To the Editor:
Alexander Donat purports to discuss the Warsaw Ghetto uprising . . . [“Our Last Days in the Warsaw Ghetto,” May]. Mr. Donat fought with the Z.O.B. [Jewish Fighters’ Organization] of Mordecai Anielewicz. Why cannot Mr. Donat forget party ideology even now and admit that there was another fighting group in Warsaw called the “Irgun ha-Zvai ha-Yehudi,” . . . the “Z.Z.W.” . . . the first and more important one? The Z.Z.W. understood the Nazi danger. Its nucleus was Betar, Irgun Zvai Leumi, and Jewish nationalists who had served in the non-Jewish service. These were the disciples of Ze’ev Vladimir Jabotinsky, who had given warning to Polish Jewry. . . . Anielewicz, the Z.O.B. commander, once belonged to “Betar” and he stated that he injected the militant nationalist approach of “Betar” into the “pacifists.”
Mr. Donat does in fact cite the achievements of the Z.Z.W., but without mentioning them by name. “Muranowska Street,” the famous battle street in the Warsaw Ghetto, was the headquarters of the Z.Z.W. Mr. Donat states: “The resistance men there were under the command of Pawel Frankel and Leon Rodal, and were the best armed and best trained in the Ghetto.” . . . Frankel and Rodal were leaders of the Z.Z.W. . . .
Further on, Mr. Donat states that “The enemy retired from the Ghetto after sunset.” . . . In this engagement with the Z.Z.W., the Germans were badly beaten. Here is ample proof of the power of the Z.Z.W. Why does not Mr. Donat give them just credit?
“Muranow Square,” Mr. Donat writes, “was the only Jewish position that did not suffer from an extreme shortage of weapons.” The Z.Z.W. was armed to the teeth. Unfortunately, the Germans had tanks and planes and artillery, but even so, the Z.Z.W. defeated the numerically superior and better armed German troops on many an occasion. There is no question that if the Z.Z.W. had had tanks, planes, and artillery on their side, they would have destroyed the German attackers completely.
Samuel Dyon
Brith Habiryonim—Zealots of Israel
New York City
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