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While still in his youth he joined the Communist movement and in the Spanish Civil War he was an officer in the Polish Dombrovski Brigade He was recognised as a citizen of the Soviet Union and repatriated to Russia under the terms of the German. After a number of abortive attempts to reach Poland, the first squad, including Kartin (also known by his underground name of Andrzej Szmidt) parachuted into the Warsaw area at the end of 1941

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“dying with arms is more beautiful than without,”

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Pinkus Kartin was born in the city of Lusk in Western Ukraine, which was part of the Polish state between the First and Second World Wars. While still in his youth he joined the Communist Movement and in the Spanish Civil War he was an officer in the Dombrovski Brigade. When the Second World War started Kartin was in France, working for the Comintern. He was recognised as a citizen of the Soviet Union and repatriated to Russia, under the terms of the German -Soviet exchange of citizens agreement - which was honoured until the outbreak of hostilities between the two countries.

In the Soviet Union, he joined the circle of Polish Communist emigres, and he underwent special military training, and was counted among the elite 'Enterprises Group' that was chosen to penetrate into Poland, lead the underground Communist Party, and organise an armed force, backed by the Communists.

After a number of abortive attempts to reach Poland, the first squad including Kartin - also known by his underground name of Andrzej Szmidt, parachuted into the Warsaw area at the end of 1941. Kartin could not take part in the enlistment campaign in the Polish sector since his appearance would betray his Jewish origins. For a while, he hid out in the home of a Polish shoemaker, suffering severely from a lack of sufficient nourishment and warm clothing.

One of his comrades in arms Colonel Gustav Alef- Bolkowicz recalled Pinkus Kartin:

Pinkus Kartin for example, I see every minute. I can hear his melodic voice, he lives forever in my memory. He was a heroic captain of the International Brigade in Spain, the leader of an anti-fascist bloc. This great humanitarian and a Jew volunteered in 1941, in the land of the Soviets, to jump, parachute together with Marceli Novotka, pseudonym 'Maryan' behind the enemy front in occupied Poland, and organise the PPR (Polish Workers Party). Later he entered the Warsaw ghetto.

Finally, Pinkus Kartin's comrades decided, ignoring the original plans and responsibilities to charge Kartin with the mission of organising the Party and the combat units within the ghetto. In May 1942, the Communists began to organise the first group slated to go out to the forests and mobilisation extended throughout the ghetto. For weeks meetings of the bloc's 'fivesomes' were devoted to instruction on the nature of partisan warfare and combat tactics in the city and in the forests. At the last moment, however, the campaign, which was supposed to be the bloc's first actual combat operation was cancelled. The reason for the postponement led to the total disintegration of the bloc.

On 20 May 1942, three of the Polish Workers Party (PPR), including Andrzej Szmidt himself, were arrested on the corner of Zamenhof and Gesia streets, while handing over printing type, purchased in the ghetto. It emerged later that a secret Gestapo agent Kisielow, who had infiltrated the ranks of the Polish Communists, was responsible for the arrest. This arrest basically led to the collapse of the Communists Resistance bloc, after an initial cessation of all routine activities, it was eventually disbanded in June 1942.

As for Andrzej Szmidt, he was killed by the Germans in Pawiak prison in Warsaw on 20 May 1942.
Sources Y. Gutman, The Jews of Warsaw 1939-1943, The Harvester Press, Brighton, 1982 Kowalski and Arad, The Anthology of Armed Jewish Resistance 1939 - 1945, Jewish Combatants Publishers House, 1984 B. Engelking and J. Leociak, The Warsaw Ghetto, Yale University Press, New Haven and London, 2009 Wiener Library Lukasz Biedka © Holocaust Historical Society 2016

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Pinkus Kartin was born in the city of Lusk in Western Ukraine, which was part of the Polish state between the First and Second World Wars. While still in his youth he joined the Communist Movement and in the Spanish Civil War he was an officer in the Dombrovski Brigade.

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In October 1938, the Spanish government ordered the withdrawal of the International Brigades, hoping that the gesture would press Germany and Italy to remove their troops from Spain. But the Fascist countries ignored the withdrawal. By March 1939, Franco captured Madrid and proclaimed the end of the Spanish Civil War.

Surviving volunteers in the International Brigades crossed the border into France. Heroes in Spain, the moment they entered France, they typically became unwanted guests of the French government. For most of them, the war against Fascism was not over. While volunteers from France, Great Britain, and the United States and other countries could return to their homes, their own governments often stigmatized them for participating in the International Brigades. Worse, volunteers whose countries were under Fascist or Nazi control could not return home at all. Among them were large groups of Jewish volunteers from Poland, Germany, Rumania, Hungary, Austria and Czechoslovakia.

