Moshe Phillips
Isranet, Mar. 30, 2023
“And We Are Not Saved” is at once a bitter, provocative, and emotional work. It is unlike any other Holocaust memoir in its scope, attitude, or conclusions.”
As we approach the 80th anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising there can be no doubt that the mainstream media will cover the occasion. For example, CNN is asking “Was your family affected by the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising in 1943? Leave CNN a voicemail”
Whatever CNN and other news outlets may produce this year, there are books available that contain first hand accounts that should not be missed. For example, Holocaust survivor Dr. David Wdowinski published his eyewitness account of the Holocaust in Poland in 1963 with the title “And We Are Not Saved” (Philosophical Library, New York). Due in no small part to the fact that Wdowinski was one of the very few leaders of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising to survive the war, it may be the most important Holocaust book that you’ve never heard of. This year marks the 80th anniversary of the revolt that was launched on April 19th by young Zionists fighters. The Ghetto in Warsaw was the largest the Nazis built and Wdowinski’s perspectives on the revolt, Zionism, combating antisemitism, Diaspora Jewish life, and Jewish leadership are all well worth examining in order to better understand the Holocaust.
British historian Martin Gilbert (1936-2015) in his 1986 book “The Holocaust: A History of the Jews of Europe During the Second World War” quoted extensively from “And We Are Not Saved” but failed to offer his readers any idea who Wdowinski was or what he stood for. In this small space, an attempt will be made to rectify that.
Wdowinski and the Zionist fighting organization he helped lead in the Ghetto are seldom recalled today. He lost everything in the Shoah, family, friends, colleagues, and patients, and survived to campaign for Israel’s independence and later testified against Adolf Eichmann in his Jerusalem.
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