Warsaw ghetto

On 12 October 1940, the Germans decreed the establishment of a  ghetto in Warsaw, Poland’s largest city with the largest Jewish population. The population of the ghetto was estimated to be over 400,000 Jews. From July until September 1942, German SS and police units, assisted by auxiliaries, carried out mass deportations from the Warsaw ghetto to the Treblinka killing center. It is estimated that some 265,000 Jews from Warsaw were deported to Treblinka and that approximately 35,000 Jews inside the ghetto were killed during the operation. In January 1943, SS and police units returned to Warsaw with the intention of deporting thousands of the remaining approximately 70,000-80,000 Jews in the ghetto to forced-labor camps for Jews in Lublin District of the Government General. However, many resisted deportation using small arms smuggled into the ghetto. After seizing approximately 5,000 Jews, the SS and police units halted the operation and withdrew. On 19 April 1943, a new SS and police force appeared outside the ghetto walls, intending to liquidate the ghetto which sparked an organized ghetto uprising. The resistance was squashed four weeks later, and approximately 42,000 Warsaw ghetto survivors were captured and transported to concentration camps. At least 7,000 Jews died fighting or in hiding in the ghetto, while the SS and police sent another 7,000 to the Treblinka killing center. On 1 August 1944, the Polish Home Army liberated the Warsaw ghetto. For more information, please see: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. “Warsaw.” Holocaust Encyclopedia. https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/warsaw. Accessed 3 June 2021.