Warsaw April 23, 1943
It is impossible to put into words what we have been through. One thing is clear, what happened exceeded our boldest dreams. The Germans ran twice from the ghetto. One of our companies held out for 40 minutes and another for more than 6 hours. The mine set in the "brushmakers" area exploded. Several of our companies attacked the dispersing Germans. Our losses in manpower are minimal. That is also an achievement. Y. [Yechiel] fell. He fell a hero, at the machine-gun.
I feel that great things are happening and what we dared do is of great, enormous importance....
Beginning from today we shall shift over to the partisan tactic. Three battle companies will move out tonight, with two tasks: reconnaissance and obtaining arms. Do you remember, short-range weapons are of no use to us. We use such weapons only rarely. What we need urgently: grenades, rifles, machine-guns and explosives.
It is impossible to describe the conditions under which the Jews of the ghetto are now living. Only a few will be able to hold out. The remainder will die sooner or later. Their fate is decided. In almost all the hiding places in which thousands are concealing themselves it is not possible to light a candle for lack of air.
With the aid of our transmitter we heard the marvelous report on our fighting by the "Shavit" radio station. The fact that we are remembered beyond the ghetto walls encourages us in our struggle.
Peace go with you, my friend! Perhaps we may still meet again!
The dream of my life has risen to become fact. Self-defense in the ghetto will have been a reality. Jewish armed resistance and revenge are facts. I have been a witness to the magnificent, heroic fighting of Jewish men in battle.
M. Anielewicz
Ghetto, April 23, 1943
http://www.yadvashem.org/odot_pdf/Microsoft%20Word%20-%20582.pdf
Mordecai Anielewicz (1919-1943), leader of the Warsaw Ghetto uprising and commander of the Zydowska Organizacja Bojowa, the Jewish Combat Organization.
In April 1943, a second wave of deportations from the Warsaw Ghetto began. Anielewicz, a Jew who had escaped years before, covertly re-entered the Ghetto to find that only 30,000 of the cities original 350,000 Jews remained.
Fueled with vengeance, he became the groups leader and quickly came into contact with the Home Liberation Front, the Polish government in exile located in Britain.
The JCO enacted the first large scale Warsaw Uprising on April 19, 1943 with guerrilla warfare tactics, effectively stalling the Germans for a month.
The uprising was finally quelled on May 16, 1943 with most of the JCO members dead. Mordechai Anielewicz is presumed to have taken his own life when surrounded by Nazi troops.
