They Formed Their Own Committee

In Minsk, in 1942, the Nazis occupied the city.

(Fallujah, 2004; Minsk, 1942)

Barbara Epstein tells this story in her book about the Minsk ghetto

There is smoke on the horizon
but the fire is far away.
From here, we can’t hear the explosions.
We see the ruined houses only on TV 
but the fat man who works at the Post Office can’t quit smoking this year
because his son is in Fallujah.

Who can explain what is going on?
Is this worse than what has happened before?

In Minsk, in 1942, the Nazis occupied the city.
The Communist leadership had fled east to Moscow, abandoning the city, disbanding the Party.
There were therefore officially no Communists in Minsk.
Citizens, by which we mean Jews and non-Jews, Byelorussians, could not believe that no leadership had been left behind and authorized to organize a resistance.

At first they waited, expecting to be contacted.
Eventually, they formed their own underground, naming it, out of respect, 
the Second City Committee, in case a First Committee came forward.

Nothing came forward. 
The Second Committee saved thousands, Jews and non-Jews, 
transporting them to the partisan units in the forests to the east.

But this is the lesson: No one came forward. Nothing came forward.
They waited, and eventually formed their own committee.