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This book (79pg) by Marek Edelman was written just after the end of WWII, in 1945. It is an account of the heroic armed struggle of Jewish groups and individuals inside the Warsaw Ghetto against the fascist, occupying Nazi murderers. Marek Edelman was the highest leader of the ŻOB (The Jewish Combat Organization, the organization which united and directed Jewish armed resistance to the Nazis inside the Warsaw Ghetto) to survive the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. He was a member of the Jewish Labor Bund in Poland before and during the war, and later was a prominent supporter of the Solidarnosc movement against the stalinist government of Poland. The Jewish Labor Bund was a socialist, anti-zionist group and they advocated staying in Poland and fighting for socialism and equality. Edelman himself was radically anti-zionist, and viewed himself as a Polish Jew who would thus obviously stay in his home country Poland, which he did after WWII. Edelman was also a supporter of Palestinian armed resistance to Zionist occupation, which he said was the same type of struggle he and the ŻOB had fought in the Warsaw Ghetto.

The book, though short, provides a detailed account of the different stages of resistance within the Warsaw Ghetto. First Edelman describes both the normal political activity which took place during the early life of the Ghetto, and the simultaneous mass apathy and denial of the Jews living there. The Jewish Labor Bund, for it's part, was the first to advocate armed resistance to the Nazi fascist scum and tried to convince others through it's underground press (the activities of which is detailed very well in the book) and by trying to convince other Jewish groups in the Ghetto of the neccessity of armed resistance. Edelman also shows the true solidarity displayed by the non-Jewish Polish resistance groups which were active outside the Warsaw Ghetto: they were the major providers of weapons to the ŻOB, and they also helped some people to escape from the Ghetto. It should be pointed out that the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising was one of the first instances of organized armed resistance to the Nazis in Poland, and by far the largest and strongest to that point.

The second stage which Edelman describes is the mass armed resistance to the Nazis which was started in the beginning of 1943. Edelman describes how the Nazis would run away anytime they came up against organized resistance, when the jewish fighters normally only had a variety of improvised weapons like molotov cocktails and old guns with limited ammunition. Describing the major engagements of the resistance, Edelman shows the heroism and strength of people refusing to accept death passively, but who instead choose to die fighting against their oppressors. This book is a passionate and realistic argument for armed resistance in the face of mass murder and occupation, which should still be a lesson to us that peaceful means are useless and criminal when utilized against well-armed murderers. Enjoy comrades:

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The Ghetto Fights - Marek Edelman.pdf