TRUETEENSTORIESFROMHISTORY

THOUSANDS OF JEWISH TEENS FOUGHT THE NAZIS DURINGWORLD WAR I I . BEN KAMM WAS ONE OF THEM, BYLAURENTARSHIS

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Author's PurposePay close attention to theopening lines of this article.How do they affect the wayyou experience the rest ofthe story?

SCHOLASTIC SCOPE • APRIL 18, 2011

Nonfiction

You probably knowa kid like BenKamm—the guywith big ideas and aquick smile, the onewho will lead you

off on an adventure and make sureyou get home safely. He grew up in adifferent place and time than you—in Warsaw, Poland, in the 1920s and'30s—but he was enough like youand your friends that you should beable to picture him: a blond boy withbright-blue eyes, short but strong,his clothes rumpled from wrestlingwith his little brothers.

Try to imagine him, runningthrough the crowded city streets withhis friends, zigzagging around fancyladies and fruit sellers and men

with long, gray beards. You can hearhim laughing with his friends andshouting goodbyes as they all headhome for dinner.

But wait, do you hear that too? AsBen walks by a neighbor, the manhisses something.

Brudny Zyd.Dirty lew.Ben's skin prickles, but he doesn't

glance at the man. The truth is thathe is used to these words. Anti-Semitism—prejudice against lewishpeople—was a fact of life in Warsaw,as it was in many European cities,like most of Warsaw's 350,000 Jews,Ben doesn't dwell on the pettyhatreds of ignorant people. The man'swords are like the cold wind thatblows off the nearby Vistula River.

Ben shivers for a few seconds. But heholds his head up and keeps walking.He quickly forgets about this man.

Keep picturing Ben in your mindas he walks up to his spaciousapartment—where his four littlebrothers happily pounce on him,where his father looks up from hisevening paper and smiles, wherehis mother serves a delicious dinnerin their cozy dining room. This iswhere Ben's story takes a sharp turninto one of the darkest and most evilchapters in history: the Holocaust.

As Ben's family is enjoying theirdinner, Germany's leader, AdolfHitler, is plotting the annihilation ofEurope's 9 million Jews.

Germany had beenstruggling since 1918, when

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it was defeated in World War I. TheGerman people felt humiliated,tired, and bitter. Hitler and his NaziParty rose to power by tapping intothese feelings. Hitler declared thatGermans were superior to everyoneelse. He also found a scapegoat for allof Germany's problems: the Jews.

In speech after speech. Hitlerattacked Europe's Jewish people. Hecompared them to "vermin," callingthem "subhuman," and "an inferiorrace." These words fanned the flamesof centuries-old bigotry againstJewish people, whose religion andrituals had often kept them separateftom the rest of the poptilation.

"Eliminate the Jews," Hitlerexclaimed, "and you will eliminate aUof Germany's problems!"

Soon, many Germans turnedagainst their Jewish neighbors.Synagogues were destroyed. Jewish-owned businesses were burned andvandalized. By 1945, 6 million Jewishmen, women, children, and babieswould be dead. Nazi troops and their

collaborators shot them, starvedthem, worked them to death, andsystematically murdered them in thegas chambers of death camps.

But in the days before WorldWar II, when the Kamms were happyand comfortable, nobody could even

conceive of such horrors. "Who couldimagine such things?" Ben would saydecades later. "Who could imagine?"

Nazi InvasionBen was 18 when, in 1939,

German troops invaded Poland.With shocking swiftness and brutalefficiency, the Nazis and Polish policecracked down on Warsaw's Jews.Many Jewish-owned businesses,including Ben's father's, wereconfiscated. Jews were not allowedto set foot in public parks, use publiclibraries, or go out after 9 p.m. Thosewho violated these laws could beshot on the spot.

The Kamm family often spokeabout leaving Poland, but they hadnowhere to go.Germany wasat war withEngland, France,

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SCHOLASnC SCOPE • APRIL 18, 2011

and the Soviet Union, and the Naziscontolled a vast expanse of Europe.All of the borders were closed.

Then, on October 16,1940, all ofthe Jewish people in Warsaw and itssurrounding towns were rounded upand forced to move into one tiny areaof the city. The area, which becameknown as the Warsaw Ghetto, wassurrounded by an 11-foot wall toppedwith barbed wire and broken glass.

Armed police herded hundreds ofJews through the streets. Ben lookedwith sorrow at those around him—women holding tight to their babies,men in business suits, teachers fromhis school, little girls wearing theirfinest dresses and shoes. One man, awell-known violinist, carried only his

instrument. No one was permitted tobring more than a few belongings.

Ben saw a sneering policemanshove an old woman who laggedbehind the crowd. The policeman'seyes were filled with disgust. Bengripped his littlest brother's hand, hisheart pounding with fear and hatred.He realized then that the Nazis andtheir Polish helpers did not see themas humans. He felt like an animal—a helpless animal.

Ben's fíimüy moved into one smallroom. The ghetto gates closed. Andnobody was allowed to leave.

