Warsaw Ghetto Uprising commemorated on 80th anniversary

WARSAW, Poland — Sirens wailed and church bells rang as the presidents of Germany, Israel and Poland bowed their heads Wednesday before a memorial to Jewish insurgents who fought a mismatched, desperate battle against Nazi German forces in the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising.

Celebrations of the uprising’s 80th anniversary honored the hundreds of young Jews who took up arms in the Polish capital in 1943, choosing to fight and die at a time and place not dictated by the Nazis. Most were killed, and none of those who survived the fighting are still alive.

“I stand before you today and ask for forgiveness,” German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier said at the site of the former ghetto.

“The appalling crimes that Germans committed here fill me with deep shame. But at the same time it fills me with gratitude and humility that I can take part in this commemoration as the first German head of state ever.”

Czarek Sokolowski, Associated Press

Front from right, Israel's President Isaac Herzog, Polish President Andrzej Duda and German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier attend a wreath-laying ceremony Wednesday as part of a Warsaw Ghetto Uprising commemoration reception in Warsaw, Poland.

The leaders were joined by Holocaust survivors and their descendants, amid a poignant sense that the responsibility for carrying on the memory of the Holocaust is passing from the witnesses to younger generations.

A 96-year-old Polish Holocaust survivor, Marian Turski, told those gathered that German forces did the unimaginable in annihilating Jews, but that the “subsoil” of anti-Semitism existing for centuries made it possible for the Germans to kill so many. He warned against indifference in the face of rising hatred and violence in today’s world.

“Can I be indifferent, can I remain silent, when today the Russian army is attacking our neighbor and seizing its land?” he said.

Steinmeier said the lessons of his country’s aggression offer a message amid the war.

“You in Poland, you in Israel, you know from your history that freedom and independence must be fought for and defended,” Steinmeier said. “But we Germans have also learned the lessons of our history. ‘Never again’ means that there must be no criminal war of aggression like Russia’s against Ukraine in Europe.”

Michal Dyjuk

A woman holds yellow tulips during personal unofficial observances marking the 80th anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising in Warsaw, Poland, Wednesday, April 19, 2023. (AP Photo/Michal Dyjuk)

Jewish and Christian clerics recited prayers and a torch burned from a part of the memorial resembling a Jewish menorah.

A large group held private unofficial observances at other sites across the former ghetto. For some it was a boycott of the right-wing government for its policy of portraying the predominant response to the Holocaust as one in which Poles saved Jews. That approach has been a source of tensions with Israel, where many accuse the Polish government of ignoring modern scholarship, which paints a complex picture that also includes many cases of Polish betrayal of Jews.

Veronique Felenbok, the daughter of Paul Felenbok, a child survivor of the Warsaw ghetto who died two years ago, objected to the religious aspect of the official observances. She said she found the prayers disrespectful, given that many of the fighters belonged to socialist and communist movements and were not religious.

Michal Dyjuk, Associated Press

Veronique Felenbok, right, daughter of ghetto survivor Paul Felenbok, hugs his son Alix on Wednesday as they attend personal unofficial observances marking the 80th anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising in Warsaw, Poland.

The Germans invaded Poland in 1939 and the next year set up the ghetto, the largest of many in occupied Poland.

Poland was home to Europe’s largest prewar Jewish population on the eve of the Holocaust, some 3.5 million Jews, most of whom were murdered. The Polish state preserves sites like the ghetto and the Auschwitz death camp, while also honoring the massive losses inflicted on the entire nation. Some 6 million Polish citizens were killed during the war, about 3 million of them Jews and the others mostly Christian Poles.

Israel’s President Isaac Herzog mentioned in his remarks the “disagreements and pain” that still exist between the Jewish and Polish people over their clashing historical narratives, and voiced hope their friendship would advance.

“The heroism of the resistance and the rebels and the imperative to remember that terrible chapter of history, when the Jewish people faced complete annihilation, and destruction rained down upon Poland and many other countries, offer a platform for important dialogue between Poland and Israel,” Herzog said.

Michal Dyjuk

Children attend a minute of silence at The Umschlagplatz monument Wednesday during personal unofficial observances marking the 80th anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising in Warsaw, Poland.

The Warsaw ghetto initially held some 380,000 Jews cramped into tight living spaces, and at its peak housed about a half-million people. Disease and starvation were rampant, and bodies often appeared on the streets.

The Jewish resistance movement in the ghetto grew after 265,000 men, women and children were rounded up in the summer of 1942 and killed at the Treblinka death camp. As word of the Nazi genocide spread, those who remained behind no longer believed German promises they would be sent to labor camps.

A small group of rebels began to spread calls for resistance, carrying out isolated acts of sabotage and attacks. Some Jews began defying German orders to report for deportation.

Michal Dyjuk

A woman places a yellow tulip at 'The Umschlagplatz' monument during personal unofficial observances marking the 80th anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising in Warsaw, Poland, Wednesday, April 19, 2023. (AP Photo/Michal Dyjuk)

The uprising began when the Nazis entered the ghetto on April 19, 1943, the eve of the Passover holiday. Three days later, the Nazis set the ghetto ablaze, turning it into a fiery death trap, but the Jewish fighters kept up their struggle for nearly a month before they were vanquished.

Avi Valevski, a professor of psychiatry from Israel whose father, Ryszard Walewski, was a doctor who led a group of some 150 fighters in the revolt, visited Warsaw with his wife, describing it as “more than an emotional moment.”

Valevski, 72, is working to carry on a history that his father rarely spoke about, but also carries an emotional burden. He was young when his father became ill and died in 1971, but today pores through the documentation his father left behind, and is trying to get one of his stories translated into English and published.

“He was quite proud of his fight against the ‘Nazi beast’ — his words — but I suppose that the feeling of apprehension entered my soul until now,” Valevski said.