Warsaw Ghetto Uprising facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Warsaw Ghetto Uprising
Part of World War II and the Holocaust
Jewish women and children forcibly removed from a bunker; one of the most iconic pictures of World War II.
Date 19 April – 16 May 1943 Location Warsaw Ghetto, General Government 52°14′46″N 20°59′45″E / 52.24611°N 20.99583°E / 52.24611; 20.99583 Result Uprising defeated Surviving Jews deported to Majdanek and Treblinka
Belligerents
Germany Gestapo, Orpo, SD, Waffen-SS, Wehrmacht	Jewish resistance Jewish Combat Organization Jewish Military Union Supported by: AK (Home Army) GL (People's Guard)
Commanders and leaders
Ferdinand von Sammern-Frankenegg (relieved from command) Jürgen Stroop SSPF Oberführer Arpad Wigand SIPO/SD Chief Dr. Ludwig Hahn	Mordechai Anielewicz  † Yitzhak Zuckerman Zivia Lubetkin Maurycy Orzech  Marek Edelman Paweł Frenkiel  † Leon Rodal  † Dawid Wdowiński
Strength
Daily average of 2,090, including 821 Waffen-SS	About 600 ŻOB and about 400 ŻZW fighters, plus a number of Polish fighters
Casualties and losses
German figures: 17 killed 93 wounded Jewish resistance estimate: 300 casualties	56,065 killed/and or captured of which approximately 36,000 deported to extermination camps (German estimate)

The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising 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 death 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, 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 Polish resistance 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 ordered the burning of the ghetto, block by block, ending on 16 May. A total of 13,000 Jews were killed. German casualties were probably fewer than 150.

The uprising was the largest single revolt by Jews during World War II. The Jews knew they couldn't win and that their survival was unlikely. Marek Edelman, the only surviving ŻOB commander, said their inspiration to fight was "not to allow the Germans alone 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".

Aftermath

Warsaw Ghetto area after the war. Gęsia Street, view to the west

Captured Jews are led by German troops to the assembly point for deportation. Picture taken at Nowolipie street, near the intersection with Smocza.

After the uprising was over, most of the incinerated houses were razed, and the Warsaw concentration camp complex was established in their place. Thousands of people died in the camp or were executed in the ruins of the ghetto. At the same time, the SS were hunting down the remaining Jews still hiding in the ruins.

The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising of 1943 took place over a year before the Warsaw uprising of 1944. The ghetto had been totally destroyed by the time of the general uprising in the city, which was part of the Operation Tempest, a nationwide insurrection plan.

A number of survivors of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, known as the "Ghetto Fighters", went on to found the kibbutz Lohamei HaGeta'ot (literally: "Ghetto Fighters'"), which is located north of Acre, Israel. In 1984, members of the kibbutz published Daphei Edut ("Testimonies of Survival"), four volumes of personal testimonies from 96 kibbutz members. The settlement features a museum and archives dedicated to remembering the Holocaust.

The last surviving Jewish resistance fighter, Simcha Rotem, died in Jerusalem on 22 December 2018, at age 94.

Images for kids

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  From right: Małka Zdrojewicz, Bluma and Rachela Wyszogrodzka captured after offering armed resistance.

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  Monument to the Ghetto Heroes by Nathan Rapoport

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  SS-Brigadeführer Jürgen Stroop (center). 2nd from right is Heinrich Klaustermeyer. The SD-Rottenführer at right is Josef Blösche at Nowolipie 64 / Smocza 1 intersection

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  IPN copy #42"Askaris assigned to the operation"Stroop and foreign fighters at the Umschlagplatz, with Stawki 5/7 in the back.

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  Corner of Żelazna 70 and Chłodna 23 (looking east). This section of Żelazna street connected the "large ghetto" and "small ghetto" areas of German-occupied Warsaw.

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  Warsaw Ghetto Map, 15 October 1940

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  Resistance members captured at Nowolipie 64 near intersection with Smocza. Hasia Szylgold-Szpiro is on the right.

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  SS men on Nowolipie street

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  Burning buildings photographed from the intersection of Zamenhofa and Wołyńska

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  Burning ghetto viewed from Żoliborz district

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  The site of Mila 18, former resistance base, in 1964

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  Great Synagogue of Warsaw, destroyed in 1943

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  Plaque commemorating two Home Army soldiers killed during the Ghetto Action.

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  Poster printed by ŻOB: "All people are equal brothers; Brown, White, Black and Yellow. To separate peoples, colors, races, Is but an act of cheating!"

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  Commemorative pennant of ŻZW – Jewish Military Union.

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  The cover page of The Stroop Report with International Military Tribunal in Nuremberg markings.

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  Page 5 of Stroop Report describing German fight against "Juden mit polnischen Banditen" – "Jews with Polish bandits".

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  Continuation 27 April 1943 describing fight against "jüdisch-polnische Wehrformation" ("Jewish-Polish armed formation").

See also

In Spanish: Levantamiento del gueto de Varsovia para niños

• Destruction of Warsaw
• Sobibor uprising
• Białystok Ghetto uprising
• Ghetto uprisings
• Battle of Muranów Square