Warsaw Ghetto Uprising

The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising (אױפֿשטאַנד אין װאַרשעװער געטאָ; Powstanie w getcie warszawskim; Aufstand im Warschauer Ghetto) was the Jewish resistance that arose within the Warsaw Ghetto in German occupied Poland during World War II, and which opposed Nazi Germany's effort to transport the remaining ghetto population to Treblinka extermination camp.

The insurgency was launched against the Germans on January 18, 1943. The most significant portion of the rebellion took place from April 19 until May 16, 1943, and ended when the poorly armed and supplied resistance was crushed by the German troops under the direct command of Jürgen Stroop. It was the largest single revolt by the Jews during the Holocaust.

Background


In 1940, the German Nazis began to concentrate Poland's population of over three million Jews into a number of extremely crowded ghettos located in large Polish cities. The largest of these, the Warsaw Ghetto, concentrated approximately 300,000–400,000 people into a densely packed central area of Warsaw. Thousands of Jews died due to rampant disease and starvation under the SS and Police Leader Odilo Globocnik and SS-Standartenführer Ludwig Hahn, even before the mass deportations from the ghetto to the Treblinka extermination camp began.

The Nazi forces conducted many of the deportations during the operation code-named Grossaktion Warschau, between July 23 and September 21, 1942. Just before the operation began, the German "Resettlement Commissioner" SS-Sturmbannführer Hermann Höfle called the meeting of the Ghetto Jewish Council Judenrat and informed its leader Adam Czerniaków about the "resettlement to the East". Czerniaków committed suicide once he became aware of the true meaning of the treacherous Nazi plan. Approximately 254,000–300,000 Ghetto residents met their deaths at Treblinka during the two months-long operation. The Grossaktion was directed by SS-Oberführer Ferdinand von Sammern-Frankenegg, the commander of the Warsaw area since 1941. He was relieved of duty by SS-and-Polizeiführer Jürgen Stroop sent to Warsaw by Heinrich Himmler on April 17, 1943. Stroop took over from Sammern following his unsuccessful ghetto offensive.

When the deportations first began, members of the Jewish resistance movement met and decided not to fight the SS directives, believing that the Jews were being sent to labour camps and not to their deaths. By the end of 1942 however, it became known to Ghetto inhabitants that the deportations were part of an extermination process. Many of the remaining Jews decided to revolt.

