Today, April 19, the city of Warsaw commemorates the 73rd anniversary of the Warsaw ghetto uprising.
The Warsaw Ghetto was the largest of all the Jewish ghettos in Nazi-occupied Europe during World War II. It was established in the fall of 1940, when over 400,000 Jews were forced to move into an area of only 1.3 sq miles. The wall was typically 9.8 ft high and topped with barbed wire, and escapees could be shot on sight.
During the next year and a half thousands of Polish Jews were brought into the Ghetto, although diseases and starvation kept the inhabitants at about the same number. Unemployment was a major problem in the ghetto. Illegal workshops were created to manufacture goods to be sold illegally on the outside and raw goods were smuggled in, often by children. Smuggling was often the only source of subsistence for Ghetto inhabitants, who would otherwise have died of starvation.
The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising
On January 18, 1943, the Germans suddenly entered the Warsaw ghetto intent upon a mass deportation. The Germans expected no resistance, but preparations to resist had been going on since the previous autumn. The first instances of Jewish armed resistance began that day, and the Jewish fighters had some success: the expulsion stopped after 4 days and they took control of the Ghetto.
The final battle started on April 19, 1943, when a Nazi force consisting of several thousand troops entered the ghetto. After initial setbacks, the Germans under the field command of Jürgen Stroop systematically burned and blew up the ghetto buildings, rounding up or murdering anybody they could capture. Everyone else was deported to nearby concentration camps. The Warsaw Ghetto was no more.
AKCJA ŻONKILE/ Action: Daffodils
Today nearly 1,000 volunteers at the Polin Jewish History museum in Warsaw and over 100,000 students in other Polish cities are handing out paper daffodils in remembrance of those who were lost. Posters around the city proclaim, "Łączy nas pamięć"/ "We share a memory".
Film Premiere: "There was No Hope"
Additionally the film "There was No Hope" about the Warsaw ghetto uprising in 1943 (Polish language) will premiere today online and at the Polin museum in Warsaw. You can watch it here: https://youtu.be/MI3bEHjhYds.
During the next year and a half thousands of Polish Jews were brought into the Ghetto, although diseases and starvation kept the inhabitants at about the same number. Unemployment was a major problem in the ghetto. Illegal workshops were created to manufacture goods to be sold illegally on the outside and raw goods were smuggled in, often by children. Smuggling was often the only source of subsistence for Ghetto inhabitants, who would otherwise have died of starvation.
On January 18, 1943, the Germans suddenly entered the Warsaw ghetto intent upon a mass deportation. The Germans expected no resistance, but preparations to resist had been going on since the previous autumn. The first instances of Jewish armed resistance began that day, and the Jewish fighters had some success: the expulsion stopped after 4 days and they took control of the Ghetto.
The final battle started on April 19, 1943, when a Nazi force consisting of several thousand troops entered the ghetto. After initial setbacks, the Germans under the field command of Jürgen Stroop systematically burned and blew up the ghetto buildings, rounding up or murdering anybody they could capture. Everyone else was deported to nearby concentration camps. The Warsaw Ghetto was no more.
Today nearly 1,000 volunteers at the Polin Jewish History museum in Warsaw and over 100,000 students in other Polish cities are handing out paper daffodils in remembrance of those who were lost. Posters around the city proclaim, "Łączy nas pamięć"/ "We share a memory".
Film Premiere: "There was No Hope"
Additionally the film "There was No Hope" about the Warsaw ghetto uprising in 1943 (Polish language) will premiere today online and at the Polin museum in Warsaw. You can watch it here: https://youtu.be/MI3bEHjhYds.
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