 |
|
|
|
|
| A Jewish Family Dying of Starvation |
|
|
|
The Warsaw Ghetto was one of the largest Jewish ghettos established by the Nazi's in World War Two. The Warsaw Ghetto was
the scene for one of the biggest uprisings against the Nazi's by the Jewish people, all throughout World War Two.
|
|
| The dirty streets of the Warsaw Ghetto |
The Beginning of the Uprising
The most vigorous attempt
throughout all of World War Two, to make a stand against the Nazi’s was in the Warsaw ghetto. In the Warsaw
ghetto there was about fifty thousand Jews left after the mass deportations and the “cauldron” period in the ghetto.
In the ghetto there was “underground” or many secrets kept within the ghetto that the Germans did not know about.
There were underground hideouts keeping people inside for months on end without discovery by the Germans. Extra water and
food supplies were stored in underground compartments hidden to the Germans; a whole city thrived in secret.
|
|
| A Child dead on the street |
The Jews ask the world for help
After the battle of
January 18 1943 the JCO (Jewish combat Organization) was sure that the Germans were planning a final liquidation of Polish
Jewry. On January 21, The Jewish Coordinating Committee established in the ghetto, sent a secret radio message to Jewish Leaders
in New
York saying:
“We notify you
of the greatest crime of all times, about the murder of millions of Jews in Poland.
Poised at the brink of the annihilation of the still surviving Jews, we ask you:
1.
Revenge against the Germans
2.
Force the Hitlerites to halt the murders
3.
Fight for our lives and our honour
4.
Contact the neutral countries
5.
Rescue ten thousand children through exchange
6.
Five hundred thousand dollars for the purposes of
aid.
Brothers – the remaining Jews
in Poland live with the awareness that
in the most terrible days of our history you did not come to our aid. Respond, at least in the days of our life.
On February 7th underground
resistance leaders radioed another urgent message reading “…We suffer terribly. The surviving two hundred thousand
await annihilation. Only you can save us. The responsibility with regard to history will rest on you.” The Germans continued
to try and deceive Jews and lure them out of hiding by propaganda. They promised Jews “a rich life in magnificent amusements”
to work in there department stores outside the ghetto walls. In return the JCO burnt down factories all around the ghetto.
By the spring of 1943 the need for outside help was clearly evident to the rest of the world.
|
|
| Two Children suffering inside the Warsaw Ghetto |
|
|
| Children Scared for their Lives |
Works Cited of Valid Information:
Dawidowicz S., Lucy and David A. Altshuler. Hitler's War Against the Jews. New Jersey: Behrman House, INC. Publishers,
1978.
|
|
|
|
|
| A Map of the Warsaw Ghetto |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Children Fearing for their lives in the Ghetto |
The
First Battle
On January 18th 1943,
German troops surrounded the ghetto taking almost all the Jews within the ghetto by complete surprise. Five units of the Jewish
Combat Organization (A small organization organized by Jews who wanted to take action against the Nazi’s) immediately
tried to counter attack even though they were quiet far apart and unable to communicate between units. The units, to their
surprise killed fifty German soldiers and the deportation of Jews to concentration camps was halted. The Jewish Combat Organization
suffered huge losses by their action surprised everyone not apart of the organization. Now people in the ghetto had hope and
knowledge that the Germans could be defeated. The resistance from this grew many new people and supporters. Many bakers offered
out bread, leatherworkers made them holsters, even black marketers and smugglers offered out a share of their supplies to
the Resistance fighters. The Jewish Combat Organization was only missing one thing, money. They developed a “tax”
to claim whatever of the wealth that was inside the ghetto. The Jewish Combat Organization now had one more objective to gain.
This objective was to murder all traitors. In February 1943, five Jewish Gestapo agents were shot to death. After the losses
in January the Jewish Combat Organization re-organized into twenty-two units each consisting of at least eight men and a maximum
of two women. New fighters were constantly being accepted but only through a careful examination. The only problem the organization had at this point was that weapons were scarce and in order to defeat
the Germans they knew they had to somehow get some weapons
|
|
| Jews fleeing after destruction of factories |
The
Last and Final Battle
At
two a.m. on Monday, April 19th 1943, armed German soldiers began to encircle the Warsaw ghetto. Within thirty minutes the JCO had been notified of the action and by daylight
all the fighters had been mobilized. At six a.m. two thousand S.S. troops barged the ghetto walls with tanks, rapid-fire guns,
and three trailers with ammunition. The JCO troops attacked with explosive devices and the small amount of guns they had acquired.
By the approximate time of five p.m. the German troops surprised and shocked by the resistance withdrew from the ghetto. Overall
the German troops lost some two hundred men. “We were happy and laughing for the first time in years,” said one
Jewish soldier. “When we threw our grenades and saw German blood on the streets of Warsaw,
which had been flooded with so much Jewish blood and tears, a great joy possessed us.” Everyone in the back of their
mind knew that the German troops would come back more organized and stronger and ultimately defeat the Jews but at this point
in time all everyone could think about was about the immediate action; the defeat of the German troops.
April 19th the same year marked the last Jewish Passover seder. Throughout the ghetto sounds of gun fire
and shells readings of the haggadah were interrupted. Early the next morning the S.S ordered Jews to lay down their weapons
by 10 o’clock. When the S.S. troops entered the ghetto the Jews were ready
and met them with gunfire, grenades and mines. The Germans retaliated with tanks, field artillery, and heavy machine guns.
They warned that unless they surrendered that the entire ghetto would be bombed. No Jews laid down their arms. The Germans
began destroying everything in sight. Pillars of smoke and ash were everywhere. For days the ghetto was under attack but the
Jews never gave up using whatever they could find.
Time and space was running out as German troops closed in on the Jews. Food and water was no where to be found. One
resistor wrote, “The roar of fire, the noise of falling walls. Outside the ghetto it was spring, but here a holocaust
reigned.”
On May 8th the Germans surrounded the JCO headquarters building. The civilians surrounding the building
surrendered but the resistors kept on with whatever ammo they had left. One resistor called out, “Let’s not fall
to their hands alive!” They began to kill themselves and each other. Two days later, about seventy-five JCO survivors
from the other parts of the ghetto made their way through the slime of Warsaw’s
sewers to escape with help from some comrades of the “Aryan side”. The Warsaw
ghetto had become one big cemetery. Resistance could not stop the liquidation of Polish Jewry but it definitely slowed it down. The destruction had proceeded to quickly. Here
lay some of the most courageous fighters ever to be shown to mankind.
|
|
