Vladka belonged to the Zukunft youth movement of the Bund (the Jewish Socialist party). She was active in the Warsaw ghetto underground as a member of the Jewish Fighting Organization (ZOB). In December 1942, she was smuggled out to the Aryan, Polish side of Warsaw to try to obtain arms and to find hiding places for children and adults. She became an active courier for the Jewish underground and for Jews in camps, forests, and other ghettos.
Ben was one of four children born to a religious Jewish family. Germany invaded Poland on September 1, 1939. After the Germans occupied Warsaw, Ben decided to escape to Soviet-occupied eastern Poland. However, he soon decided to return to his family, then in the Warsaw ghetto. Ben was assigned to a work detail outside the ghetto, and helped smuggle people out of the ghetto—including Vladka (Fagele) Peltel, a member of the Jewish Fighting Organization (ZOB), who later became his wife. Later, he went into hiding outside the ghetto and posed as a non-Jewish Pole. During the Warsaw ghetto uprising in 1943, Ben worked with other members of the underground to rescue ghetto fighters, bringing them out through the sewers and hiding them on the "Aryan" side of Warsaw. From the "Aryan" side of Warsaw, Ben witnessed the burning of the Warsaw ghetto during the uprising. After the uprising, Ben escaped from Warsaw by posing as a non-Jew. Following liberation, he was reunited with his father, mother, and younger sister.
Abraham was born to a Jewish family in the Polish capital of Warsaw. His grandfather owned a clothing factory and retail store, which his father managed. Abraham's family lived in a Jewish section of Warsaw and he attended a Jewish school. Warsaw's Jewish community was the largest in Europe, and made up nearly one-third of the population of the city.
1933-39: After the bombardment of Warsaw began on September 8, 1939, Abraham's family had little to eat. The stores had been reduced to rubble; they had no water or heat. Hunting for food, Abraham dodged German bombs and stole seven jars of pickles from a nearby pickle factory. For several weeks his family lived on pickles and rice. Because of a lack of water, fires from the bombing raids burned out of control. Relief came when the capital surrendered.
1940-44: By April 1943 Abraham was in the Warsaw ghetto in a walled-off forced-labor area. During the ghetto uprising he could see the flames. He couldn't believe it. To one side Abraham saw whole streets on fire. To the other he saw Poles in Warsaw's non-Jewish section preparing for Easter. When the Nazis liquidated the ghetto after the uprising, Abraham and his father were among those marched out for deportation. Poles stood on the sidewalk, eyeing the suitcases they carried, saying: "You're going to your death, after all. Leave it for us."
Abraham was deported to Majdanek and then to seven other Nazi camps, including Buchenwald. He was liberated in transit to the Dachau camp on April 30, 1945.
Mendel was one of six children born to a religious Jewish family. When Mendel was in his early 20s, he married and moved with his wife to her hometown of Wolomin, near Warsaw. One week after the Rozenblits' son, Avraham, was born, Mendel's wife died. Distraught after the death of his young wife and left to care for a baby, Mendel married his sister-in-law Perele.
1933-39: In Wolomin Mendel ran a lumber yard. In 1935 the Rozenblits had a daughter, Tovah. When Avraham and Tovah were school age, they began attending a Jewish day school, where they studied general subjects in Polish and Jewish subjects in Hebrew. Avraham was 8 and Tovah was 4 when the Germans invaded Poland on September 1, 1939.
1940-44: By the fall of 1940 the Rozenblit family had been sent to the Warsaw ghetto. During the ghetto uprising in April 1943, Mendel and his family managed to escape to the outskirts of Warsaw. They decided that if anyone should get lost in the chaos, they would all meet at a designated farmhouse. Suddenly, Avraham disappeared. Perele set out to find him, and was never seen again. Mendel eventually found Avraham, shoeless, at the farmhouse. Not long after, Mendel, Avraham and Tovah were arrested and deported to Auschwitz.
At Auschwitz Mendel was selected for hard labor. His children were gassed. In 1947 Mendel immigrated to the United States, where he began a new family.
Vladka belonged to the Zukunft youth movement of the Bund (the Jewish Socialist party). She was active in the Warsaw ghetto underground as a member of the Jewish Fighting Organization (ZOB). In December 1942, she was smuggled out to the Aryan, Polish side of Warsaw to try to obtain arms and to find hiding places for children and adults. She became an active courier for the Jewish underground and for Jews in camps, forests, and other ghettos.
SS Major General Juergen Stroop, commander of German forces that suppressed the Warsaw ghetto uprising, compiled an album of photographs and other materials. This album, later known as "The Stroop Report," was introduced as evidence at the International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg. Here, its cover is marked with an IMT evidence stamp.
