The warsaw ghetto uprising
One of Hitler's goals during WWII was to cleanse the world of weaker beings. In 1942 he decided to liquidate the ghettos where many of the Jewish people had been living. He had hundreds of thousands of these Jews deported to death camps. The Germans forced the Jewish police in the Warsaw ghetto to gather people to be deported. About 300,000 people were taken in cattle cars to the Treblinka death camp. They were then murdered. 55,000 to 60,000 Jews still remained in the ghetto. In April 1943, the Jews found out that the Germans were planning to deport the remaining population of the ghetto to Treblinka as well. A group of mainly younger people formed an organization they called the Z.O.B. This stands for Zydowska Organizacja Bojow in Polish, which translates to Jewish Fighting Organization. The Z.O.B. was led by Mordechai Anielewicz. He told the people to resist going on the railroad cars.
In January of 1943, Warsaw ghetto fighters fired
upon German troops as they attempted to take
more of the Jewish people to death camps. They
used a small supply of weapons that had been
smuggled into the ghetto. After a few days of
fighting, the German troops retreated. This victory
may have been quite small in the eyes of the
Germans, but it inspired the ghetto fighters to
prepare for future resistance.
Based upon what happened during the January
episode, the Jews believed that it might be
possible to force the Germans to deviate from their plans. They thought that the Germans would only take them if they were passive. They might think twice if the Jews actually stood up against them. An outbreak of fighting in the ghetto would pose the threat of spread of rebellious vibes and insurection throughout the rest of occupied Poland. The Jewish people of the Warsaw ghetto felt that these things were on their side, so they approved of resistance and started preparing.
To prepare for the next bout of fighting, the Jews started training, aquiring weapons, and making plans to defend the ghetto. The Jews weren't the only ones preparing. The Germans were getting ready as well. The night before the final deportation was scheduled, Heinrich Himmler replaced the chief of the SS (Schutzstaffel, a major paramilitary organization under Hitler and the National German Workers' Party) and police in the Warsaw district, Obergruppenfuhrer Ferdinand von Sammern-Frankenegg, with SS and Polizeifuhrer (SS and Police Leader) Jürgen Stroop, an officcer who had experience fighting partisans. The ghetto fighters had been warned of the timing of the final deportation and the entire Jewish population went into hiding.
The Warsaw ghetto uprising began on April 19, 1943 when German troops and police went to the ghetto to deport the remaining Jews. 750 fighters were waiting for them, armed with a handful of pistols, 17 rifles, and Molotov cocktails. They faced more than 2,000 German soldiers who were well armed and well trained. They even had tanks and flamethrowers. Even with such terrible odds, the Jews forced the Germans to retreat from the ghetto once again. However, the Germans came back with even more firepower.
The Germans may have had a lot of fire power, but days passed and the Germans were still unable to stop the insurrection. At this point, German commander General Jürgen Stroop told his men to burn the buildings to the ground one by one. Even this didn't stop the determined Jews. They held out for nearly a month. On May 8th the headquarters bunker of the Z.O.B. was captured by the Germans. Mordechai Anielewicz and many of his companions were killed in the fighting, but several dozen were able to escape.
Commander Stroop announced that the fighting was over on May 16th. His forces were able to capture 56,065 Jews. He declared that he was going to blow up the Great Synagogue on Tlomack Street outside the Warsaw ghetto as a symbol of the German vicory. He said it would celebrate the fact that "the Jewish quarter of Warsaw no longer exist[ed]." The Germans viewed the outcome as a success, but the dramatic act of resistance by the Z.O.B. helped raise the morale of Jews everywhere.