Editing Warsaw Ghetto (section)

== Ghetto Uprising and final destruction of the ghetto ==
{{main|Warsaw Ghetto Uprising}}
[[File:Stroop Report - Warsaw Ghetto Uprising 09.jpg|thumb|Suppression of [[Warsaw Ghetto Uprising]]. Captured Jews escorted by the [[Waffen SS]], Nowolipie Street, 1943]]
On January 18, 1943, after almost four months without deportations, the Germans suddenly entered the Warsaw Ghetto intent upon further roundups. Within hours, some 600 Jews were shot and 5,000 others removed from their residences. The Germans expected no resistance, but the action was brought to a halt by hundreds of insurgents armed with handguns and Molotov cocktails.<ref name="Seeman"/><ref name="Patt"/><ref name="Schoen"/>

Preparations to resist had been going on since the previous autumn.<ref name="Gilbert"/> The first instance of Jewish armed struggle in Warsaw had begun. The underground fighters from [[Żydowska Organizacja Bojowa|ŻOB]] ({{lang|pl|Żydowska Organizacja Bojowa}}: Jewish Combat Organization) and [[Żydowski Związek Wojskowy|ŻZW]] ({{lang|pl|Żydowski Związek Wojskowy}}: Jewish Military Union) achieved considerable success initially, taking control of the ghetto. They then barricaded themselves in the bunkers and built dozens of fighting posts, stopping the expulsions. Taking further steps, a number of Jewish collaborators from [[Żagiew]] were also executed.<ref name="Wdowiński"/>
<!---[[File:Warsaw ghetto ruins – place of mass executions at 27 Dzielna Street.jpg|thumb|Ruins of the house at 27 Dzielna Street. In 1943–1944, thousands of [[Poles|Polish]] political prisoners of [[Pawiak prison|Pawiak]] were murdered there]]--->
[[File:Gęsia Street in Warsaw after the war.jpg|thumb|Warsaw Ghetto area after the war. Gęsia Street, view to the west]]
[[File:Warsaw Ghetto after WWII 04.jpg|thumb|Ruins of the Warsaw Ghetto]]

The final assault started on the eve of [[Passover]] of April 19, 1943, when a Nazi force consisting of several thousand troops entered the ghetto. The initial offensive against the ghetto underground launched by Sammern-Frankenegg was met with armed resistance and suffered casualties. He was relieved of command by [[Heinrich Himmler]] and replaced by SS-''[[Brigadeführer]]'' [[Jürgen Stroop]].{{sfn|Zentner|Bedürftig|1997|pp=1022–1023}} After the initial setback, 2,000 [[Waffen-SS]] soldiers under the field command of Stroop systematically burned and blew up the ghetto buildings, block by block, rounding up or murdering anybody they could capture. Significant resistance ended on April 28, and the Nazi operation officially ended in mid-May, symbolically culminating with the demolition of the [[Great Synagogue (Warsaw)|Great Synagogue of Warsaw]] on May 16. According to the official report, at least 56,065 people were killed on the spot or deported to German Nazi concentration and death camps (Treblinka, Poniatowa, Majdanek and Trawniki).<ref name=Report>{{cite web|author=Jürgen Stroop |title=The Warsaw Ghetto Is No More |work=Nazi Conspriracy and Aggression Volume 3 – Document No. 1061-PS|url=http://avalon.law.yale.edu/imt/1061-ps.asp |publisher=The Avalon Project: Lillian Goldman Law Library |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101126085231/http://avalon.law.yale.edu/imt/1061-ps.asp |archive-date=November 26, 2010|author-link=Jürgen Stroop }}</ref>{{better source needed|date=June 2020}} The site of the ghetto became the [[Warsaw concentration camp]].