Tribute to the Jewish Partisans

Who have yet to receive their due in their various homelands;
In Yiddish by Chava Alberstein.
YouTube - Jewish Partisans Tribute
And there is more to these stories than just tales of resistance-I am convinced that these warriors played a vital part in the destruction of the NAZI forces in Eastern Europe; http://www.ww2f.com/wwii-books-publications/31872-books-jewish-partisans.html
And didn't their arch enemy Wilhelm Kube ( Real History and the German war against Russian Partisans ) call the Jewish Partisans "the chief bearers of the resistance"?
Grenkvich/Glantz cite INTELL as the most important Partizan contribution; The Soviet partisan movement, 1941 ... - Google Books
Jeff in MNUSA

 

If interested check out the book "Fighting Back" by Harold Werner.
Harold Werner was my dad's friend and in the book are two of his other friends
whose family is "Barbanel".I knew both of the Barbanel brothers growing up.
All these men have passed away from old age.
you can find the book on amazon

my dad was a partisan in Hungary.he was in the support part of the underground movement.he was in budapest.he passed out the ration cards,news,and fake identity cards to armed partisans who then blew up trains
and also assassinated nazis and collaborators.
my dad was turned in and tortured by the gestapo along with hungarian nazis.at the time germany was pulling out of hungary and they emptied the whole prison and took all to Dachau.
you can learn more of my family here:
Kratz Family Auschwitz Memorial

 

What a wonderful memorial you have created. I'm sure your ancestors and family are proud of you and your dedication to presenting their story and remembering their sacrifices.

tom

 

What a memorial. .. Stick around the forum will greatly benefit from your first hand knowledge in this area. You honour your family well. A story that needs repeating and referencing by us all

 

thanks a lot for the comments.my dad is still alive.he is now 87

i intend to be around.i made a 5 1/2 hour long documentary on Jewish Life Before,During,and After WW2
for the region of the now Ukraine which is located in the corner by Hungary,Romania,And Ukraine.I used footage from Hungarian WW2 newsreels,
film shot in the 1930's near my dad's village,other WW2 footage,family photos,maps,and many images.I made sure to pick out the footage/images that
were historically accurate.There are links to download or watch thru youtube.I tell the exact historical information on that region.
I also had a grandfather who was gassed in Auschwitz who in WW1 was a soldier in the Austro-Hungarian Army.I am almost positive he served
in K.U.K. Infantry Regiment 85 which was raised up in Marmaros County.That county was part of Romania,Ukraine,and Hungary.My grand dad had fought on the Eastern Front and was captured by the Russian Army.
He ended up in a POW Camp in Russia.

 

Gore;
Your documentary sounds extremely interesting and I will certainly buy a set when they become available. You might also consider contacting Moscow and at least trying to pry some information from them about the value of these operations to the RKKA. The best I heard was from a Voice of Russia broadcast a few years back where they stated that the Great Patriotic War "was in truth a two front war."
My deepest respects to your father;
JeffinMNUSA

 

My documentary id FREE.No one has to pay for it.
Kratz Family Auschwitz Memorial
you will have many choices for free viewing including
youtube,DVD Images,XVID, or WMV

 

Gorehound;
Well I finished the Werner account last night and what an epic read! The author was with the Polish Partisan movement from the days when the escaped Jews were hunted like rabbits in the forests until liberation time when they had become a force to be reckoned with. He takes a much harder line with the Armia Krajowa than previous authors and it does seem that the AK-despite some of their public pronouncements- was indeed in the business of killing every Jew they could find*. The author also acknowledges the fact that the insurgencies East of the Bug River were much more advanced than those in the West. Interesting that Kovpak's raiders stopped in Werner's area of operations during the Kovpak drive on the Carpathians. This insider's look at the history the Jewish Armed Resistance in Poland and of the Armia Ludowa is worth a second read.
JeffinMNUSA
* The Florian Meyevski account also details the degree of ethnic xenophobia in the AK-It seems "Florian"-a Jewish man in disguise serving in the ranks of the Armia Krajowa-had some escaped Russian POWs serving in his unit. A fellow AK officer told him that they had already shot their Russians and basically what was he waiting for. There were threats made his way and this was all it took for Florian to desert to the Armia Ludowa with his "Russian boys."

