The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising in World War II

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“...No one believed they would be saved. We knew the struggle was doomed, but it showed the world there was resistance against the Nazis, that you could fight the Nazis...” -Marek Edelman.
At the height of World War II, the Nazis had taken over quite a few countries including: some of France (the Rhineland), Austria, the Sudetenland, and Poland. By this time,
Adolf Hitler had forced many Jews into small areas of a city, called ghettos. There were ghettos in Lodz, Krakow, Lublin, and Warsaw. The ghetto in Warsaw, Poland, was the largest of all of the ghettos created. Over 400,000 Jews were packed into an area only about 1.3 miles across. Plans for this ghetto started after Germany conquered Poland in 1939 (Karesh). A few years later, Hitler deported most of the Jews in this ghetto to the Treblinka concentration camp. The remaining Jews were furious, and held an uprising. Although the Jews were defeated, they were strong and showed the Nazis that they could hold their own.
The Warsaw Ghetto uprising was sometimes called the Second Warsaw Uprising. It was called this to distinguish it from the earlier Warsaw Uprising, where the Polish Home Army resisted the German occupiers (Axelrod, Kingston). The Jews were very afraid when they found out that they were being deported. One man, Adam Czerniakow (Jewish Council of Warsaw), convinced Nazis to delay deportation but felt so guilty, he committed suicide before anything was done about it (Karesh).
The Jews had found out about this deportation and were appalled. They obviously didn't want to be killed, so on July 28, 1942 the 500 remaining Jews formed The Jewish Fighting Organization (Zydowska Organizacja Bojowa, ZOB) and took control of the entire ghetto (Gutman). The ZOB...

... middle of paper ...

...y took a beating, mentally and physically. Although the Jews were defeated, they were strong and showed the Nazis that they could hold their own.

Works Cited

Karesh, Sara E., and Mitchell M. Hurvitz. Encyclopedia of Judaism. New York: Facts on File, 2006. 2 Apr. 2014.
Quinn, Edward. History in literature: A reader's guide to 20th century history and the literature it inspired. New York: Facts On File, 2004. 2 Apr. 2014.
Werth, Alexander. "What Happened at Warsaw?" Russia at war, 1941-1945. New York: Dutton, 1964.
Axelrod, Alan, and Jack A. Kingston. "Warsaw Rising." Encyclopedia of World War II. New York: Facts on File, 2007.
Arad, Yitzhak. Belzec, Sobibor, Treblinka: The Operation Reinhard Death Camps. Bloomington: Indiana UP, 1987. Facts on File. Web.
Gutman, Israel. Resistance: The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1994. Facts on Files. Web.

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