Several hundred people commemorated the beginning of the Warsaw Ghetto uprising 64 years ago. Marek Edelman, the only surviving leader of the uprising against the Nazis, laid flowers Thursday at a memorial to ghetto rebels in central Warsaw.
President Lech Kaczynski placed a wreath at the memorial in honor of the victims, and Polish Chief Rabbi Michael Schudrich said Kaddish. “The fighters wanted to choose how they would die, they wanted to fight to the end,” Schudrich said. “This struggle is a lesson to us that the good must not remain silent.” The Nazis crammed some 400,000 Jews into the ghetto in 1940. After mass deportations to the Treblinka death camp in 1942, some 700 fighters launched an uprising against thousands of German soldiers. The uprising was crushed after nearly a month, and some 7,000 Jews were shot. The remaining Jews were sent to concentration camps.
Help ensure Jewish news remains accessible to all. Your donation to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency powers the trusted journalism that has connected Jewish communities worldwide for more than 100 years. With your help, JTA can continue to deliver vital news and insights. Donate today.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
