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Mordechai Tenenbaum | |
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| Born | 1916 (1916) Warsaw, Poland |
| Died | 20 August 1943(1943-08-20) (aged 26–27) |
| Allegiance | ŻOB |
| Commands | Leader of theBiałystok Ghetto Uprising |
| Battles / wars | World War II |
Mordechai Tenenbaum (Hebrew:מרדכי טענענבוים; 1916–1943) was a member of theJewish Combat Organization (Żydowska Organizacja Bojowa) and leader of theBiałystok Ghetto Uprising.
Mordechaj Tenenbaum was born inWarsaw, one of 7 children to anOrthodox-Jewish family. From an early age, Tenenbaum abandoned the religious lifestyle, along with one of his brothers, and became interested in secular culture. After graduating from the Hebrew high school "Tarbut” in Warsaw, he studiedTurkish andSemitic languages, at theUniversity of Warsaw. Active inZionist youth circles since his childhood, Tenenbaum joined thePoale Zion youth movement in 1935.
After the outbreak ofWorld War II, and theGerman occupation of Poland, he leftWarsaw with his girlfriend,Tema Schneiderman, and others to areas occupied by theSoviet Union. Their plan was to immigrate toPalestine, but this was delayed by lack of sufficient documents. Finally, Tenenbaum obtained forged documents that allowed his friends to emigrate, although he remained inVilna, to engage in activities among Jewish youth.
There, he organized theresistance against the Germans inWilno andWarsaw.
InVilna, under Soviet occupation (1940–1941), he continued to work to save Jewish youth, by providing them with certificates. Tenenbaum himself had a forged identity card in the name of a "Tatar" from the Vilnius region, named Tamaroff, a family name that also mentioned the name of his girlfriend, Tema Schneiderman.
This borrowed identity allowed him more free movement, including all territories under Nazi control. Even after theNazi invasion of the Soviet Union, (including Lithuania), Tenenbaum made many forged papers for friends and loved ones, that allowed them to elude and escape theSchutzstaffel. In 1942, he arrived inWarsaw, where he was one of the founders of theYKA, and among the organizers and planners of theWarsaw Ghetto Uprising.
In November 1942, Tenenbaum went on a mission toBiałystok, intending to serve as the head of theHaganah movement. There, he organized the Jewish underground fighters, and headed the local resistance movement, which included members ofHashomer Hatzair andDror.
It was then decided, that with the start of an action by the Germans to "liquidate" the ghetto, the resistance would fight in the streets ofBiałystok, before attempting to escape to the forests, and continue operating as underground partisans. The Ghetto underwent a number of major operations during 1943, and members of the underground who remained there, felt that they were the last fighters, following the liquidation of the ghettos inWarsaw,Będzin andCzęstochowa. 1 German was killed February 4, 1943[1]
Armed with only twenty-six rifles, one machine gun, roughly one hundred pistols, and severalMolotov cocktails, the resistance forces were severely under-equipped, compared to theSS battalion against them. On the night of August 15, 1943, the Germans began to encircle the ghetto as the uprising began. During the uprising, Tenenbaum and his comrades fought for five days against the German forces, rupturingWehrmacht supply lines, and succeeding in diverting German soldiers and military police groups from the East. This would help allow theRed Army to march westwards to Poland. 9 Germans were wounded[2]
The evacuation plan toLublin had failed, upon the total encirclement of the ghetto. At the end of the fighting, Tenenbaum and his close friendMoszkowicz committed suicide, in order to not fall into the hands of the Nazis.
Of the nearly 50,000 Jewish inhabitants of theBiałystok Ghetto prior to the uprising, only a few hundred would survive, and escape to the surrounding forests. The uprising was the second largest Jewish uprising against Nazi occupation duringWorld War 2.
After the war, to honor Tenenbaum and the uprising, a square in Białystok was named after him.
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