On this day 67 years ago, the eve of Passover 1943, German SS forces entered the Warsaw Ghetto with the intention of capturing and deporting Jewish people. Aware that this was part of a mass extermination process, around 500 people decided to become Ghetto fighters, although they knew they were vastly outnumbered and had no prospect of ultimately prevailing. Accordingly, the German forces were met with a hail of bullets and Molotov cocktails, and forced to retreat.
The street battles continued for some days, and ultimately the Germans resorted to burning down the houses using flame throwers, and blowing up basements and sewers. There were many acts of heroism in which fighters threw their bodies in the way of gunfire to protect their companions. As fighting continued, the leaders of the resistance were gradually killed or took cyanide when capture seemed inevitable. Some of the fighters managed to escape through the sewers, and the uprising ended on 16th May.
By the end of the uprising around 13,000 Jews had been killed and 50,000 captured and sent to concentration camps, where many thousands were executed. World War II continued for two more years before the Germans were defeated. Jürgen Stroop, the leader of the German forces during the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, was convicted of war crimes and executed by hanging in 1952. The Uprising is commemorated annually on 19th April.