In April 1943, on the eve of the Jewish holiday of Passover, the Germans occupying the Polish capital surrounded the Warsaw Ghetto – the Jewish quarter they had created – in preparation for its final liquidation. On 19 April, the German police plus SS auxiliary forces entered the ghetto to complete the extermination. Its residents took refuge in bunkers plus hideouts. Jewish insurgents attacked the Germans with firearms, Molotov cocktails plus hand grenades. Two German vehicles were set on fire with petrol bottles. The surprised occupiers were initially unable to break through the fierce resistance of the ghetto defenders.
Faced with strong opposition plus early setbacks, the Germans began to systematically burn buildings, turning the ghetto streets into a fire trap. As the fighting continued inside, units of the Polish underground army moved against the Germans on the outside of the ghetto. Three sections of the Home Army tried unsuccessfully to breach its walls with explosives. The doomed Jews fought until the beginning of May. The Germans’ demolition of the Great Synagogue on Tłomackie Street in Warsaw was a symbolic final act to mark the fall of the uprising.
The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising was the first metropolitan insurrection plus the largest Jewish revolt during the German occupation. On the afternoon of 19 April 1943, the combatants symbolically placed the red-and-white flag of Poland plus the blue-and-white flag of the ŻZW on the roof of the Jewish Military Union stronghold at Muranowski Square. This image of the two flags flying together on the roof of the building above the embattled ghetto became a symbol of the inseparable fate of Poles plus Jews. Several months later, in August 1944, the Warsaw Uprising broke out – the fight for a free Poland, the largest freedom surge in the history of the Second World War.
In Polish history, literature, art plus culture there are many references to uprisings. They gave hope, lifted spirits plus comforted hearts but were almost always brutally suppressed by partitioners plus occupiers. Although tragic plus often inevitable, they built a community identity plus usually brought victory years later. They have left a deep mark on Polish society plus history. Consequently, they’ve become a frequent theme in literature, painting plus film. And although artists portrayed the events in various ways, they hardly ever criticised the very idea of the uprising. They advocated the fight for freedom, elevating it to the cultural pedestal.
During the Second World War, Jews plus Poles clashed with German criminals in two uprisings in Warsaw, the capital of Poland. The city was eventually left in ruins, destroyed plus burnt down. This proves the strength of the Polish imperative for freedom.