RESISTANCE DURING THE SHOAH

The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising

Throughout the ghettos of Nazi Europe, the Jews tried to organize resistance against the Germans. The arms for these resistance efforts came from weapons smuggled into the ghettos and homemade weapons. From 1941 to 1943, over 100 Jewish resistance groups fought back. The most famous of these resistance movements against the Nazis came from the young fighters of the Warsaw Ghetto.

Between July and September 1942, 300,000 Jews were transported from the Warsaw Ghetto to the Treblinka death camp. By the time the transports were completed in September, only about 56,000 Jews remained in Warsaw. As news of the mass killings at the death camps leaked back into the ghetto, despair gave way to a determination to resist. It was then that the Z.O.B. (Zydowska Organizacja Bojowa or the Jewish Fighters Organization) was formed and slowly moved to take control of the ghetto. The Z.O.B. was comprised of mostly young Jews in their teens and early 20s.

On January 9, 1943, Himmler visited the Warsaw Ghetto and ordered the deportation of another 8,000 Jews. This deportation order caught many Jews by surprise and for many signaled the beginning of the end. Z.O.B. leader, Mordechai Anielewicz (23 years old), ordered a proclamation to the remaining ghetto inhabitants to resist going to the rail station for deportation. In January 1943, the Germans troops entered the Warsaw Ghetto to begin rounding up Jews for deportation.

With a small cache of smuggled arms and homemade weapons, the Warsaw Ghetto fighters sprang into action. Using guerilla tactics, the resistance fighters would quickly strike the Germans. After the attacks, the Germans became much more cautious and after a few days retreated. This retreat was interpreted as a victory against the Germans. But the remaining Jews knew that the Germans would be back. The Z.O.B. fortified hideouts and resistance units were strengthened for the next fight.

The Germans again attacked the ghetto, cutting off electricity, water and gas power. Because of fierce resistance of the Jewish fighters, ultimately, the Germans made the decision to burn the entire ghetto. The Germans believed that liquidation of the ghetto could be achieved within 3 days...this was a gross miscalculation. On April 19, 1943 the uprising began. The Jewish freedom fighters in the ghetto were starving, untrained, and lacked weapons, but they stil bravely resisted the best elements of German forces in Warsaw. The chances of the Jews winning were non-existent, but their spirit could not be overcome, and the fighters were able to hold off the Germans for nearly a month. The Warsaw revolt came to an end on May 16, 1943. Of the more than 56,000 Jews captured, 7,000 were shot and the remainder deported to concentration camps. (Many of the Jews who resisted in Warsaw and were captured also aided the resistance organizations in the Treblinka and Sobibor revolts.)

The Warsaw Uprising was probably the largest single resistance operation organized and executed by a partisan body in World War II. In then end, the uprising lasted 2 months, which was longer that the French or the Polish held off the Nazis. The members of the Warsaw Uprising accomplished this feat with fewer weapons and no formal military training. It was nothing less than a revolution. The young Jews of Warsaw had resisted the Nazi machine head on with armed force. The significance of the uprising went far beyond those that bravely struggled and died.

The thoughts of Mordechai Anielewicz may have best captured the uprising, "...what really matters is that the dream of my live has become true. Jewish self defense in the Warsaw ghetto has become a fact. Jewish armed resistance and retaliation became a reality. I have been witness to the magnificent heroic struggle of the Jewish fighters."


Monument to the Warsaw Ghetto


WARSAW GHETTO CHRONOLOGY

1939

Sep. 27: Poland surrenders to Germany

Oct. 4: Adam Czerniakow is ordered by Gestapo to set up Jewish Council to replace Jewish Community Council within twenty-four hours.

Nov. 28: Hans Frank, Governor General issued an order to set up a Judenrat in each Jewish community.

Nov.: Census shows 359,827 Jews in Warsaw

1940

Jan. 21: Gestapo ordered registration of Jewish property.

Jan. 26: Congregational worship forbidden; ritual slaughter prohibited.

June: Jewish Council reorganized; limited to carrying out orders of German authorities.

July: Last orders permitting Jews from the Generalgouvernment to leave the country were cancelled.

Sept.: Quarantine area, later to be Ghetto, contains 240,000 Jews and 80,000 Chrisitians.

Oct. 16: Decree gives Christian two weeks to move out of quarantine area, and Jews to move in.

Nov. 15: Warsaw Ghetto sealed off.

1941

Jan.: According to official Jewish newspaper, Gazeta Zydowska, 380,740 people were living in the ghetto. 378,979 were Jews, 1718 were Catholics, Protestants, and Greek Orthodox, and 43 were of other religions.

Feb. 18: Jewish Council is allowed to raise a loan from German banks on the security of blocked Jewish accounts.

Feb-March: 66,000 Jews from the Warsaw District were transferred to the ghetto.

March: Population of ghetto reaches a peak at 445,000 people.

April: Schools licensed for 5,000 of the 50,000 children in the Ghetto. American Joint Distribution Committee allowed to have offices in the Ghetto.

