Definition of Warsaw Ghetto Uprising

There comes a time when, however peaceful you are, you get tired of being trampled on. And then you reveal yourself. And then you even get to be amazed at the force that you can have.

Those who were confined to the Warsaw ghetto in 1943 surprised not only themselves, but also the enemy and the whole world by a heroism with few precedents, and by a endurance against one of the most heinous injustices committed on earth, the Nazism.

The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising was a revolt started on April 19, 1943 to survive deportations. carried out by the Nazi invaders, and that was repressed with extreme violence until it was suffocated on May 16, same year.

Although the Nazis had tried to keep secret the deadly fate that awaited those whom they believed to be inferior beings (and whom mistakenly underestimated it), there was no way to prevent German soldiers and police from talking about it, or making fun of Jews for the sake of your destiny.

Many people knew "what happened next," and it was only a matter of time before future victims would connect the dots and decide to resist their fatal fate.

Many people today wonder how the Jews transferred to camps did not actively resist. Very simple: they were persuaded that they were going to labor camps. Between dying fighting or surviving working until we saw how the war turned out, the choice was easy, because there was always time for revolt. The certainty of death was what precipitated the events.

Those crowded into the ghetto had few weapons and ammunition, and the majority of the site's population lacked the training to use them effectively.

However, and as I have said before, faced with the certainty of the fate that awaited them, they decided to try the resistance as well.

The thrust of the Jews was such that, even without experience, and against an armed force with superior training and material, they managed to expel the Germans from the ghetto.

The Polish resistance tried to help the ghetto organization by sending arms, food, ammunition and men, but failed to establish an effective supply chain. This also breaks the belief that the Poles left the Jews isolated and to their fate.

However, it should be noted that the antisemitism in Polish society it was deeply ingrained, and that although there were many Poles who were involved to help the Jewish victims of the Nazis they did not only in this episode, but throughout the entire contest, many others supported the Nazis against their fellow citizens just because they professed another religion, and even in the postwar period.

Thus, a part of Warsaw remained indifferent to what was happening in the ghetto while another looked for a way to help.

Knowing that they could hardly escape, and to cover those who tried, the Jewish resistance organizations are committed to turning the ghetto into a fortress to hinder the German conquest.

For their part, the surrounding troops decide to request reinforcements. Few second-class troops and materiel are delivered first (such as antiquated models of French tanks captured by the Wehrmacht), but seeing that the Jews manage to resist, a change of strategy.

From then on, and by means of flamethrowers, houses and shelters are burned, and every Jew who is captured is murdered.

Under these conditions, the organized struggle lasts barely four days, but the uprising in the ghetto is far from being put down.

In the following weeks, Jews will carry out guerrilla and terrorist-type attacks against the German soldiers and collaborative Polish policemen, in some cases suicide attacks with explosives.

The shooting of victims will continue until May 16 of that year, thanks to the use of the underground infrastructures built by the Jewish resistance.

The behavior of the Nazi troops is clearly that of war criminals who took out those human beings whom they loved dispossessing of such consideration, and that they found themselves superior to them in a struggle that, although suicidal, was an example of integrity and overcoming that we should all know and admire.

It is difficult to establish the figures of the uprising, but about 13,000 people perished in the German attacks, and the 40,000 captured were sent to concentration camps.

Only a few hundred Jews managed to escape and survive.

Photos: Fotolia - Zohar / Searagen

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