Category Archives: The Zelman Partisans

What we do for love

Co-blogger Sheila has been telling you about the highlights of her recent trip to Israel. One thing she hasn’t told you is this:

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That’s a closeup of one of the niches in the Western Wall or Kotel — what Americans not-so-respectfully refer to as the Wailing Wall. The slip of paper on the upper right contains the names of each TZP founding member and blogger, the names of our families, and TZP’s name.

I was so moved when Sheila told us she did that. A famous quote connected with the Western Wall is: “There are hearts and there are hearts. There are human hearts, and there are hearts of stone. There are stones and there are stones. There are silent stones, and there are stones which are hearts.” And I must say that what Sheila did melted my sometimes-stony heart.

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Life has taught me to be cynical and unsentimental. Aside from having a soft spot for dogs, I tend to be one who avoids or questions things I find to be vague, “soft,” or emotional. I’ve become a “just the facts, Ma’am” sort of person when it comes to claims that can’t be well-defined or proven through a rigorous examination.

Reading novels, I skip the mushy scenes. I’m baffled when people make religious arguments based on their feelings and quotes from scriptures (just as they’re baffled by my expectation of hard evidence). When a salesman or a preacher wants me to “experience” something before I gather the data about it, I’m instantly on guard. When Dumbledore tells Harry Potter that “love” made his baby self invincible against the evil power of Voldemort, I cringe and hit the fast-forward button. In fact, the dreadfully overused word “love” is in general enough to set my BS alarm clanging. Give me the facts, Ma’am. Just the facts.

I’m not really that cold — I hope! I’ve merely learned through a lifetime of experience that feelings sans facts are often a trap, nothing more than a form of manipulation and deception.

Our gun-hating opponents are excruciating examples of this. Their wild emotional rantings, their claims of sentiment toward the victims of shootings (victims in whose blood they gleefully dance), their stubborn choice to remain ignorant about firearms, their complete refusal to sit down and think about how the laws they demand would actually work in the real world, their bizarre lack of reasoning … all are perfect examples of why feeeeeelings should aways be suspect. Especially when someone uses their emotions (or tries to manipulate the emotions of others) as an excuse to get something they want.

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Of course, feelings can be plenty useful. That hinky sense you get when you see a suspicious stranger or enter a dangerous place. That inner voice that screams, “NO!” even when a course of action seems otherwise perfectly reasonable. That warmth that floods you when you realize you’ve met someone you can truly trust. That rush of satisfaction when you know you’ve gone the extra mile and done good. All great, all needed.

But when it comes to discovering truths that lie beyond our immediate realm, feelings are no substitute for accurate, checkable data. Give me the facts, Ma’am. Just the facts. I’ll decide for myself what to feel about them, thank you.

So when I saw Sheila’s photo and heard her describe what’s on that piece of paper — a prayer placed in an ancient wall for the people of TZP — at first I didn’t know why I felt so moved. I don’t believe there’s a god standing behind that wall, seeing, hearing, and above all caring about us (fellow blogger Y.B. will differ, of course). I don’t believe that the stones of the wall or the words on those slips of paper have any mystical power. Yet I felt a power just knowing what Sheila had done. I felt the power of the stones and the words and Sheila’s action in placing TZP in such an ancient holy place.

But why?

Many reasons, I think. But here’s the core thing: We who hold fast for gun rights and the human rights to life, liberty, and individual sovereignty ultimately do what we do out of love. Yes, that mushy, highly suspect word. There it is: love.

Oh yes, we have facts and data and knowledge on our side. Unlike the overwrought, screeching enemies of freedom, we analyze the data, we look at the facts on the table, we project the consequences of proposed laws into the future. We ask, “How does this work? Or would it work?” Some of us know the physics (that is, the facts) of the making of steel or the ballistics of a shot. Some of us have studied the history of firearms or firearms laws. Some of us can cite firearm statistics or crime statistics off the tops of our heads. Some track and analyze upcoming laws or regulatory actions. We have different areas of expertise when it comes to guns and gun rights. But generally, we tend to be people of the fact. We’re passionate about our commitment, but many of us got here by looking at the data or studying the history and knowing why we’re here.

Yet of course we don’t do what we do — we don’t join and stay in this endless struggle for freedom — because of facts alone. That wouldn’t be enough.

