Other Role Journal: Adi Paiser - Bystander

April 1943
I can’t has always been my answer to why I won’t. Since I have been brought to the Ghetto that answer has been coming up a lot lately. Now I find myself sitting here, alone and scared.

A few days ago, on April 19, 1943, the Germans started their plan to deport all of the Jews from the Ghetto. Although, what they didn’t know was that their plan was being cut short. That’s when the Jews started to attack. I watched as Jews went down and thought to myself, “Is it worth one more women to throw herself into battle? What more would I be able to do? Am I making the right decision sitting here alone in safety while other Jews are losing their lives to protect the lives of others? I’m too weak. I’m too slow. I can’t.”

Here I am today. The first day the Germans started to burn down the Ghetto. I don’t know where to go or what to do, so I just stay here. I sit in the burning rubble of the Ghetto and wait. What for, I’m not sure. Am I waiting to die? Am I waiting for someone to find me and bring me to safety? Or am I waiting for a SS officer to take me away to my death? I’m not sure what is going to happen to me after today. While I wait, I watch children, mothers, fathers, aunts, uncles, grandparents, and neighbors run wild trying to find a secure place to go. As they run SS officers scoop them up like sand and throw them into the deportation cars. I could run out and try to bring them to safety, but what then would happen to me? What if a SS caught me? Or what if the burning flames fell over me and I died a slow painful death? I don’t deserve to die. Not yet. I know what’s good for me and if any of the other Jews knew what was good for them they would be right here with me, in hiding. I can’t tell people you’ll be better here instead of trying to run from the flames but I can tell myself I’ll be safe, and that’s enough for me.

Other Role Journal: Li Okner - Rescuer/Resister

May 16, 1943
Two years. Two years since I lost my wife and newborn daughter. Two years since I was deported to the Warsaw Ghetto. Two years since I lost all my belongings. Two years is all it took for me to lose everything and everyone I have ever cared for. I think to myself, “What do I have to live for?” Since I have been thrown into this Ghetto I live day by day waiting to die. I have nothing to work for, no one to live for so why live? I’ve kept asking myself that question for two years, and finally it has been answered.
For most of my time living in the Ghetto I sat in a chair thinking about how my life could be different. All up until April 19, 1943. That day was the first day of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. The Germans were ready to deport us all and bring us to our death. Although, I along with many other Jews who weren't ready to die fought. We fought for the lives of ourselves and for the lives of our loved ones. The first day we were able to fight hard enough for the Germans to back off. Next came the flames. The Germans started to burn down the Ghetto. During this time many people got deported and many people died. The last attack was the poison gas.
Eight days ago on May 8, 1943 I found my answer to start living again. That day was the day the Germans released the poison gas through the camp. No one knew what to do. No one knew where to go. People were dropping like flies. Everyone was dying. Everyone still alive was to scared to think. Having nothing to live for accept my own lonely life, I wasn’t too scared to think. I thought quick and hard, until I got it! The sewers! The only safe place where we could stay alive was the sewers. I quickly started rounding people up and started moving them to the sewers. Only about 100 of us made it. The rest were left for dead. I wish sometimes I could’ve done more, but then I think about how I fought hard and how I alone was able to figure out how to save about 100 people.
1950
I’m now free from the Ghetto and the Holocaust has ended. I work as a fireman. I have found my reason to live. I live to save others. Some people call me an angel, but I just call myself a man with a big heart. I’ve ended up marrying one of the ladies I saved the day poison gas was released into the Ghetto. I had a great life before the the Holocaust. Once the Holocaust started, I spent my life dying inside. Once the Holocaust ended their came a new beginning and I started over as a happy man again. I’m sad for the lost of my gorgeous wife and my newborn daughter, but I am happy to have a new beginning.

Other Role Journal: Abe Bloomberg - Victim

February 1, 1941
It has been about a month now since my beautiful wife, my two extraordinary sons and myself have seen the outside of the walls of the Warsaw Ghetto. Ever since the Holocaust has started the Jews have been shoved left and right on Hitler’s orders. Over the month I was able to start a secret “school.” Before we were thrown into the Ghetto, I was a school teacher for any grade that needed my help. Every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday a few kids come and I teach them what they would be learning in school right now. The officers can not find out this is happening because it is strictly prohibited.
April 19, 1943
Its been over two years now that my family and I have been living in the Warsaw Ghetto. Today an uprising has started. I’m in hiding with my children, my wife, and a couple other families keeping each other safe while men are fighting the SS troops. I could go fight for my life with the other men, but my job as a husband and father is to keep my family safe from the Germans. If I left my family now and couldn't find them later, I wouldn't be able to go on with my life not knowing what happened to them. Come life or death I’ll be with my family every step of the way.
April 22, 1943
Today the SS troops started burning down the Ghetto to try to get us all out of hiding. I didn’t know where to go with my family. We had to move or else we would’ve been burned to death. I lead my family right into a SS officer. Now because of my stupidity we are captured and being deported to an extermination camp at Treblinka. Now I think of what I could’ve done differently. Maybe if I went and fought I’d be able to bring my family to a safer area within the camp where nothing could’ve hurt us. Or maybe someone else would be looking out for us after I helped fight off the Germans. I just think now about how I am responsible for my family being lead straight to their death. Who knows what would’ve happened if we didn’t get caught. What if everyone who survived the fire and stayed in the Ghetto were able to find a way out and be free. I will never know. I tried hard to keep my family safe, but Hitler wished for us all to die, and his wish will be granted.

