January 16th.

“..The last Jewish settlement, which had existed under relatively better conditions, was Upper Eastern Silesia. Some three weeks ago 7,000 Jews were exiled. They are being killed in Auschwitz. They are being shot and incinerated. In the coming weeks, our district will be without Jews. When you receive this letter, none of us will be alive. Based on the information we received through Switzerland, only a few people were arrested.

None of us were among them. These days, the authorities are making it difficult and are no longer placing people in detention camps. To date, we have not received any word from any of those who were sent in the last dispatch. On the contrary, today we know for certain that they were sent to Auschwitz. Immediate intervention by the patron government is of the strictest urgency. We are not sending you the requested material, since you will be able to receive the pictures and the facts from Natan (Szwalbe) and from Zilev (Dr. Abraham Zilbersztajn).

I personally visited all the districts I have written about and witnessed all the acts of extermination. Herszl (Szpringer) is still with us; however, do not write to this address, since he is at odds with ‘Shiltonovitz’ (the authorities). For myself, I am also not living with him in complete tranquility. We are looking for a way to reach Hungary and request your help with this, in any way possible.

Do whatever you can. I doubt if you can help us in time, since we are nearing our final days. All the youth movements together number no more than a few hundred people, including our kibbutz members and the children’s’ kibbutz, unofficial kibbutzim.

Our hope of reaching the homeland (Eretz Yisrael) has not been realized, to our deepest regret. Warmest regards to the Letben family (Yitzhak Tebenkin), Eliezer (Gravitski), Benderski (P. Benduri), Ya’ari (Meir), Kolodeni (Kol Moshe), Goldstein (Yitzhak), Pinkas (Lubianiker-Lavon), and all the relatives.

We are writing this letter in great haste, since the messenger’s time is very pressed. We haven’t the strength or the patience to write everything to you, what was most important and what we wanted most.

We send heartfelt greetings.

Frumka, Herschel, Zwi, Kożuch I, Szlama L.”

January 16th. 1942 Some 40,000 to 50,000 Lodz Jews already murdered at Chelmno as they continue to empty the Lodz Ghetto toward the killing centre. Soviet report on the Mass Murder of 52,000 Jews of Kiev published in The Jewish Chronicle.

January 16th. 1944 Tuczyn (Tuchin) is Liberated. Barely 20 of the original 3,000 Jews Survive.

Henry Morgenthau meets with President Roosevelt and presents a Personal Report to the President a condensed and milder version of the report he received, but does not leave it at the White House. The War Refugee Board is to be created.

January 16th 1945 Peter van Pels was forced marched out of Birkenau as Russian forces liberate 870 Lodz Jews and 800 Czestochowa Jewish Survivors. 80,000 Hungarian Jews in Budapest are now freed from Hitler’s intentions.

“..Jews would flock around her from all sides. One would ask her if they should return home ..or continue their way eastward to ..Soviet dominated provinces. Another would come in search of a hot meal or a loaf of bread for their Wife and Children. They called her ‘Die Mameh’ and indeed she was a devoted mother to them all.” Zivia Lubetkin.

What Frumka Plotnicka died for was a resolve inherent in the struggle for Israel’s status as an independent nation to this day. What those of her fellow Jews expressed about Frumka is exemplified in those words best used by Zivia Lubetkin who has left them to posterity.


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