...A week ago the second stage began in the brutal
annihilation of the Polish Jews. The Germans set about expelling the 40,000
Jews who still remained in Warsaw. The ghetto replied with armed struggle.
The Jewish Fighting Organization opened a war of the weak against the
strong. With scant forces, few arms and little ammunition, without water,
blinded by smoke and fire, the Jewish fighters defended streets and
individual houses. In the dusk they withdrew step by step, more because of
the fire that had taken hold in the close-built houses than because of the
enemy who was equipped with modern military arms. They considered it a
victory if a part of those imprisoned in the ghetto were able to escape; it
was a victory in their eyes to die while their hands still grasped arms....
Yad Vashem Archives, O-25/25.
* From the Underground AK newspaper Biuletyn
Informacyjny ("Information Bulletin"), No. 17, April 29,
1943.