a bunker in the warsaw ghetto uprising

A BUNKER IN THE WARSAW GHETTO UPRISING
This photograph shows a Jewish fighter in an underground bunker during the Warsaw
Ghetto Uprising of 1943. When the ghetto was created in 1940, more than 400,000 people
were imprisoned within its walls; tens of thousands died of disease and starvation. Between
July and September 1942, at least 235,000 people – including almost all children and old
people – were deported from the ghetto to their deaths in the Treblinka extermination
camp. By 1943 only 60,000 people remained in the ghetto. When the final deportations
began on 19th April 1943, Jewish resistance groups launched the uprising. They fought
German forces for four weeks. (Picture credit: USHMM)
 What would have been the difficulties in organising the uprising?
 Why do you think that Warsaw’s Jews were more likely to resist the
deportations in 1943 than in 1942?
 Do you think the uprising had any chance of success? If not, why do you think it
was organised?
SURVIVORS OF THE SOBIBÓR UPRISING
This photograph shows a group of survivors of the uprising in the Sobibór extermination
camp. Sobibór was located in a remote area of Poland where few people lived. It was
surrounded by forests and swamps. Mines were planted around the camp. Between May
1942 and September 1943 at least 170,000 Jews were murdered there. Nearly all of the
people who were sent to Sobibór were killed immediately but a small number (around 700)
were selected to work, either disposing of bodies or sorting property stolen from the victims.
On 14th October 1943, the prisoners rebelled. They killed around 20 SS men and Ukrainian
guards. Around 300 prisoners were able to escape but most were caught and killed soon
afterwards. Between 50 and 70 survived to the end of the war. (Picture credit: USHMM)
 What would have been the difficulties in organising the uprising?
 If prisoners did manage to escape, what challenges would they have faced?
 Most of the people who took part in the uprising were killed. Does this mean it
was a failure?
JEWISH PARTISANS IN VILNA
This photograph shows a group of partisans in Vilna following the liberation of the city in
1944. In 1941 the Nazis had murdered most of Vilna’s Jews; around 20,000 remained in
the ghetto which was created in September of that year. The leader of the ghetto’s Jewish
Council, Jacob Gens, hoped that they could survive by working in German factories.
Therefore, he tried not to do anything which would anger the Nazis. Some people
disagreed and argued that the Nazis intended to kill all Jews. They formed resistance
groups and escaped from the ghetto. These partisans used forests as a base for guerrilla
fighting against the Germans. The Vilna Ghetto was liquidated in September 1943. (Picture
credit: Yad Vashem)
 How is this photograph different from most images you have seen of Jews in
the Holocaust?
 Why do you think more people did not try to escape to the partisans? (Look
carefully at the people in the photograph – this may give you some clues.)
 Partisans resisted the Nazis by fighting them. Are there any other ways in which
they could be seen as resisting?
YOURA LIVSCHITZ
Youra Livschitz was a Jewish medical student and a member of
the Belgian Resistance. On 19th April 1943, Youra and two nonJewish friends – Jean Franklemon and Robert Maistriau –
succeeded in stopping a train carrying 1,631 Jews from the
Mechelen transit camp to Auschwitz-Birkenau. The three young
men were armed only with a pistol, a pair of wire cutters, and a
lamp covered in red paper to make it look like a stop signal. Their
actions helped 231 people to get off the train; 115 of these people
successfully escaped. The youngest survivor was an 11-year-old
boy. Youra was arrested by the Gestapo in 1944 and executed.
(Picture credit: Yad Vashem)
 What would have been the difficulties and dangers faced
by Youra and his friends?
 What do you think motivated Youra and his friends?
 Why do you think no one else attempted to do this
anywhere else in Europe?
JEWISH CHILDREN RESCUED FROM AMSTERDAM
This photograph shows six Dutch Jewish children who were rescued during the Holocaust.
When deportations to Auschwitz-Birkenau began in 1942, Amsterdam’s Jews were held in
a theatre in the city centre before they were sent to the Westerbork transit camp. Babies
and toddlers were placed in a nursery opposite the theatre. The Jewish officials responsible
for registering new arrivals tried to ensure that the children were not registered. The
children were then smuggled out of the nursery in rucksacks, laundry baskets and even
milk churns by the Jewish nursery staff. Homes were found for them in the countryside with
the help of the Dutch Resistance. Hundreds of children were saved. (Picture credit: USHMM)
 How is this photograph different from the images usually associated with the
Holocaust?
 What challenges would the rescuers have faced? What challenges would the
children have faced?
 Why do you think that stories of Jews who rescued Jews are less well-known
than stories of non-Jews who rescued Jews?