We stand here against all manner of hate and all attempts to smash our freedom. We stand like the stones of that ancient wall not only because we know we’re right. Being “right” is never enough; any moron can think he’s “right” about anything and still run for the hills the moment things get tough. We stand because we love life and liberty so much that surrender is inconceivable. What we do, we do for love.

It has been said of the Western Wall:

Secure and invincible with its Divine strength, the Kotel holds its own — throughout the generations of change, transformations and vicissitudes, the horrors and the shocks, which visited the land and its inhabitants. The Kotel is in them and with them.

…. [L]ike a stone fortress, it stands guard, without moving and without allowing its inner dignity to be sullied. It remains pure and exalted in the strength of its very essence…

There are hearts of stone and stones with hearts. Those who stand for gun rights are a wall, a fortress. It was right that Sheila placed TZP names in that niche in the Kotel. The words on that slip of paper aren’t just our names, individually. Our names stand for everyone who cares unyieldingly about self defense, the defense of others, and the undying principles of liberty. Our names in that wall stand for the love that holds so many great hearts so strong in this crucial cause.

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V*te early and often!

Well, not quite. Vote as the rules and your conscience allow. But we just got this nice note from Lucky Gunner:

Anthony here from over at Lucky Gunner – thanks for the note and the heads up. I apologize for the delayed response, we’ve been hit with a number of requests to add groups today. While I’m familiar with JPFO I hadn’t heard of y’all until today so I wanted to dig in a little bit to find out more.

I just added The Zelman Partisans to the list on our voting page and wish you the best of luck.

So please go here and v*te for The Zelman Partisans. Just scroll down to the bottom of the list.

Then spread the word. Ask your friends to v*te for us, too!

Given that we’re new and still small, we know we’re likely to draw only a minor percentage of the total and that’s dandy. Unlike some of the bigger, more established groups, we have miniscule overhead and we can make a little stretch a long way.

Thank you for what you’re doing, Lucky Gunner!

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Will TZP have some luck with Lucky Gunner’s great gift?

UPDATE: Just got a nice note from Anthony at Lucky Gunner saying The Zelman Partisans have been added to their list!

When the Brady Bunch sued Lucky Gunner and two other vendors, their motives were purely political. They were using victims of the Aurora theater shooting in a naked attempt to put legal businesses out of business.

The judge was not amused. Earlier this year, he not only found in favor of the defendants, but ordered the Brady organization to pay their court costs. Last week Lucky Gunner announced it would be doing something wonderful with any funds it recouped: it would give them to firearms-related groups. And it would do so in proportion to v*tes cast by you and me and the next guy.

At first, they had a dozen or so groups on their list. They added a bunch more yesterday and they originally said they’d accept nominations through June 26.

The Zelman Partisans is not among the new additions. I know several supporters have suggested us and I emailed Lucky Gunner myself yesterday to ask if we could be included. I don’t know whether they’ve cut nominations off early, but assuming the June 26 cuttoff holds, we still have a chance. So if you’d like to give TZP a boost, please contact Lucky Gunner and ask them to add us. Then give us your v*te — and tell your friends!

We’re still small and new, so we might not draw a lot of votes, but it would be great to give it a try. Whether or not Lucky Gunner ever adds TZP to their list, what they are doing is simply wonderful and they deserve kudos from the whole gun-rights community.

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Have you joined the Partisans yet?

No? Well, why not? Actually, don’t answer that. Just go. Join up. There are options for as little as $20. And all memberships come with several bits of member swag including a morale patch.

Everybody has to have a morale patch, right? (And where else in the infamous freedomista cat herd are you going to get a morale patch to identify yourself uncompromisingly with both Jews and gun rights?)

Three-year memberships come with even more goodies, including discounts in our (so far tiny) little store. The store where you can get that custom Kershaw spring-assist knife.

So what are you waiting for? Seriously. We want you in the Partisans and surely with all that cool stuff — and this quirky blog — and all us amazingly talented and committed volunteer writers — and all this news you can’t get anywhere else — and the ONLY organized hardcore, no-compromise Jewish pro-gun, pro-rights perspective in the universe — you want to be with us.

So then. I’ll just shut up and let you get on with it now. (With bigtime thanks to you who’ve already joined and are continuing to support TZP.)

Oh but don’t forget — TZP custom kippot/kippahs/yarmulkes coming in the next few weeks!

Our store won’t say tiny for long.

