Simha Rotem (1924-2018): Ad memoriam* The broom and the resilience

Abstract

Simha Rotem was born in Warsaw in 1924. He was one of the most important member of the Warsaw Ghetto uprising in April 1943. Under the cover name of Kazik. He was a leader of the young Jews who were one of the first in Europe to rebel against the Nazi occupation. His original name is Symon Rathajzer, who upon his arrival in Israel he changed in Simha Rotem to symbolize a new beginning. His heroic and history is full of anecdotes that encroach of the unbelievable. Rotem came in and out of the ghetto, through the city’s sewers, besieged and burned, to bringing news and organizing the escape of the few survivors. Thanks to him the last fighters of the ghetto succeeded in acriding the “Aryan” area of the city, finding refuge from not Jewish people connected with the Polish resistance. In 1944 Rotem fighted in the Warsaw uprising against the Nazi occupation. He was one of the leader of the Jewish exodus from Poland to Israel. He contributed to save thousands of people. The author died in Jerusalem in 2018.