Violent Resistance: The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising

While the White Rose, Le Chambon and Zegota groups were all resisters, their goals were different and their reasons for resisting were very different. The main goal of the White Rose group was to crate a public uprising against the German government, to take a stand against the crimes they have been committing, and to show the world that the German people do not support the acts they have done. The Zegota groups’ purpose was to directly help those affected by the Nazi reign, by using moral obligation and political finances to help house and assist hiding Jews. The Le Chambon resistance incorporated a morally charged village who’s own persecution lead them to protecting the refugee Jews and citizens. While each group had different methods, and reasons for resisting, each of these groups fought against a government that they knew was wrong and took a stand against

As ordered by Himmler, a huge show of force descended upon the Warsaw Ghetto. SS troops, German Police, and Lithuanian and

Imagine one day being able to be yourself and the next day someone else is in control of your every move. This is what happened to the Jewish people during the Holocaust. When the Germans came in to take over, they imposed regulations that did not allow the Jewish people to uphold their identity. Some restrictions that stripped away their identities include having to wear stars on their arms, having numbers tattooed onto their wrists, and wearing a striped uniform. The Book Night by Elie Wiesel is a true story told from the perspective of Elie, explaining what life was like living through the holocaust at a concentration camp. A major idea that ties into Elie and the loss of identity was Elie’s major personality change from the beginning of the book to the end of the book. All the little things that the Jewish people could not do anymore stripped them of their identity as well. There were a bunch of rules set: they could not attend synagogue, be on the streets after 6, and they were not allowed to travel they train. By taking away these little things, it did not allow the Jewish citizens to continue their daily activities and be themselves. The Germans also dehumanized the Jewish people, which means to deprive of human qualities, personality, or spirit. This is exactly what the Germans did by treating the “Jews” as less. The inhumane way that the Jewish people were treated did not allow them to be themselves, which then lead to the loss of identity.

“No matter how much you revisit the past, there's nothing new to see,” ~ author unknown (“Deep Quotes”). People think they could change what happened during WWII and the Holocaust by revisiting it. In reality they can’t, they have to live with what happened in the past. For example, Jews in the Warsaw Ghetto made a choice to start an uprising. However many times they look back it can’t change. The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising was a deadly part of WWII that has many secrets that people don’t know with nothing being able to be changed.

Holocaust ghettos; these are the over looked places where the Jews, in Nazi controlled lands, awaited their future.

When people think of the word ghetto today they think of an impoverished area of a city. The ghettos of World War II have a similar but nonetheless different definition. The ghettos of World War II were small parts of cities sectioned off to keep Jews in a confined area before eventual extermination. The Jews held there were more than just impoverished like today’s residents of ghettos. They were starved, beaten, and overworked. Ghettos were seen as just a step to Hitler’s final solution, or the extermination of Jews from Nazi occupied territory. The Warsaw Ghetto was the largest ghetto in Nazi occupied Europe. It held 400,000 Jews in 1.3 square miles. From the Warsaw Ghetto only 11,500 Jews survived. The Warsaw Ghetto was a place that

There were many different resistance efforts throughout the Holocaust. On 12 September 1942, the town was assaulted by about 150 partisan soldiers who killed thirty SS officers, soldiers, and police. They broke through the wall, evacuated the 30 Jews remaining and burned the ghetto to the ground before retreating into the surrounding woodland.

