A story of sacrifice -- 70th anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising
THE WINDSOR STAR
The year 2013 marks the 70th anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising.
One year after the Germans attacked Poland and the Second World War started, in the autumn of 1940, the Germans confined more than 400,000 Jews in a designated part of Warsaw and sealed it off with a 10-foot high wall from the rest of the inhabitants.
It was the largest closed Jewish district in any German occupied country in Europe. Almost 10 per cent of the ghetto's population died of either cold, disease or starvation.
In the summer of 1942, the German troops started the liquidation of the ghetto (Operation Reinhard) by sending its people to the gas chambers of the Treblinka concentration camp. Capital punishment was imposed on those who tried to help the Jews.
But there were brave Polish people like Irena Sendler who was helping to save Jewish lives regardless. But from summer 1942 till spring 1943, more than 250,000 of the Warsaw Ghetto's Jews were "relocated" by Germans.
By that time, young Jewish women and men had started a Jewish Combat Organization. On the other hand, the Zionist people from the ghetto formed the Jewish Military Union.
These brave people decided to say "no" to the deportation that was happening. Starved and armed with a few machine guns, grenades and gasoline bottles, these brave people went up against Hitler's army of tanks.
Supplied by the Polish Home Army, weapons and homemade explosives were instruments of the Jewish fight for honour and dignity.
The uprising in the ghetto started April 19 and lasted less than a month. On May 16, 1943, German general Juergen Stroop proudly reported to Heinrich Himmler that the Warsaw ghetto was no more.
As an end of pacification of the ghetto, he blew up the Great Synagogue on Tlomackie Street. After the war, while in jail, Stroop recalled this moment: : "What a wonderful sight! I called out, Heil Hitler! and pressed the button. A terrific explosion brought flames right up to the clouds. The colours were unbelievable. An unforgettable allegory of the triumph over Jewry."
On May 16, 1943, in the homes and basements of the ghetto, were more than 50,000 Jews. About 6,000 died from gun wounds, fire and smoke inhalation, 7,000 were murdered in the ghetto by Germans, another 7,000 were sent to Treblinka death camp and the remaining 36,000 were sent to other death camps, mainly Majdanek and Auschwitz, run and operated by Germans. Very few had survived.
One of the leaders in the Uprising, Marek Edelman (1919-2009), survived by escaping through the sewers. During the fights in ghetto, the Free Polish Government was in exile in London, England, and appealed to other countries for help. But there was no reaction. Not even one!
As a protest to the world's impassivity to this tragedy, on May 12, 1943 a member of the Polish National Council in London, Szmul Zygielbojm committed suicide.
One year later, on Aug. 1, 1944, many of Warsaw's young people decided to fight the Germans in what was called the "Warsaw Uprising." About 250,000 Poles died in the span of two months.
One city, two heroic uprisings: 500,000 lives lost!
Lest we forget the sacrifice of those brave people in the heart of Europe, so we treasure and respect the peace and democracy we can enjoy in Canada today.
Arleta Sziler is president of the Polish-Canadian Women's Federation, Windsor Branch 20.
One year after the Germans attacked Poland and the Second World War started, in the autumn of 1940, the Germans confined more than 400,000 Jews in a designated part of Warsaw and sealed it off with a 10-foot high wall from the rest of the inhabitants.
It was the largest closed Jewish district in any German occupied country in Europe. Almost 10 per cent of the ghetto's population died of either cold, disease or starvation.
In the summer of 1942, the German troops started the liquidation of the ghetto (Operation Reinhard) by sending its people to the gas chambers of the Treblinka concentration camp. Capital punishment was imposed on those who tried to help the Jews.
But there were brave Polish people like Irena Sendler who was helping to save Jewish lives regardless. But from summer 1942 till spring 1943, more than 250,000 of the Warsaw Ghetto's Jews were "relocated" by Germans.
By that time, young Jewish women and men had started a Jewish Combat Organization. On the other hand, the Zionist people from the ghetto formed the Jewish Military Union.
These brave people decided to say "no" to the deportation that was happening. Starved and armed with a few machine guns, grenades and gasoline bottles, these brave people went up against Hitler's army of tanks.
Supplied by the Polish Home Army, weapons and homemade explosives were instruments of the Jewish fight for honour and dignity.
The uprising in the ghetto started April 19 and lasted less than a month. On May 16, 1943, German general Juergen Stroop proudly reported to Heinrich Himmler that the Warsaw ghetto was no more.
As an end of pacification of the ghetto, he blew up the Great Synagogue on Tlomackie Street. After the war, while in jail, Stroop recalled this moment: : "What a wonderful sight! I called out, Heil Hitler! and pressed the button. A terrific explosion brought flames right up to the clouds. The colours were unbelievable. An unforgettable allegory of the triumph over Jewry."
On May 16, 1943, in the homes and basements of the ghetto, were more than 50,000 Jews. About 6,000 died from gun wounds, fire and smoke inhalation, 7,000 were murdered in the ghetto by Germans, another 7,000 were sent to Treblinka death camp and the remaining 36,000 were sent to other death camps, mainly Majdanek and Auschwitz, run and operated by Germans. Very few had survived.
One of the leaders in the Uprising, Marek Edelman (1919-2009), survived by escaping through the sewers. During the fights in ghetto, the Free Polish Government was in exile in London, England, and appealed to other countries for help. But there was no reaction. Not even one!
As a protest to the world's impassivity to this tragedy, on May 12, 1943 a member of the Polish National Council in London, Szmul Zygielbojm committed suicide.
One year later, on Aug. 1, 1944, many of Warsaw's young people decided to fight the Germans in what was called the "Warsaw Uprising." About 250,000 Poles died in the span of two months.
One city, two heroic uprisings: 500,000 lives lost!
Lest we forget the sacrifice of those brave people in the heart of Europe, so we treasure and respect the peace and democracy we can enjoy in Canada today.
Arleta Sziler is president of the Polish-Canadian Women's Federation, Windsor Branch 20.
content copyright~9/27/2013 09:28:00 PM
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