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A note to our donors

Before TZP became “official,” a number of people sent generous donations. We’re offering memberships to all who sent $20 or more. A few have already said yes. One jumped right in and, in addition to his original contribution, became a paid member three times over! But we haven’t been able to make contact with several folks.

So donors D.C., J.P., and F.R., if you’re reading this, please email us at tzpstore-at-zelmanpartisans-dot-com from whatever email addy of yours works best. The emails we’ve sent to your PayPal addresses are bouncing. Also, I.S., please let us hear from you if you want your contribution converted to a membership.

I got my own membership packet in the mail over the weekend (bought a three-year) and I’ve gotta tell you, the swag you get for joining is gorgeous. The membership package is mostly the work of fellow TZP co-founders Jo Ann and Brad Alpert and they really have an eye for quality. The morale patch is a beauty and comes with both the hook and loop velcro (so many come with only the hook piece). But it’s the certificate that really blew me away.

So for that reason, among many, many others, I hope you’ll join us. Soon! You’ll never regret it and you’ll get your money’s worth.

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Join us!

Here goes, guys! At long last, you can really, truly join a freedom-fighting, kick-ass, no-compromise, no-surrender partisan brigade. And no need to take to the woods. Just … click!

The Zelman Partisans began as a blog (I was going to say “a mere blog,” but there will never be anything “mere” about TZP). But our intention has always been to fulfill the greater, wider mission of the late Aaron Zelman. Our job is to plug the gap left when Aaron’s great Jews for the Preservation of Firearms Ownership was sold to people who reject everything Aaron stood for.

Now we begin … with your help. In exchange, we’ve got some cool stuff to offer you.

First … Join us!. Choose from three levels of membership: one-year charter, three-year founder, or three-year founder PREMIUM. Each level offers its own benefits and each level is discounted for the first 100 to join.

Second … Every partisan needs a patch!. Everyone who buys a membership at any level gets a FREE patch with membership (among other items). Don’t want to join? You can still buy your patch. These are high-quality embroidered morale patches, suitable for wearing or for display. They’re velcro-backed (and you get both the hook and loop pieces).

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Every membership level gets a patch, a membership card, and a certificate. The higher levels also get discounts in our store. There’s not much in the store yet: just the patches and copies of RebelFire: Out of the Gray Zone (autographed; limited quantity). But we’ll be working on creating more good stuff for you! PREMIUM members get a FREE copy of RebelFire and a 5×7 portrait of Aaron Zelman (the same one you see here).

GOOD NEWS FOR PREVIOUS DONORS: We are incredibly grateful to you who jumped right in with donations before we were even “official.” Because we appreciate the boost you gave us, everyone who has already donated more than $20 will be enrolled as a member in whichever category best matches your donation. We’ll be contacting you soon, but we’ve had trouble in the past with some donors’ email addresses. So if you’re an existing donor and you don’t hear from us shortly, email us at tzpstore-at-zelmanpartisans-dot-com.

Finally, a little housekeeping: TZP is now incorporated, thanks to founding members and sponsors, the Alperts of Missouri Bullet Company. We opted not to go for the 501(c)(3) status that JPFO had because some of our founders want the option to “get political” (and because tax-exempt status involves jumping though horrible IRS hoops). So donations to us are not tax-deductible. Nevertheless, we will make good use of your contributions by continuing to bring you solid, unique blog content, cool stuff, and ultimately special projects to keep reminding the world that gun rights are lifesaving, genocide-preventing civil rights.

Now, join us! And if you should run into any glitches (since the store and membership programs are brand-new and since we are all just volunteers pulling TZP together as we can), please notify us at tzpstore-at-zelmanpartisans-dot-com. We’ll get the problem fixed as soon as possible.

Thank you — and glad to have you with us!

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What do you want to see?
And some notes on our name and our mission

On the surface, it’s been a little quiet at The Zelman Partisans this week. Behind the scenes — not so! The gnomes of TZP (led by the amazing Jo Ann Alpert of the Missouri Bullet Company, one of our founders) have been busy prepping for our next advance.

‘Til now, we’ve been just a blog. Our next steps turn us into a “real” organization. To some, the updates we’re soon to unveil may seem minor. But trust me, as a step toward our long-term plan of carrying out the legacy of Aaron Zelman, they are huge.

Among other things, we’re developing TZP merchandise to help fund future projects and operations. We’ll start small, but with your help, we’ll build.

