80 years ago after suffering unimaginable sickness, starvation, beatings, death and deportation, Jewish fighters rose up against their Nazi captors in a heroic act of resistance known today as the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising.
In 1939, the Nazis began the forced removal of three million Polish Jews from their homes and transferred them to crowded ghettos across Poland, including Europe's largest, the Warsaw Ghetto.
In
November 1940, 380,000 Jews were sealed inside the Warsaw Ghetto.
Conditions in the ghetto were horrific.
Over 80,000 died as a result of overcrowding & starvation. Those who remained alive were completely cut off from the outside.
On January 18, 1943, following an Aktion launched by the Germans, ghetto inhabitants believed a final deportation was looming.
23 year old Jewish underground leader Mordechai Anielewicz instructed members to fight back with arms.
This act of resistance empowered the Jewish Underground to prepare for a large scale mission, which included hiding in bunkers in the cellars of homes.
On April 19, 1943, the eve of Passover, the Germans began the final liquidation of the ghetto.
The residents and Jewish fighter groups in the ghetto barricaded themselves in bunkers and hideouts and took the Germans by surprise.
In response, the Nazis created a dangerous firetrap and began systematically burning down buildings.
The brave and courageous Jewish men, women and children fought valiantly for a month, until they were defeated by the Germans.
13,000 Jews were killed and about 50,000 were deported to extermination camps following the uprising.
The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising became a symbol of resistance for Jewish victims in other ghettos and camps & gave them hope in a time of unimaginable darkness.
"The Jewish soul was a target of the enemy. He sought to corrupt it even as he strove to destroy us physically. But despite his destructive force, despite his corrupting power, the Jewish soul remained beyond his reach."-Elie Wiesel
We promise to keep their memory and legacy alive