A Secret Press in Nazi Europe

By Isaac Kowalski

No Synopsis Available.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0884000524
• ISBN13: 9780884000525
• Release Date: January 1978
• Publisher: Shengold Publishers
• Weight: 0.20 lbs.

Customer Reviews

The Koniuchy Massacre--Not Collateral Civilian Deaths--During the Jewish-Soviet Attack on This Polis

This work is centered on Jewish guerrilla life in the area of Vilna (Wilno, Vilnius), and the press is decidedly subordinate. The Warsaw Ghetto fighters are honored, and described as consisting of 200 ZOB (Z.O.B) and (the oft-ignored) 400 ZZW (Z.Z.W)(p. 209). A helpful table is provided of the Jewish soldiers found in all the Allied armies. (p. 334). Poles and Lithuanians who aided the local fugitive Jews are also featured in some detail. ((pp. 157-166). The author repeats reflexive accusations of the Polish Underground AK (A.K., or Armia Krajowa) of being "rabidly anti-Semitic" and out to kill Jews. (p. 291). But then he turns around, and points out that the AK condemned anti-Semitism and punished it. (p. 293). All along, however, he is silent about the openly Jewish members in the AK (including its top echelons), the need for the AK to protect Polish peasants from widespread Jewish banditry, and the massive collaboration of Jewish partisans with Soviet ones in their war to destroy the AK in the Vilna region. Author Kowalski describes the 1943 Jewish-Soviet partisan attack on Koniuchy as follows: "Our detachment got the order to destroy everything that was moving and burn the village down to its roots. At the exact hour and minute all partisans from all four corners of the village started pouring rifle and machine-gun fire, with incendiary bullets, into the village. This caused the straw roofs of the houses to catch fire. The villagers and the German garrison answered back with heavy fire, but after two hours the village with the fortified shelter was completely destroyed. Our only casualties were two men who were lightly wounded. When, later, we had to go through Koniuchy, we did not encounter any sniper shots, because it was like crossing through a cemetery." (p. 279). Actually, there was no German garrison at Koniuchy. In fact, Kowalski's testimony itself is self-refuting. Had there been one, and had it moreover enjoyed a "fortified shelter", and had it been capable of directing "heavy fire", how likely is it that the attackers would have merely suffered "two men who were lightly wounded"? (Otherwise, the Koniuchy Poles may have requested and obtained a small number of weapons from the Germans, and may well have sometimes denounced and killed Jews, but all this was in self-defense from bandits, including Jewish bandits.). As would later (1948) be alleged about Deir Yassin, the civilians killed in Koniuchy are implied to be collateral combat deaths. The high civilian death toll, in both instances, unmasks this falsehood. Guerrilla village combat itself, especially when using mainly portable firearms and mortars, usually isn't lethal enough to cause a considerable number of civilian deaths (certainly not "like crossing through a cemetery."). The low attacker casualty rate ("2 wounded") and brevity of the combat ("two hours"), if accurate, only strengthen this fact. As a matter of fact, more than 20 civilian deaths in a moderate-sized v

good book

this is a not-well-known description of how the Partisan movement affected the Nazi war effort in the forest outside of Vilna, as well as within. There isn't much of a novel-type plot, however, the author's memory for all the people and events is astounding, and anyone who thought that the Jews just didn't fight back is in for the surprise of their lives. As it turns out, this is a much better description of the war efforts of Jews than Defiance movie, or just Bielski. Also, it shows what a printer can do - mightier than just a gun.