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Witness History

Warsaw Ghetto uprising

Witness History

BBC

History, Personal Journals, Society & Culture

4.41.6K Ratings

🗓️ 11 May 2023

⏱️ 9 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In May 1943, the uprising in the Jewish Ghetto in Warsaw in Poland came to an end. The Germans had crushed the uprising and deported surviving ghetto residents to concentration camps. Simha "Kazik" Rotem was one of the Jewish fighters who survived to tell his story. He spoke to Louise Hidalgo in 2010. (Photo: Warsaw Ghetto. Credit: HUM Images/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)

Transcript

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0:00.0

Thanks for downloading the Witness History podcast from the BBC World Service.

0:10.0

80 years ago during World War II, an uprising in the Jewish ghetto in Warsaw, Poland, came to an end.

0:17.0

Simha Kashik-Rotem was one of the Jewish fighters who survived to tell his story.

0:23.0

He spoke to Louise Hidalgo in 2010.

0:27.0

The largest single revolt by Jews against the Holocaust has been crushed by the German army in Poland.

0:34.0

The Warsaw ghetto lies in ruins.

0:37.0

For four weeks, fighters inside the ghetto had fought against the Germans.

0:42.0

In a documentary made 20 years later, Alexander Bernfest, a survivor of the uprising, recounts how it began.

0:49.0

In 1943, the Germans announced their intention of destroying the Warsaw ghetto.

0:55.0

By this time, the Polish underground movement had smuggled arms and ammunition into the Jewish fighters organization within the ghetto.

1:03.0

Some 330,000 Jews had been transported to Treblinka, leaving only some 60,000 Jews in the ghetto.

1:11.0

Himla ordered all the remaining Warsaw Jews were to be evacuated by force, and the ghetto was to be leveled to the ground.

1:21.0

The Germans moved in with tanks, light-filled artillery and airplanes.

1:26.0

They marched to the south of lively music, because the next day, April 20th was the Firas birthday.

1:34.0

Their destruction of the Jewish district was to be their birthday present to Hitler.

1:41.0

On April 19, 1943, Theas fighting began.

1:46.0

The ghetto was surrounded by units of the German troops.

1:50.0

But to the German surprise, they met resistance, an operation they'd expected to take a few days instead took weeks.

1:58.0

Another survivor made this anonymous recording in 1945.

2:03.0

While the fighting was going on, units of the Polish underground army, under the command of my friends, attacked from the rear the SS soldiers inciting the ghetto.

2:15.0

The Germans tried to storm the ghetto with tanks, planes and artillery.

2:20.0

For three weeks, they attacked again and again, but they failed.

...

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