Jews and Communists in Occupied Warsaw
Barbara Engelking

We provide an English translation of Barbara Engelking's article, which appeared in the 14th (2018) issue of our yearbookThis article describes how Jewish communists associated with the milieu of the illegal Polish Workers’ Party were hiding in occupied Warsaw. The communists created an exclusive help network, which had substantial assets: opportunities for obtaining false papers, means of subsistence, and accommodation. It also gave one a chance to participate in the struggle against the Germans and a sense of meaning. The help network was not established for the purpose of helping the Jews – the Jews and their families were aided as party members, somewhat incidentally.

On January 2, 1943, Tadek Gąsiorowski and Janek Tarłowski were setting issue 12 of  Głos Warszawy  in Warsaw’s Dolny Mokotów neighborhood, in a  room rented  from a    Mr. Miętkiewicz. Attached to the newspaper was a  leaflet with information  about the killing center in Treblinka: “first accounts of eyewitnesses, escapees, and  people  living  in  the  vicinity  of  Treblinka  about  the  local  death  camp  and  the extermination conducted there.” The two youths from the Polish Workers’ Party (Polska Partia Robotnicza, PPR) were unaware that in the adjacent room a    Jewish  woman  was  hiding  and  that  szmalcowniks used  to  visit  her  to  collect  ransom.  On  that  day  she  was  out  so  those  szmalcowniks entered  the  printers’  room. One of these visitors had a hat with a feather and a leather coat. The two men spoke Polish. The filled typecases on the table didn’t escape their attention for the cases were not entirely covered by a tray cloth. This caught their interest

– You do printing here? What are you setting?

– We set what they give us.

– How much do they pay you?

– Pay us? They pay us peanuts, sir...

The visitor wanted to see what they had just set. He read the leaflet about Treblinka and concluded:

– My wife is Polish. I understand. I have nothing against the underground, but the most important thing is to get rid of these lice [...] these Jews. And if you help us, we won’t bother you and you’ll be able to carry on setting. [...] Just set aside a copy of each issue for us to take. We’ll visit you here.

– Why, of course. We’ll make sure to always set aside the best copy for you, sir.

[...] They parted like friends.

That day the newspaper’s print operation was moved to a different location. It  remains  unknown  what  happened  with  the  woman  in  hiding.  This  anecdote  brings us to the very center of events described in this article: Jews in hiding and their contacts with or involvement in the PPR underground. Another important aspect  the  anecdote  reveals  is  the  atmosphere  of  Warsaw  during  that  period,  in which Jews faced more difficulty surviving than activists of the anti-German underground.

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