In July 1942, at the initiative of the Zionist youth groups, a meeting was held which formed the Zydowska Organizacja Bojowa (ZOB - Jewish Combat Organisation). The ZOB's political wing consisted of the various Zionist organisations and the communists. In October the Bund (Jewish Socialist Party), Poland's largest Jewish organisation, joined as well. Only the extreme Jewish nationalists did not participate; instead they decided to fight separately as the Irgun Zvai Leumi (Jewish Military Union).

Within a few weeks the ZOB had drawn up by-laws, describing the purpose of the organisation as being the defence of the Ghetto against further deportations and collaborators.

The first action to be carried out by ZOB stamped its authority on the Ghetto when it executed Jacob Lejkin, chief of the despised Jewish police, on 29 October. A number of other assaults were also carried out on the most notorious of the Ghetto's inhabitants, securing enthusiasm for the underground organisation.

During the winter of 1942/3 underground bunkers and secret hiding holes were constructed throughout the Ghetto, while ZOB attempted the difficult task of securing weapons. Some were obtained from the black market and from German and Italian deserters, but at a high price. A small quantity of arms was acquired from the Polish resistance (Home Army), which operated under the instructions of the Polish government in exile, based in London. Supply from the Home Army was limited because of a combination of antisemitism and fear that the weapons might be used in the future on the Soviet side in the event of a war between Poland and the Soviet Union. More arms were delivered once ZOB had proven itself as effective, but in total they only ever made up 10% of the ZOB arsenal.

Fighting back - defending the Ghetto
German troops surrounded the Ghetto on 18 January 1943 in an attempt to deport the last of Warsaw's Jews. Even though they were taken by surprise, five ZOB units engaged the troops and killed or wounded some 50 Germans, seizing weapons in the mêlée. ZOB casualties were high, but after three days the deportations were halted.

The Ghetto became a honeycomb of underground passages and hiding places, with the ZOB in control. The ZOB levied taxes on those who still had money, maintained a "prison" for Gestapo agents and non-taxpayers and carried out raids on banks to secure money for arms. After the losses in January the ZOB was divided into 22 units of ten combatants, organised by political party. The Zionist youth made up 11 units, the Bund and the communists controlled a further four units each and other Zionist groups had three units.

There was still an acute shortage of arms. Mordechai Anielewicz, the young left-wing Zionist and ZOB commander, wrote:

"If we could only get the weapons and ammunition we need, the battle for the Ghetto would cost the enemy an ocean of blood. But even so, we shall prove the power of our faith and the confidence in our strength."

In February 1943 five Gestapo agents were shot, and the ZOB issued a warning to others that unless they quit, they too would share the same fate. In the same month the Germans tried to evacuate factory workers in the Ghetto, encouraging "voluntary resettlement". ZOB propaganda was so successful in encouraging people not to turn out for "evacuation" that the Germans asked the Judenrat chairman to intervene. He replied: "I have no power in the Ghetto. Another authority rules here."

The Ghetto revolts
On the eve of Passover - the Jewish festival of liberation - the Ghetto uprising began. It was 6.00am on 19 April 1943 when 2,000 men, including Waffen SS, Wehrmacht, Latvian, Lithuanian and Ukrainian fascists, supported by units of the Polish "Blue" police, advanced on the Ghetto, the area of which was now less than 1,000 by 3,000 metres. Under the orders of Heinrich Himmler, the fascist forces were to carry out the final liquidation of the Ghetto.

With the civilian population underground in prepared bunkers, the 22 ZOB combat units took their positions. Some were in the central Ghetto area and others in the factories. As the fighting proceeded they were joined by the Irgun and other unaffiliated units.

ZOB units attacked the fascists - who were led by SS Lt General Jurgen Stroop - with guns and homemade petrol bombs. Stroop had expected little resistance from those he had described previously as "this Jewish trash and subhumanity" who are "cowards by nature". His report for the day was to tell a different story:

"Hardly had the operations begun then we ran into concentrated small arms and machine-gun fire from the Jews and bandits. Our tanks and two armoured cars were pelted with Molotov cocktails. Owing to the enemy counter-attack we had to withdraw ... Our losses in the first attack: 12 men. By 5.00pm the troops withdrew having lost in fact some 200 dead and wounded."

The next day, 20 April, Waffen SS reinforcements entered the Ghetto and were bombarded with grenades and explosives. They responded with tanks and field artillery and began setting fire to Ghetto buildings. ZOB replied by burning down the warehouses of the agency in charge of expropriated Jewish property. Despite the fire and smoke, which began to envelop the Ghetto, morale was high. On one roof the Jewish blue and white banner flew alongside the red and white Polish flag. On another roof a banner stated, "We shall fight to the last".

