THE WARSAW GHETTO UPRISING

April 19, 1943 - mid May 1943








Fighters in the Warsaw Ghetto, April 1943





ZOB (JFO) rooftop sniper



THE COUNTERATTACK

(fragment)


Listen you, the German God,
how the Jews pray in the "wild" houses,
while holding a crowbar or a pole in their hands.
We pray you, oh God, for a bloody battle.
We implore you, oh God, a violent death for us.
But before we die, let us have that our eyes,
do not see how the rail-tracks are dragging on.
Give the marksmanship to our palms, o Lord,
To make the grey uniform full of blood,
Make us see, before our throats
Are shut with the last smothered groan,
In those insolent hands, the flippers with whips
That simple, our, the human fear.
As the flowers purple with blood,
From Niska and Mila, from Muranow,
Blossoms out the flame from our barrels.
This spring is ours! It is the counterattack!
It is the wine of battle which goes to our heads!
These are the partisan forests of ours,
The alleys of Dzika and Ostrowska Streets,
There tremble on our chests the small "block numbers,"
These are our medals of the Jewish War.
The shout of six letters glitters in red,
As a ram pounds the word: MUTINY.


Wladyslaw Szlengel, February 1943.
The author died in the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising in May 1943.
(Translated from Polish by Andrew Kobos, 1999)



Mordecai Anielewicz, Commander of the ZOB (killed)



Marek Edelman, Deputy Commander of the ZOB (survived)





Captured Jewish Freedom Fighters








The Jewish Death


Arrest of Jewish workers at the Brauer firm during the Uprising








Jews rounded up by the German or collaborating units during or after the Uprising




A German photo of the interior of a "residential" Jewish bunker




Jews pulled from hidden bunkers which were either found or betrayed



The Jewish Last Stand












To Die with Dignity






TOO LARGE CAP

This boy in the picture of ghetto is a star
from documentary films, war albums,
too large cap is falling
like the universe on his frail shoulders.

The small boy is not afraid any more,
for half of the century he has played the same role,
hands raised above his head
while an esesman's rifle points at his back
who will believe in stars dying in eyes of a child,
only blue star on the white armband is real.

Yvonna Opoczynska-Goldberg, 1998










Captured rabbis



To the Umschlagplatz






Warsaw Ghetto in flames and ruins



















WARSAW GHETTO KADDISH




The Menorah amidst the rubbles of the synagogue at Tlomackie Street
blown up by the Germans on May 16, 1943











More than 60,000 Jews were killed or burned alive in Warsaw Ghetto or deported to Treblinka death camp by German troops and the collaborating units (consisting of mostly Ukrainians) during the Uprising.

N.B.:   ZOB (Zydowska Organizacja Bojowa) was the name in Polish for the Jewish Fighting Organization (JFO), the underground armed resistance organization in the Warsaw Ghetto.




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Last update: January 8, 2005

Made and maintained by Andrew M. Kobos