The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising Through Underground Newspapers and Eyewitness Accounts

On the eve of Passover, April 19, 1943, the streets of the Warsaw Ghetto erupted in gunfire. For nearly two and a half years, more than 400,000 Jews had been confined within roughly 307 hectares of sealed city blocks, encircled by walls that had gone up on November 16, 1940. Since July 1942, the Germans had been systematically emptying the ghetto, shipping its inhabitants to the Treblinka extermination camp. By the spring of 1943, only a few tens of thousands remained, and they had resolved to fight. The uprising that began that day was the first armed Jewish uprising in a city in occupied Europe and the largest armed Jewish resistance action of World War II. But what did the Jews themselves know as they prepared for the end? What did the underground press tell them? And how did the survivors document their own destruction? The answers lie in the remarkable record left behind: the underground newspapers, the secret Oneg Shabbat archive, and the eyewitness testimony of those who lived through the ghetto’s final months.

What Happened?

The Warsaw Ghetto was created on October 2, 1940, by order of the Governor of the Warsaw District, Ludwig Fischer. The Germans forced more than 400,000 Jews to live within its bounds. Walls were built around it on November 16, 1940, enclosing an area of approximately 307 hectares. This area comprised the Large Ghetto and the Small Ghetto, separated by a stretch of Chłodna Street and Mirowski Square.

In an extensive operation lasting from July 22 to September 21, 1942, the Germans gradually deported those imprisoned within the ghetto to the Treblinka extermination camp. The vast majority of the deportees were murdered upon arrival. The underground press reported this reality plainly, with headlines such as “Warsaw’s Jews are being murdered in Treblinki”.

The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising began on April 19, 1943, the eve of the Jewish holiday of Passover, which commemorates the liberation of the Israelites from slavery in Egypt. Jewish fighters from several underground organizations resisted the German forces that had entered the ghetto to liquidate it. The fighting was fierce but uneven; the Germans systematically burned and destroyed the ghetto block by block. The uprising was suppressed, but it became a symbol of Jewish resistance.

Key events:

• October 2, 1940 — Ghetto created by order of Governor Ludwig Fischer.
• November 16, 1940 — Walls built; ghetto sealed.
• July 22 – September 21, 1942 — Mass deportations to Treblinka; approximately 300,000 Jews deported.
• April 19, 1943 — Uprising begins.
• May 16, 1943 — Germans declare the ghetto destroyed.

How It Was Seen at the Time

For the Jews of Warsaw, the uprising was not an abstract historical event; it was the culmination of years of accumulated horror and knowledge. The underground archive known as Oneg Shabbat (the cryptonym for the Underground Archive of the Warsaw Ghetto, also called the Ringelblum Archive) had been documenting the ghetto’s life and death since November 1940, when the ghetto was finally sealed. Its mission was to record, day by day, the events in the ghettos of the Polish lands, particularly in Warsaw, by writing down eyewitness testimonies of Jews while they were still fresh.

The language of the time was stark and unsparing. The underground press did not mince words. The headline “Warsaw’s Jews are being murdered in Treblinki” — using the colloquial Polish form of the camp’s name — was not a rumor or an exaggeration; it was the considered conclusion of editors who had assembled evidence from escapees, from German announcements, and from the accumulating pattern of the deportations. The underground press was not merely reporting news; it was sounding an alarm.

“Warsaw’s Jews are being murdered in Treblinki.” — Underground Jewish newspaper, Warsaw Ghetto

The prevailing mood among the ghetto’s remaining inhabitants was a mixture of fatalism and defiance. Many believed that death was inevitable, but they chose to die fighting, or at least to die with their humanity intact. The underground archive was part of that choice: if the Jews were to be destroyed, the record of their destruction would survive.

