The Ghetto Fights!
The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising refers to the armed resistance of the Jews in the Warsaw Ghetto in the early months of 1943. It should not be confused with the Warsaw Uprising of 1944, in which the non-Jewish Poles rose up against Nazi oppression (although some survivors of the Ghetto Uprising did join this fight). The latter was a bid for freedom, with a realistic chance of success; the former was the decision to die fighting, rather than accept death at the German execution camps.
In 1939 the Germans had invaded Warsaw and taken control of the city; by November of 1940 they had ordered all the Jews in the capital into a three mile square area, dubbed the Warsaw Ghetto. Whilst conditions were unbearable, with thousands dying from starvation and disease every month, there was little call amongst the Jews to rise up and fight the Germans. Why? For several reasons: firstly the Nazi propaganda machine had done an effective job of denigrating the Jewish race and breaking their spirit, secondly many pre-eminent Jews and potential leaders had fled or been killed, thirdly - and probably most importantly - they had no realistic chance of defeating the Germans by force, and fear of reprisals were great. That situation was to change.
Early in 1942 Berlin found the 'Final Solution' to the question of what to do with the Jews. During the course of that year the Nazis began an enormous operation, the purpose of which was extermination of an entire race. The Jews were transported in vast numbers, and terrible conditions, to death camps around Poland (those taken from the Warsaw Ghetto were mostly taken to Treblinka). This operation was carried out with so much speed and efficiency, and with an inhumanity that defied the belief of ordinary people, that hundreds of thousands were murdered before the remainder of the Jews finally accepted the fate in store for them. Meanwhile the Allies, who were also finally forced to believe the reports they were hearing, did nothing to help - later claiming that the only way to stop the German atrocities was to focus directly on winning the war.
So it was, outraged at the mass murder of their people and with nothing left to lose, the remainder of the Ghetto Jews decided to fight back with every means in their power, and whatever the consequence. They offered their first resistance on 18th January 1943, when a large group of Germans soldiers arrived intent on rounding up more Jews for deportation. In fact the Z.O.B (Zydowska Organizacja Bojowa, or the Jewish Fighters Organization) had been planning an attack on the Jewish Police (who collaborated with the Nazis) for the 22nd, but when the Germans marched into the Ghetto they decided to engage them in combat. A bloody street battle took place, in which the significanly inferior-armed Jews lost a great deal of their number. From then on the Z.O.B decided never to engage the Germans openly - where they were bound to lose - but engaged them in partisan warfare. Despite their losses on this day however, an important psychological blow was struck. The Germans could not have everything their own way. They were not invincible.
From that point until April the Germans deportation plans were delayed, Nazi collaborators killed, and the Z.O.B (along with other Jewish fighting forces) were in virtually complete control of the Ghetto. Meanwhile the Polish underground movement, impressed by the Jews courage, supplied the Z.O.B with more and better weaponry. In this three month period virtually all attempts to arrest and capture Jews failed, several Germans soldiers were killed, and a number of attempts to lure the Jews out, with promises of working in concentration camps in excellent and safe conditions, failed. The mood of the remaining Jews had turned from acceptance of their fate to defiance, and the Z.O.B enjoyed the support and co-operation of all the non-fighting Jews in the Ghetto.
Finally realising that the Jewish Uprising wasn't going to conveniently go away, the Germans arrived in considerable force in the early hours of 19th April with plans for the final liquidation of the Ghetto (ie. the rounding up of every remaining Jew for transportation to the death camps). Nearly a thousand troops marched into the Ghetto, certain that the Jews would either be unwilling and unable to offer them resistance, when they came in such large numbers. However the Z.O.B were now better armed - and more determined - than the Germans realised. As the Nazis advanced into a deserted Ghetto the partisans simply waited for the opportune moment to attack, at which time they reigned bullet and grenades on the exposed German patrols from the cover of tall buildings. The would-be capturers suffered heavy casualties and were forced to retreat. They failed to arrest a single Jewish civilian, all of whom had gone into hiding (mostly in underground bunkers which they had built for this purpose). This day is often cited as the start of the Ghetto Uprising.
After this initial set-back on the 19th, Himmler replaced the ineffective commander, Ferdinand von Sammern-Frankenegg, with Jurgen Stroop, who had experience fighting against partisans. He was urged by Himmler to act with whatever means necessary. In the days that followed Stroop ordered all the buildings of the Ghetto be set on fire, in order to flush out enemy soldiers. The quarter became one burning torch, full of flames and dense black smoke. Still the Jews refused to give in, maintaining their resistance and only giving up their positions at the last moment - many jumping from high floors of burning buildings. Most sought refuge in the bunkers, where conditions were hardly any better. Because of the intensity of the infernos the bunkers were unbearably hot and food and water was quickly spoiled.
By the 23rd of April any sizeable resistance was no longer possible. All that remained for the Nazis to do was uproot the Jews in the bunkers. Not that this was made easy for them. Forced out of hiding by poison or tear gas, the partisans would often come out firing; women were no less militant, and there were several examples of them hiding grenades in their underwear in order to throw them at German soldiers as they were being arrested. These were last ditch tactics however for a battle that was now lost. On the 9th of May the Nazis successfully stormed the Z.O.B's command bunker and on the 16th, the German Commander, Stroop, announced that the fighting was finished. To mark the end of the Uprising he ordered the Great Warsaw Synagogue on Tlomackie Street to be blown up.
Approximately 13,000 Jews were killed during the Uprising, with another 50,000 rounded up and deported to death camps. A few escapees continued to fight in the forests, whilst some who were arrested were later freed by the Polish underground forces and joined the Warsaw Uprising. An estimated 300 German troops died in the struggle.