Michał Klepfisz | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | April 17, 1913 |
| Died | April 20, 1943(1943-04-20) (aged 30) |
| Place of burial | |
| Allegiance | Polish resistance |
| Branch | .svg) ŻOB |
| Battles / wars | World War II |
| Awards | Virtuti Militari |
Michał Klepfisz (Warsaw, 17 April 1913[1] – 20 April 1943,Warsaw)[2] was achemical engineer, activist for theBund, and member of the JewishMorgnshtern sports organization.[3] DuringWorld War II he belonged to theJewish Combat Organization, fighting theNazi German forces inPoland. He was killed in theWarsaw Ghetto Uprising and was posthumously decorated by thePolish government in exile with a Silver Cross of theVirtuti Militari.
Klepfisz graduated from theWarsaw Polytechnic with a degree in engineering.[4] In theinterwar period he was a member of the Bund-affiliatedMorgnshtern organization.[5] In 1937 he married Róża Perczykof ("Lodzia"; later known as Rose Klepfisz, 1914–2016).[6][7]
In 1942 he was put on a train to theTreblinka extermination camp by the Nazis, but escaped by taking out the metal screen behind the train window[8] and made his way back to Warsaw.[9] Soon afterward he managed to get his wife, sister Regina and daughter Irena smuggled out of the ghetto (they survived theHolocaust).[9] They hid with a Polish woman, Maria Sawicka, a member ofŻegota, who before the war had run track with Regina,[10] and who had previously hidden Klepfisz when he had left the ghetto.[11]
During theWarsaw Ghetto Uprising, Klepfisz directed the underground production of explosives for theJewish resistance. After receiving instruction from the PolishHome Army (AK) in making Molotov cocktails,[2] Klepfisz set up an underground bomb factory in the ghetto, while other members of the Jewish resistance smuggled in the necessary ingredients from the "Aryan side" (they had to be purchased from many unrelated suppliers so as not to raise suspicions).[12] A major problem was how to test the explosives that he produced. Eventually Klepfisz bribed his landlord to let him test the home-made bombs in a desertedlimekiln in a factory building owned by the man.[12] Though the extent of Klepfisz's operation is unknown, in 1964, Polish workmen carrying out work on the site of the former factory unearthed 100,000 explosive-filled glass detonators for Molotov cocktails.[13]
Together withArie Wilner, Klepfisz also served as an intermediary between theJewish Combat Organization and thePolish resistance movement organisation -Home Army.[2] He was trained in explosives production by a Home Army soldier, Zbigniew Lewandowski (nom de guerre"Szyna"—"Rail").[1] Klepfisz, Wilner andIcchak Cukierman,[14] through the AK, and through the AK-subordinatedPolish Socialist Party,WRN (Polish Socialists not associated withMoscow) sent arms into the ghetto.[2]
Klepfisz was called a "pillar of the uprising" by London radio.[15] He was killed on the second day of the Uprising onBonifraterska Street, in the brush-factory district,[10] protecting the retreat of his fellow soldiers (includingMarek Edelman) by covering a German machine gun with his own body.[16] Gen.Wladyslaw Sikorski (Polish Commander-in-Chief and Premier of thePolish Government in Exile) decorated him posthumously with a SilverVirtuti Militari V class[17][18] which is now on display at theUnited States Holocaust Memorial Museum inWashington, DC.[9][19]
Michał Klepfisz was described by those who knew him as tall and thin, with a calm, quiet disposition.[20] He has acenotaph in theWarsaw Jewish Cemetery on Okopowa Street (grave #39609),[21] with the inscription:
Engineer Michał Klepfisz. 17 IV 1913 – 20 IV 1943. Activist of the Bund youth organization.Jewish Combat Organization representative in the Polish resistance movement. Died a heroic death in theWarsaw Ghetto Uprising. Glory to his memory![10]
Klepfisz's sister, Regina Klepfisz, was also a Bund activist.[6] His daughter,Irena Klepfisz (who, along with his wife, was smuggled out of the ghetto on the eve of the Uprising in 1943) survived theHolocaust and emigrated to theUnited States. She is a noted essayist and poet.[22] The poems "The Widow and the Daughter" and "Searching for My Father's Body" are about Michał Klepfisz.[23]
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