With that in mind, I’m asking: What types of merchandise would you like to see (and more important, what would you purchase)? Targets? Posters? Bumper stickers? Reader-friendly booklets? Wearables? Knives? Toss your ideas into comments. How much we’ll be able to do, and how soon, will depend on a lot of factors. But YOU can help point our thinking in the right direction. So have at it!

We’re already working on one cool item suggested by a reader. Then this week we received the delightful suggestion of TZP-logo kippot (yarmulkes) — an idea that would have brought a smile to Aaron’s face. Can you imagine the conversations those might start in Jewish communities?

Heck, personally I’m neither Jewish nor male (and who else has use for a kippah?), but if those became available, I’d buy one. Just because. 🙂

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Oh. And as I was writing this The Amazing Jo Ann already intro’d a couple of our new features. Take a look over there on the right, below the banners for our friends and supporters, Dragon Leatherworks and the Missouri Bullet Company. Check out our Queensboro store, which specializes in high-quality wearables with our nicely embroidered logo. Then visit our CafePress store, where you can get logo-printed items for yourself and even your best friend. (A store of our own is yet to come.)

Now back to our regularly scheduled blog post …

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The same person who suggested TZP kippot — a business owner and long-time JPFO supporter — also expressed mild concern about us. Or specifically, our identity. He wrote:

It’s really a loss that JPFO went the way it did — the name told you everything you needed to know about the organization. Unfortunately, as important as it is to honor Aaron Zelman’s work and memory, “Zelman Partisans” requires explanation when talking to people who don’t know about JPFO’s (former) mission. I’m not sure what you can do, or what you’d even want to do, about the branding…

I agree that the Jews for the Preservation of Firearms Ownership was a wonderfully descriptive name. It was also so clunky that hardly anybody ever used it. One time when the freedomista columnist Vin Suprynowicz did use it, he was accused (seriously!) of being an anti-Semite for “making up” such a “ridiculous” group.

‘Cause everybody knows that all Jews loathe guns. Ptooey! And that is precisely the perception Aaron wanted to change — and so do we. He wanted to change that perception among Jews and Gentiles alike — and so do we.

The name “Zelman Partisans” does need explanation. But that gives us all the opportunity to open conversations. (“What? Why are there rifles crossed on that Star of David?”) Opening conversations can open eyes.

Besides, aside from honoring Aaron, I hope the name draws us together. Jews and friends of Jews, if we all understand that firearms are genocide-prevention tools and we’re willing to stand to protect gun rights as lifesaving civil rights, then we truly are partisans in the fighting sense of the word.

We are together in this. Outnumbered but undaunted. Outsiders united.

Powerful forces oppose us. Our resources are miniscule compared with those of our enemies. As partisans we come from diverse backgrounds and are driven together by need. We find each other in hardship. We join together in times that are increasingly perilous for Jews — and for freedom. We may not enjoy comfort and ease. But, always, the bold outlaw spirit of the partisan prevails.

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The Zelman Partisans

A few days ago I received a fundraising letter from JPFO signed by someone named Kasey Goodman, who is apparently the organization’s “senior operations manager.”

I am a lifetime member of JPFO, and prior to having been a writer for the organization, I was an ardent supporter of its mission as “America’s most aggressive defender of firearms ownership.”

I stopped writing for JPFO in October. This was in large part due to time constraints. I have a full time job, as well as a part time job, and coming up with a column every week was difficult, especially with all the business travel I do.

At the same time, I wanted to see what course my beloved organization would take under the leadership of the Second Amendment Foundation. I had been through the sale of a Second Amendment rights group to SAF previously when Founder and Executive Director Angel Shamaya sold KeepandBearArms.com to Alan Gottlieb. And while I continued working for KABA for a while after the sale, my last Army deployment ended my work there.

No one can deny that KABA is a mere shell of what it was under the dynamic, passionate leadership of Angel Shamaya. There’s no original content. A number of groups, organizations, and individuals are no longer allowed a voice through even a simple link on KABA’s Newslinks section.  No featured author has written a piece for KABA in years. There’s no advocacy. There’s no KABA voice. It’s a gun rights news aggregator and little else, and it’s a damn shame.

I had hoped the same thing would not happen to JPFO. There were numerous writers who put their hearts and souls into the organization. We wrote passionately, boldly, and lovingly about our rights. We loved this organization. We loved Aaron Zelman and his vision. We were committed to providing original intense, impassioned content to help preserve our fundamental rights.

