Warsaw Ghetto Uprising

The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising was a desperate battle in the spring of 1943 between Jewish fighters in Warsaw, Poland, and their Nazi oppressors. The encircled Jews, armed only with pistols and improvised weapons, fought valiantly and were able to hold off the vastly better armed German troops for four weeks. The uprising in the Warsaw Ghetto marked the largest act of resistance against the Nazis in occupied Europe. While many details of the fighting did not become known until after the end of World War II, the uprising became an enduring inspiration, a potent symbol of Jewish resistance against the brutality of Nazi rule. Fast Facts: The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising Significance: First open armed uprising against Nazi rule in occupied EuropeParticipants: Approximately 700 Jewish fighters, lightly armed with pistols and homemade bombs, desperately fighting against more than 2,000 Nazi SS troopsUprising Began: April 19, 1943Uprising Ended: May 16, 1943Casualties: SS commander who suppressed the uprising claimed more than 56,000 Jews were killed, and 16 German troops were killed (both questionable numbers) The Warsaw Ghetto In the years before World War II, Warsaw, the capital of Poland, was known as a center for Jewish life in Eastern Europe. The Jewish population of the metropolis was estimated at close to 400,000, about a third of Warsaws overall population. When Hitler invaded Poland and World War II began, the citys Jewish residents faced a dire crisis. The ruthlessly anti-Semitic policies of the Nazis arrived with the German troops who triumphantly marched through the city. By December 1939, the Jews of Poland were required to wear the yellow star on their clothing. They had property, including radios, confiscated. And the Nazis began requiring them to perform forced labor. Captured Jewish civilians who participated in the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising are marched out of the city by Nazi troops, Warsaw, Poland, April 19, 1943. Frederic Lewis / Getty Images In 1940, the Nazis began building a wall around an area of the city to be designated as the Jewish ghetto. The concept of ghettos—closed areas where Jews were forced to live—was centuries old, but the Nazis brought a ruthless and modern efficiency to it. The Jews of Warsaw were identified and any living in what the Nazis termed the Aryan section of the city were required to move into the ghetto. On November 16, 1940, the ghetto was sealed. No one was allowed to leave. Approximately 400,000 people were packed into an area of 840 acres. Conditions were desperate. Food was in short supply, and many were forced to live in improvised quarters. A diary kept by Mary Berg, a ghetto resident who, with her family, was eventually able to flee to the United States, described some of the conditions faced at the end of 1940: We are cut off from the world. There are no radios, no telephones, no newspapers. Only the hospitals and Polish police stations situated inside the ghetto are allowed to have telephones. Conditions in the Warsaw Ghetto worsened. The Jews organized a police force that worked with the Nazis in an effort to cooperate and avoid more problems. Some residents believed that trying to get along with the Nazis was the safest course of action. Others urged protests, strikes, and even armed resistance. In the spring of 1942, after 18 months of suffering, members of Jewish underground groups began to actively organize a defense force. But when deportations of Jews out of the ghetto to concentration camps began on July 22, 1942, no organized force existed to try to thwart the Nazis. The Jewish Fighting Organization WARSAW, POLAND: Picture taken in July 1944 shows insurgents fighting in the streets of Warsaw during the Warsaw Uprising. AFP / Getty Images Some leaders in the ghetto argued against fighting the Nazis, as they assumed it would lead to reprisals which would kill all the residents of the ghetto. Resisting the calls for caution, the Jewish Fighting Organization was founded on July 28, 1942. The organization became known as the ZOB, the acronym for its name in Polish. The first wave of deportations from the ghetto ended in September 1942. Approximately 300,000 Jews had been removed from the ghetto, with 265,000 sent to the Treblinka death camp. Approximately 60,000 Jews remained trapped within the ghetto. Many of those left were young people who were angry that they hadnt been able to do anything to protect family members who had been sent to the camps. Throughout late 1942, the ZOB became energized. Members were able to link up with the Polish underground movement and obtain some pistols and ammunition to augment the small number of pistols already in their possession. The First Fighting On January 18, 1943, while the ZOB was still trying to plan and organize, the Germans launched another wave of deportations. The ZOB saw a chance to strike at the Nazis. A number of fighters armed with pistols slipped into a group of Jews being marched to an embarkation point. When a signal was given, they fired on the German troops. It was the first