A tediously-long Holocaust tale is told here in the New York Times in its obit for Marek Edelman, last survivor of the Warsaw Ghetto uprising. Don’t get me wrong. I like Holocaust stories. This one just goes on too long, and I feel like I’ve heard the story. We can’t get enough of it. And, writes a friend, Eric Poulos:
Yesterday’s New York Times obit was unusually long and quite detailed about Edelman’s war time experience but, not surprisingly, left out the following two important facts.
1. Edelman remained a socialist until the day he died.
2. Edelman, a Jew, protested Israeli policy towards the Palestinians (and likewise criticized Palestinian suicide bombings of Jews) and voiced resentment at the official Zionist establishment for turning commemorations of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising into pro-Israeli events.
In fact, he went further and said the Palestinians had now become the true inheritors of the spirit of the Warsaw Ghetto fighters. Not surprisingly all the other mainstream media I checked, Huffington Post, Washington Post, even Wikipedia, all left out the above facts. Fortunately, a British publication Socialist Worker, has published a more honest bio of this heroic figure. The link is below.
In the summer of 2002, Edelman, still going strong, intervened in Israel’s show trial of the now jailed Palestinian resistance leader, Marwan Barghouti.
He wrote a letter of solidarity to the Palestinian movement, and though he criticised the suicide bombers, its tone infuriated the Israeli government and its press. Edelman had always resented Israel’s claim on the Warsaw Ghetto uprising as a symbol of Jewish liberation.
Now he said this belonged to the Palestinians. He addressed his letter to “commanders of the Palestinian military, paramilitary and partisan operations — to all the soldiers of the Palestinian fighting organisations”.
The old Jewish anti-Nazi Ghetto fighter had placed his immense moral authority at the disposal of the only side he deemed worthy of it.
