Warsaw Ghetto Uprising

Warsaw Ghetto Uprising

(April 19–May 16, 1943) Revolt by Polish Jews under Nazi occupation against deportation to the Treblinka extermination camp. By July 1942 the Nazis had herded 500,000 Jews from surrounding areas into the ghetto in Warsaw. Though starvation killed thousands each month, the Nazis began transferring more than 5,000 Jews a day to rural “labour camps.” When word reached the ghetto in early 1943 that the destination was actually the gas chambers at Treblinka, the newly formed Jewish Fighting Organization (ZOB) attacked the Nazis, killing 50 in four days of street fighting and causing the deportations to halt. On April 19 Heinrich Himmler sent 2,000 SS men and army troops to clear the ghetto of its remaining Jews. For four weeks the ZOB and guerrillas fought with pistols and homemade bombs, destroying tanks and killing several hundred Nazis, until their ammunition ran out. Not until May 8 did the Nazis manage to take the ZOB headquarters bunker. Many of the surviving ZOB fighters took their own lives to avoid being captured. The battle raged until May 16, when the SS chief declared “The Warsaw Ghetto is no more.” During the 28 days of the uprising, more than 40,000 Jews were either killed or deported.