The Origins Of The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising

The defining symbol of Jewish resistance to Nazi oppression during the Second World War occurred in the Warsaw Ghetto between April 19 and May 16, 1943. After the first major removal of Jews from the Ghetto (22 July-3 October 1942), the inhabitants knew that there existed no other option but resistance. The uprising was not necessarily a fight for survival, but rather a fight to die with honor and dignity. The inhabitants of the Ghetto knew that the Nazis intended to round them up and ship them to the gas chambers of Treblinka and other death camps. The Jews fought for nearly a month because, after the mass deportation, they built bunkers and hideouts across the Ghetto, had access to chemicals for explosives, small arms smuggled in by the Polish underground, and the SS units involved in suppressing the uprising had relatively little experience or training. …show more content…
The true beginning of the uprising was the creation of the Warsaw Ghetto in November of 1940 when the Nazis packed over 400,000 Jews in a Ghetto of Warsaw separated from the rest of the city. The Ghetto was separated from the rest of the city by fire and partition walls and by walled-up thoroughfares, windows, doors, and empty lots. The nearly walled off Warsaw Ghetto contained approximately 27,000 apartments which averaged around 2 ½ rooms. Conditions were deplorable and overcrowding was a constant issue. Death from starvation, exposure, and random acts of violence existed as a constant threat to the Jewish inhabitants. Due to “security considerations” the Jews of Warsaw needed to be “completely removed from the city of