80 years on, Israeli flag flies over site of Warsaw Ghetto uprising
British-Israeli activist honours the Jewish warriors who stood their ground for nine days
Polish and Israeli flags have again flown over the site of the Warsaw Ghetto, nearly eight decades after the uprising.
Jonny Daniels, of ‘From The Depths’, flew the flags overlooking the Warsaw streets that housed the largest German Nazi ghetto of the Holocaust.
At its height, as many as 460,000 Jews were imprisoned there. Many were transported from there to multiple German Nazi death camps, most notably Treblinka.
On April 19th, 1943, thousands of German troops entered the Ghetto for the last time. Two brave groups of Jewish fighters stood up against them, the ZOB, the Jewish Combat Organization and the ZZW, the Jewish military union, in a stand of resistance, uprising and ultimate bravery.
They fought valiantly with the few arms they had, and stood their ground for nine days.
The head of the ZZW, Pawel Frenkel addressed a meeting of the Jewish Military fighters: “Of course we will fight with guns in our hands, and most of us will fall. But we will live on in the lives and hearts of future generations and in the pages of their history…. We will die before our time but we are not doomed. We will be alive for as long as Jewish history lives!”
The group then hoisted two flags at the top of the highest building they could reach, the blue-and-white flag of the Zionists, and the white-and-red flag of Poland, which had been smuggled into the ghetto through the sewers.
The flags could be seen from outside the ghetto walls, and communiqués concerning them were communicated to the Polish underground and broadcast over Polish radio (certain sections of these communiqués were even picked up by the New York Times).
The flags flying over the ghetto was an affront to the Germans. The Germans understood this and made Muranowska Street a primary target, bringing in ever heavier artillery and increasing manpower in order to take the flags down at any cost.
Yet the fighters were determined to do whatever it took not to give up the flags – they continued to wave over the ghetto for almost four days.
Finally, by Friday, April 23, 1943, after tanks and artillery had pounded the buildings on Muranowska Street to such an extent that the entire street shook, the flags ceased to wave, having been shot to pieces.
“This powerful symbol of resistance, of fighting back, is one we must carry on for the next generations” said Daniels. “Resistance wasn’t just the physical act of fighting, it too was staying alive, keeping once’s faith, keeping one’s dignity, we remember all those we lost, and promise through actions like these, that they will never be forgotten.”
The raising of the flags was performed in partnership with Onet, Poland’s largest web portal and online news platform, owned by Ringer Axel Springer Media AG.
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