The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising (April 19-May 16, 1943) by a handful of Jews against the Nazis, although a futile effort against overwhelming odds that was brutally snuffed out by the SS in less than a month, was the largest Jewish uprising in German-occupied Europe and was symbolically significant. In fact, the story of Warsaw ghetto uprising is a microcosm of the Holocaust: reflecting Nazism's vicious anti-Semitism, the brutality of a totalitarian ideology, the plight of a relentlessly prosecuted people, and individual heroism as well as extreme selfishness in the midst of a life and death situation. This paper about the Warsaw Ghetto uprising, traces the background of the incident, discusses why it happened, who were the people involved in the revolt, and what was the outcome and aftermath of the struggle.

             Background.

             Warsaw at the Start of World War II: Before the start of the Second World War in 1939, the Jewish population in Poland was about 3.5 million. Approximately 350,000 Jews lived in the country's capital city, Warsaw alone constituting 30% of its total population.1 When Germany invaded Poland on September 1, 1939, it not only signaled the start of the Second World War, it also sealed the fate of the Warsaw Jews. The Polish Army put up heroic resistance against the vastly superior German Army for a brief period, but was quickly overwhelmed by the Wehrmacht's blitzkrieg tactics during which Warsaw suffered devastating German air and artillery bombardment. Soon after occupying the city on September 29, 1939, the Germans started prosecuting its Jewish population. Jewish people had to carry special permits and licenses and were made to wear white armbands with a blue Star of David to distinguish them from the rest of the population. Jewish-owned property was confiscated and able-bodied Jews were conscripted as forced labor for the German war effort. Robbery of Jews was encouraged; violence against them was fostered, and even their murder was condoned.