A few days from now, a modest ceremony will be held on the banks of the Danube River, in Budapest, the capital of Hungary.
One by one, members of Zionist youth movements will place a stone, one on top of the other, and the entire stack will form a monument in memory of the Jewish men and women who were shot to death by Hungarian hooligans and thrown into the icy waters of the Danube in the winter of 1944.
In my name, and on behalf of the many participants here, I would like to add another stone to that monument, in memory of the unnamed Jews who perished only days before the German withdrawal from besieged city of Budapest.
During those very days, on the eve of the liberation, several Hashomer Hatzair members died as heroes. I will mention only a few. Micky Langer, the wonderful young man who was tortured for his underground activities, until his soul departed; Mark Gott, who was caught during an operation and did not return; Simha Hunwald, who was shot while trying to save a young Jewish boy from the cursed troops of the Arrow Cross fascist party in Hungary; and Dr. Ottó Komoly, Chairman of the Zionist Federation in Hungary, a distinguished man who was loved by all, and who disappeared without a trace.
I ask for forgiveness and compassion from all the fighters, the other operatives in the Halutz youth movements in Hungary who died in action, perished or were deported to concentration camps, because I cannot mention all their names.
They were members of the underground rescue and resistance movements and will remain forever engraved on our hearts.
More than four hundred thousand Jews were deported from Hungary in an eight-week lightening-strike operation in the spring of 1944.
I can see you in my mind’s eye – the Haredim, the Chassidim, the neologists, the orthodox, the assimilated, the Zionists, the craftsmen, the educated, the doctors, the professors, the scientists, the artists, the actors, the athletes, and so many more. The pious women, the wonderful young girls, the mothers, the grandmothers, the grandfathers, and especially the children. Those wide-eyed children who did not understand what and why.
No one had the strength to save them. But each one of them has a name.
The Germans, with the “noble” assistance of the Hungarians, were determined to wipe the Jewish People off the face of the earth. This time the enemy did not come to destroy our faith, our religion, our tradition. The enemy did not come to kidnap our children and educate them as Christians. This time they came to annihilate us, to remove us from the face of the earth. Every last one of us.
The fascist murderers massacred members of other nations. Not only Jews. They transported tens of thousands in cattle cars and held them in concentration camps. Perhaps millions of people from other nations. I saw photographs of thousands of prisoners, strong young men, without their families, marching helplessly to their bitter fate. They did not protest, they did not rebel, and no one came to save them.
Only a handful of Zionists and members of Zionist youth movements were determined to raise the banner of resistance and rebellion in order to foil enemy’s evil plan. This is what happened throughout the occupied countries, all in accordance with the conditions of the time and place.
This is how the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising happened, led by Mordechaj Anielewicz, whom this kibbutz is name after. There were similar uprisings in many ghettos in Poland and Lithuania, and the partisans joined the rebellion in Slovakia and rescue movements in most countries of occupied Europe.
No one had the strength to stand idly by. The whole of Europe, with its massive armies and resources, was conquered, country after country.
We decided to act. To do anything to stop what was happening.
We knew that the Jewish People could not exist without Jews! We had to save each and every Jewish soul, to wrest every Jew from the talons of the vicious beast. At all costs and in any way possible. In simple words: this is not the time for Kiddush Hashem – the sanctification of God’s name, but the time for Kiddush Ha’haim – the sanctification of life.
This week I read an article written by an army general and distinguished defense minister. I was filled with awe at one of his statements: “Zionism came into the world, first and foremost to bring us back to Jerusalem, to Hebron, to Shiloh, to Beit El, to Shechem, and to Bethlehem. Only if we return to these places, can we be a free Jewish Nation.” End of quote.
I am not embarrassed to publicly admit that during those terrible times the Zionists did not yearn for any one of these holy places. They had only one goal in mind – to save Jews. They knew, just as we know today, that without Jews, there is no Jewish nation – that the diabolical plot against our people was to not leave any Jews alive, not one survivor or remnant of the Jewish People.
That is why we say: our response to Eichmann and his evil collaborators, is not places, symbols, synagogues or cemeteries. Nor do we seek to vent our anger, vengeance or endless hatred. Our only answer is – living Jews, who are our hope for survival as a nation.
In the face of the military might and organizational power that the Germans and Hungarians mobilized against us, we stood exposed and meager. Without any help from within and with very little help from without; without effective weapons, tanks, cannons, and even without communication devices. Our weapon was our determination, insight, moral superiority, resourcefulness, and perhaps most of all, the Zionist education that we received, each within his own movement.
When the authorities forced us to wear the yellow badge – we refused, just as we refused any order or command imposed by the enemy. Still, we did not remain outside the camp; we harnessed ourselves in front of it.
Our emissaries visited the Jews crowded into the ghettos and in the country towns, to warn whoever would listen. We knew very well that the Jewish communities were built on strong family ties. The love between the parents and their children, the bond between the fathers and their sons, the strength of the family unit clearly made the enemy’s work much easier. When we pleaded with parents put their children in our hands, in order to save their souls, we knew that this was not easy. But when a boy or girl, in order to save their own life, had to abandon their parents, their siblings, – that was seven times harder.
The swift organization, immediately upon the start of the occupation – the immediate descent into the underground by thousands of operatives from many youth organizations, the expansion of the rescue circle, by turning rescued into rescuers, produced results.
Thousands were rescued and went on to rescue others in many ways: by documenting and hiding; by smuggling people into Romania (from where immigration to Israel was still possible until a certain date); by bringing people into protected houses (especially the Swiss consular houses); by gathering nearly 4;000 children and adolescents into Red Cross safe houses; by helping bring food supplies to the ghetto in Budapest; and rescuing and extricating people from prisons; and the impressive list goes on and on.
This was, without a doubt, a tremendous and uniquely rescue operation, in both its scope and its methods.
Fifty years have passed since then. The memories are harsh and tormenting. Most of the rescuers and even a great many of the rescued are no longer with us. But those waves of suffering and bereavement, on the one hand, and the waves of rebellion and rescue, on the other, carried and became the reality of the mass immigration to Israel, and in its wake, the State of Israel.
April 7, 1994
