A notable exception was a three-day academic conference organized by the Simon Dubnow Institute in Leipzig, which featured many of the preeminent historians in the field of Polish Jewish history and reviewed recent historical findings about the uprising, including the different political tendencies involved in it. In Germany itself, there were very few commemorations, almost all of which were organized by Jewish communities. Germany’s President Frank-Walter Steinmeier uttered a number of platitudes and asked for “forgiveness” in Warsaw, under conditions where the German government is again sending tanks to fight a war against Russia in Ukraine and the Polish government is playing a central role in falsifying history, promoting antisemitism and advancing the NATO war against Russia. It has since become one of the best known episodes in the history of the Nazi-led genocide of 6 million European Jews and a symbol of courageous defiance in the face of the seemingly overwhelming armed power of fascism.ĭespite its enormous historic and political significance-or rather because of it-the commemorations of the 80th anniversary were extremely muted. Along with the now beginning advance of the Red Army, it heralded the eruption of social and revolutionary struggles against the Nazi regime and its allies across Europe. The uprising earned the Warsaw Ghetto the term “little Stalingrad” among contemporaries.
It came just over two months after the defeat of Nazi Germany by the Red Army at Stalingrad, where an entire German army had been wiped out. While it could not halt or change the course of the Holocaust, the uprising shook the Nazi occupiers to the core. The picture was taken for a report by SS Commander Jürgen Stroop.
SS soldiers walking through the streets of the burning ghetto.
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