82: Warsaw Ghetto Uprising

 

82 years ago today (April 19, 1943) the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising began in German-Occupied Warsaw, Poland.

It should not be confused with the 1944 Warsaw Ghetto Uprising.

The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising lasted 29 days (until May 16, 1943.)

In October 1940 the Germans forced 460,000 Jewish Men, Women and Children into a walled area of Warsaw that was only  1 square mile.

The Germans controlled the amount of food that was brought into the Ghetto, and disease and starvation killed thousands each month.

From July-September 1942 the Germans carried out Grossaktion Warsaw (Great Action Warsaw) where they deported 265,000 Jewish Men, Women and Children from the Warsaw Ghetto to the Treblinka Death Camp where they were gassed and murdered within hours of arriving.

After the Deportations ended there were 60,000 Jews left in the Warsaw Ghetto who prepared for the next German Deportations by building bunkers, hiding places, gathering weapons, etc. throughout the Ghetto.

On the eve of Passover (April 19, 1943) the Germans tried to enter the Warsaw Ghetto to send the rest of the Jews to the Death Camps.

The Jews fought back with around 1,000 active Jewish Fighters inside the Warsaw Ghetto.

The Jews fought and died knowing they wouldn’t leave the Warsaw Ghetto alive, but they fought to die with dignity.

13,000 Jewish Men, Women and Children were killed inside the Ghetto during the Uprising (6,000 of them were burned alive by German flamethrowers.)

36,000 Jewish Men, Women and Children were deported from the Ghetto during the Uprising and murdered at the German Death Camps.

The Germans then burned all of the Warsaw Ghetto to the ground.