April 19th marks the first day of the month long 1943 Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. It is one of the
most symbolic and well-known acts of anti-fascist resistance ever to take
place, an armed uprising against Nazi attempts to transport the Jews in the ghetto to death and labor camps. Many of those that took part were proud socialists and internationalists.
The Nazi persecution of the Jews in Poland began with the invasion of
the country in 1939. Jews very quickly lost their rights; by October
1939 they were forced to register and have the word ‘Jude’ stamped on
their identity papers. They were soon forbidden from many ordinary
activities, such as walking on the pavement, or going to schools,
libraries or museums. Synagogues were blown up, or turned into prisons
or factories, and many Jews were abused and humiliated on the streets.
Within a few weeks of the Nazi consolidation of Poland, Governor Hans
Frank ordered four hundred thousand Warsaw Jews to enter a ghetto. By
November 1940, around five hundred thousand Jews from across Poland had
been sealed behind its walls, severed from the outside world and plunged
into social isolation. Surrounded by a ten-foot-high barrier, the
creation of the ghetto meant the relocation of approximately 30 percent
of Warsaw’s population into 2.6 percent of the city, the designated area
being no more than two and a half miles long and having previously
housed fewer than 160,000 people. Conditions inside the Ghetto were horrendous. Many families inhabited single rooms, and the dire lack of food meant
that roughly one hundred thousand people survived on no more than a
single bowl of soup per day. The sanitation system collapsed, and
disease became rampant. After 18 months of
incarceration some 63,000 Jews had died due to the hunger, disease,
overcrowding and cold.
The Ghetto was internally controlled by the Judenrat – Jewish Council, which was set up by the Nazis to carry out their instructions. The
Judenrat included people who tried to help Jews who were suffering from
the harsh Ghetto conditions, but also had members who would attempt to
save their own skin by any means, with little regard for their
community. A Jewish police force, which was notoriously brutal, was used
by the Judenrat to enforce Ghetto “law” internally. Antisemitic Polish
“Blue” police guarded the Ghetto. There was also an independent police
force that served to gather intelligence for the Gestapo, though this
was later absorbed into the main force. The Judenrat came to be regarded
with contempt by the populace, as the conditions in the Ghetto
worsened, and was nicknamed the Judenverat (Jewish betrayal).
During November 1941 news reached the underground in Warsaw of mass
killings of Jews following the German invasion of the Soviet Union in
summer that year. Communal leaders also heard reports of an
extermination camp at Chelmno, where Jews were being gassed to death.
However, finding the information almost unbelievable and not wanting to
destroy morale, they left the Ghetto inhabitants uninformed.
An Anti-Fascist Bloc was created in the spring of 1942 as the existence
of death camps and the slaughter of thousands of Jews at isolated
locations was confirmed. Consisting of left-wing Zionists and
communists, the organisation had no arms, but set up combat units and
distributed propaganda. The Anti-Fascist Bloc issued appeals calling on
the population to reject the collaboration and compromises of the
Judenrat. However, most Jews continued to listen to the passive advice
of the Judenrat. The efforts of the Anti-Fascist Bloc were initially
either ignored or rejected
Attitudes towards resistance changed dramatically in the summer of 1942,
when, through the Judenrat, the Nazis decreed: “All Jewish persons
living in Warsaw, regardless of age and sex, will be resettled in the
East …”. Hundreds of thousands of Jews were deported to the Treblinka
extermination camp that summer. In July 1942, at the initiative of the
Zionist youth groups, a meeting was held which formed the Zydowska
Organizacja Bojowa (ZOB – Jewish Combat Organisation). The ZOB’s
political wing consisted of the various Zionist organisations and the
communists. It was led by Jewish communists such as Mordechai Anielewicz and Zivia Lubetkin. In October the Bund (Jewish Socialist Party), Poland’s
largest Jewish organisation, joined as well. Only the extreme Jewish
nationalists did not participate; instead they decided to fight
separately as the Irgun Zvai Leumi (Jewish Military Union).
Within a few weeks the ZOB had drawn up by-laws, describing the purpose
of the organisation as being the defence of the Ghetto against further
deportations and collaborators.
For ZOB militants, collaborators represented an auxiliary wing of
fascism that was instrumental in facilitating the deportation of Polish
Jewry. To demonstrate that this stance would not be accepted in the
ghetto, ZOB militants chose to execute Jewish policeman Jacob Lejkin.
For his “dedication” in deporting Jews to Auschwitz, Lejkin was shot,
and his example triggered widespread panic in the collaborating
establishment. This was followed by the execution of Alfred Nossig in
February 1943. Józef Szeryński, the former head of the ghetto police,
committed suicide to avoid his own fate.
These acts ensured ZOB’s centrality in the resistance movement, and also
encouraged resistance from beyond their ranks. They aimed to prove that
challenging collaboration was both possible and a moral duty, and
within a short period of time had won many ghetto inhabitants to this
position.
As the months progressed, the spectre of death became ever-present.
Between June and September 1942, three hundred thousand Jews had been
deported or murdered, a destruction of the Polish Jewish community. In
these desperate circumstances, people lost everyone and many young
people began to dispense with anxieties about protecting their families
and commit instead to militant political activity. Simply put, the more
Jews were murdered in the ghettos, the less personal obligations were
felt by survivors, and the more the feeling of responsibility for
causing further anguish from Nazi reprisals receded.
