Yom HaShoah

Tonight was Yom HaShoah (Holocaust and Heroism Remembrance Day) and I attended the event at Giffnock Synagogue. This year is the 70th anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto uprising, which began in April 1943 and lasted around a month. The title for this year was therefore, 'Voices from the Ghetto' and it was a very moving evening.

The following is taken from the programme for the evening.

'In September 1939, shortly after the German invasion of Poland, more than 400,000 Jews in Poland's capital Warsaw were confined to an area of the city that was little more than 1 square mile. In November 1940, this ghetto was sealed off by brick walls, barbed wire and armed guards, and anyone caught leaving was shot on sight. The Nazis controlled the amount of food that was brought into the ghetto, and disease and starvation killed thousands every month. Ghettos were established in cities throughout Nazi-occupied Eastern Europe. The Warsaw ghetto was the largest in Poland.

Mordecai Anielewicz was ZOB commander in charge of the Jewish fighters of the Warsaw ghetto uprising on 19th April 1943. They had very few weapons, many of which were home-made pistols. The brave ZOB fighters surprised the Germans and forced them to retreat out of the ghetto. The Germans reported the loss of 12 men and more wounded during that first offensive.

It was the largest single revolt by the Jews during World War II and sparked many similar revolts in other camps and ghettos.'