April 20th is Hitler’s Birthday. In 1943, Heinrich Himmler wanted to give Hitler a particularly nice birthday present. He decided that in honor of Hitler’s birthday he would eliminate the entire Jewish Ghetto of Warsaw, which had been causing trouble in the early months of 1943.
Instead, the Jews of Warsaw gave Hitler a present that he certainly didn’t want: months of armed rebellion that DEFEATED the German army repeatedly and wasn’t completely crushed until October 1943, though major combat operations, to borrow a phrase, were completed around May. Including the periods of more sporadic fighting, this resistance lasted far longer than the German take over of Poland as a whole, which took scarcely one month. It is pointed out in Melvin Konner’s book Unsettled that the Warsaw Ghetto uprising, largely fought by Jews but with some Polish uprisings occurring at the same time and inspired by the Jewish uprising, also lasted longer than the time it took Germany to defeat France, though again you have to include the period of more sporadic fighting as well as the main combat.
The uprising was partly inspired by the Socialist Zionist organization Hashomer Hatzair (coincidentally, my mother briefly belonged to this organization in her youth). Insurgency started in January, 1943. By the end of January the Ghetto was actually controlled by two armed Jewish organizations, one led by Mordechai Anielewicz, of Hashomer Hatzair, and Zivia Lubetkin (who survived the uprising) and the other led by Dawid Mordechaj Apfelbaum, a former officer in the Polish army. As Passover began on April 19th, Himmler’s birthday present to Hitler also began, with thousands of German, Polish and Ukrainian forces attacking the Ghetto. They moved in at 4 a.m. They moved throughout the Ghetto and believed they had occupied it within 4 hours. Then, at the intersection of Mila and Zamenhofa Streets, the insurgents struck with a single captured machine gun, ample small arms fire, and many Molotov cocktails. The Germans were completely routed by the Jewish insurgents by 2 P.M., providing Hitler with a major embarrassment for his birthday.
The next day the German, Polish and Ukrainian forces moved in again and took part of the Ghetto, taking their revenge on those left behind in the Jewish hospital. The Jews counter attacked and drove the Germans back again. The next day the German general set fire to the Ghetto in an attempt to burn the problem. But the uprising continued, though more as a guerilla war rather than the pitched battles of the first few days. Mordechai Anielewicz was killed by a German assault on May 8. On May 16th the Germans declared victory over the now completely destroyed Ghetto. But attacks and assassinations continued. Fighters continued to exchange gunfire with Germans into September. In October the rubble of the Ghetto was removed, leaving nothing behind.
But even after that, Jewish survivors of the 1943, mostly Jewish Warsaw uprising, including Zivia Lubetkin, participated in the wider, Polish uprising in August 1944.
I should note that I find many dates for the end of the uprising. Some fighters placed it as early as May 10th. The Germans officially announced “Mission Accomplished†on May 16th. By then the Ghetto was burned out and the leadership of the resistance either killed or escaped. But fighting did continue, killing Germans here and there, until much later.
You can read an riveting account of the Warsaw Ghetto and the uprising by a survivor, here.
Photos are taken from a Polish language site dedicated to the uprising.
I wish upon Hitler and all who follow him to this day a birthday like the Jews gave him in 1943.
