Personal Narrative: My Life In The Warsaw Ghetto

Throughout the Holocaust, Jews organized resistance movements in ghettos, concentration, and extermination camps. Although they had virtually no weapons and faced one of the largest arsenals in the world, the Jewish people fought for their honor and freedom. Without any hope victory and in the face of death, resistance fighters found the courage to take on evil in its purest form. Their efforts must not go in vein; to them we must accord our respect. This is a brief testimony of their fight against the Nazi regime.

Some of the local farmers were allies to the group, gentiles willing to sacrifice and to help the men. Some of the farmers would even send those who escaped the ghettos to the woods to find the group. Attempting to leave the ghettos carried a harsh punishment for anyone, death by hanging. The Jews resilient in their efforts of escape from the Ghetto dug a tunnel with only forks and spoons allowing the over two hundred and fifty remaining captive Jews an escape to the woods in some hope of survival. Only one hundred and seventy men, women, and children survived to reach the partisans in the woods because of Nazi firepower but the power of the group would soon double.

I was informed of a Hauptmann (company officer) was in the area and I was to kill him. The german forces were set up in the town square so I snuck into one of the buildings nearby to get a good shot on them. There were four of us assigned to the mission but I was to take the shot at the Hauptmann. As we waited for what seemed like hours the Hauptmann finally came out into the open. I set up my rifle and lined up my scope with the target I saw something I wish I didn't see, the Hauptmann was Heinrich little did I know he too joined the war but he quickly rose through the ranks and now my friend, my brother was at the other end of my rifle and I had to kill him. I didn't have much time and my companions were getting uneasy so I had two options shoot my brother and help win the war or let him live and possibly make the war last alot longer. So I did what had to be done I squeezed the trigger, everything went quiet as if the world stood still, a tear rolled down my left eye as I realised what I had done. I came back a hero everyone loved me, but what I would give to go back to those days in

Jewish prisoners create resistances within concentration camps even though they were known impossible to escape. The bravery of the Jews during the Holocaust, even while in concentration camps, never wavered. Escapes and revolts were organized in many camps; the well known revolts occurred in Treblinka, Sobibor and Auschwitz-Birkenau. If you were involved in a resistance in any way, then you would be killed. Ironically, the Jews in the concentration camps were going to be killed anyway so why not make a stance.

The novel A Memoir of the Warsaw Uprising written by Miron Białoszewski takes readers on a journey through the Warsaw Uprising. In the beginning, one can identify that the novel is written in first person and feel safe to assume that the writer is writing a memoir based off of his personal experience of the Uprising from “Tuesday, August 1, 1944 [to]…the morning of October 2, 1944”. Instead of giving readers a synopsis of the event, Białoszewski recounts his memories of the five-month period as a civilian and takes accounts of the Uprising’s aftermath up until he sees what remained of Warsaw in February 1945. With Soviet armies on the fringes of Warsaw, the Polish capital dismayed Nazi occupation. Białoszewski began to write during the German occupation. A Memoir of the Warsaw Uprising offers an eye to maintaining interpretation of the Uprising and also offers readers his self-revelations where he seeks clues to his own personality and career at the time he wrote the memoir. Białoszewski is a true revisionist in his presentation of the Warsaw Uprising and in his approach to the memoir category of artistic composition. Memory can be a useful historical device because memory gives history an emotional meaning and a flow. Memory can be unbeneficial because as time goes on, details are lost.

All bullets were counted, beds made, uniforms cleaned, this occurred until suddenly 03:45 arrived. “Men, the time is nearly here,” my words choked as self-hatred flooded my body, “What we do here today will be remembered for generations to come, we fight today not only for ourselves, but all who we know. All our mates and family who live back home!” A faint cheer followed my speech as I steadied myself for what was to come. “We charge in 5 minutes. We charge not only for our freedom but for the freedom of our country. For the freedom of the world!” Spit filled the air from the cheer which erupted from my unit this time. A unity formed over the men, a cold malevolent sweat captured me. Who was I to send these boys to their death? A resolve set inside me, I would fight alongside my men, their lives are worth the same as mine. 04:00 “THIS IS IT MEN! WE FIGHT FOR THE WORLD!” I screamed as I led the charge. Vaulting out of the trench I saw no man’s land clearly for the first time. Death was everywhere, flies swarming the pools of blood. The land so barren of life no greenery was seen. A cold resolution set over me, it was the Germans fault, they caused

