Today is the anniversary of the outbreak of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising in 1943. The Warsaw Ghetto was established by Nazi Germany in occupied by Nazi Germany Warsaw and was a part of the deliberate operation of the Third Reich to murder the entire Jewish population in Europe.
The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising started on April 19 and ended on May 16 1943. It was the 1943 act of Jewish resistance as a result of Nazi Germany’s decision to transport the remaining Ghetto population to the extermination camp in Treblinka.
As a result of the uprising SS Brigadefuhrer Jurgen Stroop ordered the burning of the Ghetto, block by block. A total of 13,000 Jews died, about half of them burnt alive or suffocated. It was the largest single revolt by Jews during World War II.
In Poland a daffodil is a symbol of this uprising. Marek Edelman a Jewish-Polish political, social activist and cardiologist was the last surviving leader of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising and he laid always daffodils on the Ghetto monument. The daffodil action is initiated and promoted by Polin: Museum of the History of Polish Jews: http://www.polin.pl/en
Image: Polin: Museum of the History of Polish Jews
Photo: Museum Polin