Paweł Frenkiel (sometimes alsoFrenkel,Hebrew:פאוול פרנקל;1920–1943) was a Polish Army officer and aJewish youth leader in Warsaw and one of the senior commanders of theJewish Military Union, or the ŻZW. Although one of the most important leaders of theWarsaw Ghetto Uprising and the Jewish resistance in the months preceding April 1943, Frenkiel is also one of the least well known to historians; both his early life and ultimate fate are a subject of some controversy.[1]
Paweł Frenkiel was born inWarsaw,Poland. At the age of 18 he joined the revisionistZionist youth movementBetar.[2]
Following the outbreak ofWorld War II,German conquest of Poland and the start of German repressions against the Jewish population of Poland, he joined the Jewish Military Union and became one of its highest-ranking members. It is unclear what his exact capacity was.[3] Earlier publications and accounts by Tadeusz Bednarczyk,[4]Henryk Iwański and Kałmen Mendelson assert, that Paweł Frenkel was one of the deputies of JMU's commanderDawid Moryc Apfelbaum. However, other accounts, including those byDawid Wdowiński[5] andCezary Szemley, suggest that Frenkiel was indeed the leader of the entire organisation.[3] In recent years some historians have gone as far to suggest that Apfelbaum did not even exist at all.[6][7]
In either case, it is probable that Frenkiel personally commanded one of the companies of armed fighters during theWarsaw Ghetto Uprising of 1943. According to a widespread opinion he waskilled in action while defending the headquarters of the Jewish Military Union at #7Muranów Square. According to some other sources he was killed on 19 June 1943 in Grzybowska Street in Warsaw.[7]
A plaque in memory of Paweł Frenkel at 5A Grzybowska Street in Warsaw
^abMarian Apfelbaum (2007).Two Flags: Return to the Warsaw Ghetto. Gefen Publishing House. pp. 56, 61.ISBN9789652293565.
^Życie codzienne warszawskiego getta; warszawskie getto i ludzie (1939-1945 i dalej) [Everyday life of the Warsaw Ghetto: Warsaw Ghetto and its people] (in Polish). Warsaw: Ojczyzna. 1995.ISBN8386449020.
^Dariusz Libionka; Laurence Weinbaum (2007). "Pomnik Apfelabuma, czyli klątwa "majora" Iwańskiego" [Monument to Apfelbaum, or the curse of "Major" Iwański].Więź (in Polish) (4):100–111.ISSN0511-9405.
^abDariusz Libionka; Laurence Weinbaum (2011).Bohaterowie, hochsztaplerzy, opisywacze: wokół Żydowskiego Związku Wojskowego [Heroes, Hucksters, Story-tellers: On the Jewish Military Union] (in Polish). Warsaw: Stowarzyszenie Centrum Badań nad Zagładą Żydów,Polish Academy of Sciences. pp. 534–535.ISBN9788393220281. The controversy surrounding Apfelbaum's existence discussed.
