83rd Anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising — April 19, 1943

Poland and the global Jewish community observed the 83rd anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, which began on April 19, 1943 — the eve of Passover — when the Jewish Combat Organization (ŻOB) launched an armed revolt against SS forces arriving to liquidate the remaining 60,000 inhabitants of the Warsaw Ghetto. The POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews in Warsaw organized the 'Daffodil Campaign,' distributing yellow paper daffodils — a symbol introduced by Swedish Holocaust survivor Marek Edelman — to tens of thousands of Poles who wore them in solidarity with the ghetto fighters. A March of Remembrance gathered at the Ghetto Heroes Monument in Warsaw's Muranów District at noon. The Social and Cultural Association of Jews in Poland (TSKŻ) organized the main ceremony. The 1943 uprising, led by 24-year-old Mordechai Anielewicz with approximately 700 fighters armed with smuggled pistols and improvised weapons, held off 2,000+ SS troops for 28 days before SS General Jürgen Stroop systematically burned the ghetto block by block. Anielewicz died at the ŻOB command bunker on May 8, 1943. The uprising remains the largest single act of Jewish armed resistance during the Holocaust.