19. The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising preceded the Warsaw Uprising
The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising is sometimes confused with the Warsaw Uprising, but they were two entirely separate events with the Ghetto Uprising ending more than a year before the Warsaw Uprising began. In April, 1943, Jewish residents of the Warsaw Ghetto, in response to the transports of the year before, refused to surrender to the SS for transportation to the camps in the east. The SS responded by burning the Ghetto. About 13,000 Polish Jews died in the Ghetto Uprising, which received little support from the Polish Home Army and the rest of the Polish resistance. The Jewish resistance fighters established defensive positions within the Ghetto, and fought the Germans as they moved to apprehend the population and destroy the area.
The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising was suppressed by mid-May, when the Germans detonated explosives to destroy the Great Synagogue of Warsaw. Some sporadic resistance from underground Jewish groups continued for another month. According to the German records, about 63,000 Jews resided in the Ghetto when the operation began, about 50,000 survived the Ghetto Uprising and were captured by the Germans and sent to concentration camps. The Ghetto Uprising, though largely unreported in the west and in the United States at the time, was studied by the Home Army closely, and did much to encourage the idea of a nationwide uprising against the Germans once the Soviet Army was closely enough positioned to provide aid to the resistance fighters.