time Jewish fighters had attacked the Germans inside the ghetto. Most of the Jewish fighters were shot and killed on the spot, but many of the Jews rounded up for deportation scattered in the chaos and went into hiding in the ghetto. That action changed attitudes in the ghetto. Jews refused to listen to shouted orders to come out of their houses and scattered fighting continued for four days. At times Jewish fighters ambushed Germans in the narrow streets. The Germans were able to round up about 5,000 Jews for deportation before calling off the action. The Uprising Following the January battles, the Jewish fighters knew the Nazis might attack at any time. To meet the threat, they stayed on constant alert and organized 22 fighting units. They had learned in January to surprise the Nazis whenever possible, so ambush spots were located from which Nazi units could be attacked. A system of bunkers and hideouts for fighters was established. The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising began on April 19, 1943. The local commander of the SS had become aware of the Jewish fighters organizing in the ghetto, but he was afraid to inform his superiors. He was removed from his job and replaced with an SS officer who had fought on the Eastern Front, Jurgen Stroop. SS Commander Jurgen Stroop (center right) in the Warsaw Ghetto.   Getty Images Stroop sent a force of about 2,000 battle-hardened SS soldiers into the ghetto. The Nazis were well-armed, and even employed tanks at times. They faced off against approximately 700 young Jewish fighters, who had no military experience and were armed with pistols or homemade gasoline bombs. The fighting continued for 27 days. The action was brutal. The ZOB fighters would engage in ambushes, often using the cramped streets of the ghetto to their advantage. SS troops would be lured into alleys and attacked with Molotov cocktails, as the Jewish fighters disappeared into secret passages dug into cellars. The Nazis employed a tactic of vicious annihilation, destroying the ghetto building by building using artillery and flamethrowers. Most of the Jewish fighters were eventually killed. A key leader of the ZOB, Mordecai Anielewicz, was trapped, along with other fighters, in a command bunker at 18 Mila Street. On May 8, 1943, along with 80 other fighters, he killed himself rather than be taken alive by the Nazis. A few fighters managed to escape the ghetto. A woman who fought in the uprising, Zivia Lubetkin, along with other fighters, traveled through the citys sewer system to safety. Led by one of the ZOB commanders, Yitzhak Zuckerman, they escaped to the countryside. After surviving the war, Lubetkin and Zuckerman married and lived in Israel. Most of the Jewish fighters did not survive the fighting in the ghetto, which lasted for nearly a month. On May 16, 1943, Stroop announced that the fighting had ended and more than 56,000 Jews had been killed. According to Stroops numbers, 16 Germans were killed and 85 wounded, but those numbers are believed to be very low. The ghetto was a ruin. Troops of German SS General Jurgen Stroop with a group of children and adults captured in a basement during the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, Poland, 8th May 1943. Galerie Bilderwelt  /  Getty Images Aftermath and Legacy The full story of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising did not emerge until after the end of World War II. Yet some accounts did leak. On May 7, 1943, as the fighting was still raging, a brief wire service dispatch in the New York Times was headlined, Battle Is Reported in Warsaws Ghetto; Poles Say Jews Have Fought Nazis Since April 20. The article mentioned that Jews had converted their homes into forts and barricaded shops and stores for defense posts... Two weeks later, May 22, 1943, an article in the New York Times was headlined, Jews Last Stand Felled 1,000 Nazis. The article mentioned that the Nazis had used tanks and artillery to achieve the final liquidation of the ghetto. In the years after the war, more extensive accounts emerged as survivors told their stories. The SS commander who attacked the Warsaw Ghetto, Jurgen Stroop, was captured by American forces at the end of the war. He was prosecuted by the Americans for killing prisoners of war, and was later transferred to Polish custody. The Poles put him on trial for crimes against humanity related to his attack on the Warsaw Ghetto. He was convicted and executed in Poland in 1952. Sources: Rubinstein, Avraham, et al. Warsaw. Encyclopaedia Judaica, edited by Michael Berenbaum and Fred Skolnik, 2nd ed., vol. 20, Macmillan Reference USA, 2007, pp. 666-675. Warsaw. Learning About the Holocaust: A Students Guide, edited by Ronald M. Smelser, vol. 4, Macmillan Reference USA, 2001, pp. 115-129. Gale Virtual Reference Library.Berg, Mary. The Nazis Isolate Jews in the Warsaw Ghetto in Poland. The Holocaust, edited by David Haugen and Susan Musser, Greenhaven Press, 2011, pp. 45-54. Perspectives on Modern World History. Gale Virtual Reference Library.Hanson, Joanna. Warsaw risings. The Oxford Companion to World War II. : Oxford University Press, , 2003. Oxford Reference.

