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
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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.
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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.