29/05/2018

The Faculty recalls the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising in a commemorative event

In light of the 75th anniversary of these events, the University organised a conference that included the screening of a documentary.

On 9 May, the Faculty of Humanities hosted a commemorative event in memory of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. On 16 May 1943, German troops declared the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising finished. In the four weeks preceding this date, 7,000 people died and 40,000 more were carted away to concentration camps. Before this happened, however, the Jewish resistance penned a new chapter in the history of humanity. 

In response to the mass deportations that took place between July and September 1942, the Jewish resistance engineered a riot. The Jewish Combat Organisation in the Warsaw Ghetto issued a call for resistance, prompting the Ghetto Uprising that lasted from 19 April to 16 May 1943. While some of the Jews hid in basements, others fled to the non-Jewish part of the city or picked up arms and fired from surrounding buildings. Though the Germans had a hard time capturing them, on 23 April of that year, Nazi commanders gave the order to crack down on the Ghetto with the greatest severity and relentless tenacity.

The commander of the Schutzstaffel, the security agency of the NSDAP, better known as the SS, and the police force from the district of Warsaw decided to carry out the complete destruction of the Jewish neighbourhood, burning the residential buildings and weapons factories. Altogether, 56,065 Jews were captured during the uprising; 7,000 people died in the attack, 6,000 in the bunkers; and 40,000 more were shipped off to extermination camps.

In light of the 75th anniversary of these events, the Universitat Internacional de Catalunya organised a commemorative event. Participants included the dean of the Faculty of Humanities, Judith Urbano, and Pompeu Fabra University (UPF) lecturer Marició Janué i Miret. The latter gave a presentation titled “El levantamiento del Gueto de Varsovia: un gran símbolo del valor humano de la resistencia” [The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising: A Great Symbol of the Resistance Movement’s Human Value], followed by the screening of the documentary Chronicle of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising According to Marek Edelman, a key figure and survivor of the tragedy, directed by Jolanta Dylewska (1993).

Lastly, the president Catalan-Polish Cultural Association, Iwona Malecka, closed the proceedings with a discussion about the events of 1943.