The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising

Holocaust Studies ^ | unknown | Rabbi Eliahu Ellis & Rabbi Shmuel Silinsky

[Sparta]

In the most famous of the revolts against their tormentors, the ill-equiped, starved Jews of the ghetto fought back against the German war machine.

The Warsaw Ghetto originally contained almost 450,000 people. By January of 1943,it was down to roughly 37,000 people. The rest had already been taken away to slave labor or death camps. Word got out that the Germans were going to finish off the ghetto, clean it out. Those half-starved, disease-weakened ghetto inhabitants decided to fight.

They had actually been preparing for this, and had convinced the Germans to let them build 631 air-raid shelters. Bombing was going on all around them, and the Germans needed their slave laborers so, to keep them safe from Allied bombings, the Germans had allowed them to do this. Now the people used those very shelters to fight against the Germans.

When the Germans came in to clean out the ghetto, much to their surprise, they were met with resistance.

There were over a thousand fighters, including children. They used pistols and Molotov cocktails against the Nazi weaponry, and they successfully repulsed the Germans.

It was a short-lived victory. The Germans returned a short while later. This time they brought major fire power. They started to destroy buildings, bit by bit by bit, knocking everything down. After about a day, they broke into the hospital, shot everyone in their beds, and torched the place. Gradually, they destroyed the entire ghetto.

When the Nazis reached the air-raid shelters, they drilled down, and gassed the people inside. Some fighters escaped to the sewers, and the Germans raised the water levels.

In about three weeks, the main fighting was over.

Most of the remaining Jews were rounded up, but it actually took months and months of combing through the ruins and demolishing the destroyed buildings before the uprising was finally put down.

Although the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising was not really very successful, it was the first time in all of German-occupied Europe that there was any organized uprising against the Nazis. Word got out, and it set a climate. And afterwards, there was Jewish resistance in many other places, inclusing some of the camps.

While the Warsaw Ghetto was fighting for its life, the world had called another conference. They met in Bermuda and, again, absolutely nothing was done to help.

[AdamSelene235]

You can own anything you like anywhere you like if you know enough to keep your mouth shut about what you own.

You are addressing the wrong person..Weikel is in Mass not me...

I would point out that by your standards, you can own a gun in China. And people do. They just aren't free to do so.

[Luke21]

Thank you so much for mentioning Mila 18, the greatest secular book I have ever read. Andrei Androvsky is my favorite hero from any fictional book. I read excerpts to my children from Mila 18 as they grew up and now each of them have it in their own bookcases as adults.

You made my day mentioning this outstanding book. It truly made the ghetto uprising come to life.

[AdamSelene235]

Looks like a Sten to me.

I'm sure Oleg Volk would be happy to answer any questions about his photos.

http://www.mcrgo.org/photo_gallery_volk1.asp

[chimera]

What if all the jews in the 1930's, owned personal firearms, and fought to defend themselves, instead of meekly walking into a gas chamber?

I too have often wondered what might have happened if every Jew the Nazi scum came to round up had answered the door with a pistol in their hands and started blasting away at the local "heroes", instead of meekly walking off to the slaughterhouses? If every Jew in Europe had been prepared to take at least one of the fascist swine with him, and then, when the time came, did so, how long would Himmler, the miserable coward he was, have kept it up? My guess is that after the word spread through the ranks after a few thousand of the Black Crows had been taken to their graves by their intended victims, relatively few SS would volunteer or even be so quick to obey orders to flush out their supposedly inferior foes.

In fairness, at least at the beginning, the Jews of Europe were civilians and taught from birth to capitulate to the goyim when he struck them, in the hope that he would spare their lives. The Israelis know better, and my hope is they do not lose sight of the fact that there are still plenty of butchers and assorted barbarians out there who are moire than willing to pick up where the Nazis left off.

[Hank Kerchief]

You are addressing the wrong person..Weikel is in Mass not me...

I would point out that by your standards, you can own a gun in China. And people do. They just aren't free to do so.

You're right I did address the wrong person, but I'm glad you responded anyway.

I was actually thinking more of the Jews in the Warsaw Ghetto, who had guns. It can always be managed, as you point out, even in China.

Hank

[fella]

"What if all the jews in the 1930's, owned personal firearms, and fought to defend themselves, instead of meekly walking into a gas chamber? "

Sometimes I think that the holocaust was was Gods way of bringing the diaspora to an end. Being his choosen people has not often been easy for them.

[JZoback]

I just ordered it from Amazon for the exact reason you stated.

I want to have my children read it.

The book moved me in many different ways.

[Skooz]

*sigh*

Now I have yet ANOTHER book on my Must Read list. I would have to live to be 150 and be thrown in prison tomorrow to read all the books on that list.

