Ghosts in the Ghettos of Poland

I spent a lot of time searching for traces of the millions of Jews and Poles who were murdered during World War II, but they aren't easy to find.  The ghetto walls have been torn down.  The blood has been scrubbed off the cobblestones and the walls of former Gestapo buildings.  The burned out synagogues have been turned into Catholic museums.  The cemeteries have only a few gravestones left to mark the millions of people whose bodies were dumped there.  Even the concentration camps and Schindler's factory have been sanitized.  

In Krakow you can still find a few Jewish museums, synagogues, hotels, restaurants, and cafes that represent this once vibrant community.  I saw the photos and sat on the new pews gazing at the reconstructed Bimah, but I couldn't feel their presence.  The closest I came was sitting on the steps, my tears masked by the pouring rain, as I looked at the parking lot across the street from the old synagogue in Nowy Sacz.

I could visualize the 400 young people being arrested at five in the morning on April 28, 1942, for being members of the Max Rosenfeld Library.  Branded as Communists, they were locked up in prison and forced to dance all night in the prison court, accompanied by an orchestra, while the SS wives and their children watched from the gallery.  All the while, Hamman, the chief of the Gestapo, shouted, "This is your dance of death!" 

The next day they were handcuffed and led by armed guards to the cemetery, where a large grave had been prepared for them.  They were told to undress, fold their clothing neatly, and lie on the ground face down.

The silence was shattered when Rabbi Yossef Moshe Zehman, a religious judge, stood up and said, "Have faith.  We suffer for all the sins of Israel.  The day of deliverance is not far away."  Then he addressed the Germans, saying, "Your day will come."

Then 24-year-old Ratzke Goldberg-Shpiro collected all her strength and spoke to the Nazis, "Don't think because you murder and bleed those who are not guilty, that you will win the war.  In any case, you have already lost, for those Jews that live through this war will take revenge upon you."

No one was surprised that she would speak out against the murderers, for she had always sought out those who were abused by fate.  The daughter of well-to-do Jewish parents, she studied in Vienna at university.  At 15, she joined the Borochov Circle, which taught both Zionism and Yiddish culture.  A talented actress, she performed eloquently in the best Yiddish and national repertory dramas.  

Her speech was cut short by a bullet.  Then more bullets rained down on the best and the brightest youth of Nowy Sacz.  Their bodies were dumped into open graves, along with the hearts of their people.

I wish I could say that I felt their presence sitting on the steps of the synagogue 71 years later, but at least I can bear witness to their bravery here and now on All Souls Day.