The city of Warsaw is the capital of Poland. Before World War II, Warsaw was the center of Jewish life and culture in Poland. Warsaw's prewar Jewish population of more than 350,000 constituted about 30 percent of the city's total population. The Warsaw Jewish community was the largest in both Poland and Europe, and was the second largest in the world, behind that of New York City. The Germans occupied Warsaw on September 29, 1939. In October 1940, the Germans ordered the establishment of a ghetto in Warsaw. All Jewish residents were ordered into the designated area, which was sealed off from the rest of the city in November 1940. The ghetto was enclosed by a wall that was over 10 feet high, topped with barbed wire, and closely guarded to prevent movement between the ghetto and the rest of Warsaw.
Many Jews in ghettos across eastern Europe tried to organize resistance against the Germans and to arm themselves with smuggled and homemade weapons. Between 1941 and 1943, underground resistance movements formed in about 100 Jewish groups. The most famous attempt by Jews to resist the Germans in armed fighting occurred in the Warsaw ghetto.
In the summer of 1942, about 265,000 Jews were deported from Warsaw to Treblinka. When reports of mass murder in the killing center leaked back to the Warsaw ghetto, a surviving group of mostly young people formed an organization called the ŻOB (for the Polish name, Żydowska Organizacja Bojowa, which means Jewish Fighting Organization). The ŻOB, led by 23-year-old Mordecai Anielewicz, issued a proclamation calling for the Jewish people to resist going to the railroad cars.
In January 1943, Warsaw ghetto fighters fired upon German troops as they tried to round up another group of ghetto inhabitants for deportation. Fighters used a small supply of weapons that had been smuggled into the ghetto. After a few days, the German troops retreated. This small victory inspired the ghetto fighters to prepare for future resistance.
On April 19, 1943, the Warsaw ghetto uprising began after German troops and police entered the ghetto to deport its surviving inhabitants. About 700 young Jewish fighters fought the heavily armed and well-trained Germans. The ghetto fighters were able to hold out for nearly a month, but on May 16, 1943, the revolt ended. The Germans had slowly crushed the resistance.
The SS and police captured approximately 42,000 Warsaw ghetto survivors during the uprising. They sent these people to forced labor camps and the Majdanek concentration camps. The SS and police sent another 7,000 people to the Treblinka killing center. At least 7,000 Jews died while fighting or in hiding in the ghetto. Only a few of the resistance fighters succeeded in escaping from the ghetto.
Key Dates
July 28, 1942 Jewish Fighting Organization established In the midst of the first wave of deportations from the Warsaw ghetto to the Treblinka killing center, the Jewish Fighting Organization (ŻOB, Żydowska Organizacja Bojowa) is established. On July 22, 1942, the Germans begin massive deportations which last without stop until September 12, 1942. During this time about 265,000 Jews from the ghetto are deported or killed. The ŻOB, formed by members of Jewish youth organizations, calls for the Jews of the ghetto to resist deportation. Reports of the massacres of Jews by mobile killing units and in killing centers have already filtered into the ghetto. However, the ŻOB is not yet ready to stage a revolt. After deportations end in September, the ŻOB expands to incorporate members of underground political organizations. They establish contact with Polish resistance forces who provide training, armaments, and explosives. Mordecai Anielewicz is appointed ŻOB commander.
January 18–21, 1943 Germans encounter resistance The Germans renew deportations from the Warsaw ghetto. This time however, they encounter resistance from the Jewish Fighting Organization (ŻOB). The early morning roundups take the ŻOB organization by surprise. Individuals take to the streets to resist the Germans. Other Jews in the ghetto retreat into prepared hiding places. The Germans, expecting the expulsions to run smoothly, are surprised by the resistance. In an act of retaliation they massacre 1,000 Jews in the main square on January 21, but suspend further deportations. The Germans deport or kill 5,000-6,500 Jews. Encouraged by the results of resistance actions, the Jews in the ghetto plan and prepare a full-scale revolt. The fighting organization is unified, strategies are planned, underground bunkers and tunnels are built, and roof-top passages are constructed. The Jews of the Warsaw ghetto prepare to fight to the end.
April 19 to May 16, 1943 Ghetto destroyed, uprising ends On April 19, 1943, the Germans, under the command of SS General Jürgen Stroop, begin the final destruction of the ghetto and the deportation of the remaining Jews. The ghetto population, however, does not report for deportations. Instead, the ghetto fighting organizations and remaining civilians have barricaded themselves inside buildings and bunkers, ready to resist the Germans. After three days, German forces begin burning the ghetto, building by building, to force Jews out of hiding places. Resistance continues for days as the Germans reduce the ghetto to rubble. On May 16, 1943, after a month of fighting, the Germans blow up the Great Synagogue in Warsaw. This signals the end of the uprising and the destruction of the ghetto.
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