Adams Glenda Adams Mr.

Neuburger English Comp 101-132 11 December 2012 Research Paper The Battle of Ghettograd In 1943, the world was being torn apart and the cries of battle were heard across nations. Nazi Germany was sweeping across Europe taking millions of lives as they went. They were rounding up Jews from all over the continent, creating mass graves across the land and imprisoning the lucky ones. Many wonder why the Jewish people were so submissive, how they could sit
Life in the Warsaw Ghetto Source: http://bit.ly/YO2YHf

idly by as they watched their loved ones shot before their eyes, and most importantly, why they did not fight back. Though it is misunderstood and sometimes overlooked, the reply to these musing thoughts is that they did. The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM) states that the Warsaw Ghetto imprisoned over 300,000 Jews into an area smaller than three square miles. After the bulk of the ghetto was sent to Treblinka, the remaining population began hiding in preparation of their own deportation. Men and women alike decided to make a stand and were able to get into contact with the Polish resistance. It took a while to receive the supplies and very little were given. Furthermore, the website explains that when the scheduled deportation of the Warsaw Ghetto began on January 18, 1943, a group of armed men snuck into a line of Jews being

Adams transported and fired at the German escorts. Most of those men were killed but it gave the Jews in column a chance to disperse. This caught the Germans off guard and on January 21, the deportation was suspended (Warsaw Ghetto Uprising).

According to the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, the Jews knew the Germans would return and went into hiding with their diminutive amount of pistols, seventeen rifles, handmade explosives, and about seven-hundred-and-fifty fighters ready for combat (Jewish Virtual Library). The Holocaust Education & Archive Research Team (HEART) stated: It would be wrong and unjust to presume that the heroic spirit and determination of the defenders of the Ghetto was but a result of despair. Many a fighter had ample opportunity to rescue himself by leaving the Ghetto. However, the fighters were full of a noble sense of duty, a soldiers duty, of a powerful desire to carry on the fight for honor, for human dignity. (qtd.in Battle for the Warsaw Ghetto) The HEART goes on to say that at six-oclock in the morning on April 19, 1943, the resistance had eight rebels in the center, five in the brush factories territory and seven in the area around the Schultz and Tebens factories. The gorillas watched as two-thousand SS men entered the ghetto in groups of twos and threes, followed by tanks, cannons, and three trucks full of ammunition. Even with the odds weighing so much against them, the Jewish resistance was able to frighten the Germans into retreat within six
Germans waiting for rebels to emerge from their hiding places. Source: http://bit.ly/SRpQAK

hours of the first battle. The German casualties were around two-hundred and by five Oclock in the

afternoon, all the SS had recoiled to outside the ghetto walls. (Battle for the Warsaw Ghetto)

Adams The HEART continues by relating how the resistance kept pushing the Germans back until day two
The ghetto burning Source: http://bit.ly/SRodD5

when the SS began burning down the buildings. The rebels

began to run out of ammunition and soon all they had enough for was self-defense. There would be no more attacking, only guarding and protecting their lives. The World War II: Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, tells of Jurgen Stroop, who was the Brigadier General and his reaction when he received word of the Warsaw Ghetto uprising at 7:30am April 19. He was told things were not going as planned and that the Germans had had to retreat. Stroop lit a cigarette and calmly rejected his senior colonels advice to bring in aircraft bombers. This defeat was a humiliation for the Germans and Stroop felt like it would disgrace the Reich even farther if he had to call in larger equipment to destroy a race of people he considered to be so far beneath him. After high casualties to his men, he decided on April 22 to just burn everything to the ground. General Stroop stated: While it was at first possible to catch the Jews, who are by nature cowards, in great numbers, this became increasingly difficult as the action went on. Fighting groups of 20 to 30 or more Jewish youths, aged 18-25, kept turning up, sometimes with a corresponding number of women who kindled fresh resistance. These fighting groups had been ordered to defend themselves to the last and, if need be, to escape capture by suicide. The women belonging to the fighting groups were armed in the same way as the men. Sometimes these women fired pistols from each hand at once. It happened time and again that they kept their pistols and hand grenades hidden in their bloomers till the last minute, and then used them against the armed SS, police and Wehrmacht. (qtd.in Historynet)

Adams Stroop also reported the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising being over on May 16, 1943, even though

there were still combat encounters. He said the number of German soldiers killed was sixteen but in the underground publication, Glos Warszawy, it reports the German casualties to be around three-hundred-and-sixty with over one thousand wounded just in the first week. Stroop determined the battle over after he destroyed the city synagogue at 8:15pm that evening. By that time, all the buildings had been destroyed (Historynet). Yad Vashem (YV) tells of how the Jews fought nobly for a month before the Germans took over the main areas of the ghetto. It was the first city rebellion in all of Europe during the Nazi regime. The YV also states that the Warsaw ghetto uprising became an example for Jews all over the continent to take a stand. It was hard for other ghettos and camps to make as big of an
The Jewish Synagogue after it was destroyed in the rebellion. Source: http://bit.ly/Q9snu3

impact, though, due to their geographic positions, their unfriendly surroundings, and their inability to receive

weapons and firepower needed for a large scale revolt (Combat and Resistance Warsaw Ghetto Uprising). It is hard to imagine the events of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. The courage and strength these fighters exhibited may be an elapsed part of our worlds history, but for those who remember, it will live on forever. Even though these miraculous men and women have passed on, remembrance of their struggles, pains, and short lived victories will give them life and to those who remember, they will never truly be gone.

Adams Works Cited Bard, Mitchell. "Warsaw Ghetto Uprising." Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. Jewish Virtual Library, n.d. Web. 13 Nov. 2012. "Battle for the Warsaw Ghetto ! Revolt & Resistance Www.HolocaustResearchProject.org." Battle for the Warsaw Ghetto ! Revolt & Resistance Holocaust Education & Archive Research Team, n.d. Web. 13 Nov. 2012. "The Holocaust." Combat and Resistance Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. Yad Vash, n.d. Web. 13 Nov. 2012. "Holocaust History." Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, 11 May 2012. Web. 13 Nov. 2012. "World War II: Warsaw Ghetto Uprising." World War II: Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. Historynet, 12 June 2006. Web. 13 Nov. 2012.