Dec. 16: Hans Frank, Governor General, reports about 2,500,000 Jews in Government Central. These Jews must be "gotten rid of."

Dec.: Jewish cemetery walled off; coffins used for struggling. Free soup kitchens supporting 100,000 people are set up.

1942

Jan.: Visits and tours of Ghetto abolished for soldiers on leave but continue, nevertheless.

Apr. 12: Rumored arrival of extermination brigade.

Apr. 14: News of deportations and massacre in Lublin Ghetto printed in the paper "Oneg Shabbat."

Apr. 18: "Night of Blood" - execution of printers and distributors of Ghetto underground press.

May: "The Thirteen" gang is killed.

June: News of massacres in Pabiance and Biala Podluska. 110 Jews incarcerated in the ghetto prison were executed as a retaliation for Jewish resistance movements.

July 22: 380,000 in Warsaw Ghetto. Jewish Council publishes notice of deportation to East regardless of sex or age. From July 22 to September 12, 1942. 265,000 Jews were uprooted from Warsaw, transported to the Treblinka death camp, and murdered in the gas chambers.

July 23: Adam Czernikow, chairman of the Judenrat, committed suicide.

July : The Bunds sends Zigmunt Friedrich to follow trails of deportees. He returned with verified news of the extermination camp at Treblinka.

July 28: Representatives of three pioneering youth movements- Hashomer Hatzair, Dror He-Halutz, and Akiva- met at the Dror He- Halutz commune on Dzielna St. and founded the Jewish Fighting Organization called Zydowska Organizacja Bojowa (ZOB).

Aug. 5: Extermination squad descends on Ghetto. Operation lasts a week.

Aug. 15: Blockade of every street and house begins.

Sept. 21: Yom Kippur. Ghetto size is reduced by more than a half. More than three-quarters of the population already evacuated. The final act of deportation took place- Two thousand people consisting of Jewish Police and their families were deported.

Sept. 22: S.S and S.D take over formal administration of the Jewish affairs in Warsaw.

Oct. 20: Coordinating Committee of resistance movement formed.

1943

Jan.: Only 40,000 Jews left in the Ghetto.

Jan. 18: Second mass deportation begins. First armed resistance by ZOB members led by Mordechai Anielewicz.

Jan. 18-21: About 1,000 Jews were murdered in the Ghetto streets.

Apr. 19: Planned and organized Jewish Resistance begins in Warsaw on the eve of Passover. Lightly armed and poorly trained, some 800 Jews, some only ten years of age, effectively chased German soldiers from the Ghetto. The first battle on the Nalewki Street, led by Z.O.B. members Zecharia Artstein and Lolek Rotblatt, ended with a German retreat. In the Central Ghetto, Z.O.B. fighters were also succesful. On this day, one member of the Z.O.B. died in addition to a few others from the other fighting group, the Z.Z.W. According to S.S. General Stroop, six men and six Ukranian auxiliaries were killed and twenty-four wre wounded on this first day of battle. The Polish underground organization, the Home Army, gave the ZOB twenty-two rifles.

Apr. 20: After crossing a ZOB mine which exploded, and being forced to retreat, three German officers with strips of white cloth attached to their lapels appeared in the street and called for a fifteen minute truce and negotiations with the command of the area. Only twenty-eight Jews responded to that order, while the rest continued to fight for their freedom. Stunned by the Jewish resistance, over 2,000 highly trained Nazi soldiers and their helpers attacked Jews in the Ghetto in force, under S.S. General Stroop. The battle raged from roof tops, windows, and from the sewers. Command bunkers are set up under Mordechai Anielewicz who operated out of Mila 18.

Apr. 21: Germans used both aircraft and tanks to subdue revolting Jews. Fierce battles raged, street by street, building by building.

Apr. 22: Germans begin burning ghetto buildings block by block to limit Jewish resistance.

Apr. 23: "Battle of the bunkers" begins. Chlorine gas was used to annihilate Jews fighting in the bunkers, utilizing their limited ammunition and weapons.

Apr. 26: General Stroop reported that underground resistance was still continuing despite the fact that the Germans were blowing up the bunkers.

May 3: Nazis broke into the Czyste hospital on Gesia Street in the Warsaw Ghetto and shot all the patients. The building was then set on fire by the S.S. soldiers.

May 8: The Germans blockade off exists of the ZOB Central bunker. As the Germans began to pump gas into the bunker, Arie Wilner, Lolek Rotblat and others shot themselves. Mordechai Anielewicz also died in the bunker command at 18 Mila Street.

May 16: The liquidation of the Warsaw Ghetto was declared officially over by S.S. General Stroop at 8:15 p.m. with the demolition of the Warsaw synagogue.

Summer: Jewish resistance continued.

1944

Mar. 7: Emmanuel Ringelblum executed on ruins of the Ghetto, together with wife and child.

Aug.: Note: The Polish Army revolted against Nazi authority in Warsaw- a heroic episode.

1946

Sept.: Ten cases of Ringelblum Archives dug up.

The Outcome

According to S.S. General Stroop's report from April 19-May 15, 1943*

German Losses:
16 Killed
85 Wounded
17 Unspecified Losses

Jewish Losses:
56,065 Caught and Killed.

