Warsaw Ghetto Uprising in April 1943

In early 1942, over 400,000 people lived in the Warsaw Ghetto. However, most of them were killed at the Treblinka extermination camp in the summer of that same year. Photo: Shelling an insurgent-occupied building in the Warsaw Ghetto.

The official Warsaw Ghetto population was 30,000 in April 1943, and about 30,000 more people hid from German crackdowns in the basements. Photo: German soldiers guide civilians, forced out of their shelters, toward the exit.

Initially known as an act of Jewish self-defense, the event was later called the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. This revolt was staged by groups of young people who realized the Germans were deporting the last remaining Jews from the Warsaw Ghetto and that everyone was going to be killed. Photo: Members of a Nazi assault team amidst buildings on fire in the Warsaw Ghetto.

About 700 insurgents who resisted the Nazis prepared for the uprising since September 1942.

More affluent Jewish families, as well as a few engineers, police officers and other specialists, lived in the ghetto. They worked for the Germans in the city and spent the night with their families. They built shelters and prepared to somehow weather the German occupation.

Questioning and examining captive Jews.

The fighting continued for two to three days, until the insurgents ran out of ammunition.

Captured female participants of the Jewish resistance in the Warsaw Ghetto.

The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising was among the bloodiest and most massive uprisings in Europe. In all, about 7,000 resistance fighters were killed in combat, while 5,000 to 6,000 others were burned alive.