Jewish insurgents


The Ghetto fighters (numbering some 400 to 1,000 by April 19) were armed primarily with pistols and revolvers. Just a few rifles and automatic firearms smuggled into the Ghetto were available. The insurgents had little ammunition, and relied heavily on improvised explosive devices and incendiary bottles; more weapons were supplied throughout the uprising or captured from the Germans. Some weapons were hand-made by resistance: sometimes such weapons worked, other times they jammed repeatedly. In his daily reports, Stroop wrote his forces were able to recover the "booty" consisting of: "Seven Polish rifles, one Russian and one German rifle, 59 pistols of various calibers, several hundred incendiary bottles, home-made explosives, infernal machines with fuses, a large amount of explosives and ammunition for weapons of all calibers, including some machine gun ammunition. Regarding the booty of arms, it must be taken into consideration that the arms themselves could in most cases not be captured, as the bandits and Jews would, before being arrested, throw them into hiding places or holes which could not be ascertained or discovered. The smoking out of the dug-out by our men, also often made the search for arms impossible. As the dug-outs had to be blown up at once, a search later on was out of the question."
 * April 20, 1943:...In today's action we caught, apart from the Jews reported above, considerable stores of incendiary bottles, hand grenades, ammunition, military tunics, and equipment.
 * April 22, 1943:...captured 80 incendiary bottles and other booty.
 * April 23, 1943:...We captured apart from valuables and money - some gas masks.
 * April 24, 1943:..and an amount of paper money, especially dollars was captured; this money has not yet been counted.
 * April 25, 1943:..and in one bunker 3 pistols and explosive charges were captured. Further today, significant supplies of paper money, currency, gold coins and items of jewelry were secured.
 * April 26, 1943:...Once again, weapons, Molotov cocktails, explosive devices and large amounts of money were captured.
 * April 27, 1943:...In this operation we captured 3 rifles, 12 pistols, partly of heavier caliber, 100 Polish "pineapple" hand grenades, 27 German steel helmets, quite a number of German uniforms, tunics and coats which were even furnished with ribbon of the East medal, some reserve magazines for machine guns, 300 rounds of ammunition, etc.
 * April 28, 1943:..capturing more arms, ammunition, and military equipment
 * April 29, 1943:..Captured are 2 rifles, 10 pistols, 10 kilograms of explosives, and ammunition of various types
 * April 30, 1943:..Today, we again captured arms and particularly parts of German uniforms from them.
 * May 2, 1943:...arms and ammunition captured.
 * May 3, 1943:...We captured among other things, one German rifle, model 98, two 08 pistols and other calibers, also home-made hand grenades.
 * May 4, 1943:.. We captured 1 carbine, 3 pistols, and some ammunition.
 * May 5, 1943:..Today, we again captured arms and ammunition, including one pistol.
 * May 6, 1943:..One Jew who had escaped from Lublin was caught just outside of the Ghetto wall. He was armed as follows: 1 08 pistol, ample reserve ammunition, 2 Polish "pineapple" hand grenades.
 * May 7, 1943:..We captured 4 pistols of various calibers and some stores of ammunition.
 * May 8, 1943:..We captured about 15 to 20 pistols of various calibers, considerable stores of ammunition for pistols and rifles, moreover a number of hand grenades, made in the former armament factories.
 * May 9, 1943:..Again we captured some pistols and hand grenades.
 * May 10, 1943:..Today, we again captured small arms and some ammunition.
 * May 11, 1943:..Considerable amounts of food were captured or secured, in order to make it more and more difficult for them to get necessary food...We captured several pistols, hand grenades, and ammunition.
 * May 13, 1943:..Booty: 6 pistols, 2 hand grenades, and some explosive charges.
 * May 14, 1943:..some pistols, among them one of 12-mm caliber, were captured. In one dugout inhabited by 100 persons, we were able to capture 2 rifles, 16 Pistols, some hand grenades and incendiary appliances. Of the bandits who resisted, some again wore German military uniform, German steel helmets and "knobeloecher." Apart from the carbines. we captured 60 rounds of German rifle ammunition...Booty: rifles, pistols and ammunition. Further, a number of incendiary bottles (Molotov cocktails).
 * May 15, 1943:.. We captured 4 pistols of larger calibers, 1 infernal machine with fuse, 10 kilograms of explosives, and a considerable amount of ammunition.
 * May 24, 1943:

"Furthermore, we captured: 1,240 used uniform tunics (partly equipped with medal ribbons, Iron Cross, and East Medal). 600 pairs of used trousers. Pieces of equipment, and German steel helmets. 103 horses, 4 of them in the former Ghetto (hearse).

We counted up to 23 May 1943: 4.4 million Zloty. We captured moreover about 5 to 6 million Zloty, not yet counted, a considerable amount of foreign currency, including - $14,300 in paper. $ 9,200 in gold. Large amounts of valuables (rings, chains, watches etc.)"

Polish support
""The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising had a real influence...in encouraging the activity of the Polish underground."- Samuel Krakowski"

Support from outside the Ghetto was limited, but Polish Resistance units from Armia Krajowa (AK) (the Home Army) and Polish Communist Gwardia Ludowa (GL) (the People's Guard) attacked German units near the ghetto walls and attempted to smuggle weapons, ammunition, supplies and instructions into the ghetto. Polish resistance also provided the insurgents with a limited number of badly needed weapons and ammunitions from its meager stocks. Jewish fighters from ŻZW received only from PKB: 2 heavy machine guns, 4 light machine guns, 21 submachine guns, 30 rifles, 50 pistols, and over 400 grenades. AK also disseminated information and appeals to help the Jews in the ghetto, both in Poland and by way of radio transmissions to the Allies. Several ŻOB commanders and fighters later escaped through the sewers with assistance from the Poles and joined Polish underground.