*These figures are suspect since General Stroop was worried about Hitler's reaction to the German losses.


OTHER RESISTANCE

The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising was only one of a number of clear demonstrations that the Jews did "fight back" against their German oppressors. Other examples of Jewish Resistance during the Shoah include:

GHETTOS:
Tuchin September 3, 1942
Bialystok August 16, 1943
Vilna September 1, 1943

DEATH CAMPS:
Treblinka August 2, 1943
Sobibor October 14, 1943
Auschwitz October 7, 1944



Web Links



THE WARSAW GHETTO UPRISING




PINCHAS ROSENBAUM





OTHER GHETTO REVOLTS AND RESISTANCE

JEWISH PARTISANS: VILNA AND ELSEWHERE DEATH CAMP REVOLTS: Treblinka, Sobibor, Ravensbrück, Buchenwald, etc.

Several resistance efforts were made, for example the killing of SS man Max Biala by Meir Berliner on 11 September 1942, but not till the early months of 1943 a resistance group was formed, including Galewski, Dr Julian Chorazycki, Zelo Bloch, Zvi Kurland, Rudolf Mazarek and Dr Leichert. All of these did not survive the uprising, but died heroically.
        Revolt: When the burning of the bodies was nearing completion and it was clear that the camp and the prisoners were about to be liquidated, the leaders of the underground resolved that the uprising must not be postponed any longer. A date and time were fixed, 5 p.m. on 2 August 1943. Initially the uprising went according to plan. With a copied key the armoury was opened, weapons taken out and handed to the resistance members. In order to ensure the uprising was not compromised, and whilst some SS men had gone swimming in the nearby Bug river, the rebels had no option but to open fire and start the revolt early. The rebels with the stolen weapons opened fire on the camp guards. The petrol station exploded, wooden barracks were set on fire. The gas chambers were not damaged. Masses of prisoners now tried to storm the fences to escape from the camp. They were fired at from the watchtowers and most of them were hit when they got entangled in the barbed wire, intertwining the anti-tank traps.
        Escape: Those that did escape were pursued by the local police and security forces, including guards from Treblinka I. Only 1,000 were still alive when the uprising on 2 August 1943 took place. Of these only 200 managed to break through. Of these only around 60 were still alive at the end of the war to tell the world about the horror of Treblinka. A number of survivors testified at the post-war trials of Sepp Hirtreiter in the 1950's. The major trial of Treblinka SS men took place in 1964/65, the trial of commandant Franz Stangl in 1970. Of the prisoners who were left, some were killed on the spot. The rest was forced to demolish the remaining structures and obliterate the traces of the murderous activities. Since the gas chambers were still operational after the revolt, the last victims were gassed on 21st August 1943. These transports from Bialystok had the numbers PJ 207 and PJ 208.

Treblinka     Treblinka


Resistance and escape occurred throughout the camp's existence. On 20 July the "Forest Command" ("Waldkommando") revolted and eight prisoners managed to escape. The Polish members of the "Waldkommando" who did not escape paid for their failure with their lives. In July / August 1943 an underground group was formed amongst the Jewish prisoners, under the leadership of Leon Feldhendler, who had been the chairman of the Judenrat in Zolkiew. In one of the last transports, Jewish members of the Red Army were brought to the camp from Minsk. One of them was Lt. Aleksander (Sascha) Pechersky. He became the camp underground's commander, with Feldhendler as his deputy.
        The big revolt should happen on 13 October 1943, but the unexpected arrival of an SS troop from the labour camp at Ossowa, caused a delay for 24 hours. On 14 October 1943 commander Reichleitner, Gustav Wagner and Hubert Gomerski were on leave. The absence of Wagner and Gomerski, two of the cruellest SS men in Sobibor, seriously weakened the guard garrison. At about 4 p.m. deputy commander Johann Niemann visited the tailor shop to try on a new uniform. There he was killed by Yehuda Lerner with a blow from an axe. The revolt had begun, there was no turning back. Ten Germans, two "Volksdeutsche" and eight Ukrainian guards were killed, SS-OberscharfŸhrer Werner Dubois was seriously injured.
        According to the Encyclopedia of the Holocaust some 300 prisoners managed to escape from Sobibor, but most were killed in a relentless manhunt. Those who had not joined the escape for various reasons were all killed. At 11:15 a.m. on 15 October 1943, the SSPF Lublin advised his neighbour SSPF in Luzk, SS BrigadefŸhrer Wilhelm GŸnther in a radio message, that some 700 Jews had broken out of the Sobibor camp and would be escaping in his direction. Counter-measures should be undertaken. In fact at this time Sobibor held 700 Jews but not all of them fled (source: S. Tyas), so that a smaller number must be estimated.







Participants in the uprising at the Sobibór Death Camp.
First row (from left): second, Yosef Ertman; third Zelda from Holland; sixth,
Chaim Povroznik. Second row: first Meyer Zis; sixth Leib Felhendler



Return to Jewish Resistance