During the winter of 1942/3 underground bunkers and secret hiding holes
were constructed throughout the Ghetto, while ZOB attempted the
difficult task of securing weapons. Some were obtained from the black
market and from German and Italian deserters, but at a high price. A
small quantity of arms was acquired from the Polish resistance (Home
Army), which operated under the instructions of the Polish government in
exile, based in London. Supply from the Home Army was limited because
of a combination of antisemitism and fear that the weapons might be used
in the future on the Soviet side in the event of a war between Poland
and the Soviet Union. More arms were delivered once ZOB had proven
itself as effective, but in total they only ever made up 10% of the ZOB
arsenal.
German troops surrounded the Ghetto on 18 January 1943 in an attempt to
deport the last of Warsaw’s Jews. Even though they were taken by
surprise, five ZOB units engaged the troops and killed or wounded some
50 Germans, seizing weapons in the mêlée. ZOB casualties were high, but
after three days the deportations were halted.
Deportations were suspended until April, 1943, the eve of Passover, the Jewish festival of liberation when Heinnich Himmler,ordered the fascist forces were to carry out the final liquidation of the Ghetto. On 19 April 1943 2,000 men, including Waffen SS, Wehrmacht,
Latvian, Lithuanian and Ukrainian fascists, supported by units of the
Polish “Blue” police, advanced on the Ghetto, the area of which was now
less than 1,000 by 3,000 metres.
With the civilian population underground in prepared bunkers, the 22 ZOB
combat units took their positions. Some were in the central Ghetto area
and others in the factories. As the fighting proceeded they were joined
by the Irgun and other unaffiliated units.
ZOB units attacked the fascists – who were led by SS Lt General Jurgen
Stroop – with guns and homemade petrol bombs. Stroop had expected little
resistance from those he had described previously as “this Jewish trash
and subhumanity” who are “cowards by nature”.
The Jewish residents refused to come out. Instead, and to their
surprise, the Germans found themselves being shot at from all sides with
rifles, pistols and automatic weapons. Grenades and Molotov cocktails
were thrown from windows, and a handful of Germans were killed.
The next day, 20 April, Waffen SS reinforcements entered the Ghetto
and were bombarded with grenades and explosives. In one incident alone
an electric mine killed some 100 Germans. They responded with tanks and
field artillery and began setting fire to Ghetto buildings. ZOB replied
by burning down the warehouses of the agency in charge of expropriated
Jewish property. Despite the fire and smoke, which began to envelop the
Ghetto, morale was high. On one roof the Jewish blue and white banner
flew alongside the red and white Polish flag. On another roof a banner
stated, “We shall fight to the last”.
Flamethrowers were brought in on 22 April, to force out the tens of
thousands of Jews still hidden underground. The Ghetto became engulfed
in flames and thousands of Jews were burned alive. Stroop reported:
“They jumped from burning windows and balconies, abusing Germany and
the Führer … over and over again, we observed that the Jews and bandits
preferred to return to the flames rather than be caught by us.”
Marek Edelman succeeded Amielwicz when the Zionist leader and ZOB commander died in battle.The Ghetto held out into May. Zivia Lubetkin, one of the few ZOB
survivors of the epic battle, recalled. “We sat in the dark, scores of
Jewish fighters, still carrying our weapons, surrounded by thousands of
eager and expectant Jews. Was it not May Day? … How grave the
responsibility we felt as the last desperate Hebrew warriors! We could
not hold out against the Germans’ consuming fire for long without water
or food or weapons.”
It was a battle that the Jews could never have won, no matter how
heroic the resistance. The ZOB headquarters was surrounded on 8 May,
after three weeks of combat. Over 100 fighters were inside. The Germans
blocked the entrances and sent gas into the bunker. The fighters decided
to kill themselves rather than be taken alive. ZOB Commander Anielewicz
was among them. During the revolt he wrote:
“It is now clear to me that what took place exceeded all expectations
… The last wish of my life has been fulfilled. Jewish self-defence has
become a fact. Jewish resistance and revenge have become actualities. I
am happy to have been one of the first Jewish fighters in the Ghetto.”
Two days after the end of the battle, 75 ZOB survivors crawled
through Warsaw’s sewers. They escaped with the help of comrades in the
resistance on the outside of the Ghetto.By mid-May, the ghetto had been razed, and the Great Synagogue of Warsaw
personally blown up by General Stroop on May 16 to celebrate the end of
Jewish resistance. Of Warsaw’s 350,000 Jews, few
were to survive the war. Of Poland’s 3.3 million Jews, only 50-70,000
were to remain alive.
On the anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto
Uprising, it is important to remember this heroic act of
resistance, when Jews decided to fight against their oppressors rather than be forced to die in a concentration camp. All too often, mainstream media and historians peddle the
myth that “the Jews just walked into the camps.” Those brave souls who gave their
lives in the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising might beg to differ.
On this day, we remember their sacrifices in the struggle against fascism.
Despite its tragic end, the Warsaw Uprising left a lasting
legacy.It inspired Jewish youth, in ghettos from Lvov to Będzin to Białystok,
and in camps including Treblinka and Sobibor ,to resist, and the bravery of the men, women and children involved has inspired a number of books, poetry, songs and films.
The ghetto fighters left us a universal message of humanism and hope in
the face of barbarism. It was an inspiration understood by some of the
leaders of the Polish resistance, one of whom commented that “the blood
of the ghetto fighters was not shed in vain…it gave birth to an
intensified struggle against the fascist invader”.
It is a message that
we need to remember as we confront racism and fascism wherever and
whenever it raises its head.