Historical Snapshot

What People Knew at the Time

Eyewitness Accounts

One of the most detailed eyewitness accounts of the uprising’s final weeks comes from Leon Najberg, whose memoir Ostatni powstańcy getta (The Last Insurgents of the Ghetto) was published in Warsaw in 1993. Najberg was in the ghetto from 1941. In the summer of 1942, he went twice to the Umschlagplatz, the deportation assembly point, and spent eight days in a German transit camp (Durchgangslager) for displaced persons, from where he was taken to the Opel workshop in Włościańska Street. He worked there and was a member of a saboteur group.

On April 17, 1943, two days before the uprising, Najberg crossed to the ghetto on his leave. He stayed at the brushmakers’ shop. On April 20, he went to the general shelter at Świętojerska Street No. 38. He hid in different shelters, wanting very much to fight in the uprising. On May 10, he joined the “gruzowcy” (ruin dwellers) combat group, hiding with a diminishing group of people in Nalewki Street, and from July 18 in Pawia Street. On September 26, together with the three people who stayed alive, he crossed through the ghetto walls to the Aryan side.

“He wants very much to fight in the uprising.” — Note on Leon Najberg’s account

Najberg’s account is one of the few that describes the aftermath of the uprising, when the ghetto was a field of ruins and the last survivors lived like animals among the rubble.

Contemporary Newspaper Coverage

The underground press of the Warsaw Ghetto was the lifeline of information for its inhabitants. The Oneg Shabbat archive collected underground newspapers, as well as the so-called “reptilian press” — the German-controlled Polish press that the underground read for what it could glean. The underground newspapers were printed secretly, distributed hand to hand, and read aloud in shelters. They served both as a source of news and as a call to resistance.

One of the most striking headlines of the period was “Warsaw’s Jews are being murdered in Treblinki” — a direct, unadorned statement that the deportation was not a resettlement but a murder operation. The tone of the underground press was urgent, factual, and desperate. It did not sugarcoat. It was the voice of a community that had decided to face the truth and to fight.

“Warsaw’s Jews are being murdered in Treblinki.”

The underground press also documented the daily life of the ghetto: the hunger, the smuggling, the work, the resistance. It was a vital record that the Oneg Shabbat archive preserved for posterity.

Timeline

• May 1940 — First efforts to create the underground archive (Oneg Shabbat).
• October 2, 1940 — Ghetto created by order of Governor Ludwig Fischer.
• November 15–16, 1940 — Ghetto sealed; walls built.
• July 22 – September 21, 1942 — Mass deportations to Treblinka.
• April 17, 1943 — Leon Najberg crosses into the ghetto.
• April 19, 1943 — Uprising begins.
• April 20, 1943 — Najberg goes to the shelter at Świętojerska 38.
• May 10, 1943 — Najberg joins the “gruzowcy” combat group.
• May 16, 1943 — Germans declare the ghetto destroyed.
• July 18, 1943 — Najberg hides in Pawia Street.
• September 26, 1943 — Najberg and three others cross to the Aryan side.

Aftermath

The immediate aftermath of the uprising was the systematic destruction of the ghetto. The Germans burned and demolished the area block by block, and the survivors who remained, like Leon Najberg and his group, hid in the ruins, moving from one shelter to another as their numbers dwindled. The underground archive of Oneg Shabbat had been buried in the ghetto in order to ensure its survival. The first part of the archive was unearthed in 1946, and the second part in 1950. It is now one of the most important primary sources for the history of the Holocaust.

The uprising also sent a message to the world. It was the first armed uprising in a city in occupied Europe, and it inspired other resistance movements. But for the Jews of Warsaw, the aftermath was a long and bitter struggle for survival.

The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising was not only a military event; it was a profound moral act. The primary sources — the underground newspapers, the Oneg Shabbat archive, and the eyewitness accounts — reveal a people who, even in the face of total darkness, chose to document, to protest, and to resist. The underground press told the truth about Treblinka. The Oneg Shabbat archive preserved the voices of the victims. And the testimony of Leon Najberg reminds us that the uprising was not just a single battle, but a long, desperate, and ultimately heroic struggle to be remembered.