340
PARTISAN REVIEW
the presence of the Polish minoriti es in the Polish a rmy . After all , in
the fa ll of 1939 it was procla imed tha t these minorities no longer
wa nted Pola nd. Now , under fo reign eyes, J ews a nd Ukra ini ans
flocked
to
the Polish a rmy tha t was being formed on the Soviet soil.
Was not thi s the bes t plebiscite? "You understa nd ," sa id Alte r , "that
if Prince Sa pieha tells a representa tive of world opinion tha t he
want Vilna to be pa rt of Pola nd thi s does not make too strong an
impress ion . After a ll , Prince Sa pieha is a Polish la ndowner ; he owns
fo rests a nd la nd near Wilno. But I do no t own a ny la nd near Vilna ;
I'm not a prince. I'm not eve n a Pole. I'm a J ew a nd a socia list; in
fact, I'm reputed to be a pretty left-win g socia list.
If
I , a leader of the
J ewi sh workers, opt for Pola nd , tha t has a very differe nt resona nce
from the sta tements of a local la ndowner or a local di strict a ttorney .
You a re no t going to convince a nyone tha t thi s region is ethnically
Polish , or tha t J ews a nd Ukra inia ns have nothing to say about its
fa te ."
I understood thi s but I am a fra id tha t no t everybody did . Not
infrequentl y Alter's a nd Erli ch's e ffo rts a t concilia tion fell on deaf
ea rs, but they persisted in their a ttempts to offse t the nega tive
reports tha t in a n oddl y sys tema tic ma nne r were reaching foreign
ears. They became increas ingly ac tive. At the same time their con–
tac ts with the Wes t grew close r. T hey were about to become corre–
sponde nts fo r a maj or J ewish labor newspa per in the United Sta tes.
*
It is poss ible tha t the ve ry qua lity that so impressed every for–
eigner that came into contac t with Erlich a nd Alter proved their
undoing . They were trul y nine tee nth-century men . They were social
democ ra ts of the vintage Ka utsky, J aures, Liebknecht ,
Va ndervelde, enri ched , pe rha ps, by the experi ence of our time but
formed by tha t earlier peri od . The ir socialism was liberta ri a n a nd
no t tota lita ri a n ; theirs was a revolution of the ba rricades, not of the
GPU. The ir ideas, speech pa tterns, modes of a rgument , ideals,
like, a nd di slikes were deepl y roo ted in the mo ra l clima te of the
We t. In the countries of Eas tern Europe these values, one fears, are
gone with the wind .
Those whom the two men inconvenie nced the mos t were the
nrst to ac t. One ni ght whil e in a Ku ybys hev ho tel res taura nt , Alter
was call ed
to
the phone. H e came back a fter a moment , looking a ni–
ma ted , ready as a lway fo r a rgument , fo r polemic. H e said to his
comrade, "H enryk, we are expec ted ."
And they went out in to the da rk Ru ss ia n Decembe r ni ght.
They were neve r to emerge from it.
• Refere nce
to
the ew York
J ewish Daily forward.
