The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising by

nateseymour — 2025-04-22 12:57:00 UTC

The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising was the first instance of an uprising in an area under German Control during WWII. It was a month long battle, in which the resistors had no hope of winning. To those heroes, dying upright was better than to go to a camp and die having lost their dignity.

nateseymour — 2025-04-22 13:00:48 UTC

The Warsaw Ghetto was established in November of 1940. All the jews in the city were confined to a small section of it, which was then walled off and they were sealed inside. At one point, there was 400,000 jews in there at once. Several families were cramped into single apartments. The conditions were awful and the Nazis always kept the people there close to starvation. By the end of the year, a tenth of the ghetto's population had died to these conditions.

nateseymour — 2025-04-22 13:08:09 UTC

In spring of 1941, the Nazis put some of the Jews to work in war factories. On July 20th, 1942, an order was officially pronounced to deport any of the Jews who didn't work in the Nazi war factories. This sent the Jews into panic, but they ultimately decided not to revolt. By September, over 300,000 Jews had been deported, significantly more than the Jews had thought it would be. After then, it was decided that any more deportations would be met with revolt.

nateseymour — 2025-04-22 13:11:29 UTC

A 24 year old man named Mordecai Anielewicz led the armed resistance groups. They prepared by building bunkers and shelters. In January 1943, the Nazis came to deport 6,500 Jews, but a Nazi officer was badly injured and the deportation plan was stopped. A leader of the Nazis, Heinrich Himmler, was enraged by the incident and ordered the liquidation, or complete deportation, of everyone in the ghetto.

nateseymour — 2025-04-22 13:16:39 UTC

April 19th, 1943, at 3 am, the Nazis surrounded the ghetto, and the battle begun. The Nazis had a large army of 2000 men and immense loads of ammunition, as well as a tank, armored cars, and more, whereas the Jews had 700-750 men with nothing to lose. The Jews had managed to collect a few thousand grenades, as well as a few hundred rifles and pistols, but the Nazis' firepower dwarfed that of the Jews.

nateseymour — 2025-04-22 13:19:12 UTC

By April 22nd, fire consumed lots of the ghetto, causing Jews to jump from burning buildings. Many Jews tried to escape through the sewers, but the Germans gassed their escape routes. On May 8th, Mordecai Anielwicz was killed. By may 15th, it was clear that the Resistance fighters had lost.

nateseymour — 2025-04-22 13:20:47 UTC

As a sign of victory, the Germans blew up the Tlomacki Synagogue. 30,000 Jews were shot immediately or sent to death camps, and the rest were sent to labor camps.

nateseymour — 2025-04-22 13:23:30 UTC

The entire ghetto was destroyed. Completely flatted, every building torn down. 300 German soldiers had been killed, as well as tens of thousands of Jewish resistors.

Sources

nateseymour — 2025-04-22 13:24:18 UTC

https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/may-16/warsaw-ghetto-uprising-ends

nateseymour — 2025-04-22 13:25:15 UTC

nateseymour — 2025-04-22 13:27:01 UTC

nateseymour — 2025-04-22 13:28:08 UTC

nateseymour — 2025-04-22 13:30:02 UTC

nateseymour — 2025-04-22 13:41:28 UTC

"The fact that we are remembered beyond the ghetto walls encourages us in our struggle." -Mordecai Anielwicz

nateseymour — 2025-04-22 13:44:53 UTC