I Came as the Lamb, but I Return as the Lion

April 19th, 1943, 41 years ago, the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising began. There is a new photo album to the left, with pictures of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, courtesy of the Simon Wiesenthal Center.

Here, an SS officer points a pistol at a captured Jewish fighter during the Uprising.

In the summer of 1942, about 300,000 Jews were deported from Warsaw to Treblinka. When reports of mass murder in the killing center leaked back to the Warsaw ghetto, a surviving group of mostly young people formed an organization called the Z.O.B. (for the Polish name, Zydowska Organizacja Bojowa, which means Jewish Fighting Organization). The Z.O.B., led by 23-year-old Mordecai Anielewicz, issued a proclamation calling for the Jewish people to resist going to the railroad cars. In January 1943, Warsaw ghetto fighters fired upon German troops as they tried to round up another group of ghetto inhabitants for deportation. Fighters used a small supply of weapons that had been smuggled into the ghetto. After a few days, the troops retreated. This small victory inspired the ghetto fighters to prepare for future resistance.

The Simon Wiesenthal Center, an outstanding reference for materiel about the Shoah, correctly explains that

These survivors felt isolated and bitter. Most of them were young people who now blamed themselves for not having offered armed resistance against the deportation of their families.

They came as Lambs, but please do not think I judge them for this. Too many ignorant people 'blame' the Jews for going like sheeps to the slaughter. In the first case, this is simply wrong as a matter of history, and to the extent the description is accurate, it oversimplifies the effects of 800 years of persecution, separation, torture, murder, expulsion, and forced conversions. Nevertheless, in (some of) their own eyes, they came as Lambs.

The story continues:

This mood was share by the factions in the ghetto underground. In October more of them joined the ZOB which now represented all the active forces in the underground, with the exception of Betar and the Revisionists, who set up a fighting organization of their own, the ZYDOWSKI ZWIAZEK WOJSKOWY (Jewish Military Union; ZZW). ZOB emissaries finally succeeded in establishing contact with the ARMIA KRAJOWA, the major element in the Polish military underground, gaining its recognition and obtaining from it a small quantity of arms.

On Monday, January 18, 1943, before the ZOB had completed its preparations, the Germans launched the second wave of deportations, the "January Aktion." It was this second Aktion in the ghetto by the German police and SS that became the ZOB's first military test. Judging by what it had experienced in the first wave of DEPORTATIONS, which had taken 83 percent of the Jews in the ghetto, the surviving Jewish population assumed that the second Aktion was to be the final deportation of Warsaw's Jews. Two companies that were equipped with arms - Ha - Shomer ha - Tsa'ir and Dror - went into action. The main operation, commanded by Mordecai ANIELEWICZ, took place in the street. That fight was the first in which Germans were attacked in the ghetto. Most of the Jewish fighters fell in the battle. That day, January 18, 1943, was not only the ZOB's baptism of fire. In the course of the Aktion there was a decisive change in the ghetto population's pattern of behavior. When the Aktion ended, on the fourth day, five thousand to six thousand Jews had been caught. The Jews interpreted the early discontinuation of the Aktion by the Germans as a sign of weakness and a retreat before the forces that had confronted them; the Polish underground also assumed that the Jewish resistance had compelled the Germans to interrupt the Aktion.

These events in January had a decisive impact on the preparations that were being made for the next uprising; the three months from January to April were utilized for feverish activities to put the ZOB in a state of readiness for the forthcoming test on the field of battle. One of the lessons that the ZOB had learned from the January events was that the ghetto might once again be taken by surprise with an Aktion and that therefore the ZOB and all its fighters had to be on a permanent alert. A total of twenty - two fighting units were formed in that period, based on the movements to which their members belonged. Another "January lesson" was that the enemy had to be taken unaware by the attacks and that these had to be launched from well - prepared positions in the maze of the ghetto buildings and roof attics.
The weapons in the hands of the fighting organizations were mostly pistols and a few automatic weapons. In this waiting period between January and April, the ZOB could have recruited many new members to its ranks, but a real expansion of the force was precluded by the lack of arms. Shortly before the uprising was launched, the ZOB's armed and organized force consisted of twenty - two fighting units, with a total of 500 fighters. The ZZW had 200 to 250 fighters, and the total Jewish fighting forces in the ghetto numbered 700 to 750.

The civilian population of the ghetto also underwent a transformation that was to have a decisive impact on the course of events during the uprising. The Jews in the ghetto believed that what had happened in January was proof that by offering resistance it was possible to force the Germans to desist from their plans. Many thought that the Germans would persist in unrestrained mass deportations only so long as the Jews were passive, but that in the face of resistance and armed confrontation they would think twice before embarking upon yet another Aktion. The Germans would also have to take into account the possibility that the outbreak of fighting in the ghetto might lead to the rebellion spreading to the Polish population and might create a state of insecurity in all of occupied POLAND. These considerations led the civilian population of the ghetto, in the final phase of its existence, to approve of resistance and give its support to the preparations for the uprising. The population also used the interval to prepare and equip a network of subterranean refuges and hiding places, where they could hold out for an extended period even if they were cut off from one another. In the end, every Jew in the ghetto had his own spot in one of the shelters set up in the central part of the ghetto. The civilian population and the fighters now shared a common interest based on the hope that, under the existing circumstances, fighting the Germans might be a way to rescue.

