He who controls the present controls the past. “1984”, George Orwell Sir Ian Kershaw Dear Sir, Re: request to crack open the “mental ghetto” concerning Warsaw Ghetto Uprising history As we know, the archeological discovery of a shard can change how history is presented. A year ago, I found a historical treasure that includes documents and photographic material which requires the attention of an internationally known historian. Since making the find, I have endeavoured to interest researchers in Israel and Poland. Sadly, all seem to be linked to a fixed set of preconceived notions that may eventually lead to the erasure of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising’s memory. In Bob Dylan’s words: Everyone changes the past according to their own needs. This is hardly the time to ply you with the array of experiences I have accumulated over the past year following my discovery, including an arrest in Warsaw. Suffice it to say that I feel as though I am knocking on the impervious walls of a “mental ghetto” at Yad Vashem, which controls in dictatorial manner all materials relevant to the Holocaust in general, and to the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising in particular. I am not the only one who holds this view: it is shared by renowned professors well steeped in these materials and the organization’s modus operandi. However, unlike the Warsaw Ghetto rebels, I seem unable to find any avenue through which to set the record straight. Despite my search, I have so far not found Holocaust researchers I can approach who are not in some way connected financially to Yad Vashem. The latter organization, for all its good work, has nonetheless become a haven for “sacred cows”, views which themselves harm honest research (a topic worthy of research in itself!). In Israel, and especially in Warsaw and Germany, a “Holocaust cartel” exists. According to Deut.16:19, gifts (bribes) blind the eyes of the wise. It is ironic, then, that all research is based on the materials held by a single organization with the strong support of a single person, Dr. Havi Dreyfus. Nor am I alone in my frustration. A further example is the failed attempt of Haifa University to open a department examining the Holocaust, expressed in its statement as follows: Dependency on Yad Vashem creates problematics. Holocaust historians in universities fill key roles in Yad Vashem frameworks. About a year ago, Haifa University established – with much fanfare – an international program for ‘Teaching the Holocaust and Genocide’…although a year later the program expired with a whimper (Daneil Blatman, Haaretz Newspaper, 19 April 2013). As is well known, the definition of civilization is the sum of all joint communal effort accrued over thousands of generations. This, too, should be the face of research: a pooling of all information that produces the most correct history possible. This is why I am approaching you, Sir Kershaw, with a request that you accept for review the material I have found which, for me, proves one simple fact censored for the past 70 years, based on narrow economic and political interests (which I am willing to expand on if you are interested). I speak of the names of the fighters killed in the last Warsaw Ghetto battle in the command bunker at Mila 18 on 8 May 1943. In Israel, and worldwide, no one is familiar with the rebels’ names other than that of Mordechai Anilewicz even though I found their names engraved on a stone that, too, was censored (for reasons I will not expound in this letter). However, what needs to be kept in mind, in general, is that a raging argument ensued between Abba Kovner and Meir Ya’ari, the latter being the leader of the Mapam party decades ago. As a result, my family and I have sustained personal damage and suffering. My aunt, a Warsaw Ghetto rebel, left her infant daughter who today would be 72, but has yet to be found. Bringing her story to the fore may very well help with the work of finding her. All my pleas and requests relating to my aunt, from February 2012 (when I found this particular treasure trove of information) have remained unrelated to or rejected outright. These include approaches to: • Yad Vashem, • Yad Mordechai Museum (where the memorial by Nathan Rappaport was based on a rare photograph brought by my mother to Israel, the original of which is in my possession) • Lochamei Hageta’ot [Ghetto Fighters] organization • Yad Yaari [the Yaari Hashomer Hatzair Research Institute] • Ministry of Education • the museum in Warsaw, and more. Beyond what I see as the need to finally expose the full and true story of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, there may also be descendants of the other Mila 18 rebels who are equally affected by such widespread censoring. I am currently seeking them. Only a researcher of such renown as yourself, working alone or in conjuction with other historians/researchers independent of all ties to Yad Vashem, can crack this “mental ghetto” open. It is a dangerous type of ghetto, since it hides the true narrative of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, the people involved, and how it serves as inspiration for establishing the State of Israel (per Professor Yisrael Guttman) , for Martin Luther King and even Woodstock (Professor Eyal Naveh). Censorship of this scope, or the other side of its coin, public relations and marketing, turned Che Guevara from a serial murderer into a ‘freedom fighter’. I hope that the broad network of censorship relating to the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising can be overturned before it is too late to alter the norms it upholds. How can it be that the Pentagon discloses classified material after 50 years, and we keep censoring our own heroes 70 years later, and on? My discovered ‘treasure trove’ includes: • 2 original photographs of Mordecai Anilewicz • Many letters from my aunt Sarenka, who roused the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, to my mother. I would be happy to meet with you in England and present a truer, fuller and still untold story of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising to you. Perhaps your involvement, if interested, will not only help me find my long lost cousin ‘Maya’, who was handed into another person’s care, the ultimate sacrifice any new mother could make for the sake of the Uprising ‘altar’, but help others like me find their family members too. Yours sincerely, Ofer Aloni Author and designer of “the personal path to shared Hope” in the personal, social, marketing and political arenas. Named for his aunt Sarenka (Ofra), a Warsaw Ghetto Uprising rebel. At the age of 22, she left her infant daughter Maya, who has yet to be found, and charged with inconceivable courage, reentered the besieged ghetto to join forces with others rebelling against the Nazis. With them, she fought for the sake of that existential human need, Hope.
Posted on: Mon, 03 Feb 2014 10:05:25 +0000
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