Uprising in the Warsaw ghetto
There are numerous heroic pages in the history of Jewish people. At night of April 18 to April 19 of 1943 an uprising in the Warsaw ghetto occurred. Polish-Jewish historian Ben Mark wrote: "Many wars of liberation contained the embryo of inevitable defeat, but the stamp so deep tragedy which had the last combat outburst of the last inhabitants of Warsaw ghetto which flared up near the grave of their neighbors without the rear, almost without the weapon, without the chance to the victory wasn't nowhere ". (http://holocaust.ioso.ru/history/23.htm)
On the eve of uprising "Jewish combat organization" circulated this information: "Let us to unite in army. Whoever you was and whatever you think, if you have proud heart and soul which is not damaged with the poison of dirty street come to us. We shall leave for the war in the name of defenseless, sentenced to death people". (http://jmarhiv.aha.ru/number_3/data_katastrofa_3.htm)
The forces of "Jewish combat organization" headed by Mordekhay Anelevich (several hundreds people) and the force of "Jewish military council" took an active part in the uprising in the Warsaw ghetto.
What did it occur in the Warsaw ghetto during those April days of 1943?
From the Wiesbaden report of Stropp (brigadenfyurer SS, the major-general of
the police) of May 1, 1946: "I brought the forces in the
action along two sides of the main street. When our forces passed
the main gates, the precise... fire came down to them. They
(rebels - note V.) shot from all windows and basements so, that it was not
possible to see the shooter. Now the reports about the losses began to
come. Armored car caught fire. Bombs and igniting bottles stopped any
advance. While we began to check one block, they fortify their
position in the next block. In some places we were forced to use
anti-aircraft weapon. Now only we discovered underground positions.
They gave the possibility to rebels to be invisible and they made
possible for them to change their location continuously. We have conquered
one such position after 2 days only.
We established with the accuracy that not only the men were armed but
also some women, at the age from 18 to 30 especially. They wore the
trousers for the riding and the helmets on the head... Many of these women
hid the charged pistols in the underclothes. The combats were under
way so to the end of the operation, from the basement of house and to its
roof... " . (http://jmarhiv.aha.ru/number_3/data_katastrofa_3.htm)
The resistance lasted several weeks. Majorities of those who was in the ghetto they perished. Fascists lost several hundreds soldiers and officers in combats . Mordekhay Anelevich and many other leaders of uprising perished,.
One of survivors wrote: "We battled, that is why the death did not seem us so terrible, and it was more easily to us to accept our fate". (http://school.ort.spb.ru/(Eng)/library/torah/shoa/sweden/sweden061.htm)
The rebels understood of course that they couldn't survive in the unequal
fight. One of the rebels Aria Vilner wrote: "We are not going to
save ourselves. No one from us will not survive. We want to save the honor
of people ". (http://history.pedclub.ru/muzeum/museum/museum01_08.htm)
"Jews of Warsaw ghetto including children, women, old men armed by stones, by sticks, by several pistols and by rifles resisted to the regular units of Wermacht longer than all Poland and great European State France. " (http://berkovich-zametki.com/Nomer32/Gorelik1.htm)
Shoa (the Remembrance Day) is the memory about 6 million victims of the Holocaust. It is celebrated in Israel in the day of the beginning of uprising in the Warsaw ghetto in order to show that Jews were not only victims but they were heroes also.
This day throughout Israel the mourning hooter sounds, everything dies away for 2 minutes.
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Uprising in the Warsaw ghetto is not sole example of courage and heroism of those who was in the ghetto. I'd like to tell you another case.
On October 14, 1943 in the camp of death of Sobibor (Poland)
the uprising burst out. Soviet officer-Jewish Lieutenant
Alexander Pecherskiy
and Jewish prisoner Leon Feldgandler were its leaders. A
result of uprising was that hundreds of people were freed
but several tens people only came to the partisans.
The books and articles are written about the leader of uprising. Too a film was made in Hollywood and Dutch documentary about him. Alexander Pecherskiy died in 1990 (after World War 2 he lived with his family in Rostov (Russia)). (http://www.jewish.aaanet.ru/645147/cs_t_page)