Most were interned in detention camps in southwest France set up by French authorities expressly for thousands of Spanish republican soldiers and the surviving members of the International Brigades who could not return to their countries of origin. In these closely watched camps guarded by French colonial troops and surrounded by barbed wire, the cold, the lack of food and drinkable water and the want of elementary hygienic conditions, caused epidemics. The death rate among Spanish refugees reached 500 a week.

Wartime experience weighed heavily on the subsequent activities of all volunteers. For many Jewish volunteers the end of the Spanish Civil War meant a resumption of the antifascist struggle on different battlefields. With the onset of World War II in September 1939, some former Jewish brigadiers in the camps, together with other foreign born Jews living in France, joined the French army. The fate of most prisoners was sealed following the fall of France to Nazi Germany in the summer of 1940. The French collaborationist Vichy government transferred the remaining inmates in camps under their control to the Nazis who then deported them (together with the Spanish Republicans captured while serving in the French army) to death camps in Germany, Austria and Poland. Few of them survived.

Many Jews who eluded capture and imprisonment joined the Resistance against the Nazi occupiers and their puppets throughout many countries Europe. In France, where most European Jewish brigadiers settled, former "Botwins" Abraham Lissner and Leon Pakin joined Sevek Kirschenbaum to form the Jewish "Second Unit" which achieved considerable fame for its bold actions against Nazi occupiers. Others were Marcel Langer, founder and commander of the 35th Brigade of the Resistance, Josef Hauptmann, member of the Resistance's staff in South France, and Joseph Epstein, chief of the Resistance in the Paris region. Several Jewish women had either gone to Spain or been active in support of the Republic also participated in the resistance, among them were Palestinian-born Simone Bronstein, Olga Bancic from Rumania, Sarah Kowalski and Sarah Vronsky-Rozenblum from Poland, and Connecticut-born nurse Irene Goldin who after the fall of Spain had remained in France. Of the previous group only Abraham Lissner, Joseph Hauptmann, and Irene Goldin survived the war.

Former Jewish brigadiers were prominent leaders of the Resistance movement throughout Europe as well as in the "Red Orchestra," the most important Allied military intelligence operation of World War II.

Following the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union, many Jewish brigadiers who lived in Soviet territory joined the Red Army or the Soviet-backed Polish army. Capitalizing on their contacts in occupied territories some, after being trained by fellow Jewish Spanish veteran Henryk Torunczyk parachuted behind enemy lines. Among them were Pinkus Kartin and Bernard Volkas who, together with veteran Abe Osheroff and Jack Freeman, were survivors of the sinking of the ship Ciudad de Barcelona in Spain.

Pinkus Kartin was dropped in Poland where, together with another veteran from Spain Abram Fiszelson and two others, he headed the operative military section of the "Antifascist block" in the Warsaw ghetto. Arrested and tortured by the Gestapo, Kartin committed suicide in prison in June 1942. Volkas was sent behind Nazi lines in the autumn of 1941 to organize partisan groups. Arrested and deported to Auschwitz, Volkas helped two other Jewish inmates escape carrying with them photographs taken by David Szmulewski, yet another veteran of the International Brigade and one of the leaders of Birkenau's underground. These photographs documented the atrocities committed in the Nazi camps. Volkas later resided in the United States.

Following U.S. entry into the war, over 400 Lincoln brigade veterans enlisted in the armed services while many others served in the merchant marine. Many earned battlefield commendations and medals for heroism in action. Twenty Lincoln veterans were killed during World War II, including Herman Bottcher, himself a refugee from Germany. As members of the U.S. Army, Jewish Lincoln veterans fought around the world. Several participated in action inside Germany. Some including vets Al Tanz, Lou Gordon, Morris Cohen, and Jack Lucid helped to liberate Nazi concentration camps in 1945.

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Jewish Spanish Civil War Veterans during World War II | The Abraham Lincoln Brigade Archives

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In October 1938, the Spanish government ordered the withdrawal of the International Brigades, hoping that the gesture would press Germany and Italy to remove their troops from Spain.

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In the spring of 1942 the Communists began to organise the first group slated to go out to the forests and mobilisation extended throughout the ghetto. For weeks meetings of the bloc’s “fivesomes” were devoted to instruction on the nature of partisan warfare and combat tactics in city and forest.

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Pinkus Kartin and Communist group members

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Zog Nit Keynmol (Song of the Warsaw Ghetto)

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After a number of abortive attempts to reach Poland, the first squad including Kartin - also known by his underground name of Andrzej Szmidt, parachuted into the Warsaw area at the end of 1941. Kartin could not take part in the enlistment campaign in the Polish sector since his appearance would betray his Jewish origins. For a while, he hid out in the home of a Polish shoemaker, suffering severely from a lack of sufficient nourishment and warm clothing.

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It emerged later that a Gestapo agent who had infiltrated the ranks of the Polish Communists was responsible for the arrest, This arrest basically led to the collapse of the Communist resistance bloc, after an initial cessation of all routine activities it was eventually disbanded in June 1942.