Isaac's Army (64 page)

6
of children burned alive
Czeslaw Luczak,
Dzieje Polski 1939–1945
(Poznan: Wydawnictwo Poznanskie, 2007), pp. 12–14.
21 “Anti-Semitism has spread all over the nation”
Paul Johnson,
A History of the Jews
(New York: HarperPerennial, 1998), p. 470.

7
“We worked hard and the Poles were nice to us”
Zuckerman,
Surplus of Memory
, p. 6.

8
“It was crazy, it was chaos”
Boruch Spiegel, author interview, Motreal, November 2007.

9
“Go, I will stay with Robert”
Martha Osnos, unpublished journal, p. 3.

10
Simha felt frightened and helpless
Simha Ratheiser-Rotem, author interview, Jerusalem, March 2009.

11
“Wolska Street is covered with blood”
Dunin-Wasowicz,
Warszawa w latach 1939–1945
, p. 29.

C
HAPTER
4: R
OBERT
’
S
P
APER
A
IRPLANES

1
“I don’t know why they went off and left me”
Zuckerman,
Surplus of Memory
, p. 7.

2
“There would always be a dozen bodies lying on the road”
Boruch Spiegel, author interview, Montreal, November 2007.

3
flew at only half the speed of the far more advanced Messerschmitts
Hempel,
Poland in World War II
, p. 10.

4
the Warsaw Fighter Brigade had knocked out 72 German craft
Ibid.

5
“They began bombing the woods”
Zuckerman,
Surplus of Memory
, p. 8.

6
“I didn’t know whether to walk at the head of the line”
Ibid., p. 9.

7
“No one gave any thought to serious fighting”
Marian Porwit,
Obrona Warszawy, Wrezesien, 1939
(Warsaw: Panstowe Wydawnicywo Naukowe, 1979), p. 51.

8
82,000
civilian and military defenders
Grzelaka,
Warszawa we Wrezesniu 1939 Roku
, p. 106.

9
nearly one hundred battle-ready divisions sitting behind the Maginot Line. The Führer had only twenty-five divisions
Richard C. Lukas,
Forgotten Holocaust: The Poles Under German Occupation 1939–1944
(New York: Hippocrene Books, 1997), p. 2.

10
“a rain of bombs”
Raul Hilberg, Stanislaw Staron, and Josef Kermisz,
The Warsaw Diary of Adam Czerniakow
(Chicago: Elephant Paperbacks, 1999), p. 73.

11
“so urgent and important”
Martha Osnos, unpublished journal.

12
saw piles of books shaken from the shelves
Olczak-Ronikier,
W Ogrodzie Pamieci
, p. 267.

13
“This new reality offered certain attractions”
Ibid.

14
“I don’t recall once being scared”
Robert Osnos, author interview, New York City, September 2008.

15
“The planes swooped so low over the Royal Gardens”
Simha Ratheiser-Rotem, author interview, Jerusalem, March 2009.

16
to her brother-in-law’s spacious apartment
Martha Osnos, unpublished journal, p. 2.

17
five thousand shells fell on the Jewish Quarter and Midtown
Grzelaka,
Warszawa we Wrezesniu 1939 Roku
, p. 488.

18
astounding donation of $15 million by another Jewish philanthropist, Leopold Kronenberg
Fuks,
Mowia Wieki
, p. 11.

19
“an ocean of flames”
Martha Osnos, unpublished journal, p. 5.

20
“Young Poles and Jews performed miracles of heroism”
Emmanuel Ringelblum,
Polish-Jewish Relations in the Second World War
(Evanston, Illinois: Northwestern University Press, 1992), p. 26.

21
“There were no weapons”
Boruch Spiegel, author interview, Montreal, November 2007.

22
The town had had a prewar population of 33,000
and was half Jewish
http://www.museumoftolerance.com/site/pp.asp?c=arLPK7PILqF&b=
249727.

23
Poland’s “railroad king”
Fuks,
Mowia Wieki
, p. 11.

24
“no one knew what to do, or where to go”
Boruch Spiegel, author interview, Montreal, November 2007.

25
too “junior, and not important” enough
Ibid.

C
HAPTER
5: H
IS
B
ROTHER
’
S
H
AND

1
a million and a half soldiers and six thousand tanks
Luczak,
Dzieje Polsk 1939–1945
, p. 24.

2
“I wanted Warsaw to be great”
Dunin-Wasowicz,
Warszawa w latach 1939–1945
, p. 35.

3
“She has the right to be stupid”
Olczak-Ronikier,
W Ogrodzie Pamieci
, p. 263.

4
Nine hundred howitzers and four hundred heavy bombers, mostly Junkers
Grzelaka,
Warszawa we Wrezesniu 1939 Roku
, p. 492.

5
“there was dead silence”
Simha Ratheiser-Rotem, author interview, Jerusalem, March 2009.

6
Nearly twenty thousand similar graves
Dunin-Wasowicz,
Warszawa w latach 1939–1945
, p. 83.

7
“I caught sight of a hand separated from a body”
Simha Ratheiser-Rotem,
Kazik: Memoirs of a Ghetto Fighter
(New Haven: Yale University Press, 1994), p. 9.

C
HAPTER
6: W
HERE
I
S
Y
OUR
H
USBAND?

1
ceremonially cutting a white ribbon
W Obiektywie Wroga: Niemiecy Fotoreporterzy W Okupowanej Warsawie 1939–1945
, Nazi Propaganda Photo and Film Exhibition, History Meeting House, Warsaw, September–October 2008.

