PEJSACH BURSZTEJN I TESTIFIED AGAINST A WAR CRIMINAL (Editor’s note: Mr. Bursztejn, of blessed memory, wrote this article in 1961, during the historic Eichmann trial in Jerusalem. A prominent communal activist in Bialy- stok and a Holocaust survivor, Bursztejn was one of the prosecution witnesses, together with other surviving Jews from Bialystok, at the West German trial of the Nazi war criminal, Arthur Gosberg. Bursztejn lived in Israel after World War II, where he played a prominent role in the Bialystoker /andsmanschaft until his death several years ago.) The Adolf Eichmann trial in Jerusalem has re-exposed the wounds of his victims. It is as if the graves of the martyred Jews opened, sounding anew the death rattle of a nation being annihilated. The flames of the crema- toria dance ‘again as the trial unfolds. We now have the satisfaction of being Eichmann’s judges rather than his victims. Before an Israeli tribunal stands one of the most horrible murderers the world has ever known. In order for justice to be served, it 1s our fate to reimmerse ourselves in our spilled blood and to reopen wounds just barely healed. In the name of the concentration-camp survivors, we have expressed our gratitude to Gideon Hausner, Eichmann’s chief prosecutor. He penetrated the forbid- ding spider web of our destruction, and, to his great credit, brought to the world’s attention the full scope of the Holocaust tragedy, although he personally did not experience it. We also confront a most tragic phenomenon — that even some of our own people do not understand us. Unhappily, we have encountered some who ques- tioned our conduct during the war years: Why did you not fight back? Our attempts through the years to explain our behavior have failed to persuade the skeptics. The fact that we were up against a formidable enemy, his highly trained armies having conquered numerous lands in a few months, has not convinced these doubters. Eve- ryone was helpless against the Nazi juggernaut — not only us Jews, but other peoples, confined to ghettos and concentration camps, isolated from the rest of the world and from one another, suffering hunger, over- crowding, filth and disease, wearing yellow badges, incarcerated in barbed-wire fences, besieged on all sides. What other people, slowly and sadistically tor- tured to death, could have achieved such great heights in the midst of it all? Through the Nazi oppression we retained our culture and our theater. Moreover, we did launch the uprisings in the Warsaw, Wilno, Bialystok and other ghettos; we did fiercely resist death outside the gas chambers of Auschwitz, Treblinka and other extermination camps. Approximately one and a half The Bialystoker Memorial Book million Jewish soldiers in various armies fought against Nazism, in partisan militias in France, Belgium, Hol- land, Greece and other countries. Jews made up forty percent of the resistance forces in Eastern Europe — and we are still accused of meekly going to the slaugh- ter like sheep! No. Eichmann was not alone. Millions joined him in annihilating us. His trial will not be our last reckon- ing with the German murderers. The score will not be settled once Eichmann has received justice! Thousands of Nazi war criminals roam about freely in both Germanies, holding responsible positions. In many other countries they continue preaching anti- Semitism and hatred for humanity. They are preparing a resurgence of Nazism, perhaps ultimately to restore the gas chambers and crematoria but at present utiliz- ing subtler and more respectable methods to complete the ‘‘Final Solution.” Several months ago, I observed the Germans’ com- fort and luxury — after they lost the war. Once again I noted their meticulousness, which reminded me how efficiently their trains carried Jewish victims to Ausch- witz. Dr. Mengele, that monster with the white gloves and monocle, who today moves about freely, examined the new arrivals — sending them to their deaths with one small motion of his cane. Several years ago I testified in Germany against an Eichmann on a smaller scale: SS officer Arthur Gos- berg, commandant of the labor camp Blyzin. There thousands of Bialystoker Jews perished. The terrible hunger killed hundreds each week. All of us were swollen, our edematous legs unable to carry even our skin and bones. The intolerable congestion and filth, the impossibility of washing ourselves, and the tattered clothes that covered our starved bodies spawned a deadly typhus epidemic, finishing the job the famine, torture and slave labor began. Typhus claimed more than one thousand Bialystoker victims. Now I was called upon to testify at the trial of the Blyzin commandant. Immediately after our liberation I vowed never to set foot again upon the cursed German soil. It was my duty, however, in this instance to bring a Nazi war criminal to justice.