Personality Disorders ( Ocd ) - 1967 Words

Sociopathy usually refers to a person diagnosed with Antisocial Personality Disorders(APD), but it cannot be found in the DSM(Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders). The DSM-V defined APD as a pervasive pattern of disregard for, and violation of, the rights of others that begins in childhood or early adolescence and continues into adulthood. Antisocial personality has appeared in the DSM since its first edition in 1952, although it was initially labelled antisocial reaction under sociopathic personality disturbance. German-American psychiatrist Karl Birnbaum first introduces the term sociopathy in 1909, as an alternative for psychopathy. Sociopaths do share certain similarities with psychopaths, such as superficially†¦show more content†¦In some people with severe APD, there is an 18% volume reduction, and the outer layer of this region is thinner, compared to non-sociopaths, and therefore influencing their ability to experience the variety of emotions. But having a predisposition is not a definite requirement, nor do people with this symptom have to end up becoming a sociopath. Besides, the diagnostic criteria of APD in DSM-V are mostly behavioral: _______________________________________ A: A pervasive pattern of disregard for and violation of the rights of others, occurring since age 15 years, as indicated by three (or more) of the following: 1. Failure to conform to social norms with respect to lawful behaviors, as indicated by repeatedly performing acts that are grounds for arrest. 2. Deceitfulness, as indicated by repeated lying, use of aliases, or conning others for personal profit or pleasure. 3. Impulsivity or failure to plan ahead. 4. Irritability and aggressiveness, as indicated by repeated physical fights or assaults. 5. Reckless disregard for safety of self or others. 6. Consistent irresponsibility, as indicated by repeated failure to sustain consistent work behavior or honor financial obligations. 7. Lack of remorse, as indicated by being indifferent to or rationalizing having hurt, mistreated, or stolen from another. B. The

Presence of angels Essay Example For Students

Presence of angels Essay There is a certain mystery that lies within the meaning of angels. It is known that angels are among us. They are carriers of the messages from God (Gasparri 14). However, little is known about what and who angels are, why they are present, and even what they look like. They everything that human want to be and more (Stevenson 1). Angels go above and beyond the limitations of humans to give hints of what life is like in heaven or even hell. What are Angels?There are three creatures created by God. Humans, created with free will that can be used for good or can be used to cause hurt and destruction, are the first of these creatures. Second, come angels and devils. Angels are creatures of God with free will that chose to accept God’s love and goodness. Devils are the exact opposite of angels. They used their free will and chose to go against God. The last of the creatures are animals. (Gasparri 75-77)Angels are divine beings chosen by God to deliver His love and goodness to huma ns. They are â€Å"entities† of goodness and holiness (Stevenson 4). Angels are equipped with supernatural powers that allow them to rarely be seen by the human eye. Any scientific terms or proof cannot explain their existence. Those who believe in the existence angels are those who have already experienced their presence (Stevenson 5). The Catholic Perspective on the Kinds of Angels Catholics believe that angels have a special role of praying to God on behalf of humans. They are â€Å"messengers†, carrying hints or signs from God to his kingdom (Stevenson 195). Four angels are recognized in the Catholic Church. They are referred to as the archangels: Michael, Gabriel, Raphael, and Uriel. There are many stories about the works of Michael, Gabriel, and Raphael, however, little is known about Uriel. The Bible also recognizes a number of groups of angels with different functions and attributes called the hierarchy. Different faiths recognize the different groups.The group s include seraphim, cherubim, thrones, dominions, virtues, powers, the principalities, archangels, and angels (Stevenson 20). All together, the groups are known as the choir because they are said to praise God through song and music (Stevenson 21). While the Bible does not recognize the functions of each of the groups, each group has its own unique character and purpose.Seraphim are the angels who are considered to be closest to God. According to the book of Isaiah, each Seraphim is equipped with six wings and they work together to continually praise God.Cherubim are probably the most recognizable amongst the hierarchy. Representations of them are small; chubby winged children or even strange winged animals. One may see them frequently on postcards or even in works of art. They have been described as adorable, sweet creatures that watch over the earth and work with Seraphim to sing God’s praise. Thrones are angels that are described as fiery wheels covered with open eyes. This description was based on the vision of Ezekial. Dominions or Domination’s are the oldest angels who supervise the others. Virtues or Authorities work miracles on earth and often work at guardian angels in God’s kingdom. Powers are th ose angels who keep evil spirits, demons, and devils from affecting humans and earth. Principalities protect cities, nations, and religious leaders on earth. Archangels are considered to be the messenger angels who deliver God’s powers to humans. Angels are the â€Å"heavenly army† who are the closest to the humans (Stevenson 20). Much focus on angels is placed on the archangels Michael, Raphael, and Gabriel. Michael is considered to be the leader of the angels.