The Nazi destruction of the Jewish ghetto in German-occupied Warsaw is complete. SS commander Jürgen Stroop reports: "The former Jewish quarter of Warsaw is no longer in existence... Total number of Jews dealt with 56,065." Survivors are sent to concentration camps.
For almost a month, resistance fighters in the Warsaw ghetto have fought against the SS "liquidators", killing or wounding over 100 Germans & their collaborators. It's the single largest Jewish revolt against the Nazis.
Warsaw's Jews hid in 1000s of "bunkers", concealed dugouts & secret chambers, forcing Nazis to burn down the ghetto block by block. SS commander Stroop celebrated today by personally blowing up the Warsaw Synagogue.
Warsaw ghetto fighters included less than 1000 experienced soldiers, equipped mainly with rifles, pistols, & homemade grenades. Resistance leader Marek Edelman: we fight against the Nazis "to pick the time and place of our deaths".
Warsaw ghetto is defended by women as well as men. Stroop describes female Jewish fighters: "Agile as acrobats, shooting with a pistol in each hand... dangerous in hand-to-hand contact."
"When a woman like this was caught, she appeared scared as a rabbit, thoroughly despairing, & suddenly, when a group of our men was nearby, she pulled out a grenade hidden in her skirt or in her pants & threw it at them with a string of curses on her lips."
SS commander Jürgen Stroop creates a detailed, illustrated report of Nazi's destruction of the Warsaw ghetto, mainly as a souvenir album for Himmler. Read here: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Stro…
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