The Failed Resistance Plan

By May 1943 it was clear that there would be no rescue. The Germans were proceeding with their extermination plans and not a single Jew would be left alive.

In Skalat, the 'actions,' and pogrom so far had claimed about 6,500 victims, and in the surrounding camps of Borki-Wielkie, Podwolczyska, Romanowka, Stupka and Kamionka several thousand more people suffered behind the barbed wire, plagued by hunger and disease. Even the most determined optimists had lost hope of remaining alive. Life was now reckoned to be a matter of days not weeks. The previous month's 'action,' the tragedy of the so-called “Sobbing Graves,” which had been intended as the final extermination of the local Jews so that the town could be declared Judenrein, had not gone entirely according to the German plans. Approximately a thousand Jews had managed to avoid capture. The inventiveness of the Jews in the art of bunker construction had reached a level which made it virtually impossible to discover all the Jewish hideaways and mouse-holes. People strove with their final energies to rescue themselves and stay alive.

The Germans now tried to spread rumors that nothing further would occur. The Red Cross was said to have intervened on behalf of the Jews. America was reported to be exchanging German war prisoners for Jews. Other similar tales were told to create confusion. The real intention of the Germans was to collect and hold together the Jewish remnant so that they could be completely liquidated in the near future. As noted previously, the Germans pretended that they were lightening the Jewish load. “You may live peacefully in your ghetto; we will provide bread and work - just be sure you stay clean and don't get sick so that you can't work...” they would explain to the Jews in a deceitfully friendly tone.

At the same time, a group of brave young people, led by Mechel Glanz, began to prepare for armed resistance against the new 'action.' Glanz had come from Kopyczince, a strong, dedicated and wise young man of about 26, whose eyes sparkled with bravery and determination. He was soon joined by other young people, including Lonek Pudles, 30, a student of philosophy who had recently come from the Kamionka Camp, Sholem Schechter, 23, Meyer Grinfeld, 35, Bucio Elfenbein, 22, Henek Weinberg, 21, a veterinary student, (the last four from Skalat) and many others. They all attended secret meetings to lay plans for resistance to the next 'action.' The small group was to have been the core of a broader fighting organization of young people.

In the early days of their activity, Bucio Elfenbein managed to obtain twelve grenades with which the young enthusiasts were as overjoyed as children with new toys. True, the grenades lacked firing pins, but it didn't matter: they began a search for an experienced mechanic to join in their efforts. Mechel Glanz managed to come up with a sum of money to cover the preliminary expenses. Henek Weinberg had established contact with some Gentiles as possible sources for weapons. Meyer Grinfeld was assigned the task of establishing contact with the remnants of the Judenrat, who were still in possession of some communal funds, in order to obtain financial aid. At the outset, the councilmen promised not only funds but active participation. However, nothing ever came of it. Those who had worked for two years in the Judenrat could not fathom the lofty idea of resistance. Such people had long since lost their sense of daring, self-respect and honor. How could they now be expected to collaborate in or support an act which, though it could end in death, would be of a great moral achievement? The Judenrat members, as expected, did nothing to help in the daring enterprise. On the contrary, they considered it foolhardy: “Your work is doomed to fail before you begin. With whose help do you plan to wage war? With women? With a few broken Jews?”

The brave young people were not discouraged by such talk and continued their work in secret. They now owned some arms which lifted their morale. Meyer Grinfeld had established contact with a few small groups of Jews who had escaped from the ghetto and now lived in the forest. Henek Weinberg had contact with a certain Dymkowski, regarding help from the Poles. However it was soon apparent that

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Dymkowski was a charlatan and a con-man who merely wanted to cheat them out of their money. Further dealings with him would have certainly led to betrayal and only in the last moment were they able to shake free of him. They continued their search for a non-Jewish underground movement with which they could join to plan a common approach to resistance. It turned out, however, that no such movement was to be found in the Tarnopol area. The Gentiles were not condemned to death, lived under relatively normal conditions and therefore had many opportunities for sabotage. Instead, they fearfully and abjectly danced to the tune of the German oppressors and endured their persecutions.

Considering the hopeless status of the surviving remnants of the Jews, the mere thought of armed resistance provided solace. Though it would certainly end in death, their suffering would yet make some sense. Such an act, however, required at least a minimum amount of military training, and therefore the resistance group worked feverishly preparing whatever was possible. Unfortunately, the Kripo learned of the resistance preparations and it is quite possible that this led the Germans to hasten their plans for the final extermination in Skalat, which took place on 9 June 1943. The carefully woven dream of active resistance was suddenly torn asunder. Being unprepared, with only a pair of pistols and twelve grenades without firing pins, there could be no possibility of armed resistance. Some days before the liquidation 'action' someone had informed on Lonek Pudles, the escapee from the Kamionka Camp. He was arrested and returned there, where he died in the liquidation of the camp. Thus an important member was missing at the time the resistance might have occurred.

The tragic day of the “Shavuot Action” (to be described in the next chapter) actually led to the liquidation of the ghetto and to the complete extermination of the Jewish community of Skalat. Small remnants escaped to the woods or hid with peasants, who were well paid.

After the town was declared Judenrein, only the Skalat Camp remained in existence where some four hundred people worked at the time. Now the idea of resistance took root there, where several young people were working toward that aim. A few weeks later, when the Soviet partisans invaded the town, these people found the ideal opportunity to join up with them. Almost all of the Jews in camp were eager to join the partisans, but the latter refused to take all of them along.

After much effort only a chosen few were allowed to join the partisan force, which proceeded through the Polish forests. Some former initiators of the resistance plan - such as Mechel Glanz, Shechter, Elfenbein, Katz, Miss Hinda Kornweiz, and a few others - had the good fortune to find themselves among the ranks of the heroic fighters under the command of the famous Soviet General, Kolpak.

But more about this in a later chapter.

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