Polish AK unit, the National Security Corps (Państwowy Korpus Bezpieczeństwa), under the command of Henryk Iwański ("Bystry"), fought inside the Ghetto along with ŻZW. Subsequently, both groups retreated together (including 34 Jewish fighters) to the so-called Aryan side. Although Iwański's action is the most well-known rescue mission, it was only one of many actions undertaken by the Polish resistance to help the Jewish fighters. Participation of the Polish underground in the uprising was confirmed by a report of the German commander Jürgen Stroop, who reported:

""When we invaded the Ghetto for the first time, the Jews and the Polish bandits succeeded in repelling the participating units, including tanks and armored cars, by a well-prepared concentration of fire. (...) The main Jewish battle group, mixed with Polish bandits, had already retired during the first and second day to the so-called Muranowski Square. There, it was reinforced by a considerable number of Polish bandits. Its plan was to hold the Ghetto by every means in order to prevent us from invading it. (...) Time and again Polish bandits found refuge in the Ghetto and remained there undisturbed, since we had no forces at our disposal to comb out this maze. (...) One such battle group succeeded in mounting a truck by ascending from a sewer in the so-called Prosta [Street], and in escaping with it (about 30 to 35 bandits). ... The bandits and Jews - there were Polish bandits among these gangs armed with carbines, small arms, and in one case a light machine gun - mounted the truck and drove away in an unknown direction.""

- Jürgen Stroop Stroop Report 1943

Nazi forces
Ultimately, the efforts of the Jewish resistance fighters proved insufficient against the German forces. The Germans eventually committed an average daily force of 2,090 well-armed troops, including 821 Waffen-SS Panzergrenadier troops (consisting of five SS reserve and training battalions and one SS cavalry reserve and training battalion), as well as 363 Polish Blue Policemen, who were ordered by the Germans to cordon the walls of the Ghetto.



The other forces were drawn from the Ordnungspolizei (Orpo) "uniformed order police" (battalions from the regiments 22rd and 23rd), the SS Sicherheitsdienst (SD) "security service", Warsaw Gestapo, one battalion each from two Wehrmacht railroad combat engineers regiments, a battery of Wehrmacht anti-aircraft artillery (and one field gun), a battalion of Ukrainian Trawniki-Männer from the Final Solution training camp Trawniki, Lithuanian and Latvian auxiliary policemen known by the nickname Askaris (Latvian Arajs Kommando and Lithuanian Saugumas), and technical emergency corps. Polish fire brigade personnel were ordered to help in the operation. In addition, a number of criminals and executioners from the nearby Gestapo Pawiak prison, under the command of Franz Bürkl, volunteered to "hunt the Jews". Most of the remaining Jewish policemen were executed by the Gestapo, or used in the offensive and then subsequently executed as well.

January 1943 rebellion
On January 18, 1943, the Germans began their second deportation of the Jews, which led to the first instance of armed insurgency within the ghetto. While Jewish families hid in their "bunkers", Jewish Military Union (Żydowski Związek Wojskowy, ŻZW), joined by elements of the Jewish Combat Organization (Żydowska Organizacja Bojowa, ŻOB) fighters engaged the Germans in two direct clashes. Even though the ŻZW and ŻOB suffered heavy losses (including some of the leaders), the Germans also took casualties, and the deportation was halted within a few days. Only 5,000 Jews were removed instead of the 8,000 as planned by Globocnik. There were hundreds of people in the Warsaw ghetto ready to fight, adults and even children, sparsely armed with handguns, gasoline bottles and a few other weapons that had been smuggled into the ghetto by the resistance fighters.

Two resistance organizations, the ŻZW and ŻOB, then took control of the Ghetto. They built dozens of fighting posts and executed collaborators, including Jewish Police officers, members of German-sponsored and controlled Żagiew organization, as well as the Gestapo agents (like Judenrat member Dr Alfred Nossig on 22 February 1943). The ŻOB established a prison to hold and execute traitors and collaborators. Józef Szeryński, the former head of the Jewish Ghetto Police, committed suicide.

German assault
On April 19, 1943, on the eve of Passover, the police and SS auxiliary forces entered the Ghetto planning to complete their Action within three days. However, they suffered losses as they were repeatedly ambushed by Jewish insurgents, who aggressively fired and threw Molotov cocktails and hand grenades at them from alleyways, sewers and windows. Two German vehicles: A French-made Lorraine 37L armoured fighting vehicle and an armoured car were set on fire by ŻOB petrol bombs, and the German advance was bogged down.

