p1-gavin

** (Resister) ** Gavin Georgiadis SS-1 Mordechai Anielewicz was a Jew born in 1919 or 1920 in Warsaw, Poland. Mordechai, after he completed his high school studies, joined and became a leader of the Zionist-socialist Youth Movement. In the fall of 1939 the war broke out and soon the Nazis had captured Poland and destroyed both towns and the capital, Warsaw. Mordechai helped create an escape route through southern Poland, which USSR occupied, for polish-Jews who wanted to go to Palestine. Mordechai was captured and put in prison by the USSR. After his release he went to the former polish city of Vilna, which by then was a part of the country Lithuania. Large groups of Jewish youths sought refuge there. From there, Mordechai organized the return of young Jewish people to Warsaw. By October of 1940 Jews living in Warsaw were required to live in an old section of the city that came to be known as the Warsaw Ghetto. Jews were only allowed to bring in what they could carry. Mordechai put himself at risk to supply the ghetto with food, medical supplies, and weapons for defense. Mordechai, being one of the leaders of a resistance, urged the Jews of Warsaw to join together in resistance groups. On January 18, 1943 members of the Nazi SS ordered Jews to come out of cover and were greeted by grenades and gunfire. When Nazis broke down doors they found Jews swinging chains and clubs at them and several Nazis were killed. The Nazi SS retreated. The ghetto remained quiet for six months. During that time Mordechai and other resistance leaders reassembled their strength. Then on April 19, 1943, the first day of Passover, German tanks rolled into the Warsaw Ghetto. The Jews were equipped with only three machine guns, some Molotov cocktails, eight rifles, some hand grenades, and about three hundred pistols and revolvers, while the Nazis had planes, tanks, artillery, dynamite, and flamethrowers. The Nazis were ordered to kill every Jew in sight. On May 8, 1943 Germans attacked and captured the bunker on Mila Street that had served as Jewish resistance headquarters. Rather than be caught, many resistance leaders took their own lives and Mordechai Anielewicz was said to be killed in the fighting, dying a hero’s death. That June the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising ended when the Germans burned the entire ghetto to the ground killing every last Jew. I think that doing this was a smart idea because this action showed that not all Jews would stand down to the Nazi reign. Even though the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising was a failure it made the Nazis question them selves and their power over the Jews. Did they really have that power? ****
 * Mordechai Anielewicz **