Thread by @Israel

🧵80 years ago after suffering unimaginable sickness, starvation, beatings, death and deportation, Jewish fighters rose up against their Nazi captors in a heroic act of resistance known today as the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising.

This is their story:

(Photos: @yadvashem)

#IHRD

In 1939, the Nazis began the forced removal of three million Polish Jews from their homes and transferred them to crowded Ghettos across Poland, including Europe's largest, the Warsaw Ghetto.

By November 1940, 380,000 Jews were sealed inside the Warsaw ghetto.

The 380,000 Jews were crammed into an area of just 1.3 sq miles, surrounded by walls they were forced to build.

Conditions in the Ghetto were horrific.

80,000+ Jews died as a result of overcrowding & starvation. Those who remained alive were completely cut off from the outside.

On July 22 1942, the eve of Tisha Bav, the Germans began deportations from the Ghetto to the Treblinka extermination camp.

By Yom Kippur, 265,000 inhabitants had been deported & 50-65,000 Jews remained in the Ghetto.

📷Jewish refugees waiting in a soup line

Those who remained in the ghetto (including many teenagers) blamed themselves for not resisting when their families were deported and understood that they were to meet a similar fate if they did not act.

A resistance group known as the Jewish Fighting Organization was formed.

On January 18, 1943, following an Aktion launched by the Germans, Ghetto inhabitants believed a final deportation was looming.

23 year old Jewish underground leader (pictured), Mordechai Anielewicz instructed members to fight back with arms.

The Germans halted the Aktion.

This act of resistance empowered the Jewish Underground to prepare for a larger scale mission which included hiding in underground bunkers in the cellars of homes.

On April 19, 1943, the eve of Passover, the Germans began the final liquidation of the Ghetto.

#NeverForget

The residents & Jewish fighting groups in the Ghetto barricaded themselves in bunkers and hideouts and took the Germans by surprise.

In response, the Nazis created a dangerous firetrap and began systematically burning down the buildings.

(Burning buildings during the Uprising)

The brave and courageous Jewish men, women and children fought valiantly for a month, until they were defeated by the Germans.

13,000 Jews were killed and about 50,000 were deported to extermination camps following the uprising.

📷The capture of Jews who had hidden in a bunker

The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising became a symbol of resistance for Jewish victims in other ghettos and camps & gave them hope in a time of unimaginable darkness.

Simcha Rotem, the last survivor of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising passed away in 2018 (at age 94).

Today, on #IHRD, we honor the brave victims who resisted the Nazis in every way imaginable: through organized rebellion, culturally & spiritually.

Their defiance is our victory.

"The Jewish soul was a target of the enemy. He sought to corrupt it even as he strove to destroy us physically. But despite his destructive force, despite his corrupting power, the Jewish soul remained beyond his reach."-Elie Wiesel

We promise to keep their souls & memory alive.