Designer: Aharon Shevo
Mint: Utrecht
The Warsaw Ghetto was the largest of all Nazi ghettos during World War II. It was established by the German authorities in November 1940 on the new territory of the General Government of occupied Poland. At its height, 460,000 Jews were imprisoned in an area of 34 square kilometers with an average of 9.2 people per room and with little food. From the Warsaw Ghetto, Jews were deported to Nazi concentration camps and mass killing centers. In the summer of 1942, at least 254,000 Ghetto residents were sent to the Treblinka extermination camp for “relocation to the East” during the summer. The total death toll among Ghetto inmates is estimated at at least 300,000 shot or gassed combined with 92,000 victims of starvation and related diseases, the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, and victims of the final destruction of the Ghetto
On January 18, 1943, the Germans suddenly entered the Warsaw Ghetto with the intention of further arrests. Within hours, 600 Jews were shot and 5,000 others were driven from their homes. The Germans expected no resistance, but the action was halted by hundreds of insurgents armed with pistols and Molotov cocktails
Preparations for resistance had begun since the previous fall. The first instance of Jewish armed struggle in Warsaw had begun. Underground fighters from the ŻOB and ZZW (Jewish Military Union) achieved considerable success initially, taking control of the Ghetto. They then set up barricades in the warehouses and built dozens of war posts, stopping the deportations. Taking further steps, some Jewish collaborators of the Germans [37] were also executed. An attack on the Ghetto resistance by Von Summern-Frankenig was unsuccessful. He was relieved of his duties by Heinrich Himmler on 17 April 1943 and court-martialed.
Ruins of the Warsaw Ghetto
The final attack began on Easter Eve on April 19, 1943, when a Nazi force of several thousand troops entered the ghetto. After initial setbacks, 2,000 Waffen-SS soldiers under Jürgen Stroop systematically burned and blew up the ghetto buildings, rounding up or killing anyone they could capture. Significant resistance ended on 28 April and the Nazi operation officially ended in mid-May with the symbolic demolition of the Warsaw Great Synagogue on 16 May. According to the official report, at least 56,065 people were killed on the spot or deported to concentration and extermination camps (Treblinka, Poniatova, Majdanek, Travniki) The site of the Ghetto became the Warsaw concentration camp.
