Yitzhak Zuckerman (; ; 13 December 1915 – 17 June 1981), also known by his
nom de guerre
A ''nom de guerre'' (, 'war name') is a pseudonym chosen by someone to use when they are involved in a particular activity, especially fighting in a war.
In Ancien régime, ''ancien régime'' Kingdom of France, France it would be adopted by each n ...
"Antek", was one of the leaders of the
Warsaw Ghetto Uprising
The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising was the 1943 act of Jewish resistance in the Warsaw Ghetto in German-occupied Poland during World War II to oppose Nazi Germany's final effort to transport the remaining ghetto population to the gas chambers of the ...
in 1943 against
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany, officially known as the German Reich and later the Greater German Reich, was the German Reich, German state between 1933 and 1945, when Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party controlled the country, transforming it into a Totalit ...
during
World War II
World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
.
Biography
Zuckerman was born on December 13, 1915, in
Vilnius
Vilnius ( , ) is the capital of and List of cities in Lithuania#Cities, largest city in Lithuania and the List of cities in the Baltic states by population, most-populous city in the Baltic states. The city's estimated January 2025 population w ...
, then part of the
Russian Empire
The Russian Empire was an empire that spanned most of northern Eurasia from its establishment in November 1721 until the proclamation of the Russian Republic in September 1917. At its height in the late 19th century, it covered about , roughl ...
. After
World War I
World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...
Vilnius became part of the recreated
Polish state. As a young man he embraced the concepts of
Socialism
Socialism is an economic ideology, economic and political philosophy encompassing diverse Economic system, economic and social systems characterised by social ownership of the means of production, as opposed to private ownership. It describes ...
and
Zionism
Zionism is an Ethnic nationalism, ethnocultural nationalist movement that emerged in History of Europe#From revolution to imperialism (1789–1914), Europe in the late 19th century that aimed to establish and maintain a national home for the ...
. He graduated from a religious elementary school associated with the
Mizrachi Zionist movement, followed by a Hebrew gymnasium in 1933.
He applied to study at the
University of Vilnius
Vilnius University (Lithuanian language, Lithuanian: ''Vilniaus universitetas'') is a Public university, public research university, which is the first and largest university in Lithuania, as well as one of the oldest and most prominent higher e ...
and
Hebrew University
The Hebrew University of Jerusalem (HUJI; ) is an Israeli public research university based in Jerusalem. Co-founded by Albert Einstein and Chaim Weizmann in July 1918, the public university officially opened on 1 April 1925. It is the second-ol ...
in
Jerusalem
Jerusalem is a city in the Southern Levant, on a plateau in the Judaean Mountains between the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean and the Dead Sea. It is one of the List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest cities in the world, and ...
, but never began university studies.
In his youth, he became involved with the Zionist movement, as a member of
HeHalutz and
HeHalutz Hatzair.
He lived in a Vilnius
kibbutz
A kibbutz ( / , ; : kibbutzim / ) is an intentional community in Israel that was traditionally based on agriculture. The first kibbutz, established in 1910, was Degania Alef, Degania. Today, farming has been partly supplanted by other economi ...
on Subocz Street, then on a farm training pioneers in
Grochów near
Warsaw
Warsaw, officially the Capital City of Warsaw, is the capital and List of cities and towns in Poland, largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the Vistula, River Vistula in east-central Poland. Its population is officially estimated at ...
.
In 1937, he became a member of the HeHalutz Hatzair Central Committee, and in 1938 he took over as secretary general of the
Dror-Hehalutz.
After the
German and Soviet invasion of Poland in 1939 he was in the area overrun by the
Red Army
The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army, often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Republic and, from 1922, the Soviet Union. The army was established in January 1918 by a decree of the Council of People ...
and initially stayed in the Soviet zone of occupation, where he took an active part in the creation of various Jewish underground socialist organisations.
In the spring of 1940 he moved to
Warsaw
Warsaw, officially the Capital City of Warsaw, is the capital and List of cities and towns in Poland, largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the Vistula, River Vistula in east-central Poland. Its population is officially estimated at ...
, where he became one of the leaders of the
Dror Hechaluc youth movement, along with his future wife
Zivia Lubetkin. Zuckerman was issued a false passport by the
Ładoś Group.
In 1941 he became the deputy commander of the
ŻOB resistance organisation. In this capacity, he served mainly as the envoy between the commander of ŻOB and the commanders of the Polish resistance organizations of
Armia Krajowa
The Home Army (, ; abbreviated AK) was the dominant resistance movement in German-occupied Poland during World War II. The Home Army was formed in February 1942 from the earlier Związek Walki Zbrojnej (Armed Resistance) established in the ...
and
Armia Ludowa.
On 22 December 1942 he and two accomplices attacked a café in
Kraków
, officially the Royal Capital City of Kraków, is the List of cities and towns in Poland, second-largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River in Lesser Poland Voivodeship, the city has a population of 804,237 ...
that was being used by the
SS and
Gestapo
The (, ), Syllabic abbreviation, abbreviated Gestapo (), was the official secret police of Nazi Germany and in German-occupied Europe.
The force was created by Hermann Göring in 1933 by combining the various political police agencies of F ...
. Zuckerman was wounded and narrowly escaped, and his two comrades were tracked down and killed.
In 1943, he was working on the "
Aryan
''Aryan'' (), or ''Arya'' (borrowed from Sanskrit ''ārya''), Oxford English Dictionary Online 2024, s.v. ''Aryan'' (adj. & n.); ''Arya'' (n.)''.'' is a term originating from the ethno-cultural self-designation of the Indo-Iranians. It stood ...