However, this would all change due to the brave individuals in one Ghetto. The Warsaw Ghetto was home to nearly 445,000 in 1941 and measured about 1.3 square miles (Meed). This Ghetto was by far one of the largest in population during the Holocaust. The Warsaw Ghetto was eventually going to be “liquidated” as nearly 1,000 Jews were loaded on trains to be liquidated each day (Goss). Throughout 1942 the Warsaw Ghetto was slowly “liquidated” and by the end of that year, it left 55,000 Jews in that camp nearly 80% of the Ghetto's original population (Goss). Many who were left in these Ghettos were without their family and all alone. Guilt spread and many felt responsible for not saving their loved ones. This guilt would turn into resistance and lead to the creation of groups such as ZOB, which translates to the Jewish Fighting Organization, and ZZW, which translates to the Jewish Military Union. These organizations gathered weapons to fight back against the Nazi regime. By 1943 Nazi officials ordered the transfer of 8,000 more residents of the Warsaw Ghetto. This would lead to the very first resistance in January of that year. When guards came to collect Jews, many openly attacked these guards and even hid so as not to be taken. By the end of four days, the guards left with only 5,000 Jews. This was seen as a success for those who lived there and spread the idea of resistance

The resistance fought back valiantly for nearly a month. But by May 16, the ghetto was fully controlled by the Nazis, who had blown up Warsaw’s Great Synagogue as an act of symbolism (History.com, Warsaw Ghetto Uprising). According to History.com, 7,000 Jews were killed, while 50,000 survivors were sent to extermination or labor camps (History.com, Warsaw Ghetto Uprising). In the words of Benjamin Meed, “The entire sky of Warsaw was red. Completely red!”

Is resistance only physical? Can it be mental? The Holocaust is huge massacre that happened during World War 2, originally started by Adolf Hitler from 1933-1945. Jewish resistance is when a bunch of Jews refuse to follow rules set in place by the Nazis. During the Holocaust, Jews used armed and unarmed forms of resistance in order to retain their humanity.

The Bialystok Ghetto Uprising is marked as one of the most notable and remembered Ghetto Uprisings in history. The people of this ghetto fought bravely and with courage. Their leaders and organizers, Mordechaj Tenenbaum along with Chaika Grossman Efraim Barasz, did the most they could in this ghetto. They organized the people of this city to fight against the forces of the Nazi. The fighters did not give up although armed with few supplies. One machine gun, a few homemade firearms, molotov cocktails, and homemade acid bottles/bombs did not make these warriors reconsider

I believe that passive resistance is a better response to oppression because it values life, preserves tradition and culture and keeps hope alive. The Jewish race was slowly dying and could

The Jews were able to keep up the resistance for about a month, but the fight was officially ended on May 16 with the destruction of Warsaw’s great synagogue (ushmm.org). About 7,000 Jews were killed during the uprising, and another 7,000 deported, but a few hundred German soldiers fell as well (history.com).

Some of the local farmers were allies to the group, gentiles willing to sacrifice and to help the men. Some of the farmers would even send those who escaped the ghettos to the woods to find the group. Attempting to leave the ghettos carried a harsh punishment for anyone, death by hanging. The Jews resilient in their efforts of escape from the Ghetto dug a tunnel with only forks and spoons allowing the over two hundred and fifty remaining captive Jews an escape to the woods in some hope of survival. Only one hundred and seventy men, women, and children survived to reach the partisans in the woods because of Nazi firepower but the power of the group would soon double.

Their main goals were to organize uprisings, break out of the ghettos, and join partisan units in the fight against the Germans.The Jews knew that uprisings would not stop the Germans and that only a handful of fighters would succeed in escaping to join the partisans. Still, some Jews made the decision to resist. Weapons were smuggled into ghettos. Inhabitants in the ghettos of Vilna, Mir, Lachva , Kremenets, Częstochowa, Nesvizh, Sosnowiec, and Tarnow, among others, resisted with force when the Germans began to deport ghetto populations. In Bialystok, the underground staged an uprising just before the final destruction of the ghetto in September 1943. Most of the ghetto fighters, primarily young men and women, died during the fighting.The Warsaw ghetto uprising in the spring of 1943 was the largest single revolt by Jews. Hundreds of Jews fought the Germans and their auxiliaries in the streets of the ghetto. Thousands of Jews refused to obey German orders to report to an assembly point for deportation. In the end the Nazis burned the ghetto to the ground to force the Jews out. Although they knew defeat was certain, Jews in the ghetto fought desperately and