IDF chief pays tribute to ghetto fighters in Warsaw

WARSAW - Israel Defense Forces Chief of Staff Gabi Ashkenazi began his first visit to Poland yesterday among the 150,000 gray concrete graves in the Jewish cemetery on Okopowa Street in the capital. Over the years, this final resting place for the dead has become the symbol of the life story of the Jews of Warsaw, who have been buried at the Okopowa Street cemetery since the beginning of the 18th century.

Amid neglected gravestones overwhelmed by grass and plane trees, Ashkenazi stood for several moments in front of three mass graves marked by stone pillars. This was where the Nazis put the tens of thousands of Warsaw Ghetto Jews who died of hunger and disease.

"The answer to what we see here is us, the State of Israel, the IDF and victory," Ashkenazi said as he left the cemetery.

The chief of staff also met yesterday with Jewish community leaders in Warsaw, visited the Nozyk synagogue and placed a wreath on the memorial to the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising on Mila Street. Ashkenazi stood for several minutes at the memorial site, which was erected where the house at 18 Mila Street once stood, from which Mordechai Anielewicz and the people under his command led the five-week ghetto uprising.

"In this place Mordechai Anielewicz did not just hide from the Nazis, but also fought," Ashkenazi said. "It is fitting that the IDF soldiers learn the story of this uprising, and that's why we came to admire and salute the heroes who - despite the reality and the balance of power, and the fact that they were untrained civilians - got up and took action and fought. That is what we call 'principles' today."

But the Warsaw Ghetto fighters knew they were fighting a lost cause against the well-oiled Nazi war machine.

"They knew they had no chance of winning, and they fought nevertheless," said Ashkenazi. "That is bravery."

Ashkenazi was accompanied by Israeli bodyguards, and Polish police officers escorted his delegation to the various sites on their itinerary. In addition, several roads in Warsaw were closed for the security of the Israeli visitors. A top official in Ashkenazi's delegation said the extensive security steps were taken due to fear of a Hezbollah attack intended to avenge the February assassination of its chief of operations, Imad Mughniyah, in Damascus.

Ashkenazi is slated to lead 10,000 people on the March of the Living at the Auschwitz death camp tomorrow, the first time an Israeli commander has led the international educational program for Jewish teens. Education Minister Yuli Tamir and Chelsea Football Club manager Avram Grant will also participate in the event.

This trip is Ashkenazi's first visit to Holocaust memorial sites in Poland and marks the third time an IDF chief of staff is visiting those sites. Two of Ashkenazi's predecessors, Shaul Mofaz and Moshe Ya'alon, also made the trip while they headed the armed forces. Ashkenazi attended a formal reception at Poland's Defense Ministry, where the chief of staff later met with his Polish counterpart and the Polish defense minister.

Ashkenazi's delegation includes the IDF's chief rabbi, Brig. Gen. Avichai Ronsky; Brig. Gen. Eli Shermeister, who heads the IDF's education corps; and IDF spokesman Brig. Gen. Avi Benayahu. Sgt. Maj. Tal Shabbat, who was critically wounded in an operation in the northern Gaza town of Beit Hanun in November 2006, and Corp. Ro'i Granitza, who was critically wounded when a rocket hit his tank in the Second Lebanon War, are also taking part in the visit to Poland.