Warsaw Ghetto Uprising (1943)

Mon Apr 19, 1943

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Image: Jewish prisoners of Gęsiowka, a German concentration camp in Warsaw liberated on August 5th, 1944. During the Warsaw Uprising, Polish soldiers of the Battalion “Zośka” rescued 380 prisoners from Gęsiowka. [Wikipedia]

On this day in 1943, the largest Jewish revolt during WWII began when Jews in the Warsaw Ghetto attacked Nazis attempting to deport them to death camps. Nazis razed the entire ghetto block by block, killing more than 7,000 and deporting 42,000.

The Warsaw Ghetto was the largest Jewish ghetto in German-occupied Europe, housing approximately 400,000 Jews in 1940. In 1942, Nazi police and military carried out mass deportations, in total around 265,000 Jews, from the Warsaw Ghetto to the Treblinka killing center. By early 1943, the Warsaw Ghetto’s population was down to 70,000 - 80,000.

In 1942, it was abundantly clear to the residents of the Warsaw Ghetto that deportation was a death sentence. Two armed resistance groups were formed that year - the left-wing Jewish Combat Organization (Żydowska Organizacja Bojowa; ŻOB) and the Zionist Jewish Military Union (Żydowski Związek Wojskowy; ŻZW).

On April 19th, 1943, the eve of Passover, Nazis attempted another mass deportation. ŻOB had received advance notice, however, and 700 young Jewish fighters met the Nazi police with resistance.

The rebels lacked formal military training and were poorly equipped, but had the advantage of waging a guerilla war, retreating to the safety of ghetto buildings and tunnels after attacking. Non-armed residents also resisted by refusing to cooperate with police by refusing to assemble at collection points.

In response, the Nazi forces, armed with artillery and tanks, began razing the ghetto block by block. According to Benjamin Meed, a Jew hiding in the “Aryan” part of Warsaw at the time, the entire sky was red from the ghetto’s destruction.

Resistance lasted for approximately a month. On May 8th, 1943, German forces succeeded in seizing ŻOB headquarters, and many of the group’s commanders are thought to have committed suicide to avoid capture.

Approximately 7,000 Jews while fighting or hiding during the uprising. Police deported approximately 42,000 survivors who were captured during the revolt, most of whom were shot to death in the Nazi “Operation Harvest Festival” (Erntefest). Many Jews (one estimate suggests 20,000) evaded capture and continued to hide in the ruins of the Warsaw Ghetto.

Resisters knew that the uprising was likely doomed, but chose to fight anyway. Marek Edelman, the only surviving ŻOB commander, stated that the inspiration to fight back was “not to allow the Germans alone to pick the time and place of our deaths”.