From Warsaw to the West Bank

Women throw hand grenades. Children fight like soldiers. Occupying soldiers prevent food and medicine from the civilian population. Buildings and homes are destroyed. Arms are smuggled. A relatively unarmed civilian population fights one of the most powerful armies in the world.



Welcome to the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising of April, 1943. Under the leadership of Mordecai Anielewicz, Warsaw Ghetto Jews staged the first urban uprising in Occupied Europe. Jewish fighters held out against heavy German attack for 27 days. Their arsenal consisted of nine rifles, 59 pistols, and several hundred grenades, explosives, and mines.

Clearly, Jews faced overwhelmingly superior forces. Consider the results of the Nazi’s military victory: Of the Jews captured, 7,000 were shot, 7,000 were transported to the death camp of Treblinka, and 15,000 were shipped to Lublin. Among the Nazis and their collaborators, the losses were 16 dead and 85 wounded