Poland. The Warsaw Jewish Ghetto Uprising. This was the first armed urban action against the German occupiers during World War II. After witnessing the deportation or murder of over 300,000 Jews from the ghetto, the approximately 60,000 Jews who remained, mostly young people, were mostly employed as forced labor. Then, on April 19, 1943, German forces, with 850 soldiers and 18 officers, entered the Warsaw Jewish Ghetto to deport the last Jews. The vigor of the resistance caught them by surprise, and they were forced to retreat. Street-by-street urban guerrilla fighting ensued. Buildings were demolished one by one. On May 8, 1943, the Jewish resistance headquarters on Mila Street was surrounded, and its leader, Mordechai Anielewicz, committed suicide rather than surrender. His successor, Marek Edelman, managed to escape through the sewers. On May 6, the Germans gained full control of the ghetto, which had now been reduced to rubble, and had the synagogue demolished.
