Summary 507
to attract young people and reinforce them. Dror has succeeded in creating such a community on 34 Dzielna Street in Warsaw. The problems of education became one of the most important subjects the press dealt with. Eliezer Geller of Gordonia tried to invent new forms of scout activities that could be carried out within the walls of the ghetto. The texts published in the press may have also been used as a basis for the discussions during the meetings of the groups.
The most important part of activity was however the reinstatement of the agricultural training farms which would prepare young chalutzim for aliyah. Both Dror and Gordonia managed to organize a number of such farms. The idea of hachshara (preparatory training) was strongly supported, and re-conceptualized in the new situation which called for a clear distinction between the free, creative labor so much advocated by Gordon and the destructive forced labor imposed by the Nazis. This issue was widely dealt with in the clandestine press.
The other necessity was a reassembling and self-development of the group of young instructors (Hebr. madrichim – guides, leaders). As a result of the forced resettlement to the ghetto, many libraries were lost, and the lack of fundamental texts, both literary and political, was most disturbing. The press reprinted some of them, Dror has even created a specific journal, “Le Madrich”, that was meant to become a sort of anthology. The first issue, the only one preserved, dealt with the “national question” and included fragments of writings by most important political thinkers: Ber Borokhov, Chaim Zhitlovski, Nachman Syrkin. This wide range of texts was presented to encourage the discussion rather than to fix one’s own political position.
Dror has also organized the Seminars for the leaders of the movement. The detailed timetable of one of the Seminars can be found in handwritten “Notebook of lectures and individual activities” prepared by Yitzchak Zuckerman after the third seminar and preserved in the Ringelblum Archive. The “Notebook…” has also been published in the present volume.
Apart from the above-mentioned journals, Dror has also published inner newsletter addressed to the instructors of the organization: “Inerleche Korenspondentz”. In the only preserved issue, of May 1942, the activity of Dror in the war years has been summed up. In spite of the fact that it was not preserved in the Ringelblum Archive, it was included as an Appendix in the present publication.
The political life in the Warsaw ghetto was very intense, and the press was also a forum for vivid discussions. Gordonia’s “Słowo Młodych” took firm political attitude. It reprinted the writings of A.D. Gordon as well as the essays of Pinchas Lavon who criticized the legacy of the orthodox Marxism, especially its determinism and the concept of class struggle, and advocated the idea of personal fulfillment within the working collectives. “Słowo Młodych” also engaged in the current political debates – mainly with Hashomer Hatzair, whose ideological positions Geller rejected in a long article “On the Trail of the Bankrupt Phraseology”.
“Dror”, especially when compared with “Słowo Młodych” was much less politically fixed. It was rather looking for the common ground for the Zionist left-wing youth movement. Thus it focused rather on the pioneering ethos of Hechalutz. Of the political writers two were reprinted willingly – Berl Katzenelson and Moshe Beilinson. Both were editors and columnists of “Davar”, the journal of Histadrut federation.
