Pejsach Kaplan

... AGONY BEFORE THE END Pejsach Kaplan’s Ghetto Diary ............... 71 ...

... Bialystoker Centre in Melbourne, for the benefit of our landsleit and the Australian Jewish community as a whole. The Davis brothers donated six hundred books to start a a fine library under the Centre’s auspices, in memory of the martyred Pejsach Kaplan. Our head- quarters also contained a kindergarten that served its temporary residents’ children. Approximately thirty youngsters received their first exposure to Yiddish and Hebrew in this kindergarten. Frequent recitals, cultural programs, Bible courses, as well as High Holiday and festival services were offered. ...

... Among the early writers for the Stimme were: Jakow Krepliak, Herman Frank, Sam Kosel, Jechiel Wajntrojb, Louis Grynhojz, Pejsach Kaplan, Nojach Zabludowski, Awrom Kotik, Isroel Lipski, L. Fejgin, M. Goldman, J.J. Indicki and Litman Rozental. ...

... A special white granite monument to the 200,000 vic- tims was unveiled in the new library named for the late Pejsach Kaplan, prominent Bialystoker publicist and editor, bearing a golden menorah and extending along an entire wall of the lobby. It glorified Bialystok, con- demned its German conquerors and encouraged survi- vors to perpetuate the city’s traditions wherever they lived. | ...

... With similar despair, Pejsach Kaplan described the wretched situation he found: ...

... Particularly poignant was the plight of Pejsach Kaplan, one of the archivists of the Bialystok ghetto. Having earlier caught a severe cold, after spending a few days in an overcrowded shelter, he sought asylum in a clothes factory where his daughter worked. Although weak and debilitated, forced to lie in bed in the factory, his awareness of what was happening to his fellow Jews in the streets made him compulsively run back and forth to the window of the factory to look outside. Kaplan observed hundreds of Jews rounded up for evacuation to Treblinka. These scenes had a terrible effect on him. Pacing up and back in the long factory hall, he raised his fists, crying, “Jews, let us take revenge! I can’t stand this! My end is near!’’ Following these outbursts, Kaplan went back to bed, no longer able to walk to the window. His wife and daughter never left his side. But when he and his family left the factory several days later when the operation ended, Kaplan had become critically ill. ...

... On February 5, 1943, when the Nazis began to liqui- date the Bialystok ghetto, Pejsach Kaplan was in hid- ing, virtually suffocating. At night he risked going outside for some fresh air, but he caught a cold. On the third day of the bloodbath he found it possible to go to the factory in which his eldest daughter Sonja occupied a responsible position. Kaplan, ill with fever, ran from one window to the other, risking a bullet to the head, to see how the empty streets looked and how the Jews sen- tenced to death were being led about. ...

PEJSACH KAPLAN’S GHETTO DIARY ...

... It was impossible to carry on an extensive cultural program. Zionist, Socialist, and Communist activities, which blossomed in Bialystok before the Nazi occupa- tion, now could only be carried on underground, their main purpose opposition to the Nazis. These groups fashioned the beginnings of the later resistance in the Bialystok ghetto and maintained contact with other opposition cadres in the Wilno and Warsaw ghettos. A few individuals — including Pejsach Kaplan, A.S. Herszberg, the historian, and Jehoszua Heszl Klemen- tynowski, founder of the Linas Hatzedek and senior Zionist activist in Bialystok — clandestinely advanced ...

... The ‘‘Saturday Martyrs’’ were never seen or heard from again. Pejsach Kaplan, the prominent author, cul- turalist and chronicler of the Bialystok Ghetto, com- posed a poem in memory of these victims titled, ‘“*Rivkele, the Victim of Saturday’’. The following is an English translation of this heartrending poem: ...

... days after the Nazis entered Bialsytok, their commandant summoned Chief Rabbi Gedalja Rozenman and the former Director of the Kehilla, the engineer Efrajim Barasz. He ordered them to form a Judenrat (a Jewish council), through which the local Nazi authorities could issue all kinds of ordinances and regulations affecting the Jews. Rabbi Rosenman and Engineer Barasz conveyed the new edict to other leading Jewish figures. Soon afterward, a Judenrat was appointed containing twenty-four Jews, including two women. They included: Rabbi Rozen- man, Efrajim Barasz, Dowid Subotnik, Mr. Liman, Jakow Goldberg (these five constituted the executive committee); Mend! Kaplan, Dr. M. Kacenelson, H. Glikson, Pejsach Kaplan, Mordechaj Chmelnik, Szmuel Punianski, Rabbi Boruch Eli Halpern, Rabbi Pinje Ajzensztat, Jakow Lifszic, Aba Furman, Mojsze Szwif, Izak Markus; Awrom Tyktin, Cwi Wider, Pejsach Chmelnicki and Szmuel Polonski. ...

... The name Bialystok sounds like a symphony to me. Which other city could have produced so many out- standing people, institutions and a grass-roots move- ment, to expand and to excel? Names such as Chazanowicz, Zamenhof, Mohilewer, M.M. Dolicki (a son of a Bialystoker shochet who became a prominent Hebrew poet), Nochum Cemach, Dr. Lipa Sukenik (archaeologist of the Hebrew University who conducted major excavations in Israel), Ossip Dymow, Pejsach Kaplan, Dr. Szymon Dawidowicz (translator of Spi- noza into Hebrew), the poet M. Segalowicz, and the opera star, Rosa Rayjisa. ...

... improved their writing style under Pejsach Kaplan’s tutelage. ...

... Bialystok produced a significant number of its own actors and entertainers: Jehuda Grynhojz, Isroel Beker, actor and director of Habimah National Theater in Israel; Jakow Suzanowicz, Zalmen Kolesznikow, Renje Glikman, Ester Zewkina, Isroel Birnboym, Szymon Osowicki, Izchok Gelczynski, Nina Sibircowa and oth- ers. In the late 1920’s a small Yiddish theater troupe named Gilah Rinah was established, funded by the Linas Hatzedek (charity institution) in Bialystok. Its founders were Wiktor Bubrik and Tepicer. Its first programs consisted of Russian comedy, translated into Yiddish by: Pejsach Kaplan, Mend! Goldman, Sztejnsapir and others. The musical director was M. Szaberman, the art director, Rozenecki. This company came to enjoy much success, specializing in original Yiddish repertoire and songs, and avoiding translations from other languages. ...

... Nonetheless, the Jewish community in Bialystok supported cultural activities, carried on by the Jewish Arts Association, which had three sections: drama, music and literature. The music department featured a choir of seventy people whose director was Pejsach Kaplan, later the editor and theater critic of the Bialy- stok daily newspaper, Unzer Leben. The drama section was led by the author and teacher, Jakow Pat. Both put On programs in the Palace Theater, which attracted large audiences. A second cultural organization was also active, known as Hazamir. It distinguished itself with its large and high-quality orchestra. This creative atmosphere stimulated the growth of Jewish theater, even in those difficult times. ...

... (Editor’s note: The following impressions of his home- town were written by Pejsach Kaplan, a prominent Bia- lystoker writer and social activist. ...