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On April 19, 5,000 SS and regular army troops stormed the ghetto. They were heavily armed with tanks, artillery, flame throwers and dynamite squads.
Against great odds, Jews stood their ground heroically. They resisted involuntary resettlement. Men and women fought together. Nazi ferocity increased.
Germans were vicious. Captives were tortured. Mother had babies torn from their arms. They watched helplessly as solders smashed their heads against walls to save bullets.
By May 16, resistance collapsed. Most held firm to the end. Captured survivors were murdered in Treblinka and other camps. Final resolution was never in doubt. Symbolically the Jews won. They fought Nazi viciousness because it mattered.
One observer said they "knew that they might not overcome their enemies but refused to suppress their recognition of what they were undergoing or deny their lack of hope while they resisted being overcome by despair and anguish."
News of their struggle spread across Europe. Other ghetto residents, labor camp inmates, Eastern front partisans, and death camp victims were inspired by their example.
Courageous Gazans won't surrender to Israeli viciousness. What's ahead remains to play out. Unfolding events may have a long way to go.
If Israel invades, will ordinary Gazans resist the way Warsaw ghetto Jews did from April 19 to May 16 1943 against long odds? Perhaps now is their moment of truth.
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