Mordechaj Tenenbaum

Early life

Mordechaj Tenenbaum was born in Warsaw, one of 7 children to an Orthodox-Jewish family. From an early age, Tenenbaum abandoned the religious lifestyle, along with one of his brothers, and became interested in secular culture. After graduating from the Hebrew high school "Tarbut" in Warsaw he studied Turkish and Semitic languages at the Warsaw University. Active in Zionist youth circles since his childhood, Tenenbaum joined the Poale Zion youth movement in 1935. After the outbreak of World War II and German occupation of Poland, he left Warsaw with his girlfriend Tema Schneiderman and others to areas that came under control of the Soviet army. Their plans to immigrate to Palestine were delayed by insufficient certificates. Finally, he obtained forged documents that helped them emigrate, while he remained in Vilna to engage in activities among Jewish youth. There he organized the resistance against the Germans in Wilno and Warsaw.

Vilna and the Warsaw Ghetto

In Vilna under Soviet occupation (1940–1941), he continued to work to save Jewish youth by providing them with certificates. Tenenbaum himself had a forged identity card in the name of a "Tatar" from the Vilnius region named Tamaroff, a family name that also mentioned the name of his beloved, Tema Schneiderman. This borrowed identity allowed him more free movement, including territories under German control. Even after the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union, including Lithuania, Tenenbaum made many forged papers for friends that saved their lives. In 1942 he arrived in Warsaw, where he was one of the founders of the YKA, and among the organizers and planners of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising.

Byalistok Ghetto Uprising

In November 1942 Tenenbaum went on a mission to Byalistok to serve as the head of the Haganah movement. There he organized the Jewish underground fighters and headed the rebellion movement, which included members of Hashomer Hatzair and Dror. It was then decided that with the start of the "Aktion," the movement would fight in the streets of Byalistok and then try to escape to the forests and continue as partisans. The Ghetto underwent a number of major Aktions during 1943, and members of the underground who remained there felt that they were the last fighters after the liquidation of the ghettos in Warsaw in Będzin and Częstochowa. On August 16, 1943, the Germans began to encircle the ghetto. In the uprising, Tenenbaum and his comrades fought for four days against the German forces. At the end of the fighting Tenenbaum and his friend Moszkowicz committed suicide, in order to not fall into the hands of the Nazis.

Legacy

After the war to honor Tenenbaum a square in Białystok was renamed after him.