Terrible RumorsRage at the Nazis burned inside

Ben as conditions became more

desperate. One day, a policemandrove through the streets with asmile on his face, firing his gim.He killed a pregnant woman. Anepidemic of typhus swept throughthe crowded apartments, killingthousands. Bodies piled up in thestreets. Each week, police roundedup people to work as slave laborers.None returned. There were terriblerumors that the Nazis had set updeath camps where Jews were beingkilled in gas chambers.

Each ghetto resident was entitledto a tiny ration of food, barely atenth of what a person should eateach day. Like many young people,Ben soon learned tricks forsneaking out of the ghetto to

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find food for his family. There wereholes in the wall and tunnels that ledto the other side. With his blond hairand blue eyes, Ben blended in easilywith the Polish poptilation. Plus, hehad an aunt on the outside. None ofher neighbors knew she was Jewish,and she managed to help Benwithout attracting suspicion.

But even with his aunt's help, Benand his family were slowly starving.They could do nothing, it seemed,other than wait for death.

Jewish FightersAs Ben would soon learn, there

was something he could do afterall—if he dared. All around EasternEurope, tens of thousands of people,including thousands of Jews, werefighting back against the Nazis. Theywere called partisans. Like charactersout of The Adventures of Robin Hood,they operated from bases hiddendeep in the thick forests of EasternEurope. Some were hardenedfighters. Others were teenage boys(and a few girls). They blew upfactories, sabotaged railroads, stoleweapons shipments, and upset theflow of supplies to German troops.

In several partisan forest camps,fighters protected large numbers ofJewish families who had escapedfrom the ghettos. The most famouswas commanded by the Bielskibrothers, three Jewish men who'd fiedwhen the Nazis invaded their villagein Belorussia (now called Belarus).The brothers fought Germantroops and ran sabotage missions,though their focus was protectinga community of 1,200 Jewish men.

women, and children.Stories about partisans like the

Bielskis spread through the WarsawGhetto, offering a glint of hope toboys like Ben. One day, Ben's aunttold him about a Polish partisangroup in a forest 100 miles away. Withhis family's blessing, Ben snuck outof the ghetto and joined up.

Ben struggled to adjust to life withthe partisans. He learned to shoot, tofall asleep on the cold forest ground.

to endure days in rain-soakedclothing, and to ambush Polishpolicemen and steal their weapons.Danger lurked everywhere in thehostile countryside, where Polescould earn rewards for turning inJews to the Nazis. But Ben's rage hadtoughened him. His bravery and skillsoon earned him the respect of themost experienced fighters.

Just months after joining thepartisans, Ben received word that his

8 SCHOLASnC SCOPE • APRIL 18, 2011

family in Warsaw was in dire straits.He rushed back to help them and wasshocked by what he found. Orphanedchildren begged on the street. Thedead lay slumped in doorways. Hisfamily lived in despair, sharing theirsingle room with three other families.

Ben stayed for two days, sneakingin and out of the ghetto to steal foodfor his family. He considered takinghis brothers back to the forest withhim. But many in the ghetto believedthat the war would soon be over, thatthe Soviet army would crush Hitler'stroops and free the Jews from theirghetto prison. Ben's parents believedthe younger boys would be saferin the ghetto.

For the rest of his life, Ben Kammwould break down in tears when herecalled the moment he left his familyto rejoin the partisans.

He would never see them again.

Luck and SorrowFor the next two years, Ben fought

with a legendary band of partisanscommanded by a former Sovietgeneral. Their group eventually grewto 1,600 fighters operating from alarge compound in the forest. Thecompound became almost like atown, with cobblers who repaireddamaged shoes and musicians whoprovided moments of joyful escape.

Ben volunteered for dangerousmissions blowing up cargo trainscarrying supplies meant for Germantroops. Often, the group discoveredJews hiding in the forests.

"We took them with us," Bensaid. "Old, young, children. Wetook them with us, and they

survived the war."In 1945, the war finally ended

with Germany's surrender. Ben was24 years old. There was little left ofthat laughing boy who once sprintedthrough peaceful Warsaw streets. Hisentire family was dead. The Nazishad "liquidated" the Warsaw Ghettoin 1943, first burning down buildings,then taking the surviving 42,000 men,women, and children by train to thedeath and forced labor camps. Mostwere killed in gas chambers.

Hider committed suicide. Manyofthe men who helped murder Ben'sfamily and friends were executed fortheir crimes.

As for Ben, he married and movedto America, where he built a happyfamily and a successful life.

Before his death last year,Ben spoke at length about hisexperiences. You can see him onvideo, his eyes still bright, his voicestrong, his handsome face shockinglyfree of bitterness. The rage andsadness were still smoldering insidehim, of course, but he also had astrong sense of his own good fortune.

"I can't forgive the people whokilled innocent babies, innocentwomen, innocent people," he said."But I am lucky that I'm alive andcan tell the story." •

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