The uprising in the Warsaw ghetto: history, features, consequences and interesting facts

The Holocaust is one of the most terrible pages in the history of the 20th century. The destruction of Jews during World War II is an inexhaustible theme. Many times it has been touched upon by writers and filmmakers alike. From films and books we are aware of the cruelty of the Nazis, of their numerous victims, of concentration camps, gas chambers and other attributes of the fascist machine. However, it is worthwhile to know that the Jews were not only victims of SS men, but also active participants in the struggle against them. The uprising in the Warsaw ghetto is proof of this.

Occupation of Poland

The uprising in the Warsaw ghetto is the largest action of the Jewish people against the fascists. It was more difficult for the Nazis to suppress it than to conquer Poland. The Germans invaded this small state in 1939, they were expelled by the Red Army only five years later. During the years of occupation, the country lost about twenty percent of the total population. At the same time, a significant part of the victims consisted of representatives of the intelligentsia, highly qualified specialists.

Human life is priceless, regardless of who it belongs to - a banker, musician or mason. But this is from a humanistic point of view. With the economic - the death of several thousand specialists, and the majority of them were Jews, was a heavy blow to the country, from which it managed to recover only after decades.

The policy of genocide

Before the war, the number of Jews in Poland was about three million. In the capital - about four hundred thousand. Among them were entrepreneurs and artists, students and teachers, artisans and engineers. All of them from the first days of the German occupation were equal in rights, more precisely in the absence of such.

The fascists introduced a number of anti-Jewish "laws". The long liver of prohibitions was publicly announced. According to him, the Jews did not have the right to use public transport, to visit public places, to work in their specialty, and most importantly, to leave their house without an identification mark - a yellow six-pointed star.

The anti-Semitism that existed for centuries was spread among the Poles, and therefore there were not so many sympathizers for the Jews. The Nazis were constantly fueling hatred.

Six months after the capture of Poland, the formation of the so-called quarantine zone began, based on an absurd statement about the spread of an infectious disease. The disease carriers, according to the Nazis, were Jews. They were moved to quarters formerly populated by Poles. The number of former residents of this part of Warsaw was several times less than the number of new ones.

Ghetto

It was created in the autumn of 1940. A special territory was enclosed by a three-meter brick wall. Escape from the ghetto was punished first by arrest, then by execution. The life of the Warsaw Jews was getting worse every day. But a person gets used to everything, even to life in the ghetto. People tried, as far as possible, to lead a normal life. The enterprising nature of the representatives of the Jewish people facilitated the opening of small enterprises, schools, and hospitals in the ghetto. Many residents of this closed zone believed in the best, and almost none of them had any idea of an imminent death. However, the conditions became increasingly unbearable.

Today, while watching a movie or reading a book on the Jewish ghetto, knowing the further course of events, one can be surprised at human resignation. About 500 thousand people, imprisoned in stone walls and deprived of the most necessary for life, continued to exist, apparently, and not thinking about the struggle for their own freedom. But it was not always so.

The number of Jews decreased every day. People were dying of hunger and disease. The shootings, which are not yet mass, took place already in the first days of the occupation. Only during 1941, about one hundred thousand Jews were killed. But each of the survivors continued to believe that death would not overtake him or his loved ones. And he continued a peaceful, by no means militant existence. Until the Nazi leadership launched a machine for the mass extermination of Jews. Then there was an event that went down in history as an uprising in the Warsaw ghetto.

Treblinka

Eighty kilometers to the north-east of the Polish capital is a place whose name was unknown to the beginning of World War II in the world. Treblinka - the death camp, in which, according to rough estimates, about eight hundred thousand people died. If there had not been an uprising in the Warsaw ghetto, the number would have been much greater. Participants in the resistance of death would not have passed. But, unfortunately, most of them died in battle on the streets of the Polish capital. The uprising of the Jews in the Warsaw ghetto is an example of amazing heroism.

Such is the prehistory of the uprising of the Warsaw Ghetto of 1943. But the question arises. How could the exhausted prisoners fight the fascists? Where did they have weapons? And how did the information about the existence of the death row leaked into the ghetto?

Secret organizations

Since 1940, several socio-political associations have operated on the territory of the ghetto. Discussions about the need to fight against the Nazis were conducted since 1940, but did not make sense in conditions of complete lack of weapons. The first revolver in the closed territory was handed over in the fall of 1942. Around the same time, a Jewish combat organization was established, maintaining contact with parties whose members were outside the ghetto.

The uprising in the Warsaw Ghetto

The date of this event is April 19, 1943. The rebels were about 1500. The Germans were advancing through the main gate, but the inhabitants of the ghetto met them with fire. Fierce fighting lasted almost a month. The day of the uprising in the Warsaw ghetto was forever a day of remembrance to courageous insurgents, whose weapons were negligible. Participants in the resistance did not have a chance to win. But even when the ghetto was completely destroyed, some groups continued to struggle. During the fighting, about seven thousand rebels were killed. Almost as many burnt alive.

Participants in the uprising in the ghetto became national heroes of Israel. In the Polish capital in 1948 a monument to the dead soldiers was opened.