Flamethrowers were brought in on 22 April, to force out the tens of thousands of Jews still hidden underground. The Ghetto became engulfed in flames and thousands of Jews were burned alive. Stroop reported:

"They jumped from burning windows and balconies, abusing Germany and the Führer ... over and over again, we observed that the Jews and bandits preferred to return to the flames rather than be caught by us."

The Ghetto held out into May. Zivia Lubetkin, one of the few ZOB survivors of the epic battle, recalled.

"We sat in the dark, scores of Jewish fighters, still carrying our weapons, surrounded by thousands of eager and expectant Jews. Was it not May Day? ... How grave the responsibility we felt as the last desperate Hebrew warriors! We could not hold out against the Germans' consuming fire for long without water or food or weapons."

It was a battle that the Jews could never have won, no matter how heroic the resistance. The ZOB headquarters was surrounded on 8 May, after three weeks of combat. Over 100 fighters were inside. The Germans blocked the entrances and sent gas into the bunker. The fighters decided to kill themselves rather than be taken alive. ZOB Commander Anielewicz was among them. During the revolt he wrote:

"It is now clear to me that what took place exceeded all expectations ... The last wish of my life has been fulfilled. Jewish self-defence has become a fact. Jewish resistance and revenge have become actualities. I am happy to have been one of the first Jewish fighters in the Ghetto."

Two days after the end of the battle, 75 ZOB survivors crawled through Warsaw's sewers. The escaped with the help of comrades in the resistance on the outside of the Ghetto. Of Warsaw's 350,000 Jews, few were to survive the war. Of Poland's 3.3 million Jews, only 50-70,000 were to remain alive.

http://www.searchlightmagazine.com/s...03_story03.htm

Pics from the uprising:

http://fcit.coedu.usf.edu/holocaust/...y/G1941WGU.HTM


http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/2WWwarsawU.htm

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Excellent as always Kai, thank you for posting this to read--I enjoyed it very much.

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Lost are only those, who abandon themselves) Hans-Ulrich Rudel.

Thanx Carl-been checking data for the Warsaw uprising 1944 for a couple of weeks. Maybe ready for next week...

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The man who commanded this butchery:

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"War is less costly than servitude, the choice is always between Verdun and Dachau." - Jean Dutourd, French veteran of both world wars

"A mon fils: depuis que tes yeux sont fermes les miens n’ont cessé de pleurir." - Mère française, Verdun

*mistake*

[ 01. May 2003, 03:37 PM: Message edited by: General der Infanterie Friedrich H ]

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"War is less costly than servitude, the choice is always between Verdun and Dachau." - Jean Dutourd, French veteran of both world wars

"A mon fils: depuis que tes yeux sont fermes les miens n’ont cessé de pleurir." - Mère française, Verdun

Thank you Kai, looking forward to it my friend und Herr Kenraali [img]smile.gif[/img]

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Lost are only those, who abandon themselves) Hans-Ulrich Rudel.

Actually, Erich von dem Bach (-Zelewski) is one of the few very intresting personalities in the Third Reich I spent time on to study.

Being one of the worst perpetrators of atrocities on the EF himself, he managed to testify at the Nuermburg trail as a witness without being charged for his crimes.

Interesting bio.

Cheers,

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"Gentlemen! You can't fight in here, this is the War Room!"
(President Merkin Muffley in "Dr. Strangelove")

A good deal is a good deal???

Who says you could not negotiate with the allied?

http://www.ess.uwe.ac.uk/genocide/bioprofiles.htm

Bach-Zelewski, Erich, von dem

General of Police and of Waffen-SS. Chief of Anti-Partisan Units on the entire Eastern Front, 1943-44; in charge of the defense of Warsaw until liberated by the Red Army; Commanded a Waffen-SS Corps on the Western front. He hailed from a Junker military family in East Prussia, joined the Freikorps after having served during the First World War, was an officer in the Reichswehr during the twenties, and joined the NSDAP in 1930. In 1941 was appointed as General in the Waffen SS and was assigned to the Central Army Group on the Russian front, where he served until the end of 1942.

