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The Last Journal Entry
"They want me to kill the Children of my People....
M
any people know the story about Adam Ciernakow. He was the head of the Judenrat
in the Warsaw Ghetto, essentially the 'governor' of the ghetto. He was often criticized
as being too willing to cooperate with the SS or too willing too ignore the Zionists
warnings, but he was a man of integrity, a friend of Korzcak, who did all within his
limited power to keep his starving Jewish nation alive and safe, especially the children.
The Nazis kept coming to him , asking for workers for Treblinka. They said it was only a
work camp and that he would have to send a quota of male workers. The Zionists warned him
it was a death camp, but he finally decided they were young and inflammatory. He listened
to the false and cruel reassurances of the SS instead. Then, one day, the
SS called for a few thousand men. By noon, they called for the women. He knew he had
been trapped. Then, the unimaginable. With a cold planned, cruel smile, they told him
to fill out an order for the children. It was a death camp.
He committed suicide rather than sign the order.
He left a note saying that they had asked him to kill the children
of his people. He could not do it. The children were deported to a cruel
death. Korzcak, who ran the orphanage, could have saved his own life, but
he too gave his life for the children.
Beyond the sorrow of this story lies another mystery. This happened all on Tish B'av, the memorial of the day the temple in Jerusalem was destroyed. It was the ninth day of Av, and Cierniakow's last entry, his willingness to die rather than sacrifice the children of Adonai, was the last entry in the ninth book of his diaries. References: Adam Cierniakow, Warsaw Ghetto Diary |