Anthology on Armed Jewish Resistance 1939-1945 (1986 Second Revised Edition) by Isaac Kowalski, 647 pages. Published by Jewish Combatants Publishers House, Brooklyn, NY.

This is the first installment of quotes and comments re this Anthology. The second will be posted as 4 a. BOOK Jewish Resistance.

By compiling the Anthology, Kowalski succeeded only in bringing to the reading public's attention the desperate attempt by the Jews to portray themselves as having resisted the Germans and as fighters. Although the efforts of the few who did resist must not be demeaned, Mr. Kowalski exaggerates. Because of that and other improprieties, his book falls apart even after a cursory glance.

Quoted from front and back flaps:

"This is the first volume of a Trilogy, and it is a repository of factual accounts of Jewish Resistnce by Partisans and Underground activists, as well as of Jewish Servicemen and Women in the Allied Armies during the Holocaust years. Over 70 authors are contributing their works to this Anthology.

Those authors compiled an unparalleled permanent record of the monumental role played by over 1 1/2 million Jewish Fighters in destroying the evil forces of Fascism.

From the stories you can feel that Jews were among the first organizers of the Armed anti-Nazi uprisings in Poland, France, Belgium, Greece, the Soviet Union, Yugoslavia, Italy, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, North Africa, the Middle East and other Nazi occupied lands.

It is incumbent upon us to convey to the public at large a knowledge of the facts concerning the heroic Jewish Fighters. Let also the anti-Semites know what befell many of their comrades in the past at the hands of the Jewish defenders, as it is told in this book, in authentic stories of acts of retaliation against Jewish annihilators.

You are provided with a ready, readable account of this glorious chapter in the struggle against the murderers of the Jewish people. Its contents is illustrated with almost 800 Documents, Maps, Photographs and Drawings, some of them released for the first time to the public.

The material in this book has been selected and edited by Isaac Kowalski, author of the noted popular work "A Secret Press in Nazi Europe" and editor of the magazine "The Jewish Combatants of World War II". A lengthy introduction is written by Brigadier-General Yitzhak Arad (Res.) IDF, Chairman of Yad Vashem in Jerusalem, a former Partisan himself, who is credited with derailing thirteen German military trains with the loss of hundreds of Nazi troops.

Kowalski's past works were acclaimed throughout the Jewish world by renown scholars and leaders in all walks of life. His involvement in this project ensures the high standard of the Anthology, and comprises an authentic and comprehensive documentation of the full story of the Jewish struggle during World War II." End of quote from flaps.

Kowalski is attempting to cure the sting of the term "Going like lambs to the slaughter" in connection to the lack of resistance by Jews. A Jewish survivor from Wilno, Abba Kowner is credited with having coined this phrase.

(Re: Kowner. Ref. The Seventh Million (1993) by Tom Segev, pages 141-143: "Thus the Nakam (Revenge) organization was born. ... To be true revenge it had to precisely equal the dimensions of the crime. Kovner therefore set six million German citizens as his goal. ... Plan A, was "to poison as many Germans as possible". Plan B, was to poison several thousand former SS men in the American army's POW camps. ... Kovner went to Palestine to bring the poison - and, he hoped, to receive the blessing of the Haganah. ... Pointing to the hatred of Jews in the Soviet Union, he said that there was no future for Jews outside Palestine, and that national unity was all-important. This last idea brought down on them the anger of Hashomer Hatsair's leader Meir Yaari. .. He [Yaari] rejected criticism of the Soviet Union. Kovner, with his past as a terrorist and partisan, his involvement in covert revenge operations, and his charisma, aroused Yaari's suspicions. Yaari said that Kovner suffered from the same syndrome that afflicted demobilized soldiers after World War I - that of trying "to start history all over again" ... The worldview that Kovner and his men brought with them from the forests was based, according to Yaari, on "parafascist" concepts. ... Kovner would later relate that he had succeeded in obtaining a large quantity of poison and that the man who helped him get it was none other than Chaim Weizmann, leader of the Zionist Organization, who would become the first president of Israel. Professor Weizmann was a chemist by training. ... Kovner did not say whether he told Weizmann of the plan to poison six million Germans or only about the "small plan" to poison prisoners of war. According to Kovner, Weizmann sent him to a scientist whom he asked to prepare the poison. In his recorded testimony, which he demanded be kept secret, Kovner identified the scientist as Ernst David Bergman, later a father of Israel's nuclear project." End of quote re Kowner.)

