Another ghetto burns
JVL Introduction
Marking the eighty-second anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, this article shows how little has been learned.
Its author Joseph Mogul, a descendant of Holocaust survivors, says that now “another population is burning”, this time in Gaza, and “Israelis have mostly expressed support for this calamity in a rhetorical landscape shockingly reminiscent of Warsaw 1943.”
He says that among non-Jewish Warsaw residents, When not regarded with indifference, the destruction of the ghetto was considered a spectacle for onlookers to enjoy.
About the photograph: The Wikimedia Commons website names some of the individuals pictured and says the author is unknown, but “Franz Konrad confessed to taking some of the photographs, the rest was probably taken by photographers from Propaganda Kompanie nr 689″
NWI
This article was originally published by Jacobin on Sat 19 Apr 2025. Read the original here.
The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising Wasn’t Always Celebrated
The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, which began 82 years ago today, is now universally hailed as a bold act of Jewish resistance against the Nazis. But at the time, many Poles watched — or cheered — as the ghetto burned. The parallels with Gaza are hard to ignore.
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I understand why Joseph Mogul wishes to draw close parallels between the reaction of Israelis to the genocide in Gaza and non-Jewish Poles reactions to the Warsaw Ghetto but I think he exaggerates the latter.
Joseph is wrong when he says the second round of deportations began on April 19 1943. It began on January 18th and that was when the resistance began. That was why it was called off after two days although 6,500 Jews were deported and over 1,000 killed.
Joseph also ignores the separate resistance of the Revisionist ZZW at Muranowski Square. The latter were far better equipped with e.g. machine guns which were supplied by their fascist friends (see Moshe Arens, ‘The ZZW in the Warsaw Ghetto’).
Where I disagree most with Joseph is his comparison between Israeli civilian support for the genocide and that of the Polish civilians. There really is no comparison. In Israel the support for genocide is almost complete, over 90%. That was not true in Warsaw.
Of course Polish society was riven with anti-Semitism but there was also strong opposition to it as represented by the Polish Socialist Party. The arms that ZOB, the Jewish Fighting Organisation, fought with came from the Polish resistance. There were also Polish forays from outside the Ghetto (see Hilberg, Destruction of the European Jews p.539).
Gunnar Paulsson estimates that up to 28,000 Jews were hiding in the Aryan side of Warsaw. There is no equivalence in Israel. To hide a Jew took up to 100 non-Jews. To betray a Jew took just one person.
Of course the anti-Semites celebrated openly but that should not be taken to represent the majority of the Polish population. It was hardly likely that people would only demonstrate in support of the Jewish resistance. Warsaw was under Nazi occupation
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https://www.banksidegallery.com/exhibitions/119/works/48008/
I bought this mixed media piece by Colin Merrin at Bankside Gallery 7 months ago. It hit me at once. He wrote to me that he is Jewish, and that his partner advised him to stop ranting with rage, and put it into a piece of art. When I got it home I read the label on the back, all proceeds to UNICEF Gaza appeal.