The People’s Uprising and the Fall of Warsaw Ghetto, April 1942–June 1943
9781684583065
9781684583140
Distributed for Brandeis University Press
The People’s Uprising and the Fall of Warsaw Ghetto, April 1942–June 1943
Examines the final years of the Warsaw ghetto, the uprising, and the varied, nuanced ways Jewish people resisted Nazi rule.
The People’s Uprising and the Fall of the Warsaw Ghetto, April 1942–June 1943 sheds light on the lives, choices, and experiences of the tens of thousands of Jews who were not part of the underground armed resistance but nonetheless supported the famed Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. This riveting and dramatic account focuses on the final year of the Warsaw ghetto, from the Great Deportation in the summer of 1942 through the suppression of the uprising in mid-1943. Drawing on powerful contemporary testimonies, diaries, and documents—many of them previously unexplored—Havi Ben-Sasson Dreifuss
reveals how members of the broader Jewish population struggled to survive, maintain family and community life, and make impossible moral decisions in the face of fear, hunger, and daily violence. Looking beyond the fighters themselves, the book offers a story of devastation, but also of resilience and human dignity.
Published in association with Yad Vashem.
The People’s Uprising and the Fall of the Warsaw Ghetto, April 1942–June 1943 sheds light on the lives, choices, and experiences of the tens of thousands of Jews who were not part of the underground armed resistance but nonetheless supported the famed Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. This riveting and dramatic account focuses on the final year of the Warsaw ghetto, from the Great Deportation in the summer of 1942 through the suppression of the uprising in mid-1943. Drawing on powerful contemporary testimonies, diaries, and documents—many of them previously unexplored—Havi Ben-Sasson Dreifuss
reveals how members of the broader Jewish population struggled to survive, maintain family and community life, and make impossible moral decisions in the face of fear, hunger, and daily violence. Looking beyond the fighters themselves, the book offers a story of devastation, but also of resilience and human dignity.
Published in association with Yad Vashem.
472 pages | 49 halftones | 6 x 9 | © 2026
The Tauber Institute Series for the Study of European Jewry
History: European History, General History
Table of Contents
Preface to the English edition
Introduction
Chapter One
The Twilight Days: April 18–July 21, 1942
The Warsaw Ghetto prior to April 1942
Economic Conditions and the Struggle for a Livelihood
Jewish Society and Its Various Circles
The Jewish Street and Ghetto Housing
April–July 1942: A Reign of Terror in the Streets and Houses in the Ghetto
A Chronicle of Edicts and Persecutions
The Rumor Mill and Fears
Chapter Two
The Great Deportation: July 22–September 21, 1942(Eve of the Fast of the Ninth of Av 5702–Yom Kippur 5703)
The Beginning
The Destruction of the Public and Private Spaces in the Ghetto: “[Your] Streets Have Died”
Late July to Mid-August 1942: Workshop Mania
Mid-August to September 6, 1942
Families and Women during the Deportation
Where to? “I Am in Treblinka”
The Umschlagplatz during the Great Deportation
September 1942: The “Cauldron Roundup” and the Conclusion of the Great Deportation
Chapter Three
An Abandoned, Beaten Remnant in a Painful Awakening: Mid-September 1942–Mid-January 1943
Life amidst the Ruins of the Past
A New Social Stratification
“Let Us Eat and Drink for Tomorrow We Die”
Abnormal Routine
Chapter Four
The Second Deportation, the January Uprising, and Their Ramifications—Between Hope and the Awareness of Loss: January 18 to Mid-April 1943
The Future of the Warsaw Ghetto and Its Remnants in the Eyes of the German Authorities: Jewish Labor or Extermination of the Jews
The Second Aktion
In the Absence of a Future: Work, Hiding in the Ghetto, or Escape to the Aryan Side
From the Warsaw Ghetto to Lublin?
Preparations of the Resistance Organizations
Chapter Five
The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising: Passover Eve 5703, April 19 to June 1943
The First Day of the Uprising: April 19, 1943
The Second Day of the Uprising: April 20, 1943
The Third Day of the Uprising: April 21, 1943
The Fourth Day of the Uprising: April 22, 1943—What Remained of the Fighting Afterward?
In the Apartments and Bunkers
The Fires
The End of the Uprising and Its Final Suppression: The Exit from the Ghetto and the Bunkers
The Umschlagplatz
Among the Ruins
“There is no longer a Jewish Residential Quarter in Warsaw!”
Summary and Conclusions
Bibliography
Index
Introduction
Chapter One
The Twilight Days: April 18–July 21, 1942
The Warsaw Ghetto prior to April 1942
Economic Conditions and the Struggle for a Livelihood
Jewish Society and Its Various Circles
The Jewish Street and Ghetto Housing
April–July 1942: A Reign of Terror in the Streets and Houses in the Ghetto
A Chronicle of Edicts and Persecutions
The Rumor Mill and Fears
Chapter Two
The Great Deportation: July 22–September 21, 1942(Eve of the Fast of the Ninth of Av 5702–Yom Kippur 5703)
The Beginning
The Destruction of the Public and Private Spaces in the Ghetto: “[Your] Streets Have Died”
Late July to Mid-August 1942: Workshop Mania
Mid-August to September 6, 1942
Families and Women during the Deportation
Where to? “I Am in Treblinka”
The Umschlagplatz during the Great Deportation
September 1942: The “Cauldron Roundup” and the Conclusion of the Great Deportation
Chapter Three
An Abandoned, Beaten Remnant in a Painful Awakening: Mid-September 1942–Mid-January 1943
Life amidst the Ruins of the Past
A New Social Stratification
“Let Us Eat and Drink for Tomorrow We Die”
Abnormal Routine
Chapter Four
The Second Deportation, the January Uprising, and Their Ramifications—Between Hope and the Awareness of Loss: January 18 to Mid-April 1943
The Future of the Warsaw Ghetto and Its Remnants in the Eyes of the German Authorities: Jewish Labor or Extermination of the Jews
The Second Aktion
In the Absence of a Future: Work, Hiding in the Ghetto, or Escape to the Aryan Side
From the Warsaw Ghetto to Lublin?
Preparations of the Resistance Organizations
Chapter Five
The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising: Passover Eve 5703, April 19 to June 1943
The First Day of the Uprising: April 19, 1943
The Second Day of the Uprising: April 20, 1943
The Third Day of the Uprising: April 21, 1943
The Fourth Day of the Uprising: April 22, 1943—What Remained of the Fighting Afterward?
In the Apartments and Bunkers
The Fires
The End of the Uprising and Its Final Suppression: The Exit from the Ghetto and the Bunkers
The Umschlagplatz
Among the Ruins
“There is no longer a Jewish Residential Quarter in Warsaw!”
Summary and Conclusions
Bibliography
Index