From 1933 Jizchak Schwersenz was active in Youth Alijah, an organization that worked to take young Jews to safety, mainly in Palestine, and to prepare them for life there. After attending Adass Jisroel Grammar School in Berlin and studying at a teaching college, Jizchak Schwersenz took his teaching examinations at the end of February 1939, qualifying him to teach “non-Aryan” students. He became the director of the Youth Alijah school in Berlin.
When Schwersenz was to be deported in August 1942, he went underground. Supported by Edith Wolff, in the spring of 1943 he gathered young Jewish people around him, including some of his former students and activists from the Zionist youth movement. The group called itself Chug Chaluzi (pioneers’ circle). About ten Jews formed the group’s core. Living in hiding, they discussed their religion and Zionist ideas. The members were united by a will to survive and emigrate together to Palestine. Most of the group members survived in hiding.
Jizchak Schwersenz himself managed to escape to Switzerland in February 1944. He later emigrated to Haifa, returning to Germany in 1989.
Group from the Youth Alijah school with its head teacher Jizchak Schwersenz (left, wearing glasses), Berlin, around 1940. Source: Wichern-Verlag GmbH, Berlin
Meeting in hiding on the Jewish holiday Shavuot, June 1943. From left to right: Gad Beck, Jizchak Schwersenz, Edith Wolff (concealed), Zvi Abrahamsohn (Aviram), Leopold (Jehuda) Chones, David Billard, and Miriam Beck. Source: Wichern-Verlag GmbH, Berlin
Emblem of the secret pioneer circle Chug Chaluzi: “Despite it all. Be strong,” Berlin, 1943. Source: Privatbesitz/Private
Edith Wolff and Jizchak Schwersenz in hiding, Spring 1943. Source: Wichern-Verlag GmbH, Berlin
Edith Wolff and her mother visiting Jizchak Schwersenz in Aussersihl (Switzerland), 1950. Source: Gedenkstätte Deutscher Widerstand, Album „Juden im Widerstand“/Bibliothek
