Crowns and flowers were placed in the monument of heroes of the Polish capital on Saturday to mark the 82nd anniversary of the uprising of the Warsaw ghetto. Today, the jaw has become a symbol of commemoration.
The 1943 Warsaw ghetto uprising was the largest armed Jewish uprising during the Second World War. On April 19, a group of young men led by Mordechai Aniewicz resisted and pushed back the Nazi troops which had entered the Warsaw ghetto in order to expel its inhabitants towards concentration camps.
In an interview with Euronews, Zofia Bojańczyk, coordinator of the Jonquille campaign by the Polin Museum in the history of Polish Jews, spoke of the importance of today's commemoration.
“The insurgents knew that they had no chance against the extermination machines that the Germans represented. It was therefore a struggle for dignity, for a dignified death, without any hope of victory,” said Bojańczyk.
Although the uprising was intended to fail, the insurgents obtained certain early successes in the first days.
“This handful of Jews, young people, poorly armed, were mainly able to surprise the Germans,” said Bojanczyk.
“Let us remember that we are in 1943, the war has lasted for four years, the Germans had murdered Jews, so these young people had already seen the death of their friends, their family, they had themselves been through hell, the Holocaust and the Germans were completely surprised to meet any resistance on the Jewish side.”
“You had to die with a weapon in hand.
The Polin Museum of the History of Polish Jews undertakes to commemorate the heroes of the war, in particular Marek Edelman, the last surviving chief of the uprising of the Warsaw ghetto.
Bojanczyk said that “in addition to being an important figure for solidarity, an exceptional doctor, he survived the Holocaust and was a guardian of Jewish memory”.
In a Facebook Post, the museum remembers Edelman as follows:
“He did not have illusions – he knew that they would not defeat the German army. And yet he fought. Not for himself, but for those who did not want to die passively. After the war, he spoke of the uprising in simple words: 'You had to die with a weapon in your hand. But his fight did not end in 1943 – throughout his life, he defended the weak, as a doctor who saves the hearts of people and as a social militant who fights for the dignity of others. “”
Why the rods?
Marek Edelman, who died in 2009, became a voice of eminent conscience in Poland. Each anniversary of the uprising, Edelman would receive a bouquet of yellow jaws from an anonymous person.
“Very often, it was jonquilles, because it is the jugg season. And he would place this bouquet at the monument to the heroes of the ghetto in the district of Muranów de Warsaw, where the Museum of the History of the Polish Jews Polin, which organizes the campaign of the Jondile, is also located in this monument. And with Marik Edelman, more and more people came, yellow at the monument. “Bojańczyk said.
Since 2013, Polin Museum volunteers have distributed yellow paper jaws to Warsaw residents, asking them to pin them to their clothes. In doing so, they commemorate the anniversary of the uprising and all those who fought in the Warsaw ghetto.
“When I say all those who fought, I mean not only the insurgents who fought with weapons in their hands, but also those who resisted civilly. They were people who hid in granaries, in bunkers and fought during all hours and every day of their lives,” said Bojańczyk.
ADVERTISEMENT“But they are also people who supported the uprising on the other side of the wall, between them, trying to provide weapons, organizing money, false evidence, etc.
Strong identity of Warsaw
In 2013, the volunteer base was sparse. However, since then, more than 15,000 volunteers have participated in the action, distributing more than two million yellow flowers.
“And the action has gone from the local to be not only nationally, but has also reached a multitude of countries around the world with its scope,” said Bojańczyk.
Jonquilles have been sent to more than 30 countries.
ADVERTISEMENT“This year, our rods will in fact be transported from Buenos Aires to Melbourne, Australia,” added Bojańczyk.
“Our volunteers are mainly people who do not have Jewish roots, so for them, motivation is not a family story, but they are Warsovians of flesh and blood or people who have a strong identity with Warsaw, that it is the story of their city, that this happened here in Warsaw. Before the uprising of Warsaw, there was also the uprising of Warsaw Ghetto in 1943.
Empathy, help, opening
Each year, more and more schools join the Jonquille campaign. Bojańczyk said more than 6,000 schools, libraries, institutions in all of Poland joined this year.
“But what is important is that it is not only the story, like learning the dates of these important characters who participated in the uprising and so on. It is also a question of looking closer to the concepts such as empathy, help, opening, opening to the other person. If we are open and open to another person, then what happened again in 1943, or rather the whole machine, which has never happened to Hocaust, Again, “Boja.
ADVERTISEMENTThe article uses a photograph of the Virtual Shtetl archive.
