From the Warsaw Ghetto to Jenin
Oppression fuels heroic resistance
"In order to prepare properly for the next campaign, one
of the highest Israeli officers in the territories said not
long ago, it's justified and in fact essential to learn from
every possible source. If the mission will be to seize a
densely populated refugee camp, or take over the casbah in
Nablus ...then he must first analyze and internalize the
lessons of earlier battles-even, however shocking it may sound,
even how the German army fought in the Warsaw ghetto."
--From the Israeli daily Ha'aretz
(Jan. 25)
By Michael Kramer
At 6 a.m. on April 19, 1943, more than 2,000 fascist SS
troops entered the Jewish ghetto of Warsaw in Nazi-occupied
Poland. Their mission was to annihilate the remaining
inhabitants--those who had survived more than three years of
starvation, slave labor and "involuntary resettlement" to
Auschwitz and other death camps.
Unlike previous "round-ups," however, the fascists were met
with machine-gun fire and homemade Molotov cocktails. By 5
p.m., the Nazis were forced to retreat, having suffered more
than 200 casualties.
Though there had been Jewish resistance before--in the form
of illegal newspapers, posters, clandestine meetings and
isolated armed actions--this was the first time that such large
formations of Nazi troops were confronted. Jewish resistance
was tenacious, as documented by Ber Mark, the late director of
the Jewish Historical Institute in Warsaw, in his book
"Uprising in the Warsaw Ghetto."
The military organization of the ghetto took place in
October 1942 when the Zydowska Organizacja Bojowa--Jewish Com
bat Organization or ZOB--was formed. By the end of that month
the first successful act had been carried out: the execution of
the Nazi-appointed traitor, the chief of the Jewish police.
Through militant struggle, the ZOB established its legitimacy
and leadership. The force demonstrated its role as the ghetto
population's defender by eliminating Jewish collaborators and
Gestapo agents.
Only 60,000 Jews were left in the ghetto at that point. A
year before, the population had been 500,000.
The Nazis planned to finish their dirty work on April 20,
which was Hitler's birthday. Instead, April 20 proved to be
another defeat for the fascists when the Jewish freedom
fighters detonated a mine that killed more than 100 SS
troops.
Building by building and block by block, the anti-fascists
fought back. The ZOB had prepared the struggle in advance,
constructing a labyrinth of bunkers, tunnels and secret
hideouts.
Polish workers aid ghetto
Polish communists smuggled arms and ammunition through the
sewer system into the ghetto. They also attacked Nazi military
units from the rear.
Women played a major role in the resistance as
combatants.
The fighting continued for weeks. When the Nazis set fire to
ghetto buildings the ZOB countered by igniting warehouses of
fascist-expropriated Jewish property.
Nazis were forced to call in long-range artillery and the
air force.
Armed with dogs, gas and flame throwers, the Nazis began to
hunt down the Jews. On May 8, the ZOB headquarters was
overrun.
Seventy-five ZOB survivors escaped from the blockaded ghetto
on May 10.
By May 16, the 28th day of fighting, the ghetto no longer
existed. But snipers continued the resistance as late as
November 1943.
Jenin: hero city
Almost 59 years after the Nazis launched their "final
solution" attack on the Jewish population of the Warsaw Ghetto,
the U.S.-armed-and-financed Israeli Defense Forces (IDF),
fighting under the banner of apartheid-like Zionism, launched
their attack on the Palestinian population of the city of Jenin
in the West Bank region of Palestine.
A refugee camp established there in 1953, located within the
municipal boundaries of the city, was especially targeted.
The Israeli commanders studied WW II-era Nazi military
history well: The whole Palestinian population of the refugee
camp was targeted whether or not they were combatants. Almost
half of the approximately 13,000 residents of the camp were
either children or elders.
Air strikes were called in on densely populated
neighborhoods. Bulldozers leveled residential areas of the camp
while whole families were still inside their homes. The water
distribution system and electric power lines were
destroyed.
Yet the IDF commanders forgot to study how oppressed people
fight back when they have nothing to lose and their backs are
against the wall. The Israelis took heavy casualties in the
battle of Jenin.
And the IDF commanders should study what happened to the
Nazi commanders who led the attack on the Warsaw Ghetto. When
the war was over they were tried and convicted as war
criminals.
Reprinted from the April 25, 2002, issue of
Workers World newspaper
This article is copyright under a Creative
Commons License.
Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011
Email: ww@workers.org
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