Poland in Canada

The Germans crammed over 400,000 Jews within the walled-off area of the Warsaw Ghetto. They were residents of the city and the neighboring towns and villages, as well as deportees from the territories incorporated into the Reich. In the Ghetto, tens of thousands of people died of hunger and disease. On July 22^nd, 1942 the so-called Great Deportation Aktion began. Over the course of two months, the Germans deported nearly 300,000 Ghetto residents to their deaths at the Treblinka extermination camp, while thousands of others were murdered on the spot in the Ghetto. Approximately 60,000 Jews remained in the so-called Restgetto (Ger.: the remnants of a ghetto). They were mostly Jewish youth who had lost their families. Under these circumstances, with nothing or little left to lose, the idea of armed resistance against the Nazis was born.

On April 19^th, 1943 on the Eve of Passover, two thousand German troops entered the Warsaw Ghetto in order to carry out its final liquidation. They were met with the resistance of several hundred poorly armed Jewish insurgents who, over several weeks, engaged in combat amongst the rubble of the Ghetto, that was continuously being systematically destroyed.

The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising was the largest heroic act of armed resistance taken up by the Jews during World War Two. They fought under most harsh conditions, hiding in cellars and sewers, with no access to any supplies. They inspired Jews to resist the extermination in Treblinka and in Sobibor, as well as elsewhere in Europe.

The 8th edition of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising social-educational campaign

The POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews launched the Daffodils Campaign to commemorate the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. On April 19^th for almost a decade now, hundreds of volunteers in Warsaw and other cities have been handing out yellow badges - paper daffodils. This is done to raise awareness about the Uprising and its significance. This year, due to the pandemic, the POLIN Museum is running their campaign online. They invite everyone to join the commemoration.

Daffodil is the symbol of remembrance

Many years ago on April 19^th Marek Edelman, the last surviving leader of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, received a bouquet of yellow daffodils from an anonymous person. He laid them at the Monument to the Ghetto Heroes to commemorate the heroes of the Uprising. He used to lay a bouquet of yellow daffodils there every year. Marek Edelman passed away in 2009 but his legacy lives on. Thousands of people wear yellow paper daffodils on April 19^th to commemorate the heroes of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising.

More about the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising and the Daffodils Campaign can be found on the POLIN Museum website:  www.polin.pl/en/Warsawghettouprising

 

___

Photo: Marc Oliver Giguere