The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising of 1943, though inevitably destined to fail, has gone down in history as an act of defiance, an act of protest against the inaction of the world in helping the Jewish people in their plight during the Second World War. This was their time to fight. And so it was to be that from 19 April to 16 May 1943, following years of torment, the fighters of the Warsaw Ghetto rose up, vastly outmatched by the superior numbers and weaponry of the German war machine. The fighters had a simple choice: go quietly and die anyway, facing extermination in a camp; or go fighting, defying the barbaric system which had spread across Europe.
In 1942 there came a tipping point in the until-then passive resistance of Jewish communities, as they were moved from ghetto to ghetto, camp to camp, under the pretences of resettlement or forced labour. Some believed resettlement was taking place, others that they were needed as labour for the German war effort; others simply accepted they could do nothing to get away. By mid-1942, however, word was spreading, initially through rumours, then from witness accounts, that Jews were being exterminated in Nazi death camps. Between July and September of 1942 alone, around 280,000 Jews were deported from the Warsaw Ghetto to Treblinka extermination camp, another 11,000 were sent to labour camps, and around 10,000 were killed in the Warsaw Ghetto itself during the deportation process. On 28 July 1942, amidst deportations, members of Jewish youth organisations formed the Jewish Fighting Organisation (ŻOB - Żydowska Organizacja Bojowa), with a young Mordechai Anielewicz appointed as its leader.
