Fighting Hitler

THROUYGEH
S
Nonfiction
YOUR E
TRUE
TEEN
STORIES
FROM
HISTORY
Fighting Hitler
THOUSANDS OF JEWISH TEENS FOUGHT THE NAZIS DURING
WORLD WAR II. BEN KAMM WAS ONE OF THEM. BY LAUREN TARSHIS
Y
A HOLOCAUST ST
ou probably know
with long, gray beards. You can hear
Ben shivers for a few seconds. But he
a kid like Ben
him laughing with his friends and
holds his head up and keeps walking.
Kamm—the guy
shouting goodbyes as they all head
He quickly forgets about this man.
with big ideas and a
home for dinner.
quick smile, the one
who will lead you
JEWISH PARTISAN EDUCATIONAL FOUNDATION;
KEYSTONE/GETTY IMAGES (BACKGROUND)
AS YOU READ, LOOK FOR:
Author’s Purpose
Pay close attention to the
opening lines of this article.
How do they affect the way
you experience the rest of
the story?
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SCHOLASTIC SCOPE • APRIL 18, 2011
Keep picturing Ben in your mind
as he walks up to his spacious
apartment—where his four little
hisses something.
brothers happily pounce on him,
you get home safely. He grew up in a
Brudny Zyd.
where his father looks up from his
different place and time than you—
Dirty Jew.
evening paper and smiles, where
in Warsaw, Poland, in the 1920s and
Ben’s skin prickles, but he doesn’t
his mother serves a delicious dinner
’30s—but he was enough like you
glance at the man. The truth is that
in their cozy dining room. This is
and your friends that you should be
he is used to these words. Anti-
where Ben’s story takes a sharp turn
able to picture him: a blond boy with
Semitism—prejudice against Jewish
into one of the darkest and most evil
bright-blue eyes, short but strong,
people—was a fact of life in Warsaw,
chapters in history: the Holocaust.
his clothes rumpled from wrestling
as it was in many European cities.
with his little brothers.
Like most of Warsaw’s 350,000 Jews,
dinner, Germany’s leader, Adolf
Ben doesn’t dwell on the petty
Hitler, is plotting the annihilation of
through the crowded city streets with
hatreds of ignorant people. The man’s
Europe’s 9 million Jews.
his friends, zigzagging around fancy
words are like the cold wind that
ladies and fruit sellers and men
blows off the nearby Vistula River.
Try to imagine him, running
As millions of Jewish people were being murdered in death camps, Jewish partisans
like these formed secret forest compounds and launched attacks on Nazis.
But wait, do you hear that too? As
Ben walks by a neighbor, the man
off on an adventure and make sure
CHECK IT OUT
ORY
As Ben’s family is enjoying their
Germany had been
struggling since 1918, when

SCHOLASTIC.COM/SCOPE • APRIL 18, 2011
5
conceive of such horrors. “Who could
imagine such things?” Ben would say
decades later. “Who could imagine?”
Nazi Invasion
Ben was 18 when, in 1939,
German troops invaded Poland.
With shocking swiftness and brutal
efficiency, the Nazis and Polish police
cracked down on Warsaw’s Jews.
Many Jewish-owned businesses,
including Ben’s father’s, were
confiscated. Jews were not allowed
to set foot in public parks, use public
Ben’s family had thrived in Warsaw for generations. Like many Jews, they lived
comfortably and happily despite the prejudice against them. Ben is circled.
libraries, or go out after 9 p.m. Those
who violated these laws could be
it was defeated in World War I. The
collaborators shot them, starved
German people felt humiliated,
them, worked them to death, and
tired, and bitter. Hitler and his Nazi
systematically murdered them in the
about leaving Poland, but they had
Party rose to power by tapping into
gas chambers of death camps.
nowhere to go.
Germany was
But in the days before World
Germans were superior to everyone
War II, when the Kamms were happy
at war with
else. He also found a scapegoat for all
and comfortable, nobody could even
England, France,
of Germany’s problems: the Jews.
