Flags Over The Warsaw Ghetto
Channel: From The Depths
Date: 2023-03-19

80 years later, the flags fly over the area of the Warsaw Ghetto once again. 

The Warsaw Ghetto was the largest German Nazi Ghetto of the Holocaust, with at its height, as many as 460,000 Jews imprisoned there. The Jews were starved to death and transported from there to multiple German Nazi death camps most notably Treblinka. 

On April 19th 1943, 80 years ago and one month from today, thousands German troops entered the Ghetto for the last time. Two brave groups of Jewish fighters stood up against them, the ZOB, the Jewish Combat Organization and the ZZW, the Jewish military union, in a stand of resistance, uprising and ultimate bravery. They fought valiantly with the few arms they had, and stood their ground for 9 days. 

The had of the ZZW, Pawel Frenkel addressed a meeting of the Jewish Military fighters: “Of course we will fight with guns in our hands, and most of us will fall. But we will live on in the lives and hearts of future generations and in the pages of their history.... We will die before our time but we are not doomed. We will be alive for as long as Jewish history lives!”

They group under Frankel hoisted two flags at the top of the highest building they could inside the ghetto, the blue-and-white flag of the Zionists, and the white-and-red flag of Poland, which had been smuggled into the ghetto through the sewer. The flags could be seen from outside the ghetto walls, and communiqués concerning them were communicated to the Polish underground and broadcast over Polish radio (certain sections of these communiqués were even picked up by the New York Times). 

The flags flying over the ghetto sparked the imagination and the enthusiasm of the local population; this was the ultimate affront to the Germans. The Germans understood this and made Muranowska Street a primary target, bringing in ever heavier artillery and increasing manpower in order to take the flags down at any cost.

Yet the fighters were determined to do whatever it took not to give up the flags – they continued to wave over the ghetto for almost four days. 

Finally, by Friday, April 23, 1943, after tanks and artillery had pounded the buildings on Muranowska Street to such an extent that the entire street shook, the flags ceased to wave, having been shot to pieces.

80 years later, Jonny Daniels, founder of From The Depths, an international Holocaust educational organization run by millennials, placed the flags over the area of the Warsaw Ghetto once again. 

“This powerful symbol of resistance, of fighting back, is one we must carry on for the next generations.” Said Daniels.

“Resistance wasn’t just the physical act of fighting, it too was staying alive, keeping once’s faith, keeping one’s dignity, we remember all those we lost, and promise though actions like these, that they will never be forgotten” added Daniels. 

The raising of the flags was performed in partnership with Onet, Poland’s largest web portal and online news platform, owned by Ringer Axel Springer Media AG.