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The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising
Holocaust Studies ^ | unknown | Rabbi Eliahu Ellis & Rabbi Shmuel Silinsky

Posted on 11/22/2002 5:18:36 PM PST by Sparta

In the most famous of the revolts against their tormentors, the ill-equiped, starved Jews of the ghetto fought back against the German war machine.

The Warsaw Ghetto originally contained almost 450,000 people. By January of 1943,it was down to roughly 37,000 people. The rest had already been taken away to slave labor or death camps. Word got out that the Germans were going to finish off the ghetto, clean it out. Those half-starved, disease-weakened ghetto inhabitants decided to fight.

They had actually been preparing for this, and had convinced the Germans to let them build 631 air-raid shelters. Bombing was going on all around them, and the Germans needed their slave laborers so, to keep them safe from Allied bombings, the Germans had allowed them to do this. Now the people used those very shelters to fight against the Germans.

When the Germans came in to clean out the ghetto, much to their surprise, they were met with resistance.

There were over a thousand fighters, including children. They used pistols and Molotov cocktails against the Nazi weaponry, and they successfully repulsed the Germans.

It was a short-lived victory. The Germans returned a short while later. This time they brought major fire power. They started to destroy buildings, bit by bit by bit, knocking everything down. After about a day, they broke into the hospital, shot everyone in their beds, and torched the place. Gradually, they destroyed the entire ghetto.

When the Nazis reached the air-raid shelters, they drilled down, and gassed the people inside. Some fighters escaped to the sewers, and the Germans raised the water levels.

In about three weeks, the main fighting was over.

Most of the remaining Jews were rounded up, but it actually took months and months of combing through the ruins and demolishing the destroyed buildings before the uprising was finally put down.

Although the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising was not really very successful, it was the first time in all of German-occupied Europe that there was any organized uprising against the Nazis. Word got out, and it set a climate. And afterwards, there was Jewish resistance in many other places, inclusing some of the camps.

While the Warsaw Ghetto was fighting for its life, the world had called another conference. They met in Bermuda and, again, absolutely nothing was done to help.


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; Foreign Affairs; Free Republic
KEYWORDS: holocaust; nazis; resistance; warsawghetto
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If you want on or off the Western Civilization Military History ping list, please let me know.
1 posted on 11/22/2002 5:18:36 PM PST by Sparta
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To: Sparta
Funny how a few poorly armed Jews in Warsaw lasted longer then the French Army.
2 posted on 11/22/2002 5:20:27 PM PST by weikel
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To: Sparta
Click to enlarge to 203KB
3 posted on 11/22/2002 5:24:55 PM PST by AdamSelene235
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To: weikel
Click to enlarge to 792KB
4 posted on 11/22/2002 5:27:27 PM PST by AdamSelene235
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To: AdamSelene235
Can't own a gun in Massachussetts unless you have connections with the local cops( my Father used to know the head of the STATE police, it wasn't the one got busted for driving drunk 95 or 105 mph in Boston yes that actually happened).
5 posted on 11/22/2002 5:27:59 PM PST by weikel
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To: sphinx; Toirdhealbheach Beucail; curmudgeonII; roderick; Notforprophet; river rat; csvset; ...
Warsaw Ghetto uprising ping!!!
6 posted on 11/22/2002 5:28:19 PM PST by Sparta
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To: AdamSelene235
Bump!!!
7 posted on 11/22/2002 5:29:28 PM PST by Sparta
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To: weikel
French-bashing bump!
8 posted on 11/22/2002 5:29:56 PM PST by Sparta
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To: Sparta
Damned straight. thanks for the ping. One of mankind's greatest episodes, right smack in the middle of it's worst.
9 posted on 11/22/2002 5:31:45 PM PST by Semaphore Heathcliffe
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To: Sparta
There was another uprising with even more slaughter. The Russians camped outside Warsaw and let the Germans eliminate anyone that had any idea of freedom after the war.
10 posted on 11/22/2002 5:33:26 PM PST by cynicom
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To: Sparta
Leon Uris wrote an excellent book on the subject called "Mila 18"

Click here to read the first 23 pages

11 posted on 11/22/2002 5:34:03 PM PST by JZoback
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To: All
The lesson here is even though the enemy thinks it has won, a Westerner finds a way to resist to the last pint of blood, drop of sweat, ounce of strength, and to the last moment of their life; even though they know they are doomed.
12 posted on 11/22/2002 5:35:08 PM PST by Sparta
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To: Sparta
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Wish the government would just repeal the Second Amendment and confiscate all the guns because you believe sensible people shouldn't suffer because of some idiotic notion about some antiquated “right?”

While we can't take the guns away from the people, we CAN take the people (or at least SOME of them) away from their guns.

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13 posted on 11/22/2002 5:35:31 PM PST by Dick Bachert
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To: AdamSelene235
Those images are both the work of Oleg Volk, who is a moderator over at TheFiringLine.com . His images *ROCK*!

The Warsaw Ghetto uprising is an excellent example of how much pain even a lightly armed citizenry can inflict on an occupying army.

Exercise 2A and BLOAT.
14 posted on 11/22/2002 5:37:15 PM PST by FreedomPoster
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To: FreedomPoster
Those images are both the work of Oleg Volk, who is a moderator over at TheFiringLine.com . His images *ROCK*!

More Oleg Volk available in my profile.

15 posted on 11/22/2002 5:41:31 PM PST by AdamSelene235
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To: weikel
Can't own a gun in Massachussetts unless you have connections with the local cops(

Have you considered moving to America?

16 posted on 11/22/2002 5:42:19 PM PST by AdamSelene235
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To: FreedomPoster
"...an excellent example of how much pain even a lightly armed citizenry can inflict..."

Like it or not, this is the lesson to be learned from the DC sniper episode as well.

17 posted on 11/22/2002 5:45:53 PM PST by wcbtinman
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To: JZoback
That's a wonderful book. It's been years since I read it. I named my oldest daughter after a character in the book.
18 posted on 11/22/2002 5:46:10 PM PST by Aliska
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To: AdamSelene235
For now moving is not an option. Im in college and need to finish it and moving cost money.
19 posted on 11/22/2002 5:47:43 PM PST by weikel
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Comment #20 Removed by Moderator


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