NAZI-OCCUPIED EUROPE
In speech after speech, Hitler
attacked Europe’s Jewish people. He
compared them to “vermin,” calling
FINLAND
them “subhuman,” and “an inferior
of centuries-old bigotry against
NORWAY
ATLANTIC
OCEAN
Jewish people, whose religion and
W
race.” These words fanned the flames
GREAT
BRITAIN
rituals had often kept them separate
DENMARK
from the rest of the population.
“Eliminate the Jews,” Hitler
LUX.
exclaimed, “and you will eliminate all
FRANCE
Soon, many Germans turned
against their Jewish neighbors.
Synagogues were destroyed. Jewish-
Warsaw
CZECHOSLOVAKIA
SWITZ. AUSTRIA
HUNGARY
ITALY
PORTUGAL
SPAIN
ROMANIA
Black Sea
BULGARIA
ALBANIA
GREECE
vandalized. By 1945, 6 million Jewish
would be dead. Nazi troops and their
POLAND
YUGOSLAVIA
owned businesses were burned and
men, women, children, and babies
EAST
PRUSSIA
GERMANY
of Germany’s problems!”
SOVIET UNION
NETHERLANDS
IRELAND
500
0
SCALE OF MILES
This image, taken by
a Nazi official, shows
Jewish people during
the “final liquidation”
of the Warsaw Ghetto.
Most are presumed
to have died in
concentration camps.
The Kamm family often spoke
Mediterranean Sea
Area controlled or
occupied by Nazi
Germany in 1942
Allied country
Neutral country
TOP LEFT: JEWISH PARTISAN EDUCATIONAL FOUNDATION; ROGER VIOLLET/GETTY IMAGES (HITLER); MAP: JIM McMAHON
these feelings. Hitler declared that
shot on the spot.
and the Soviet Union, and the Nazis
instrument. No one was permitted to
desperate. One day, a policeman
contolled a vast expanse of Europe.
bring more than a few belongings.
drove through the streets with a
All of the borders were closed.
Ben saw a sneering policeman
smile on his face, firing his gun.
shove an old woman who lagged
He killed a pregnant woman. An
the Jewish people in Warsaw and its
behind the crowd. The policeman’s
epidemic of typhus swept through
surrounding towns were rounded up
eyes were filled with disgust. Ben
the crowded apartments, killing
and forced to move into one tiny area
gripped his littlest brother’s hand, his
thousands of people. Bodies piled
of the city. The area, which became
heart pounding with fear and hatred.
up in the streets. Each week, police
known as the Warsaw Ghetto, was
He realized then that the Nazis and
rounded up people to work as slave
surrounded by an 11-foot wall topped
their Polish helpers did not see them
laborers. None returned. People
with barbed wire and broken glass.
as humans. He felt like an animal—a
heard terrible rumors that the Nazis
helpless animal.
had set up death camps where Jews
Then, on October 16, 1940, all of
Armed police herded hundreds of
Jews through the streets. Ben looked
Ben’s family moved into one
with sorrow at those around him—
room. The ghetto gates closed. And
women holding tight to their babies,
nobody was allowed to leave.
men in business suits, teachers from
his school, little girls wearing their
finest dresses and shoes. One man, a
well-known violinist, carried only his
Terrible Rumors
Rage at the Nazis burned inside
Ben as conditions became more
were being killed in gas chambers.
Each ghetto resident was entitled
to a tiny ration of food, barely a
tenth of what a person should eat
each day. Like many young people,
Ben soon learned tricks for
sneaking out of the ghetto to
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SOURCE: TK
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SCHOLASTIC SCOPE • APRIL 18, 2011
SCHOLASTIC.COM/SCOPE • APRIL 18, 2011
7
find food for his family. There were
family in Warsaw was in dire straits.
holes in the wall and tunnels that led
He rushed back to help them and was
In 1945, the war finally ended
to the other side. With his blond hair
shocked by what he found. Orphaned
with Germany’s surrender. Ben was
and blue eyes, Ben blended in easily
children begged on the street. The
24 years old. There was little left of
with the Polish population. Plus, he
dead lay slumped in doorways. His
that laughing boy who once sprinted
Ben spoke at length about his
had an aunt on the outside. None of
family lived in despair, sharing their
through peaceful Warsaw streets. His
experiences. You can see him on
her neighbors knew she was Jewish,
single room with three other families.
entire family was dead. The Nazis
video, his eyes still bright, his voice
and she managed to help Ben
Ben stayed for two days, sneaking
survived the war.”
