FOREVER FAME TO THESE HEROES!!!Fighting a lost battle against inhuman oppressor they won their honor and immortal legend.
Brave spirit of the Ghetto Uprising of 1943 inspired the spirit of Warsaw Uprising in the following year.
Posted on 04/19/2005 11:06:18 AM PDT by lizol
Poland Marks Ghetto Uprising Anniversary
By YURAS KARMANAU Associated Press Writer
A leader of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising warned the world Tuesday not to forget Polish Jews' historic resistance to their Nazi conquerors on the 62nd anniversary of the fight.
Jewish community leaders and state officials laid wreaths at a monument in Warsaw honoring the hundreds of young Jews who took up arms on April 19, 1943, in the first major act of civilian resistance against the Nazis.
Marek Edelman, 84, who helped lead the uprising and was one of only a dozen to survive, attended the ceremonies to pay homage to the thousands who died in the fight.
"I am here to bear witness to the tragic history of the Warsaw Ghetto so it's not just me, but all Poles and the entire world who remember," Edelman said after visiting the bunker where most of the uprising commanders committed suicide after being surrounded by the Germans on May 8.
Observances were also set for the Jewish Cemetery and a commemorative program was prepared by the Jewish Theater.
Former Foreign Minister Wladyslaw Bartoszewski, 83, who was a member of a Polish organization assisting the Jews during the war, said the fighters surprised the Nazis, who did not expect any resistance.
"The Jews showed the world they were able to fight for their freedom and they were admired for it," he said.
The insurgents opted to fight their captors in the face of Nazi plans to exterminate the tens of thousands of Jews remaining in the ghetto, where Nazis had crowded more than 400,000 people in November 1940. The residents, outnumbered and outgunned, held off German troops for three weeks with homemade explosives and a cache of smuggled weapons.
Most of fighters were killed and the Nazis burned down the Ghetto street by street.
Krystyna Budnicka, 73, was a child in the ghetto when the uprising took place. Her six brothers and one sister were among the thousands of Jews who died of starvation or disease. Many who survived were later deported to their death in Nazi concentration camps.
"I witnessed it then and I want to tell the world today again that what the Germans were doing was genocide. They were murdering Jews as though they were flies," Budnicka said.
Before World War II, Warsaw's Jewish community of more than 400,000 was the largest in Europe.
The warsaw ghetto uprising is an important lesson on why citizens should stay armed. Unfortunately, the only members of the Jewish community that remember the lesson are in Israel or members of JPFO. Most american Jews go along with the liberal mantra that only the government should have guns.
Ping
A story of true heroism! The fact that basically being unarmed and having what few weapons available they were
still held off a trained military force is amazing.
here here, well said
amen
A story of true heroism! The fact that basically being unarmed and having what few weapons available they were
still able to hold off a trained military force is amazing.
I didn't learn about the Warsaw ghetto uprising until I was an adult. It's an inspiration to us all (and a good lesson for the future).
Now wait a minute, wait a minute, there.
Warsaw's 400,000 Jews was the largest Jewish community in Europe before the Germans came?
I thought Ukraine had the largest number of Jews in all of Europe, although for practical reasons, many of them during totalitarian times disguised their religion and origin.
FOREVER FAME TO THESE HEROES!!!By the way, are there any authentic Ukrainians actually in Ukraine, on the Eastern European ping list?
Our good and esteemed friend (and I mean that sincerely) is Ukrainian, but takes the side of the Russians.
We need someone on Free Republic who is an authentic Ukrainian actually in Ukraine, to help illuminate us.
I wondered if that is what the news article meant--the "largest concentration of Jews"--but was not sure.
When things get translated, something gets lost, as I very well and sadly know, from the Norway ping list.
Well, the deal is, partner, my "acquaintance" with people from Poland, from Slovakia, from the Czech Republic, from Hungary, from Romania, from Croatia, from Serbia, &c., &c., &c., is all "academic," whereas I lived submerged with the Ukrainians and got to know them in real life.
As far as I am concerned, looking at it from a distance, the Poles, the Croats, the Serbs, &c., &c., &c., are all great, wonderful, fantastic people; delightful people with whom one seeks no argument.
But on my personal level, while I have nothing but the utmost respect and admiration and affection for Ukraine and the Ukrainians, because I know them rather better, I would like more of them to be aware of the Eastern European ping list.
Thanks for posting this article, lizol--the Warsaw Ghetto uprising was an astonishing act of heroism against all the odds. The heroic Polish Jews deserve to be remembered for ages and serve as an inspiration to all.
I have no idea if anyone on the Eastern European Ping list is Ukrainian, or has Ukrainian roots. I don't remember.
Frank, my friend. I didn't "take side of Russians [which ones to be exact -:)? ]" when I told you who was living in present-day Ukraine between 500 BC--500 AD. Back then there was neither Ukraine, nor Russia. It was populated by now gone tribes (Scythians, Khazars, etc.) Both Russia and Ukraine trace their roots in Kievan Rus which started with Vikings appearing in East Slav lands in 9th Century A.D.
Anyway, I don't want to move away from the main theme. I think the facts in the article about Jewish community numbers are correct. Warsaw was the city with the largest Jewish Community in Europe. I don't think any other city (incl. cities in then Soviet Ukraine) had such large Jewish communities although I could be mistaken.
lizol
I'm an originally a Russian from Ukraine (or Russian Ukrainian if you will)--now American. Mother is ethnic Russian from Russia proper, Father is a Russianized Ukrainian Jew originally from Eastern Ukraine. Born and grew up predominantly in Western Ukraine, city of Lviv (aka, Lvov, Lwow, Lemberg). A typical child of fmr. USSR -:))))
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