As the battle continued inside the Ghetto, Polish resistance groups AK and GL engaged the Germans between April 19 and April 23 at six different locations outside the ghetto walls, firing at German sentries and positions. In one attack, three cell units of AK under the command of Kapitan Józef Pszenny ("Chwacki") tried to breach the Ghetto walls with explosives, but the Germans repulsed this attack.

Following von Sammern-Frankenegg's failure to contain the revolt, he lost his post as the SS and police commander of Warsaw. He was replaced by SS-Brigadeführer Jürgen Stroop, who rejected von Sammern-Frankenegg's proposal to call in bomber aircraft from Kraków and proceeded with a better-organized ground assault.

The longest-lasting defense of a position took place around the ŻZW stronghold at Muranowski Square from April 19 to late April. In the afternoon of April 19, two boys climbed up on the roof of the headquarters of the Jewish Resistance there and raised two flags: the red-and-white Polish flag and the blue-and-white banner of the ŻZW (blue and white are the colors of the Flag of Israel today). These flags were well-seen from the Warsaw streets, and the Jews managed to hold off the Germans for four entire days in their attempts to remove them. Stroop recalled:

"The matter of the flags was of great political and moral importance. It reminded hundreds of thousands of the Polish cause, it excited them and unified the population of the General Government, but especially Jews and Poles. Flags and national colors are a means of combat exactly like a rapid-fire weapon, like thousands of such weapons. We all knew that - Heinrich Himmler, Krüger, and Hahn. The Reichsfuehrer [Himmler] bellowed into the phone: "Stroop, you must at all costs bring down those two flags.""

Another German armoured vehicle was destroyed in a Jewish counterattack, in which ŻZW commander Dawid Moryc Apfelbaum was also killed. After Stroop's ultimatum to surrender was rejected by the defenders, the Nazis resorted to systematically burning houses block by block using flamethrowers and blowing up basements and sewers. "We were beaten by the flames, not the Germans," resistance leader Marek Edelman said in 2007. In 2003, he recalled:

"The sea of flames flooded houses and courtyards... There was no air, only black, choking smoke and heavy burning heat radiating form (sic) the red-hot walls, from the glowing stone stairs."

The ŻZW lost all its leaders and, on April 29, 1943, the remaining fighters escaped the ghetto through the Muranowski tunnel, and relocated to the Michalin forest. This event marked the end of the organized resistance, and of significant fighting.



The remaining Jewish civilians and surviving fighters took cover in the bunker dugouts which were hidden among the ruins of the Ghetto. The German troops used dogs to look for the hideouts. Smoke grenades, tear gas and reportedly even poison gas were used to force people out. In many instances, the Jewish fighters came out of their hiding places and shot at the Germans, while a number of female fighters lobbed hidden grenades or fired concealed handguns at the Germans after they had surrendered. Small groups of Jewish insurgents attacked German patrols at night. However, German casualties were mostly minimal after the first few days of the uprising.

On May 8, 1943, the Germans discovered the ŻOB's main command post, located at Miła 18 Street. Most of its leadership and dozens of remaining fighters were killed, while others committed mass suicide by ingesting cyanide. The dead included the organization's commander, Mordechaj Anielewicz. His deputy, Edelman, escaped through the sewers on May 10 with a handful of comrades. Two days later, the Bundist Szmul Zygielbojm committed suicide in London in protest, citing a lack of assistance for the insurgents on the part of Western governments:

"I cannot continue to live and to be silent while the remnants of Polish Jewry, whose representative I am, are being murdered. My comrades in the Warsaw ghetto fell with arms in their hands in the last heroic battle. I was not permitted to fall like them, together with them, but I belong with them, to their mass grave. By my death, I wish to give expression to my most profound protest against the inaction in which the world watches and permits the destruction of the Jewish people."

The suppression of the uprising officially ended on May 16, 1943. Nevertheless, sporadic resistance continued. The last skirmish took place on June 5, 1943 between Germans and a holdout group of armed insurgents without connection to the resistance groups.

Death toll
13,000 Jews were killed in the ghetto during the uprising (some 6,000 among them were burnt alive or died from smoke inhalation). Of the remaining 50,000 residents, most were captured and shipped to concentration and extermination camps, in particular to Treblinka.