Bach-Zelewski was largely responsible for masterminding and carrying into operation the massacre of "race and political" enemies during the early months of the military onslaught on the USSR. As Richard Overy has recently noted:

In the last two weeks of July 1941 he was given control of some 11,000 SS troops-almost four times the number originally assigned to the Einsatzgruppen-so that the pace of the killing could be stepped up. Around 6,000 ordinary police were put under [his] authority. By the end of1941 33,000 local auxiliaries had joined them, a total of over 50,000 men whose job was to kill not only Jews, but other race enemies such as gypsies and the mentally and physically disabled. The overwhelming number of victims were Jews." (R Overy, Russia's War. Allen Lane, 1998, p.140)

In July 1943 he was given charge of all anti-partisan activities on the eastern front. In 1944 he commanded the German troops that were responsible for crushing the uprising in Warsaw. In return for turning witness for the prosecution at the Nuremberg trials he was spared being handed over to the USSR authorities for trial. He was convicted in 1961 for his participation in the Röhm purge of 1934 when the senior leaders of the SA were executed, and sentenced to four and a half years imprisonment. A year later he was convicted of the murder of six communists in 1933, during which he commanded SS and Gestapo units in East Prussia and Pomerania. For this he was sentenced to life imprisonment. As Wistrich notes, in neither case was he charged with the massacre of Jews, "thereby suggesting that only the murder of ethnic Germans was perceived as an unpardonable crime." (R Wistrich, Who's Who in Nazi Germany, Routledge, 1995) Died in prison in 1972


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Erich von dem Bach-Zelewski was an Einsatzgruppen General in the East responsible for the shooting of hundreds of thousands of Jews. (About two million of the war's six million Jewish victims were killed in this manner.)

Inceredible?!And where was Wiesenthal? Or the justice system at all...

http://www.geocities.com/onemansmind/hr/men/Men.html

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You see? A BUTCHER and nothing more.

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"War is less costly than servitude, the choice is always between Verdun and Dachau." - Jean Dutourd, French veteran of both world wars

"A mon fils: depuis que tes yeux sont fermes les miens n’ont cessé de pleurir." - Mère française, Verdun

...and a General der Waffen-SS, and a Ritterkreuzträger, Deutsches Kreuz in Gold, EK 1, EK 2, etc.pp.

The regime who gave him those promotions, merits and awards thought he deserved it.

You see?

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"Gentlemen! You can't fight in here, this is the War Room!"
(President Merkin Muffley in "Dr. Strangelove")

Indeed Andy! But to make it a neutral and balanced Forums discussion I´m sure Andy you have data on what the Russian Generals etc got for invading Poland 1939, and killing the Polish officers at Katyn as well as the terror in the Baltic countries 1940-1941 and 1944 ? Or what Berija got for transferring the Chechenians in 1943 to Siberia...



Besides, if my values for great soldier were **** then I think you should put a better list up what your ideology suggests Andy and not just say my values are not good and don´t make the difference between a butcher and a knight!

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Its quite simple, and ill put my view as simplistic as possible..if you can mention the words butcher in a soldiers profile..thats enough...Forget the rest..

Forgeet any other ideas of heroics or bravery..

Its that simple..end of story.

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Prepare to repel borders.
William L. McGonagle, MOH, U. S. Navy, Commanding Officer, USS LIBERTY 1967.

I never said that your values are of no good.

All I did was taking your conditions which makes somebody a "great soldier" in your eyes and applied it to Dirlewanger. In doing that, the high amount of consistency suggests that either Dirlewanger is almaost a "great soldier" or the conditions are insufficient.

If the tune of my particular post sounded to "snobbish", I apologize, this was not my intend.

Of course those Soviet/Polish/U.S./British/whatever soldiers who received promotions, merits and awards form thier country always got it because her country thought they deserve it.

I never made me a big head what makes one a "great soldier", a "best general", a "most deadly tank" etc. and what not.

Maybe killing as many people out of some political reasons who happen to wear a different piece of clothing before one of "them" kills you, simultaniously managing to survive until a politician tells you that from now on further killing will be a capital crime again (=peace).

Cheers,

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"Gentlemen! You can't fight in here, this is the War Room!"
(President Merkin Muffley in "Dr. Strangelove")

To our Polish friends!

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The Stroop Report was an album prepared by SS Major General Juergen Stroop, commander of the German forces which liquidated the Warsaw ghetto, to document the suppression of the ghetto uprising in the spring of 1943. Commissioned by Friedrich Wilhelm Krueger, Higher SS and Police Leader in Krakow, and bound in leather, the report was intended as a souvenir album for Heinrich Himmler to celebrate the hard won victory, which took twenty days and 1,200 SS, Wehrmacht and police troops to accomplish. The Stroop Report consists of three parts: an introduction and summary of SS operations, a collection of daily communiques, and a series of approximately 52 photographs. Three albums were prepared: for Himmler, Krueger and Stroop, all of which were recovered after the war. One of them was introduced as evidence at the International Military Tribunal in Nuremberg and later published under the title, "The Stroop Report." The albums --which bear slight discrepancies in the number of photos they contain-- are currently located at the National Archives (Washington), the Bundesarchiv (Koblenz), and the Main Crimes Commission (Warsaw).


Som pics:

http://www.holocaustresearchproject....ery/index.html

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