Let
us not be led like sheep to the slaughter!
Jewish youth!
In a time of unparalleled national misfortune we appeal
to you!
We do not yet have words to express the whole tragic struggle
which transpires before our eyes. Our language has no words
to probe the depths to which our life has fallen nor to
vociferate the anguish which strangles us. . . .
The community of Jerusalem
of Lithuania numbered 75,000. On entering the ghetto,
25,000 were already missing, and today only 12,000 remain.
All the others have been killed! death strolls in our streets;
in our tents -- powerlessness. But the anguish at this huge
misfortune is much greater in the light of the ignoble conduct
of the Jews at the present time. Never in its long history
of martyrdom has the Jewish people shown such abjectness,
such a lack of human dignity, national pride, and unity,
such communal inertia and submissiveness to the murderers.
. . .
There are, however, occasions in the life of a people, of
a collective, as in the life of an individual, which seize
you by the hair of your head, shake you up, and force you
to gird up all your strength to keep alive. We are now experiencing
such an occasion. . . .
There is no way out of the ghetto, except the way to death!
No illusion greater than that our dear ones are alive. .
. .
Before our eyes they led away our mother, our father, our
sisters -- enough!
We will not go! . . .
If you are caught, you have nothing to lose!
Let us defend ourselves, and not go!
Better to fall with honor in the ghetto than to
be led like sheep to Ponary
! . . .
Don't give the foe the chance to ridicule you!
When a German ridicules a Jew -- don't help him laugh! .
. .
Jewish agents of the Gestapo and informers of all sorts
walk the streets. If you get hold of one such, sentence
him -- to be beaten until death!. . . .
Convey your hatred of the foe in every place and at every
moment!