As for Ben, he married and moved
to America, where he built a happy
family and a successful life.
Before his death last year,
had “liquidated” the Warsaw Ghetto
strong, his handsome face shockingly
in and out of the ghetto to steal food
in 1943, first burning down buildings,
free of bitterness. The rage and
for his family. He considered taking
then taking the surviving 42,000 men,
sadness were still smoldering inside
and his family were slowly starving.
his brothers back to the forest with
women, and children by train to the
him, of course, but he also had a
They could do nothing, it seemed,
him. But many in the ghetto believed
death and forced labor camps. Most
strong sense of his own good fortune.
other than wait for death.
that the war would soon be over, that
were killed in gas chambers.
without attracting suspicion.
But even with his aunt’s help, Ben
the Soviet army would crush Hitler’s
Jewish Fighters
ABOVE: The streets of the
Warsaw Ghetto were filled
with orphaned children.
BELOW: Prisoners in a
Nazi death camp.
As Ben would soon learn, there
was something he could do after
all—if he dared. All around Eastern
troops and free the Jews from their
of the men who helped murder Ben’s
women, innocent people,” he said.
ghetto prison. Ben’s parents believed
family and friends were executed for
“But I am lucky that I’m alive and
the younger boys would be safer
their crimes.
can tell the story.”
would break down in tears when he
fighting back against the Nazis. They
recalled the moment he left his family
were called partisans. Like characters
to rejoin the partisans.
out of The Adventures of Robin Hood,
He would never see them again.
they operated from bases hidden
Luck and Sorrow
deep in the thick forests of Eastern
For the next two years, Ben fought
Europe. Some were hardened
with a legendary band of partisans
(and a few girls). They blew up
commanded by a former Soviet
factories, sabotaged railroads, stole
general. Their group eventually grew
weapons shipments, and upset the
to 1,600 fighters operating from a
flow of supplies to German troops.
large compound in the forest. The
Stories about partisans like the
to endure days in rain-soaked
clothing, and to ambush Polish
Jewish families who had escaped
Bielskis spread through the Warsaw
policemen and steal their weapons.
from the ghettos. The most famous
Ghetto, offering a glint of hope to
Danger lurked everywhere in the
was commanded by the Bielski
boys like Ben. One day, Ben’s aunt
hostile countryside, where Poles
brothers, three Jewish men who’d fled
told him about a Polish partisan
could earn rewards for turning in
when the Nazis invaded their village
group in a forest 100 miles away. With
Jews to the Nazis. But Ben’s rage had
in Belorussia (now called Belarus).
his family’s blessing, Ben snuck out
toughened him. His bravery and skill
The brothers fought German
of the ghetto and joined up.
soon earned him the respect of the
troops and ran sabotage missions,
Ben struggled to adjust to life with
though their focus was protecting
the partisans. He learned to shoot, to
a community of 1,200 Jewish men,
fall asleep on the cold forest ground,
SCHOLASTIC SCOPE • APRIL 18, 2011
most experienced fighters.
Just months after joining the
partisans, Ben received word that his
ABOVE: Ben Kamm, daring Jewish
partisan fighter, just after the war.
RIGHT: Ben, in 2002. He died this
past November, at age 89.
compound became almost like a
town, with cobblers who repaired
damaged shoes and musicians who
JEWISH PARTISAN EDUCATIONAL FOUNDATION (2)
women, and children.
TOP: GALERIE BILDERWELT/GETTY IMAGES; BOTTOM: BETTMANN/CORBIS
fighters. Others were teenage boys
8
•
For the rest of his life, Ben Kamm
including thousands of Jews, were
In several partisan forest camps,
killed innocent babies, innocent
in the ghetto.
Europe, tens of thousands of people,
fighters protected large numbers of
Hitler committed suicide. Many
“I can’t forgive the people who
provided moments of joyful escape.
Ben volunteered for dangerous
missions blowing up cargo trains
carrying supplies meant for German
troops. Often, the group discovered
Jews hiding in the forests.
“We took them with us,” Ben
said. “Old, young, children. We
took them with us, and they
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