And now…

The Great Claire Wolfe left after exposing the backroom dealings of the sale of JPFO to SAF.

I left a couple of months after that.

Sheila Stokes-Begley and Brad Alpert also departed JPFO, and the beautiful, passionate, and eloquent Ilana Mercer is no longer part of that organization either.

Longtime gun rights activist and writer David Codrea is the most recent casualty of the slow transformation of JPFO into an empty husk.

I look at JPFO’s content, and  see all the passion gone. Most of the writers have resigned. Its latest alerts run the gamut from links to Breitbart reporting to a badly written JPFO position note responding to a months-old letter from a European Rabbi. SAF ostensibly has the resources to at least redo the JPFO website, which was the bane of all of our existences! Loud colors, bad navigation and layout… they could have at least fixed that. But no…

This post is not about JPFO, however. It’s about the Zelman Partisans. We created this organization to carry on Aaron Zelman’s legacy, his vision, and his commitment. Every post you see on this site is original writing by such greats as Claire, Ilana, Sheila, and Y.B. ben Avraham. We censor no one. We are not afraid of criticism from other groups. We allow all points of view.

And we are dedicated to one single mission: to carry on Aaron Zelman’s vision of defending our natural rights.

This nascent effort is the heart of JPFO. We left because we knew and understood that JPFO would never be  the same. And we created the Zelman Partisans as the only organization with the vision and the dedication to defend your rights – through the lens of Jewish history, so that atrocities against any people, be they Jewish, Christian, atheist, Pagan, black, brown, plaid, or striped, are never allowed to happen again.

This requires a certain amount of courage, and the Zelman Partisans have it.

No, we will not ban certain Second Amendment voices for personal or political reasons. As a matter of fact, we have done the opposite, and have issued an open invitation to Alan Gottlieb – the head of SAF – to post his views here.

Yes, we dedicate our efforts to this organization – to educate and disseminate the message about the threat to your rights.

Yes, we will carry on JPFO’s mission – Aaron Zelman’s mission – unaltered, untarnished, and with all our hearts and souls.

In the next few weeks, we will open a Zelman Partisans store, where you will be able to purchase all kinds of fantastic stuff designed by the very people who have created this organization. There will be memberships you can purchase, certificates you will receive, plus all kinds of merchandise that will make you proud to be a charter member of this organization.

While we set up shop, please do hit the “DONATE” button in the upper right portion of the site and give us some support!

We promise we will not let you down.

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The Holocaust: Through Their Eyes

Any man’s death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind, and therefore never send to know for whom the bells tolls; it tolls for thee.”~~John Donne

I attended a showing of The Holocaust: Through their eyes at the Jewish Community Center. It is the accounts of local holocaust survivors. Not people who heard about it from their distant cousin or parents, but lived it, survived it.

According to one of the survivors, in 1930 Berlin, hitler’s SS beat  to death 8 Jews who were walking down the street. That was the start of the spiral down. The harassment of Jews in public places had already started, the anti-Jewish notices and slogans had started. But these were the first deaths. That act was the start of the holocaust, no matter what other signs there were or were not, THAT was the start, according to this survivor.

Some of the survivors seemed astonished that their non-Jewish friends began to turn against them, people they had known for years, played with, grown up with would no longer associate with them. Not only would they not associate with them, they turned on them. There was a government who’s leader had the opinion that “The personification of the devil as the symbol of all evil assumes the living shape of the Jew” and a very obliging media who was willing to spread the message. I suppose it should be no big surprise that when a population constantly hears a message it eventually wears down resistance & rational thought. The persecution was embedded in laws like the Nuremberg laws, which defined who and who was not a Jew according to the Reich, and based on those definitions what people were allowed to do, and who they were allowed to marry or be with. The discrimination further curtailed privileges such as riding on a bus, going to a public park or sitting on a bench in a park. All decreed by having one Jewish Grandparent. Then it became Jews weren’t allowed to go to school and Gentiles weren’t allowed to go into Jewish homes. Then they were denied the ability to own a radio, or animals. One lady talked about how the family had a pet dog and a bird, they had to get rid of them. My heart just broke for her, you could tell, hers still hurt. With all she had endured, the loss of the pets still hurt. Then the Jews were denied service. The baker, butcher, barber refused to serve Jews. More than one of those interviewed talked about people they had known most of their lives that were turning against them. Labensraum was begun, the German policy of taking land belonging to those that the nazis considered inferior. Because in their deluded minds, taking land from the inferior people to give me superior people “living space” and room to grow food was necessary. The nazis felt this was a fair way to encourage and increase the natural vigor of the superior race.