 

i will tell my father you have read and enjoyed his friend's book.
it is a good read for those interested in jewish partisans.

 

Jordan;
Thanks and convey my deepest admiration to your father and all people like your father-those who not only survived the seemingly overwhelming insanity, but turned and fought it. These are some truly extraordinary individuals! I am rereading the Werner account right now and discovering all kinds of new dimensions-like wolves and boar attacking the then unarmed group during the early days? These predators were either starving or had become accustomed to eating human flesh or both; as wild animals seldom to never attack humans. For certain game in the forests was being depleted as evidenced by the big game drive the Werner group found themselves caught in (Who were the NAZI bigwigs? Was Goering there?). A striking thing about all these accounts is what incredibly hardy individuals these most hunted of human beings were (ie. three days in a snow cave!).
I think this true story would make a great movie! http://books.google.com/books?id=uH...m=3&sqi=2&ved=0CCcQ6AEwAg#v=onepage&q&f=false
JeffinMNUSA

 

Excellet thread.. I love stories and pictures of the resistance movement, especially of jewish partisans.. great find Jeff


Amazing family history you have there Gorehound... Wonderful pictures too. Something to be really proud of.

 

Suzie;
Thank you. There are not only some of the most fantastic true stories of WWII here-there is also the missing piece of the puzzle as to just why Hitler's legions came to grief in the Wild East.
JEffinMNUSA

 

thanks for the comments.i am forwarding your comment to my dad.
you should watcvh my documentary.it is long 5 /1 hours but you will learn a lot of the Carpathian/N.Transylvanian region.

 

Jordan;
Oh believe me I will-I got started on the Stetl days and it is excellent. Also saw that "In Our Own Hands" video and I am guessing it was no accident that the Jewish brigade was stationed where it was on the border near the scene of the Holocaust. I do not have a lot of time on my hands just now but I am going over the Werner account like a detective reads a witnesses account and it is interesting that the Chiel Grynszpan group claimed 25 railroad demolitions(The Abba Kovner group is claiming an astounding 200!). The railroads were the jugular vein of the Axis forces in the East and they were badly stretched with just the weather and terrain. When the partisans started intensively targetting them in 1943 the frontline Axis forces began to really feel the pinch. As I mentioned before a good way of emphasizing this element of the Partisan Wars would be for the moviemakers to intersperse train demolitions with scenes of Axis soldiers running out of ammo on the front-the Partisan War was a huge factor in turning of events and Moscow expended considerable sums of money and expertise to see that it was so.
Attacking Axis supply may or may not have been the Grynszpan group's most impotant contribution-it is unknown just how many spy rings and special forces missions were run out of the Armia Ludowa's camps in the forests of Poland but I would guess "quite a few."
JEffinMNUSA (WIll be JeffinAZUSA sometime soon-maybe this year)

 

i'll be happy to watch it... where can I find it?

 

Sunny;
First Gorehound posting link; scroll down to the YOUTUBES...Great stuff!
JeffinMNUSA

 

sorry I got distracted by the really neat family pictures that i forgot to go back to the main page & scroll down to see the rest of the website..

i'll be watching that tonight..

 

That is a fantastic memorial you created and I congratulate you on a job well done.

 

Thanks a lot.It will be updated with new material as I get it.
I will probably be posting some stuff from my cousin whose family side lived in Sighet.
There are 1,000's of photos to go through with him.

 

Speaking of Jewish Partisans and the Ghettos, there are a slew of pics for sale as we speak on ebay. One even shows an executed Jewish "Partisan" and a bunch showing forced labor, ghetts, armbands in wear and such. These are the kinds of pics I refuse to bid on. Its not a good way to try remembering those folks IMO.