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During the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising
The artist has multiplied an image of Jews captured during the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising and shown lined up with their faces against the Ghetto wall. The enormity of their helplessness after their valiant attempt to resist Nazi capture is evident in this painting.
Warsaw Ghetto UprisingIn October 1940, the Germans had established a ghetto in Warsaw. They sealed off a designated area behind a ten-foot wall topped with barbed wire and closely guarded by German and auxiliary armed forces. Living conditions inside the ghetto soon became appalling, with shortages of food and deteriorating facilities for hygiene. In 1941, before deportations began, the death rate was more than one in every ten ghetto residents.
Between July and September of 1942, approximately 300,000 Jews were transported from the Warsaw Ghetto to Treblinka for extermination. Only 55,000 remained in the ghetto. But a determination to resist grew among this remainder, and a newly formed group, the Jewish Fighting Organization, slowly took control of the ghetto.
The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising started on April 19, 1943, and continued until the final liquidation of the ghetto on May 16. This Jewish uprising was the largest and most important in German-occupied Europe. The Jews fought in the buildings and streets. The unequal battles were costly to the poorly armed Jewish combatants—most were killed. Ultimately, the Warsaw Ghetto lay in ruins and the surviving Jews were transported to the death camps.