Then hitler was elected in Austria. Anschluss, March 12, 1938, when the Austrians welcomed the Germans rolling down the streets with cheers and waves. Banners were unfurled out of windows, swastika pins appeared on lapels and in parks signs stating “No dogs and Jews” appeared. Austria was not invaded, the Austrians choose this. And again, the turning away of life long friends, their scorn and derision on open display. The painful realization those people had never been their friends. They had always hated them, it was just that now it was permissible to publicly show the hatred.

Then Kristallnacht, “Night of the broken glass” 9-10 November 1938. A series of pogroms that caused the death of between 1-2 thousand when the total includes those that died in German custody, concentration camps and suicide as a result of what they suffered are included. Over 1 thousand Synagogues were burned and Jewish owned businesses and homes were destroyed.

In September 1939 Germany and Russia invaded Poland.

Then Operation Barbaross, when Germany invaded Russia generated some horrible atrocities.

One lady talked about being a 16 year old girl the night the Germans came to their home at 0400. They told her Father to walk outside. As he was complying they shot him in front of her, six times and left him in the doorway for the family.

On December 7th, the day America’s Pearl Harbor was attacked the first of the Jews were sent to be gassed. The witnesses that spoke of this seemed saddened that so many don’t realize that was the day the gassings started. One witness talked about how the nazis would enter a town, drive the people to the town center square then take them to a building, like a brewery to sort them. Who lives, who dies? As one witness stated matter of fact, if you were old, or very young or sick, you had no chance. Up the chimney you would go, they said. If you were healthy you would be sent to a camp to work. One survivor of the Gross-Rosen camp talked about eating grass and snow to survive. Germans liked starving people to death.

Of one ghetto in a Polish town that had once held 5000 souls only 3 survived. One lady told of enduring 25 lashes for being caught with a pound of butter. Another told of seeing a baby being thrown at a truck, another recounted the brave German soldiers tearing a baby into pieces and throwing it out the window. Remember, these are not stories that were handed down by grandparents, these are the things the witnesses saw themselves.

At camp you got to keep your clothes, and there would be 150-200 people per barrack. You were given a blanket, a bowl and a cup and then maybe some food for the first time in two days. One man said they had to sing. Once a day they were given some noodle or potato soup. On those meager rations you worked from day to night. The prisoners would lay pipe, and shovel coal despite having no shoes, and that was the women. One man painted portraits of the Russian guards for food. One recounted how they became very good at realizing about a week out when someone was going to die within the week.

One addressed the question of why didn’t they fight back? More than one reason it seems. The first was possession of a weapon was a death sentence. And thanks to the German version of Universal Background Checks it was easy to know who had what where, so when Jews were forbidden to own guns it was easy to divest them of their now illegal guns. The other factor he mentioned was how weak, physically, everyone was. He said with the amount of food you got, you were lucky to survive, let alone fight or run. It sounds like it was less than a moochelle obama school lunch. He also pointed out even if you got away, you are wearing a stripped uniform, you are tattooed, gaunt and they have cut your hair into a reverse Mohawk, and go where? Although one lady did have her means of resistance. She passed on Jewish history and knowledge to the children.

In 1943 from 19 April to 16 May the Warsaw Ghetto uprising took place. It was the largest single revolt by Jews during WWII, and they held off the Germans longer than the whole country of Poland. But poorly armed with virtually non-existent re-supply they were finally overrun.

One talked about being on the cattle cars the Germans used. They said if the boxcar held 100, they would cram 150 in. The witness talked about little children and old people in those boxcars. They said there was no food or sanitation. They would drive the boxcars back and forth for 11 days. For 11 days the people in those boxcars would starve, vomit, defecate and die. Mothers would be trying, Fathers would be praying and no one was listening and 60% died.

One witness talked about getting to Auschwitz. The guards would yell “Rouse rouse” Come quick. They signaled to go left or right. If you went to the right, you went to the barracks, if you went to the left “You went to the crematory and up the chimney”. If you didn’t move fast enough they hit you, if you still didn’t move fast enough they shot you. Some saw their whole family murdered. More than one talked about the sky high fires.

