Today in History—Warsaw Ghetto Uprising

Seventy-four years ago, the most famous Jewish resistance attempt began in Warsaw, Poland. German troops had entered the ghetto to resume deportation of the remaining Jewish residents to the Treblinka Concentration Camp, a designated killing center. A small but determined group of seven hundred fifty resistance fighters, armed with a few smuggled rifles and hand-made grenades, held off a large contingent of heavily armed German troops for almost a month. The uprising ended on May 16, 1943 with the bombing of the Great Synagogue and destruction of the ghetto. Of the 56,000 Jews captured, 7,000 were sent to Treblinka.