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Behind the Aegis

(53,959 posts)
Fri Apr 19, 2019, 09:04 PM Apr 2019

76 Years ago, 4/19/43, Warsaw Ghetto Uprising

The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising (Yiddish: אױפֿשטאַנד אין װאַרשעװער געטאָ?; Polish: powstanie w getcie warszawskim; German: Aufstand im Warschauer Ghetto) was the 1943 act of Jewish resistance in the Warsaw Ghetto in German-occupied Poland during World War II to oppose Nazi Germany's final effort to transport the remaining ghetto population to Majdanek and Treblinka concentration camps. After the Grossaktion Warsaw of summer 1942, in which more than a quarter of a million Jews were deported from the ghetto to Treblinka and murdered, the remaining Jews began to build bunkers and smuggle weapons and explosives into the ghetto. The left-wing Jewish Combat Organization (ŻOB) and right-wing Jewish Military Union (ŻZW) formed and began to train. A small resistance effort to another roundup in January 1943 was partially successful and spurred the Polish groups to support the Jews in earnest.

The uprising started on 19 April when the ghetto refused to surrender to the police commander SS-Brigadeführer Jürgen Stroop, who then ordered the burning of the ghetto, block by block, ending on 16 May. A total of 13,000 Jews died, about half of them burnt alive or suffocated. German casualties were probably less than 150, with Stroop reporting only 110 casualties [16 killed + 1 dead/93 wounded]. Nevertheless, it was the largest single revolt by Jews during World War II. The Jews knew that the uprising was doomed and their survival was unlikely. Marek Edelman, the only surviving ŻOB commander, said that the motivation for fighting was "to pick the time and place of our deaths". According to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, the uprising was "one of the most significant occurrences in the history of the Jewish people".[3]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warsaw_Ghetto_Uprising

Given what we have just seen with the Muller report, this stands as a reminder, no matter the odds, we must rise and resist!

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76 Years ago, 4/19/43, Warsaw Ghetto Uprising (Original Post) Behind the Aegis Apr 2019 OP
I agree...and if we feel like complaining, just think of this....we don't have it so bad. nt UniteFightBack Apr 2019 #1
I too have concluded that resistance is our only course of action Cirque du So-What Apr 2019 #2

Cirque du So-What

(25,941 posts)
2. I too have concluded that resistance is our only course of action
Fri Apr 19, 2019, 09:12 PM
Apr 2019

Despite outward appearances and a protracted timeline, our situation is just as dire as it was for residents of the Warsaw ghetto. I do not intend to go down without a fight.

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