Marek Edelman

about 265,000 Jews were deported to Treblinka, more than 20,000 were sent to forced labor camps, some were dead while about 60,000 remained in Warsaw. On January 9, 1943, Himmler ordered the deportation of 8,000 Jews. The Jews were taken by surprise, but they quickly made use of their hiding places and did not report as ordered. This deportation effort was not successful. The Jews, beaten, stepped upon, and slaughtered without cause, lived in constant fear. Once the ghetto had been completely isolated, the Jews had no way to make a living, meaning they could not afford extra food or a place to live. “The hunger increased daily, it spoke through the mouths of beggars, the aged, the young, the children, on the streets and the courtyards” (Edelman 1). People began dying of hunger, more and more starving every day. Homeless and starving Jews began to roam the streets. Warsaw had to depend on the Nazis to give them food, but the Nazis only gave them each about 800 calories a day (a full grown man needs about 2,000.) Little children would sneak over the walls or through the sewers to smuggle food from the Aryan side of the ghetto, which was extremely dangerous because if anybody, even children, were caught trying to leave, they would be shot on sight. Disease spread through the Ghetto at an accelerated rate. A few hundred people stayed in the unkept, dirty and unsanitary synagogues. Jews were dying from hunger, disease, and from being killed at such a rate that grave diggers…

These individuals were not indifferent to the suffering that they witnessed. Marek Edelman was a Jewish- Political and social activist, he was also the last surviving leader of the Warsaw Ghetto uprising. He had his “courage,” “strong leaderships abilities,” and “idealism” that helped commence the Warsaw Ghetto uprising the “single largest Jewish armed resistance against the Nazis during the Holocaust.” Marek Edelman was one of a handful of young leaders who in April 1943 led a force of 220…