Warsaw Ghetto Outline I. Background info II. Invasions A. Poland invasion B. Ghetto establishment C. III. Killings IV. Liquidations Warsaw 1 V. Table of Contents Warsaw ..................................................................................................................................2 Invasions ................................................................................................................................3 Killings ...................................................................................................................................4 Liquidations ...........................................................................................................................5 Warsaw 1 Daniel Akawor Ms. Murphy English period 3 22 Apr 2013 Warsaw Ghettos Warsaw Warsaw was the capital city in Poland, which flanked both banks of the Vistula River; the population of the city was 1.3 million people, before World War 2 Jews were about 30% of the whole city’s population. The Warsaw Jewish community was the largest in both Poland and Europe, and the second largest in the world. At the time, Jews were not safe in Germany; they were ruled by a dictator named Adolf Hitler, he was born Austrian German Politian and leader of Nazi Germany; one thing to be known about Nazis is that they strongly despised Jews, Nazis also hated education according to leading member of the Nazi Party Hermann Goring, “Education is dangerous, and every educated person is a future enemy” (Goring; Nazism). Adolf Hitler’s way of persuading people was so strong, “Make the lie big, make it simple, keep saying it, and eventually they will believe it” (Hitler; Nazism). Invasions On September 1 1939, The Germans invaded Poland and fired them with air attacks, On October 12, 1940 the Germans decreed the establishment of a ghetto; this meant that all Jewish residents were to move into a designated area, which the Germans sealed off, from the rest of the city; the Ghetto walls were over 10 feet tall with barbed wire at the top. While in the Ghettos, the food given by the Germans was not enough to keep people alive; the Jewish Mutual aid society Warsaw 1 was an organization that attempted to keep Jews alive who struggled from starvations, exposure, and infectious diseases. While all this was going on, not much of the world was paying attention, Hitler ones said: “It also gives us a very special, secret pleasure to see how unaware people around us are of what is really happening to them”. (Hitler; Nazism). Killings Between July 22 and September 12, The German authorities deployed or murdered around 300,000 Jews in the Warsaw Ghetto. SS and Police units deported 265,000 to the Treblinka killing center and 11, 580 to forced-labor camps; the Germans granted only 35,000 Jews permission to stay in the Ghettos, Joseph Goebbels, the Nazi Germans controlled the information that got in and out of Germany and some of the time they were not telling the full story; a Nazi propaganda minister once said this famous quote, “Think of the press as a great keyboard on which the government can play”. (Goebbels; Nazism). In response to these deportations, on July 28 1942, several Jewish organizations created an armed self-defense unit known as the Jewish Combat Organization, known as (Zydowska Organizacja Bojowa); ZOB, it is estimated that the population of the ZOB was around 200 members; they were hugely and clearly outnumbered compared to the German Nazis, A revisionist party formed another resistance movement known as the Jewish Military Union (Zydowski Zwiazek Wojskowy); ZZW. Initially there was tension between the ZOB and ZZW, but the both of the organizations decided to work together to oppose German attempts to destroy the Ghetto. The ZOB gained contacts with the Home Army and gained a number of weapons, mostly pistols and explosives, from them. Liquidations Warsaw 1 On October of 1942, there was an order to liquidate the ghettos and deport its able bodied residents to a forced labor camp, on that day, the Jewish resistance groups fought the column of Nazis trying to deport the Jews and surprisingly dispersed the Jews; despite their success many Jewish fighters died that day. Those Jews that were dispersed had a chance to run and escape from the hands of the German soldiers. The Germans seized 5,000-6,500 Jews that were to be deported that day. As a result of this, the Germans suspended further deportations to January 21. That one success really elevated the morale of the Jewish residents in the Ghettos; this motivated them to create subterranean bunkers and shelters in preparation for a final German deportation attempt. Germans forces intended to plan another liquidation of the ghettos on April 19, 1943. When the German forces entered the Ghetto that morning, the streets were deserted; the renewal of the deportations was the signal for an armed uprising within the Ghettos. Mordecai Anielewicz was the leader/commander of ZOB, the armed resistance movement. Armed with pistols, grenades (many of them homemade), and a few automatic weapons, the Jews actually surprised the Germans on the first day of fighting forcing the Germans to retreat outside the Ghetto walls. The Germans recorded losing 12 men, killed and wounded. On the third day of the uprising, the Germans really razed the ghetto buildings to the ground, building by building. They forced the remaining Jews out of hiding they killed Anielewicz and those with him on an attack at the bunker on 18 Mila street. So basically to show off, the Germans ordered the destroying of the Great Synagogue; they had captured 56,065 Jews and destroyed 631 bunkers, it was estimated that 7,000 Jews were killed and another 7,000 to the Treblinka Killing Center were almost all killed. The Germans deported an approximately 42,000 to forced-labor camps. Warsaw 1 In totality the Warsaw Ghetto was definitely not the place to be, the influence of the Germans had a strong, firm grip on the Jews. Even today, to describe something vile and cruel, people use the example of the Nazi rule, “It would be to my greatest sadness to see Jews do to Palestinian Arabs much of what Nazis did to Jews”. (Einstein; Nazism). Even the Germans were so brainwashed at the world around them, this German stated, “Hitler is lonely, so is God. Hitler is like God.” (Frank; Hitler’s Henchmen and Nazi Sympathizers). How do you even think of that? I mean it like sound very normal considering the fact that these Germans thought highly of Hitler, but how do you just sit down somewhere and call someone God, especially after all the evil things he had done to the Jews… to me that is mind-blowing. The Jews fought hard, because the Germans intended on liquidating, the Ghettos in three days, but the Jews held out for a month, sadly things took the wrong turn in the end. Warsaw 1 Cited Sources "The History Place - World War II in Europe Timeline: April 19, 1943 - Waffen SS Attacks Jewish Resistance in Warsaw." The History Place - World War II in Europe Timeline: April 19, 1943 - Waffen SS Attacks Jewish Resistance in Warsaw. N.p, n.d. Web. 25 Apr. 2013.