" side of
Warsaw
Warsaw, officially the Capital City of Warsaw, is the capital and List of cities and towns in Poland, largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the Vistula, River Vistula in east-central Poland. Its population is officially estimated at ...
to procure guns and ammunition when the
Warsaw Ghetto Uprising
The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising was the 1943 act of Jewish resistance in the Warsaw Ghetto in German-occupied Poland during World War II to oppose Nazi Germany's final effort to transport the remaining ghetto population to the gas chambers of the ...
erupted. Unable to enter the ghetto to join his comrades in battle, he nonetheless proved a crucial link between resistance forces within the ghetto and the
Home Army
The Home Army (, ; abbreviated AK) was the dominant resistance movement in German-occupied Poland during World War II. The Home Army was formed in February 1942 from the earlier Związek Walki Zbrojnej (Armed Resistance) established in the ...
on the "Aryan" side.
Along with
Simcha "Kazik" Rotem, he organized the escape of the surviving ZOB fighters through the sewers to safety.
During the later
Warsaw Uprising
The Warsaw Uprising (; ), sometimes referred to as the August Uprising (), or the Battle of Warsaw, was a major World War II operation by the Polish resistance movement in World War II, Polish underground resistance to liberate Warsaw from ...
of 1944, he led a small troop of 322 survivors of the Ghetto Uprising as they fought the Germans in the ranks of the
Armia Ludowa.
After the war he worked as part of the ''
Bricha
Bricha (), also called the Bericha Movement, was the underground organized effort that helped Jewish Holocaust survivors escape Europe post-World War II to the British Mandate for Palestine in violation of the White Paper of 1939. It ended w ...
'' network, whose operatives smuggled Jewish refugees out of Eastern and Central Europe to
Mandate Palestine
The Mandate for Palestine was a League of Nations mandate for British administration of the territories of Palestine and Transjordanwhich had been part of the Ottoman Empire for four centuriesfollowing the defeat of the Ottoman Empire in Wo ...
. In 1947 he himself made that journey, settling in what would soon be
Israel
Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in West Asia. It Borders of Israel, shares borders with Lebanon to the north, Syria to the north-east, Jordan to the east, Egypt to the south-west, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. Isr ...
.
There he and his wife Zivia, along with other veterans of the ghetto undergrounds and former
partisan
Partisan(s) or The Partisan(s) may refer to:
Military
* Partisan (military), paramilitary forces engaged behind the front line
** Francs-tireurs et partisans, communist-led French anti-fascist resistance against Nazi Germany during WWII
** Ital ...
s, were among the founding members of
Kibbutz
A kibbutz ( / , ; : kibbutzim / ) is an intentional community in Israel that was traditionally based on agriculture. The first kibbutz, established in 1910, was Degania Alef, Degania. Today, farming has been partly supplanted by other economi ...
Lohamei HaGeta'ot and the
Ghetto Fighters' House (GFH) museum located on its grounds, commemorating those who struggled against the Nazis.
GFH has a study center named for Zivia and Yitzhak Zuckerman. Zuckerman and Lubetkin settled in Lohamei HaGeta'ot and had two children, Shimon (b. 1947) and Yael (b. 1949).
In 1961 he appeared as a witness at the trial of Nazi
war criminal
A war crime is a violation of the laws of war that gives rise to individual criminal responsibility for actions by combatants in action, such as intentionally killing civilians or intentionally killing prisoners of war, torture, taking hostage ...
Adolf Eichmann
Otto Adolf Eichmann ( ;"Eichmann"
''Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary''. ; 19 March 1906 – 1 Ju ...
in Israel. He died in 1981, in the kibbutz he had founded.
A record of a lengthy interview he gave in 1976 was expanded into the book ''Sheva ha-Shanim ha-Hen: 1939-1946''
ebrew: Those Seven Yearspublished in Israel in 1991, later translated into English and published as ''A Surplus of Memory: Chronicle of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising''.
His granddaughter
Roni Zuckerman became the
Israeli Air Force
The Israeli Air Force (IAF; , commonly known as , ''Kheil HaAvir'', "Air Corps") operates as the aerial and space warfare branch of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). It was founded on May 28, 1948, shortly after the Israeli Declaration of Indep ...
's first female fighter pilot.
In 2001, the tale of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising was turned into a made-for-TV film entitled ''
Uprising'', with actor
David Schwimmer
David Lawrence Schwimmer (born November 2, 1966) is an American actor, director, and producer. He gained worldwide recognition for portraying Ross Geller in the sitcom '' Friends'', for which he received a Screen Actors Guild Award and a Pri ...
portraying Zuckerman.
See also
*
Marek Edelman
*
Izrael Kanal
*
Zivia Lubetkin
References
Bibliography
* Nir Itzik, "The Testimonies of Yitzhak (Antek) Zuckerman from Wartime to Those Seven Years: A Reassessment", Moreshet Journal for the Study of the Holocaust and Antisemitism, vol. 16/2019, pp. 135–183.
* Yitzhak Zuckerman, ''A Surplus of Memory: Chronicle of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising''; translated and edited by Barbara Harshav.
Berkeley:
University of California Press
The University of California Press, otherwise known as UC Press, is a publishing house associated with the University of California that engages in academic publishing. It was founded in 1893 to publish scholarly and scientific works by faculty ...
, 1993.
* Yitzhak Zuckerman, 'A life in the ghetto'; translated and edited by Barbara Harshav.
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Zuckerman, Yitzhak
1915 births
1981 deaths
20th-century Israeli Jews
Jewish Combat Organization members
Jewish Polish politicians
Jewish socialists
Kibbutzniks
Ładoś List
Labor Zionists
Polish emigrants to Mandatory Palestine
Polish Zionists
Politicians from Vilnius
Warsaw Uprising insurgents