The Uprising began on April 19th, Erev Pesach, the first night of Passover. The Germans expected to crush the Jewish resistance in approximately three days.

It took almost one month.

The three months between January and April were used for intensively training the fighting forces, acquiring weapons, and drawing up a strategic plan for the defense of the ghetto. The last Aktion and the resistance campaign that came to be known as the Warsaw ghetto uprising began on April 19, 1943, which was the eve of Passover. The ghetto fighters had been warned and had advance knowledge of the timing of what was to be the final deportation. There is no doubt that the chief of the SS and police in the Warsaw district, Obergruppenfuhrer Ferdinand von Sammern-Frankenegg, was aware of the existence of a Jewish defense formation, but he apparently did not dare admit to his superiors in Krakow that a significant Jewish fighting force had been established in the ghetto. Heinrich HIMMLER did not rely on Sammern - Frankenegg, and on the eve of the final deportation he replaced him with a man who had experience in fighting partisans, SS und Polizeifuhrer (SS and Police Leader) Jurgen STROOP, whose task it became to suppress the uprising and bring the ghetto to its knees.

In the twenty - seven days that the uprising lasted, the Nazis deployed a considerable military force. On the morning of April 19, when the German forces entered the ghetto, they did not find a living soul in the central part, except for a group of policemen. The entire Jewish population had taken to the hiding places and bunkers, and by refusing to comply with the German's orders they became part of the uprising. That day, following the first clash, the Germans were forced to withdraw from the ghetto.

The face - to - face fighting lasted for several days. The Germans were not able to capture or hit the Jewish fighters, who after every clash managed to retreat by way of the roofs; nor could the Germans lay hands on the Jews hiding in the bunkers. The Germans therefore decided to burn the ghetto systematically, building by building; this forced the fighters to take to the bunkers themselves and to resort to PARTISAN tactics by staging sporadic raids.

The bunker war - the burning of the bunkers - turned out to be the Germans' most difficult and troublesome task. Time and again Stroop claimed in his daily reports that he had overcome resistance and that the uprising was dying out, only to report the next day that there was no end to the attacks and the losses suffered by his troops.

On May 8 the headquarters bunker of the ZOB at 18 Mila Street fell, and with it also Mordecai Anielewicz and a large group of fighters and commanders. The ZOB fighters had not made any plans for a retreat from the ghetto, their assumption being that the battle would go on inside the ghetto until the last fighter had fallen. In a mission arranged by the ZOB men on the Polish side several dozen fighters were saved by escaping through the sewers.

On May 16 Stroop announced that the fighting was over and that "we succeeded in capturing altogether 56,065 Jews, that is, definitely destroying them." He stated that he was going to blow up the Great Synagogue on Tlomack Street (which was outside the ghetto and the scene of the fighting) as a symbol of victory and of the fact that "the Jewish quarter of Warsaw no longer exists."
Even after May 16 there were still hundreds of Jews in the subterranean bunkers of the ghetto, which was now a heap of ruins. The Warsaw ghetto uprising was the first instance in occupied Europe of an uprising by an urban population.

April 19th to May 16th. Almost one month. They came as Lambs. They died as Lions.

And now? Who carries on the tradition of these fighters?

I do.

So do these men. And him. And those who do this.

We are the Lions. Ha'Arim.

Comments

[Haggai]

There wasn't really any way those people in the Warsaw ghetto were going to survive the war, so it was good that they did what they could to stick it to the Germans. There were only a couple of dozen German casualties, I think, but it sure took them longer to wipe everyone out than they had imagined.

But it's hard to make a broader point for other urban populations in German-occupied Europe at that time. A lot of the partisan/resistance fighters in various countries were very brave and did some heroic things, but sometimes the results might not have been worth it. Like when some Czech guys took out Reinhard Heydrich, who was basically Himmler's #2 in the SS/Gestapo hierarchy. The Germans responded by razing an entire village, Lidice, and killing everyone in it. Maybe some, or even most, of those people could have survived the war if Heydrich hadn't been assassinated. The question of how much was gained by killing him, when balanced against the results, doesn't seem so positive for the resistance guys who pulled it off (quite heroically, I think they all died in the attack). Not an easy set of decisions for anyone who lived through that hell.

[Milton]

Agreed on all counts. I wasn't trying to single the Jewish resistance fighters out, as opposed to other partisans during those years.

[Michael Morgan]

Fascinating, Milt. Thanks for pointing this out. It's a tragedy they weren't more heavily armed.

(So, you will be buying a firearm soon? Or have you already?

Also: The Fight2Survive folks don't seem to have any local locations listed. Does their website need updating?)

[Haggai]

Right, Milton, I didn't think you were. I just thought to make that comment because of the last line in the text you quoted from the Weisenthal Center, that "the Warsaw ghetto uprising was the first instance in occupied Europe of an uprising by an urban population."

[Orbit]

Interesting article - the living family of the mentioned Obergruppenfuhrer Ferdinand von Sammern-Frankenegg, is in Davis, California, and the elder father, a film professor via Sweden. I enjoyed the TP article.

- Orbit