A FLASK FOUND IN AUSCHWITZ-BIRKENAU
This photograph shows the remains of a flask which was discovered near the ruins of one
of the gas chambers in Auschwitz-Birkenau in 1980. The flask contained a letter written in
1944 by a Greek Jew called Marcel Nadjary who was a member of the Sonderkommando.
The Sonderkommando were Jewish prisoners who were selected to work in and around the
gas chambers and crematoria. Other members of the Sonderkommando also wrote letters
or notebooks which they buried under the soil near the gas chambers. In their writings,
they described their experiences. Marcel Nadjary survived the war but nearly all other
Sonderkommando members were murdered. Many of them died after an armed revolt by
the Sonderkommando in October 1944. (Picture credit: Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum)
 What would have been the difficulties in writing and hiding a letter or a
notebook in Auschwitz-Birkenau?
 The members of the Sonderkommando did not expect to live. Why do you think
they wrote their letters and notebooks?
 In what ways did the Sonderkommando resist the Nazis?
THE ONEG SHABBAT ARCHIVES
This photograph was taken in Warsaw in 1950. It shows the excavation of boxes containing
papers from the Oneg Shabbat archive. Oneg Shabbat was a project organised by a
Jewish historian named Emmanuel Ringelblum: he and his colleagues tried to record life in
the Warsaw Ghetto by collecting artefacts such as diaries, newspapers, statistical reports,
poems and even sweet wrappers. The archives were buried during the mass deportations
from Warsaw in 1942-43: most – but not all – were discovered after the war. Ringelblum
escaped from the ghetto in 1943 but his hiding place was discovered in 1944. He was
executed along with 40 other Jews hiding in the same house and the Polish family who had
been hiding them. (Picture credit: Yad Vashem)
 What would have been the challenges in collecting and preserving the archive?
 Do you think that the people who collected the archive expected to live? If not,
why do you think that they carried out their work?
 Are there any ways in which the archive can be seen as a type of resistance?
A PAINTING FROM TEREZÍN
This painting was produced by Malva Schalek, a Jewish artist who was deported to Terezín
(Theresienstadt in German) in 1942. Terezín was a special ghetto near Prague for Czech
Jews as well as prominent Jews from Germany and Austria. The Nazis tried to use the
ghetto as propaganda to convince people in Germany and other countries that Jews were
being well-treated. This meant that residents of Terezín sometimes had slightly more
freedom than Jews in other ghettos. However, living conditions were still poor and most
people were eventually deported to killing sites in eastern Europe. Malva produced more
than 100 paintings and drawings which showed scenes of life in Terezín. In 1944, she was
deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau where she was murdered. (Picture credit: Ghetto Fighters’ House)
 What do you think the man in the painting is doing?
 The Nazis used the Star of David as a symbol of shame for Jews. What role does
it have in this painting? How might this link to resistance?
 Are there any ways in which the painting itself could be seen as an act of
resistance?
A SECRET SCHOOL IN THE KAUNAS GHETTO
This photograph shows one of several secret schools that existed in the Kaunas (Kovno)
Ghetto. Following the invasion of the Soviet Union, a ghetto was established in Kaunas in
August 1941. Its population included almost 10,000 children and teenagers. Around half of
these children were shot in October 1941. The ghetto’s Jewish Council created schools for
the surviving children but these were banned by the Nazis in August 1942. Soon after, the
Germans forced children as young as 12 to work. Many younger children also worked so
that their families could get extra food. Murders continued throughout this period. Despite
this, secret schools were created for some children and were illegally supported by the
Jewish Council. In March 1944 the Nazis murdered the remaining children. (Photo credit: USHMM)
 What would have been the difficulties and dangers in educating the children?
 Most Jewish children in Kaunas were murdered in 1941 and the children who
survived lived in constant danger of death. Why, then, were the schools
created?
 Can education be seen as an act of resistance? If so, how?
THEATRE IN THE ŁÓDŹ GHETTO
This photograph shows the performance of a play called ‘The Wonder Horse’ in the Łódź
Ghetto. In March 1941, the ghetto’s House of Culture was opened (with German approval)
by Chaim Rumkowski, the leader of the Jewish Council. Rumkowski was a controversial
figure who was accused by some Jews of behaving like a dictator. More than 70,000 tickets
were sold for plays and concerts in the House of Culture in 1941. The performers included
famous Jewish actors and musicians; they mainly staged works by Jewish authors and
composers. Even after deportations to Chełmno extermination camp began in early 1942,
the theatre stayed open until the summer of that year. Amateur theatre performances
continued in factories in the ghetto until 1943 when Rumkowski banned them after one play
criticised him. (Picture credit: Yad Vashem)
 How is this photograph different from most images you have seen of life in
ghettos?
 Some residents of the ghetto opposed the theatre. Why do you think this was?
 Why do you think the theatre was performed? Can this be linked to resistance?