Henry had a lot of courage going into the first battle. He didn't truly know what war was like so that might be why he wasn't scared. The first battle was not very brutal and Henry stayed calm. His friends were calm as well and Henry didn't want to seem like a coward if he ran away. Henry got some respect for staying during the first battle. There was a different story however for the second battle.

A week in April 1943 there was Nazis going door to door to take Jews, suddenly there started to be fires all over the ghetto. When the Nazis where coming door to door “firefights erupted all over the city and the Nazis found themselves surrounded on many streets and without initial tank support” (“Jewish Resistance”). The Jews knew that they were outnumbered but they wanted to feel hope inside them. There humanity was retained, and they felt satisfied that they stood up for themselves. Another way Jews were showing resistance was by still practicing their religion and not using armed

Jewish resistance is a very untold and important part of World War II. As the war grew and the Nazi’s occupied many European countries, resistance grew and intensified. Those who could escape the ghettos and work camps joined partisan groups. In the early 1940’s, underground resistance movements developed in about 100 ghettos. There were about 20,000-30,000 Jewish Partisans and their main goal was to break out of the ghettos, save as many Jews as they could, and fight against the Germans. Many Jews operated as partisans, whether as part of individual Jewish units or as members of non-Jewish units (Yad Vashem, n.d.).

I don’t quite remember the date, but it was cold, bitter, and snowing too. All I could think about was my dire hunger. Our cabin commander ordered us to get out of bed. I didn’t hear this right away, but I was told later that I was the last one to get up. I just kept dozing off, shivering and cold. Then I felt piercing pain in my chest, then head, then everywhere. Finally, I got up, with my chest and head throbbing.

The Nazis have invaded the Poland today. It is 1939 october 2. Me and my mom and my dad and my sister were in a bunker which my dad owns we also had a couple other families inside. We were waiting for the loud noises to stop and the gunshots to finish. 42 hours just passed when france and britain had declared war on germany after that we left. By this time Germany had occupation Poland. When I first got out of the bunker and we started heading to the city I saw tanks and soldiers and many other things the soldiers were on each corner of each street there was so many of them. We were stopped many times and we were asked what are names and were was are headed. We told them that we were headed to one of my dads big mansion. My parents are very wealthy my dad works as a businessman and my mom is a designer for clothes. My friends and his friends has just came over to stay for a couple of days until things cool down. Me and my friend had just gone into my

All I could fit in my only small bag was a few clothes and a toothbrush and all my parents

I know things have been hard as I sit, across from the concentration camps . Everyday I see people come in for days without leaving. It truly does scare me sister. I hope that you are far away as possible from this catastrophe . It is a blistering sight to behold, all of my fellow friends being shot in front of me day by day. I don’t think ill have enough will power to keep fighting for my right as a Jew. I am fearful of the gas chambers , they have been rumored to be long and painful.

. Whilst they were generally free to come and go within the towns in which they pleased until the mid-19th century there were special Jewish places called "Jewish towns" in many larger Polish towns and cities.

One day we woke up to guards brutally pounding on our door. I was the first one up, but my dad didn’t let me open the door. When he went to the door the guard grabbed him and pushed him outside. The guards rushed inside and told us all to get outside immediately. We went outside the nazis made us start walking to the train station. Once we arrived at the station the nazis made all the jews cramp into small cattle carts. This process took about two hours. Once in awhile you would hear gun shots. That was usually the officers shooting at a Jew who was trying to escape. After all the Jews got on the train my family and I prayed that we would all stay together. After what it seemed like forever we arrived in a town called Rzeszow. There My family and the rest of the Jews were forced to live in a ghetto. The ghetto was small but at least I was able to stay with my family.