. Death in a gas chamber, death in the scorching heat of the desert, or death in the torturers’ camp is no less dignified than death in combat – only more gruesome. It is less commonly acknowledged that victims of the Holocaust also displayed moral resilience and dignity outside the heat of battle”.

“There, by the wall, it was the first time I had truly felt that I was a Jewess, and that I would forever be in communion with those burned alive, those who were suffocated, gassed in shelters, who fought and died – because they couldn’t but die – and those whose fate could have easily been my fate, too”.

“1 August 1944

We were supposed to take the Jews hiding there from one safehouse to another. Suddenly, a commotion broke out, and white-and-red bands appeared on the shoulders of many people. We had to quickly get back to the Old Town, where Inka was. We were walking through the city, people running in different directions passing us by. Roadblocks were being raised here and there. There were white-and-red armbands everywhere. Breathtaking.

Fighting broke out in the Old Town. The hospital was soon full of wounded people. A couple of girls of different ages gathered around Inka. They wanted to be paramedics. Only two or three of them had been sent to this section by the underground command of the Home Army. Others found themselves here by chance, some of theme were but children. Inka accepted everyone, even the twelve-year-olds. There weren’t any doctors, so the paramedics did not only attend to the wounded, but also put on dressings. Inka was there, showing everyone how to do it. I had a huge advantage over the others: I was a student of a nursing school. It was only then that I realized how important that was”.

WHAT DO YOU THINK? Do you think that death on the battlefield is more heroic than death in a concentration camp? Find out what Marek Edelman though about it. Have a look at Hanna Krall’s book To Outwit God and Kazimierz Moczarski’s Conversations with an Executioner.