Main Person Journal, Jurgen Stroop: Perpatrator

June 1941

I have been fighting for the SS for ten years now as an SS-Oberfuhrer and the commander of a police unit. Now I am volunteering to fight on the eastern front while Germany attacks the Soviet Union.

April 19, 1943

I am an SS officer for Germany to help fight against the Jews in the Holocaust. I am motivated to defeat the Jews any way possible because of my ruler; Hitler. He is showing us the correct way to live, and I am going to follow his lead. My role now is to command the Waffen-SS troops while we work to deport all of the Jews from the Warsaw Ghetto. Today is the day we have started the mass deportation of the jews; the day I like to call the “Great Operation.” This day was our first attempt of sending out all of the Jews to concentration camps. What I wasn't aware of was that the Jews were waiting for us. They were ready to fight us as soon as we attempted the mass deportation of the Warsaw Ghetto. They fought back hard so I ordered my men to retreat. We just finished our next attempt for getting the Jews to cooperate. We burned down all of the buildings in the Ghetto. The Jews finally backed down and payed more attention to the fires then to us. This was when we made our mark and deported the Jews to the extermination camp; Treblinka.Those of the Jews that remained are continuing to fight us from attics, and cellars.

May 8, 1943

We’ve finished our next attempt to deport all of the Jews. If we couldn’t get them out of the Ghetto, we just had to start killing them in the ghetto. We started using poison gas to kill the Jews. Most Jews were killed but still about 100 remained hidden in the sewers.

May 16, 1943

Finally, the ending of the “Great Operation” has come. We’ve blown up the Warsaw Synagogue and have won against the Jews uprising. I was prepared to fight these Jews until the very end. I wasn’t ready to be defeated by the Jews. Defeating the Jews will lead to bigger doors for me and the people of Germany can feel a little safer today knowing many Jews have died.

Later in 1943

I am now finished working to defeat the Jews of the Warsaw Ghetto. After I had finished, I was made SS and political leader of Greece. Now I am promoted to the rank of SS Gruppenfuhrer and I have been sent to serve for the Twelfth Army District in the Reich until the end of the war.

July 1951

The war is finally over. Today I was tried in the Warsaw district court for war crimes. I was found guilty. Since I lead as commander of the Waffen-SS troops, I am being sentenced to death for the mass killing of the Jews in the Warsaw Ghetto. I will be executed in Warsaw on September 8th, 1951. It’s disappointing that I am being put to death for what I believed was best to keep Germany safe, but I will always remember that I fought well for my country.

(Warsaw Ghetto Uprising: Perpetrator Jurgen Stroop, The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising)

Summary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising

During the Holocaust, Nazis made Ghettos to hold Jews in one place. The Jews were usually held in Ghettos when they were waiting to be deported, and sent to a concentration camp. At the camps the Jews were put through hard physical labor, or sentenced to death.

One of the Ghettos that were created was called the Warsaw Ghetto. Between July 22 and September 12, 1942 Germans deported or killed around 300,000 Jews. During this time, on an island in Bermuda, American and British citizens met to make a plan for what their countries could do to help the Jews.

The Germans only let 35,000 Jews remain in the ghetto afterwards. Apart from the 35,000 Jews allowed to stay living in the ghetto, more than 20,000 Jews stayed in hiding. On July 28, 1942, the Jews that stayed in hiding in the Warsaw Ghetto created a self-defense unit called the Jewish Combat Organization (Zydowska Organizacja Bojowa, ZOB) and a Jewish Military Union (Zydowski Zwiazek Wojskowy, ZZW) to get ready for an uprising because of the massive deportations of Jews that took place not too long before then. The German’s intended to get rid of all of the Jews in the Warsaw Ghetto by deporting or killing them. When they started, the Jews were ready to attack. The evacuation of the Warsaw Ghetto started on April 19, 1943; the eve of passover. On the first day of the uprising, the Jews forced the Germans outside of the ghetto walls with their weaponry. By the third day of the uprising, the Germans decided to burn down the Ghetto in attempt to force the Jews out of hiding. The Warsaw Ghetto uprising went on for almost a month. By the end of the uprising, the Germans had won. 7,000 Jews, and 300 Germans were estimated to have died during the uprising. The Germans symbolized their victory by burning down the Jews “Great Synagogue” on May 16, 1943. When the uprising finally ended, the Germans murdered all of the Jews that were deported from the Warsaw Ghetto. This event took place in November 1943. The Germans named the event “Operation Harvest Festival.”

The Warsaw Ghetto uprising was the first civic uprising that took place in German-occupied Europe. This event was important because the uprising lead to other uprisings against the Germans. It showed that the Jews weren't afraid of the Germans and would fight for their lives. Though many more uprisings took place after, the Warsaw Ghetto was always the largest, symbolically most important Jewish uprising.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/holocaust/peopleevents/pandeAMEX103.html

http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005188):