2
propaganda footage of elderly men—their dark caftan frocks and beards covered with pale dust
Ibid., Karl-Friedrich Schultze, Barch Bild 1011-001-025143.

3
the feminine qualities of Warsaw’s newly inexpensive prostitutes
Dunin-Wasowicz,
Warzsawa w Latach 1939–1945
, p. 45.

4
Seventy-eight thousand apartment units had gone up in flames
Stefan Korbonski,
Fighting Warsaw
(New York: Hippocrene Books, 2004), p. 263.

5
Fifteen percent of all structures
Katalog der Ausstellung Im Objektiv des Feindes: Deutsche Bildberichterstatter im bessetzten Warschau 1939–1945
(Warsaw: Dom Spotkan z Historia, 2008), p. 4.

6
“The door was broken”
Martha Osnos, unpublished journal, p. 7.

7
They even flanked the entrance to the Julius Meinl coffee shop
Kwiatkowski,
Historia Warszawy XVII–XX Wieku
, p. 76.

8
the Starbucks of its day
www.meinl.com
.

9
E
NGLAND! THIS IS YOUR DOING
Original poster on permanent exhibition at Pawiak Prison Museum, Valiant Street, Warsaw.

10
“Anyone approaching a window or the street will immediately be shot”
Ksawery Swierkowski,
Hitler Widziany przez Szpare
, Stolica, 1971, no. 39, p. 6.

11
“They made an incredible impression on me”
Simha Ratheiser-Rotem, author interview, Jerusalem, March 2009.

12
“He passed right under our noses”
Jan Nowak Jezioranski,
Kurier z Warszawy
(Krakow: Znak, 2005), p. 35.

13
ten thousand train-wagon loads of booty
Luczak,
Dzieje Polski 1939–1945, p
. 54.

14
“Where are you going?”
Martha Osnos, unpublished journal, p. 12.

15
“Where do you live?”
Ibid.

16
He selected the Art Deco mansion of industrialist Gustav Wertheim
UKRaport: Gazeta Konstancinska
, no. 149, September 2008, p. 7.

17
her 14,000-square-foot home
Ibid.

18
resurfaced in 2007 at a garage sale in Lexington, Kentucky
Wlodzimierz Kalicki,
Gazeta Wyborcza
, April 28, 2008, p. 2.

19
a seventeenth-century canvas by the Dutch master Pieter de Grebber
Ibid., April 26, 2008, p. 1.

20
the impressionist collections of Jacob and Alina Glass
National Museum, author site visit, October 2008.

21
“It was one of the only times during the war that I can remember”
Robert Osnos, author interview, New York, November 2008.

22
“Don’t be afraid”
Martha Osnos, unpublished journal, p. 12.

23
Jean-Antoine Houdon, whose works today are exhibited at the National Gallery of Art
www.getty.edu/art/exhibitions/houdon.com
.

C
HAPTER
7: M
ARK
’
S
V
OW

1
“It was terrible,” he said, describing the once prosperous Jerusalem Boulevard
Witold Beres and Krzysztof Burnetko,
Marek Edelman: Zycie. Po Prostu
(Warsaw: Swiat Ksiaski, 2008), p. 40.

2
the Hilfzug Bayern “help trains”
Dunin-Wasowicz,
Warzsawa w Latach 1939–1945
, p. 44.

3
were marred by the grim faces of the recipients
Tomazs Szarota,
Okupowanej Warszawy Dzien Powszedni
(Warsaw: Stodium Historyczne, 1978), p. 78.

4
46
“Sind Sie ein Jid?”
Hilberg, Staron, and Kermisz,
Warsaw Diary of Adam Czerniakow
, p. 78.

5
“I saw a crowd on Iron Street”
Hanna Krall,
Shielding the Flame
(New York: Henry Holt, 1986), pp. 37–38.

6
“She had never even spoken to a Jewish person before she met me”
Martha Osnos, unpublished journal, p. 5.

7
(staged, as it turned out, by Arthur Grimm)
Prussian Cultural Picture Archives, Berlin, series 3001000 and 30032348, shown in
W Obiektywie Wroga: Niemiecy Fotoreporterzy W Okupowanej Warsawie 1939–1945
, Nazi Propaganda Photo and Film Exhibition, History Meeting House, Warsaw, September–October 2008.

8
“German propaganda agencies worked ceaselessly”
Marek Edelman,
The Ghetto Fights
(London: Bookmarks, 1990), p. 35.

9
“We also started hearing about how Jews were turning in Poles”
Beres and Burnetko,
Marek Edelman
, p. 40.

10
Electricity, gas, and water supplies had not yet been fully restored
Andrzej Szczypiorski, “Miezkania I ludnosc Warszawy w Czasie Wojny I Hitlerowshiej Okupacji,”
Studia Demograficzne
, no. 46, 1976, p. 38.

11
“to overcome our own terrifying apathy”
Edelman,
Ghetto Fights
, p. 37.

12
“lazy”
Beres and Burnetko,
Marek Edelman: Zycie. Po Prostu
, p. 20.

13
They consisted of two small metal pots mounted over each other
Bernard Goldstein,
Five Years in the Warsaw Ghetto
(Edinburgh, West Virginia: AK Press, 2005), p. 34.

14
“Working by carbide light proved extremely strenuous”
Edelman,
Ghetto Fights
, p. 47.

15
It had a daily circulation of two hundred thousand copies
Ozimek,
Media Walczacej Warszawy
, p. 47.