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To: George Smiley
The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising was a struggle of the Jewish fighters who, between 04/19/43 and 05/16/43, gave armed resistance to the German efforts to liquidate the ghetto's remaining 55,000 inhabitants. The two principal Jewish resistance groups, a 500-strong Jewish Fighting Organization (ZOB) and a 200-strong Jewish Fighting Union (ZZW) knowing the Nazi plans for the 'Final Solution' decided to die fighting rather than passively accept their fate.
After 27 days of fighting, the Ghetto Uprising ended with the death or capture and consequent extermination of almost all of its inhabitants. It was also the final act in the complete destruction of the 350,000 Warsaw Jews. German losses were 16 dead and 85 wounded[German statistics - probably about 200 dead].Several dozen of the surviving fighters were able, with the help of the Polish underground, to escape the ghetto area and continue the fight. In 1944, some of them took part in the Warsaw Uprising.


The Warsaw Uprising, on the other hand, was a struggle of the Polish underground which, between 08/01/44 and 10/02/44, conducted an armed struggle aimed at liberating Warsaw and its 1,000,000 inhabitants from the German occupation at the time the Soviet army was approaching the city limits from the east. The 38,000 Polish Home Army augmented by 2,000-strong nationalist and communist units initially controlled a majority of Warsaw's left bank. However, with the German determination for a complete destruction of the city and its Home Army, the Warsaw Uprising ended after 63 days of struggle at the cost of 15,200 dead or missing and 5,000 wounded insurgents and over 200,000 Polish civilians dead. German losses were 16,000 dead and missing and 9,000 wounded.
All of the surviving inhabitants were expelled from the city and many of them sent to death, labor or POW camps.The remaining, still-standing, buildings were systematically destroyed. More than three months later, in January of 1945, the Red Army and Gen. Berling's Polish First Army entered a deserted and ruined city.

Edelman is still living in Poland.
9 posted on 08/04/2004 10:17:39 AM PDT by Grzegorz 246
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To: Grzegorz 246
Thanks for differentiating between the two.

Edelman is a cardiologist, if memory serves me correctly.

11 posted on 08/04/2004 11:15:02 AM PDT by George Smiley (It amazes me how easily John Kerry can straddle both sides of the fence for any given issue.)
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