Below are some initial comments based, for the most part, after looking at the photos:

1. The credit for derailment of thirteen German military trains by General Arad, would have been more worthy if it included at least one train carrying Jews to concentration camps. He could have been credited for saving many lives.

2. The many photos of "partisans" scattered throughtout the book are often photos of the same people, the easily identifyable Abba Kowner among them.

3. Kowalski, page 38: "In World War II the American Army, Navy, Marines and Air Corps, did not classify soldiers by religion as so many other coutries did - the most notorious being the German Army, which only kept such records for the purpose of expelling Jewish soldiers (although pleading for them to return when World War II was lost). Front line service was the mark of Jewish valour - some 12 percent of all the Jews in America were in uniform."

Because American forces did not classify soldiers by religion, the "12 percent" claim is questionable. U.S. Veterans asked likewise doubt the "12 percent" claim and deny Jewish "front line service". As to the German Army pleading for the Jewish soldiers to return when WWII was lost, - - well, hmm, return from where ?

4. Kowalski, page 38: " ... Jewish Brigade was organized under British Army colours in the closing years of World War II."

Segev, page 84: "So in the Second World War, the leaders of the yishuv made a great effort to convince the British to establish a Jewish Brigade. The goal was to win the yishuv recognition as a belligerent, thus ensuring the Zionist movement a role in the shaping of postwar Europe. The British, understanding the political motives behind the proposal, rejected it. Only during the last months of the war was the Jewish Brigade set up. It consisted on five thousand men with their own banner and insignia: a yellow Star of David, symbol of the fight against the yellow star that the Nazis forced the Jews to wear. The brigade had time only to hear the war's last shots. During the weeks preceeding the surrender it saw some action in northern Italy. Some of these soldiers remained in Europe after the war as Zionist representatives among the Jewish refugees. Many later served in the Israeli Defense Forces, some in senior command positions."

Segev, page 147: "By the time the Jewish Brigade reached Italy, the war had already been decided. ... they sat idle. Some took out their anger on German prisoners of war and vandalized civilian property. ... At one point, the youngest of them got together and decided to begin revenge operations by searching out Gestapo and SS agents in the border area between Italy and Austria. ... Their officers, however, probably viewed it as a useful outlet for the soldiers' frustration. ... Their method was simple. They disguised themselves as British military policemen and appeared at their victims' houses in a military pickup truck, its license plates obscured with mud. ... The minute the German's head appeared, the ambusher would lean over him, clasp his arms under the man's chin and on the throat ... the grip, would suffocate him and break his neck vertebrae instantly."

Segev, page 148: "One of the avengers who had come from Palestine for this purpose was Shimon Avidan, formerly commander of the German unit of the Palmach. Avidan took upon himself, among other things, the task of locating Adolf Eichman. According to Kovner, he succeeded in penetrating the Nazi's hideout, but, unfortunately, he killed someone else."

Segev, page 149: " ... a few avengers once waited in ambush alongside a road and shot at anything that moved. In at least one instance, Ben-Gal related, they killed a Jewish woman, a Holocaust survivor, by accident. ... Some of the soldiers who participated in the vengeance operations would, in the years that followed, be promoted to senior ranks in the Israeli army. Among them were generals and a chief of staff, Haim Laskov. Years later, Laskov said: "They were not 'nice' acts."" End of quotes from Segev.

Persons researching the Kielce riot might consider reading up on the shenanigans of the Jewish Brigade. - Just a thought. End of first installment.