In 1945 the Allies arrived and the death marches to the next camps started. They weren’t allowed to take a blanket and it was winter. Maybe 10-20 below. There was no food and anything that could be grabbed along the way was, corn, wheat, potatoes, beets anything they saw, they would grab and share with the others. Of the 55,000 that left the camp 12,000 survived to arrive at the next death camp.

In April of 1945 when the Allies found the death camps they initially had no scope of the magnitude of what they were seeing. Then they realized they prisoners were mostly civilians, so weak and with heads like skulls, words mumbled and garbled. They found bodies not fully burned and wagon loads of bodies to be burned. The soldiers were shocked. They had heard about the camps but didn’t realize what they were hearing meant in reality.

Reality? While the dead by category differs according to different researchers it’s basically around 6 million Jews, or 78% of German occupied Europe were murdered. Roma, or Gypsies 130,000 to 1,500,000 depending on which researcher. Handicapped, 200,000 to 250,000 were murdered, POWs around 3.1 million, Ethnic Poles 1.8-1.9 million. Russians, Ukrainians and Belarusians lost around 13.7 million including 2 million Jews. 10,000-15,000 Homosexuals died in the concentration camps. Around 1,000-2,000 Catholic clergy, 1,000 Jehovah’s Witnesses and some Freemasons were killed in the camps. The price tag for vulnerability is very, very high.

One lady talked about what to do after liberation. Where do you go? You could stay in the camp, but no one wanted to, and most no longer had a home.

Ok, so the camps are liberated, all is well now, right? Not so much. July 4, 1946 The Kielce Pogrom took place.

The soldiers and the policemen then went into the building. Jews were told to surrender their weapons, but not all of the residents obeyed the order. The entry of the policemen and the soldiers into the Jewish house marked the beginning of the pogrom. Excerpts from testimony supplied by people who witnessed the outbreak of the pogrom describe what followed.

Ewa Szuchman, resident of the house on Planty Street, said: After the police took away the weapons, the crowd broke into the Kibutz ( on the second floor) and policemen started shooting at the Jews first. They killed one and wounded several others. Albert Grynbaum, another inhabitant of the Jewish house who was on the first floor, said: The soldiers went up to the second floor. Several minutes later two Jews came to me and told me that the soldiers were killing Jews and looting their property. It was then that I heard shots. After the shooting on the second floor, shots were heard from the street and inside the building.

Apparently by then some of the people had learned when the government starts demanding groups of people hand over their weapons bad things are about to happen. Unfortunately not enough of them were armed to stop what was coming. And this was AFTER the war had ended. One man told of his brother going in to try to get their Mother and his Girlfriend out. The man said his brother was never seen again.

One witness told of coming to America, seeing the Statue of Liberty and looking at the crowds of people waiting to greet loved ones getting off the ship, and he had no one. It’s not just that there wasn’t anyone there to greet him, it’s that he literally had NO ONE.

The witnesses had messages for us. How fragile is liberty and civilization. Life is precious and wonderful. Change the world around yourself. Not my children, not nobody’s children should have to live through what we lived through. I didn’t want to tell people because I’ve never gotten over that my family died. My Mom was 45, my sister 22 and another sister 25, a brother 10 and a little nephew 2 or 3. I tell people what happened so it won’t happen again. I saw it with my own eyes. People helped me rebuild my life. I live in a world that has changed, the holocaust can’t happen again, then I realize it IS happening again in other parts of the world. And their suffering becomes our suffering.

One witness talked about hearing of hilter and eva braun’s deaths after he was liberated from the camp. He said they are dead and we are alive. We have won. That is how I defined victory.

With all due respect, this is NOT how I define victory. I would define victory as when the nazi’s tried to enact their Nuremberg laws and used their universal background checks to begin gun confiscation people would have seen the writing on the wall and stopped it right then. Yes, I do think the Christians would have needed to stand with their Jewish neighbors and realized that the only hope any of them had was to stand together. Had it happened? Millions of people would not have died. We can not compromise to “common sense gun laws”. We can not compromise to political correctness. We can not compromise to universal background checks. We can not compromise to phony public opinion polls. We can not compromise to phony anti-gun groups funded by anti-gun millionaires with armed security guards. We can cease to support Hollywood anti-gun liberals with armed security guards. We can look critically at the choices of Second Amendment groups and pick the ones that truly fight for our rights. Now we have choices, use them wisely. Resolve to do something each day to regain our liberty. Be resolved, we are. The Zelman Partisans, no compromise, no surrender, ever.

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