The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising
A photo essay by Thomas Cochrane
The city of Warsaw is the capital city of Poland. Before World War II, Warsaw’s Jewish population was more than 250,000, and this counted for about thirty percent of the city’s total population. This Jewish community was the largest in all of Europe, and second in the world, only next to New York City. After occupying the city on September 29, 1939, in October 1940 the Germans ordered the construction of a ghetto in Warsaw. All Jewish citizens were ordered into the ghetto, which was enclosed by a ten-foot high wall, topped with barbed wire, and closely guarded to prevent people moving between the ghetto and the rest of the city.
In the summer of 1942, 300,000 Jews were deported from Warsaw. With reports of mass murders at the deportation site leaking into Warsaw, people began to take action. In January 1943, fighters from the ghetto fired upon troops as they attempted to round up people to be deported. This resulted in the troops retreating, and this victory inspired other small groups to resist the Germans, and on April 19, 1943, the uprising began.
