The Jews Who Fought Back: The Heroes of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising
The uprising ended in failure, but it represented a psychological turning point.
Today is January 27, International Holocaust Remembrance Day. Antisemites and Jew-haters around the world will undoubtedly come out of the woodwork to celebrate, simultaneously claiming that A) the Holocaust didn’t happen and B) it was good that it did. In the immortal words of standup comic Ron White, “You can’t fix stupid.”
In addition to the sheer magnitude of this crime against humanity, one of the especially tragic aspects about the Holocaust was the fact that the overwhelming majority of the victims submitted passively to their fact. For the most part, they died without putting up a fight.
But there were some notable exceptions to the role, some brave Jews who did choose to fight back against Nazi tyranny instead of submitting meekly to the jackboots. Among them were the heroes of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising of 1943.
The Battle
The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising actually occurred in two phases: (1) a smaller-scale uprising that flared up on January 18, 1943, and (2) a longer-term and higher-intensity resistance action from April 19—May 16, 1943. The objective was to oppose Nazi Germany’s final effort to transport the remaining Polish Jew ghetto population to the gas chambers of the Majdanek and Treblinka extermination camps.
As the Yad Vashem World Holocaust Remembrance Center info page elaborates:
“Representatives of three Zionist youth movements (‘Hashomer Hatzair,’ ‘Dror,’ and ‘Akiva’) established the first cell of the new organization. Members of the “Poalei Tzion” party joined them in October. Thus the ‘Jewish Fighting Organization’ (ZOB) was established. Within a short period of time, other youth movements joined the organization as well as non-Zionist parties – the ‘Bund’ and the Communists. The commander of the Jewish Fighting Organization was Mordechai Anielewicz of ‘Hashomer Hatzair’, who was 23 years old. The Revisionist Zionist youth movement ‘Beitar’ established its own fighting organization, the ‘Jewish Military Union’ (ZZW).”
The freedom fighters used captured pistols and rifles of Russian, Polish, and German origin alike, along with Molotov cocktails.
The Germans’ January “Aktion” spurred the underground leadership into ordering its forces to armed response, as they believed it to be the onset of the final deportation. Taken aback by this unexpected resistance—roughly a dozen of the Nazi invaders were killed, with several dozen more wounded—the Germans halted the Aktion, thus marking a motivational turning point for most of the ghetto population, which subsequently prepared for mass resistance and began to dig underground bunkers.
The April Aktion began on the eve of Passover. Bolstered by months of recruitment, arms smuggling, and preparation, the Jews resisted the Nazis through street fighting and hit-and-run attacks. In frustration, the Nazis resorted to systematically burning down the ghetto and killing any survivors they came across. The Jews fought valiantly until the end, and a handful escaped the ghetto to continue resistance from outside. As Yad Vashem notes, “It was the first popular uprising in a city in Nazi-occupied Europe.”
Aftermath
Ultimately, the rebellion was crushed by the Nazi jackboot, with over 56,000 Polish Jews either killed or deported to the horrors of the camps. As for the Nazis’ battlefield losses, their official reports admit to only 17 killed in action and 93 wounded; these official casualty lists included members of Waffen-SS training and reserve units such 1st SS Panzer Grenadier, 2nd SS Panzer Grenadier, 4th SS Panzer Grenadier, and 5th SS Panzer Grenadier Training Battalions. But Jewish resistance estimates place the Nazi casualty figure at around 300.
In other words, the uprising was a slaughter for the Jewish side by any conceivable metric. Yet psychologically, it represented a turning point: after four years of torment, resistance fighters had finally struck back and spilled Nazi blood spilled on the streets of the ghetto—turning the tables on their oppressors, even if only temporarily.
The sacrifice of the Warsaw Ghetto resistance fighters is a stirring reminder of the saying that “It’s better to die on one’s feet than to live on one’s knees.” On that note, is is perhaps apropos to conclude this article with the Mourner’s Kaddish:
“Yitgadal v’yitkadash sh’mei raba. B’alma di v’ra chirutei, v’yamlich malchutei, b’chayeichonuv’yomeichon uv’chayei d’chol beit Yisrael, baagala uviz’man kariv. V’im’ru: Amen.” (“Exalted and hallowed be God’s great name in the world which God created, according to plan/May God’s majesty be revealed in the days of our lifetime and the life of all Israel — speedily, imminently./To which we say: Amen.”)
About the Author: Christian D. Orr
Christian D. Orr was previously a Senior Defense Editor for National Security Journal (NSJ) and 19FortyFive. He is a former Air Force Security Forces officer, Federal law enforcement officer, and private military contractor (with assignments worked in Iraq, the United Arab Emirates, Kosovo, Japan, Germany, and the Pentagon). Chris holds a B.A. in International Relations from the University of Southern California (USC) and an M.A. in Intelligence Studies (concentration in Terrorism Studies) from American Military University (AMU). He has also been published in The Daily Torch , The Journal of Intelligence and Cyber Security, and Simple Flying. Last but not least, he is a Companion of the Order of the Naval Order of the United States (NOUS). If you’d like to pick his brain further, you can ofttimes find him at the Old Virginia Tobacco Company (OVTC) lounge in Manassas, Virginia, partaking of fine stogies and good quality human camaraderie.
Image: Wikimedia Commons.
