The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising - A Reappraisal
The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising that broke out on April 19, 1943 was marked by intense fighting during the initial ten days between Jewish fighters and German troops, aided by their Ukrainian auxiliaries. The Jewish fighters belonged to two separate fighting organizations – ŻOB, the Jewish Fighting Organization, and ŻZW, the Jewish Military Organization. The article’s detailed examination of the fighting during these ten days highlights the major part in the uprising played by ŻZW, an organization led by revisionists and members of Betar, and commanded by Pawel Frenkel. ŻOB units, commanded by Mordechai Anielewicz, staged two successful ambushes against German troops entering the central ghetto on the first day, resisted the entry of German troops into the Brushmakers’ Workshop area on the second day, and harried German troops in the Többens-Schultz Workshop area during the first few days. ŻZW units fought the Germans in the Brushmakers Workshop area and Többens-Schultz Workshop area as well, but its main effort was concentrated around Muranowski Square in the central ghetto. There they raised the Jewish and Polish flags on one of the highest buildings and during more than three days of intensive fighting resisted German attempts to remove the flags. On the ninth and tenth days of battle there was renewed fighting between ŻZW fighters and the Germans around Muranowski Square. The fighting at Muranowski Square proved to be the heaviest fighting of the uprising.