[dfwgator]

I'd like to recommend a memoir by Wladyslaw Szpilman titled The Pianist,

The book should be mandatory reading. I can't wait for the movie, although I much rather had seen Andrzej Wajda direct it instead of Polanski.

[MissouriForBush]

I recently saw "The Pianist" here in Germany at an English-language movie theater, and it was excellent. (I was a little queasy beforehand, knowing that Polanski made it, but I can tell you that it is a superb movie.)

[Aliska]

That's quite a weapon. I could use something like that on my walks as there are too many attack dogs everywhere now (usually in pairs) just waiting a chance to get loose and I am afraid of them.

[DuncanWaring]

Funny how a few poorly armed Jews in Warsaw lasted longer then the French Army.

A few poorly armed Jews in Warsaw lasted longer then the Polish Army, too.

[Saturnalia]

Mind you, the Jews in Warsaw were not on the receiving end of a Blitzkreig...

[weikel]

The Poles were 2 fronted the Polish auxillaries who managed to escape to the allies did not fight so badly.

[DuncanWaring]

What if all the jews in the 1930's ... fought to defend themselves,

In "The Gulag Archipelago", Alexander Solzhenitsyn laments:

"the citizens of St. Petersburg cowered behind their doors when the black vans pulled up at their apartment houses night after night to arrest their neighbors. If only the decent Russians had fought back, if only they had ambushed some of these secret police thugs in the hallways of their apartments with knives, pickaxes, or hammers, if only they had spiked the tires of the police vans while the thugs were in the apartments dragging out their victims, they could easily have overwhelmed Yagoda's forces and forced an end to the mass arrests. "

[Lobster 6]

In my opinion, it is far better to fight to the death than ever to surrender. The enemy at the Warsaw Getto and those of today will kill us all want only our death - Jews & Christians alike. I think the Warsaw Ghetto is a metaphor for Israel today and the USA - fight & be free, at worst die free. Surrender & your death and the death of all you love is certain. Fight and be free. Do not submit & do not walk quietly to the showers. Never surrender, never quit. Fight!

[dennisw]

Yup "The Haj" is a great book. Let's you really get into the Israeli and Palestinian mind of 50-30 years ago. (The book spans this much time and more)

[archy]

That's quite a weapon. I could use something like that on my walks as there are too many attack dogs everywhere now (usually in pairs) just waiting a chance to get loose and I am afraid of them. I've been a K9 search team member since 1977, and for the last decade or so, our most frequent and worsening problem has been attacks on search dogs by feral strays or packs.

But while a SMG like the MP40 is very useful, particularly in cities, against an armed opponent who may be some distance away, a dog has to get in immediately close before he can use his [or their] weapons. And considering the probability of such closer-rang encounters, particularly in the dark, our choice for such work is instead the shotgun, usually a shorty version, since we may be operationg our own dog on lead at the time.

Accordingly, a semi-auto is preferred, though a short pump repeater is certainly acceptable. There are several good versions from which to choose, and several possible ammunition choices that will put down a large agressive dog on the attack instantly; my preferred #1 buckshot load throws 20 pellets of .30 caliber each at once.

The SMG certainly has its place. But for what you describe and for my specific need against that particular threat, the shotgun works nicely. And loaded with a solid slug or other *interesting* projectiles, it will also handle a bear.

[archy]

Mind you, the jews in Warsaw were not on the receiving end of a Blitzkrieg...

Indeed, and Stroop's initial third-line occupation force troops were hardly the cream of the Wehrmacht. But the Blitzkrieg coordination of field forces and aircraft was of minimal value in the confines of cities, and just as Patton bypassed urban areas wherever he could to avoid the inevitable cost in casualties and time that was required for house-to-house clearance and control, so too did the wise leaders of the Blitzkrieg. One Stalingrad was quite enough, and the Germans wanted peaceful surrender, not bitterly contested ruins. They made their point at Rotterdam.

19 April-16 Mai, 1943.

[Aliska]

Well, those are impressive but I can't carry one of those around in my walks because they probably aren't legal in town. I supposed if I lived in the country I could legally carry a shotgun on my walks.

I'll have to think of something else. My girlfriend got attacked several years ago and she jumped up on the roof of a car but there aren't always cars close by and these dogs often run in pairs. The dog still got her leg and she made the owner have it destroyed.

I don't trust pepper spray to do the job for several reasons.

Never cared much for guns but things are different now. And normally I like dogs, but you don't mess with the big ones. I think sometimes their owners use them as an extension of their personality and train them to be somewhat mean. I guess if they don't they aren't any good for protection though. Sorry I got this thread sidetracked but this has been bothering me for some time.

I know people who live remotely out east and they aren't really safe from bears. So they get big dogs to protect them . . .