Jürgen Stroop's internal SS daily report for Friedrich Krüger, written on May 16, 1943, stated:

"180 Jews, bandits and sub-humans, were destroyed. The former Jewish quarter of Warsaw is no longer in existence. The large-scale action was terminated at 20:15 hours by blowing up the Warsaw Synagogue. (...) Total number of Jews dealt with 56,065, including both Jews caught and Jews whose extermination can be proved. (...) Apart from 8 buildings (police barracks, hospital, and accommodations for housing working-parties) the former Ghetto is completely destroyed. Only the dividing walls are left standing where no explosions were carried out." On May 24, 1943 Stroop reported 621 Bunkers had been destroyed.

According to the Stroop's report (both causality lists and separate daily reports), his forces suffered 17 killed in action (16 listed by name) and 93 wounded (86 of them listed by name); these figures included over 60 members of Waffen-SS, and did not include the Jewish collaborators). The real number of German losses, however, may be well higher if unknown (by Edelman's estimate about 300 casualties). For the propaganda purposes, official German casualties were announced to be only a few wounded, while bulletins of the Polish Underground State claimed that hundreds of Nazis died in the fighting.

German daily losses and the official figures for killed or captured Jews and "bandits", according to the Stroop report:


 * 19 April --- 1 killed, 24 wounded 580 captured
 * 20 April --- 3 killed, 10 wounded 533 captured
 * 21 April --- 0 killed, 5 wounded --- 5,200 captured
 * 22 April --- 3 killed, 1 wounded --- 6,580 captured + 203 "Jews and bandits" killed + 35 Poles killed outside the Ghetto
 * 23 April --- 0 killed, 3 wounded --- 4,100 captured + 200 "Jews and bandits" killed + 3 Jews captured outside the Ghetto. Total of 19,450 Jews reported caught
 * 24 April --- 0 killed, 3 wounded --- 1,660 captured + 1,811 "pulled out of dugouts, about 330 shot"
 * 25 April --- 0 killed, 4 wounded --- 1,690 captured + 274 shot + "very large portion of the bandits...captured". Total of 27,464 Jews caught
 * 26 April --- 0 killed, 0 wounded --- 1,722 captured + 1,330 "destroyed"+ 362 Jews shot. 30 Jews "displaced". Total of 29,186 Jews captured.
 * 27 April --- 0 killed, 4 wounded --- 2,560 captured of whom 547 shot + 24 Polish "bandits killed in battle" + 52 Polish "bandits" arrested. Total of 31,746 Jews caught
 * 28 April --- 0 killed, 3 wounded --- 1,655 captured of whom 110 killed + 10 "bandits" killed and 9 "arrested". Total of 33,401 Jews caught
 * 29 April --- 0 killed 0 wounded  2,359 captured of whom 106 killed
 * 30 April --- 0 killed 0 wounded  1,599 captured of whom 179 killed. Total of 37,359 Jews caught
 * 1 May 2 killed, 2 wounded - 1,026 captured of whom 245 killed. Total of 38,385 Jews caught + 150 killed outside Ghetto
 * 2 May 0 killed, 7 wounded - 1,852 captured and 235 killed. Total of 40,237 Jews caught
 * 3 May 0 killed, 3 wounded - 1,569 captured and 95 killed. Total of 41,806 Jews caught
 * 4 May 0 killed, 0 wounded - 2,238 captured of whom 204 shot. Total of 44,089 Jews caught
 * 5 May 0 killed, 2 wounded - 2,250 captured
 * 6 May 2 killed, 1 wounded - 1,553 captured + 356 shot
 * 7 May 0 killed, 1 wounded - 1,109 captured + 255 shot. Total of 45,342 Jews caught
 * 8 May 3 killed, 3 wounded - 1,091 captured and 280 killed + 60 "heavily armed bandits" caught
 * 9 May 0 killed, 0 wounded - 1,037 "Jews and bandits" caught and 319 "bandits and Jews" shot. Total of 51,313 Jews caught + 254 "Jews and bandits" shot outside Ghetto
 * 10 May --- 0 killed, 4 wounded 1,183 caught and 187 "bandits and Jews" shot. Total of 52,693 Jews caught
 * 11 May --- 1 killed, 2 wounded --- 931 "Jews and bandits" caught and 53 "bandits" shot. Total of 53,667 Jews caught
 * 12 May --- 0 killed, 1 wounded --- 663 caught and 133 shot. Total of 54,463 Jews caught
 * 13 May --- 2 killed, 4 wounded --- 561 caught and 155 shot. Total of 55,179 Jews caught
 * 14 May --- 0 killed, 5 wounded --- 398 caught and 154 "Jews and bandits" shot. Total of 55,731 Jews caught
 * 15 May --- 0 killed, 1 wounded - 87 caught and 67 "bandits and Jews" shot. Total of 56,885 Jews caught
 * 16 May --- 0 killed, 0 wounded --- 180 "Jews, bandits and subhumans" "Destroyed". Total of 57,065 Jews either captured or killed.

