The Spiritual Triumph of Wladyslaw Szpilman: Resistance in the Face of Tragedy
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Fall of WARSAW
"Jews captured by the SS during the suppression of the Warsaw ghetto uprising are lined up against a wall prior to being searched for weapons." April-May, 1943, -US Holocaust Memorial Museum
"Fall of Warsaw" -US Holocaust Memorial Museum
CENTER OF TRAGEDY
A city of 1.3 million inhabitants, Warsaw was the capital of Poland; Jews constituted 30% of the population.
CLASSIFICATION
On October 12, 1940, Germans decreed the establishment of a segregated Jewish ghetto in Warsaw.
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"The Nazis decreed that all Jews had to live within its boundaries, and for identification purposes had to wear armbands with the Star of David. I saw much suffering around me. The ghetto was very overcrowded. There was a typhoid epidemic. Many buildings, including the one in which I lived with my grandfather, were under quarantine. From our windows I could see the inside of the ghetto wall."
-Ed Herman, Warsaw Ghetto Survivor, 2013
SYMBOLIZATION
Warsaw's Jews identified themselves by wearing white armbands with the Star of David. German authorities closed Jewish schools, confiscated properties, and drafted Jewish men into labor.
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PERSECUTION
Enclosed by a wall topped with barbed wire, the 1.3 square mile ghetto was closely guarded. The peak population of the ghetto reached 400,000.