From the Diary of Emanuel Ringelblum on the Reactions in the to the ‘Great Action’

The famed Uprising, in April and May, 1943 in the , is universally regarded as a turning point, an absolutely new departure, not only in the chronicles of Jewish resistance to the German oppressor, but also in the history of the general struggle for the liberation of Warsaw. This was the first time when took part in a major, indeed large-scale battle of that struggle. For the first time, after the defeat in 1939, the thunder of cannon and the echoing clutter of machine-guns were heard again in the capital city of Poland. The Jewish Uprising induced changes in the struggle of the Polish underground movement, which until then had concentrated its efforts mainly on acts of sabotage, and on acquiring arms and ammunition by disarming German soldiers and police. April 19, 1943, became a symbol of the Jewish public’s contribution to the fight for freedom from the Nazi regime, and a motivating factor in the war of the Polish underground.

“Little Stalingrad” Defends Itself As soon as the round-ups stopped in September 1942 and numerous reports started arriving from eye witnesses of the mass slaughter in Treblinka, the terrible awakening took place. The Jewish public understood what a terrible error had been made by not offering resistance to the SS. It was argued that if on the day the Warsaw “resettlement action” was announced, everyone had rebelled, if the Germans had been attacked with knives, sticks, spades and axes, if hydrochloric acid, melted tat, boiling water, etc., had been poured over the Germans, Ukrainians, Latvians and Jewish Order Service, in short if men, women and children, young and old, had begun a mass rising, there would not have been three hundred and fifty thousand murdered in Treblinka, but only fifty thousand shot in the streets of the capital. Husbands tore their hair because they had to let the Germans, unarmed, take away those dearest to them, their wives and children; children loudly reproached themselves for allowing their parents to be taken away. Oaths were sworn aloud: Never again

______1/3 Shoah Resource Center, The International School for Holocaust Studies shall the Germans move us from here with impunity; we shall die, but the cruel invaders will pay with their blood for ours. Our fate is sealed, people were saying. Every Jew carries a death sentence in his pocket, handed him by the greatest murderer of all time. Thus we must think not so much of saving our lives, which seems to be a very problematic affair, but rather of dying an honourable death, dying with weapons in our hands. The oath that was sworn in the name of the beloved victims was kept. The Ghetto began to arm itself and to prepare for the new blows that were expected at any moment. Underground bunkers were dug to serve as shelter in time of danger. The Ghetto was purged of local traitors, the Jewish -men, who had spread false tales during the “resettlement action” in order to forestall any thought of resistance, stories that the “action” would end, that people were being moved to the East where children were being given fresh milk. They were now shot like dogs for spreading tales about camps in different places for Warsaw Jews, camps for Warsaw children, etc., in order to lull the suspicions of the Jewish population. The Combat Organization dealt, in the first place, with the people who had conducted the “resettlement action”. The head of the Jewish Order Service, Colonel Szerynski, a converted Jew and a former Polish Police officer, had given the Germans loyal service. For his energetic conduct of the “resettlement action”, he was seriously wounded by a combatant. His deputy, the advocate Lejkin, whose head had been turned by power and who had exceeded all bounds in his loyalty to the Germans, was “finished off” by the Combat Organization, to the great satisfaction of the whole Jewish population.1 The Combat Organization set about preparing cadres for the coming struggle with the invaders. Government elements were again approached for help with arming.

1 The public announcement of the Combat Organization on the day after the execution stated: “Further reprisal measures will be taken with the full rigour of the law”, and it informed the population that the following categories of people would be placed in the dock: 1) The Warsaw and its presidency for collaboration with the Germans and help afforded them in carrying out the deportation; 2) workshop foremen and their staffs for exploiting and maltreating the workers; 3) the group leaders and officials of the Werkschutz (the body that guarded the German concerns; it included some Jews) for their cruel attitude towards the workers and the “illegal” Jewish population.

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Source: Joseph Kermish, (Ed.), To Live with Honor and Die with Honor! Selected Documents from the Warsaw Ghetto Underground Archives “O.S” [“Oneg Shabbath”], 1986, pp. 594-596.

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