Former Ghetto under continued Nazi occupation
After the uprising, most of the incinerated houses were completely razed, and the Warsaw concentration camp complex was established in their place. Thousands of people died in the camp or were executed in the ruins of the ghetto. At the same time, the SS were hunting down the remaining Jews still hiding in the ruins.

In 1944, during the general Warsaw Uprising, the AK battalion Zośka was able to rescue 380 Jewish concentration camp prisoners from the Gęsiówka sub-camp, most of whom immediately joined AK and fought in the Polish uprising. A few small groups of Ghetto inhabitants also managed to survive in the underground sewer system.

Fate of the Germans involved
In October 1943 Bürkl, as "a sadist and a mass murderer", was convicted of crimes against the Polish nation by the Polish resistances Special Courts, sentenced to death, and shot dead on the street of Warsaw in Operation Bürkl a part of big action known as Operation Heads. In the same month, von Sammern-Frankenegg was killed by Yugoslav partisan ambush in Croatia.

Globocnik, Himmler, and Krüger all followed Adolf Hitler and committed suicide in May 1945.

Stroop was convicted of war crimes in two different trials and executed by hanging in Poland in 1952 (his aide Erich Steidtmann was exonerated for "minimal involvement"; he died in 2010 while under investigation for war crimes). Hahn went into hiding until 1975, when he was apprehended and sentenced to life for crimes against humanity; he died in prison in 1986.

Relation to 1944 Warsaw Uprising
The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising of 1943 took place over a year before the Warsaw Uprising of 1944. The Ghetto had been totally destroyed by the time of the Warsaw uprising, which was part of the larger Operation Tempest. Hundreds of the survivors from the first uprising took part in the 1944 Warsaw Uprising, fighting in the ranks of Armia Krajowa and Armia Ludowa.

The Warsaw kneeling


On December 7, 1970, West German Chancellor Willy Brandt spontaneously knelt while visiting a monument to the Uprising in the former People's Republic of Poland. At the time, the action surprised many and was the focus of controversy, but it has since been credited with helping improve relations between the NATO and Warsaw Pact countries.

Remembrance in Israel
A number of survivors of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, known as the "Ghetto Fighters," went on to found Kibbutz Lohamey ha-Geta'ot (literally: "Ghetto Fighters' Kibbutz"), which is located north of Acre. The founding members of the kibbutz include Yitzhak Zuckerman, ŻOB deputy commander, and his wife Zivia Lubetkin, who also commanded a fighting unit. In 1984, the members of the kibbutz published Dapei Edut ("Testimonies of Survival"), four volumes of personal testimonies from 96 kibbutz members. The settlement also features a museum and archives dedicated to remembering the Holocaust.

Yad Mordechai, another kibbutz just north of the Gaza Strip, was named after Mordechaj Anielewicz.

In 2008, Israel Defense Forces Chief of Staff Gabi Ashkenazi led a group of IDF officials to the site of uprising and spoke about the event's "importance for IDF combat soldiers."

In popular culture
The uprising was the subject of the 1948 film Border Street by Aleksander Ford, the 1955 film A Generation and the 1995 film The holy week, both by Andrzej Wajda, the 2001 film Uprising and the 2002 film The Pianist by Roman Polanski, as well as the 1961 novel Mila 18 by Leon Uris. Johnny Clegg has also written and sung a song devoted to the uprising, "Warsaw 1943". It was also featured in the 1978 NBC miniseries Holocaust, the 1986 film Highlander and the 2009 video game Velvet Assassin. The power-metal band Sabaton also released the track "Uprising" on their newest album, Coat of Arms in dedication to the people of Warsaw.