Based on the Urban Legends, this image started it
circulation as email attachment from 2006. From some reason, it was just last
week, when I got it. This image is of the front page of the New York Times
dated May 10, 1943. The banner headline read "Warsaw Ghetto Uprising An
Over Reaction: European Leaders Blame Jews for Disproportionate Response".
Frankly for several minutes I actually thought this was real until I noticed
the header describing the page as what the paper would have looked like had
today's NYT editors been in charge in 1943. The header in my email made the
hoax recognition easier, if it would not be there, the satirical doctored newspaper
front page would be easy to consider real.
Why is that? Let’s first review the brief history of
Warsaw Ghetto Uprising.
Background
Following the
German conquest of Poland at the start of World War II, they began relocating
the nation's Jewish population into enclosed ghettos. Situated in major cities,
these ghettos soon held the bulk of Poland's 3 million Jews. The largest of
these was located in Warsaw and contained around 300,000-400,000 people.
Through 1940 and 1941, the ghetto's inhabitants suffered from starvation and
disease while under the oversight of SS and Police Leader Odilo Globocnik and
SS-Standartenfuhrer Ludwig Hahn. In the wake of the January 1942 Wannsee
Conference, efforts began to deport the ghetto's residents to death camps.
On July 23, 1942,
Nazi German forces began Operation Grossaktion Warschau called for the mass
deportation of the Warsaw ghetto's population to the Treblinka II extermination
camp. The day before, they met with the head of ghetto's Jewish Council (Judenrat),
Adam Czerniaków, and informed him that the Warsaw Jews were to be resettled in
the East. To facilitate this movement, the council was to provide 6,000 people
per day for deportation. Quickly learning the Nazi's true intentions,
Czerniaków committed suicide rather than comply.
Over the next two
months, approximately 254,000-300,000 Jewish residents of the ghetto were sent
to Treblinka at the order of SS-Oberführer Ferdinand von Sammern-Frankenegg.
When operations concluded on September 21, only around 60,000-70,000 Jews
remained in the ghetto many of which were in hiding. In response to the German
efforts, two resistance groups, the Jewish Military Union (Zydowski Zwiazek
Wojskowy, ZZW) and the Jewish Combat Organization (Zydowska Organizacja
Bojowa, ZOB), formed in the ghetto during the summer of 1942. These groups
soon united to oppose the Germans.
In 1943, Heinrich
Himmler wanted to give Hitler a particularly nice birthday present. He decided
that in honor of Hitler's birthday on April 20, he would eliminate the entire
Jewish Ghetto of Warsaw, which had been causing trouble in the early months of
1943. The idea was to eliminate a group of uppity Jews and please Hitler in the
process.
Uprising
On April 19, 1943,
the eve of Passover, German forces entered the ghetto with the intention of
resuming the deportations. Pushing into the ghetto, Sammern-Frankenegg's men
came under heavy fire from Jewish fighters led by ZOB commander Mordecai
Anielewicz. There were over a thousand fighters, including children. They used
pistols and Molotov cocktails against the Nazi weaponry. Stunning the Germans,
the Jews forced them to retreat from the ghetto that morning.
By the end of the
first day, Stroop reported a loss of twelve men. Continuing the campaign the
next day, the Germans returned to the ghetto. Some of the heaviest fighting
occurred around the ZZW headquarters in Muranowski Square where large Polish
and Jewish flags flew as symbols of resistance.
This time Germans
brought major fire power. They started to destroy buildings, bit by bit by bit,
knocking everything down. After about a day, they broke into the hospital, shot
everyone in their beds, and torched the place.
These Polish and
Jewish flags flew for four days until German forces overwhelmed the defenders.
Bringing an average of 2,000 men to bear, Stroop began systematically razing
the ghetto and using flamethrowers in an effort to root out the defenders. Within
a few days organized resistance was broken and the Jewish fighters were forced
to conduct limited raids before retreating to their bunkers. When the Nazis
reached the air-raid shelters, they drilled down, and gassed the people inside.
Some fighters escaped to the sewers, and the Germans raised the water levels.
German forces
continued operations in the ghetto until declaring the uprising suppressed on
May 16. While sporadic raids continued, the final battle with Jewish fighters
occurred on June 5. Jewish losses, as reported by Stroop, numbered around 7,000
killed and 56,065 captured. Those Jews who were captured were deported to
various camps later that year. While the Germans had anticipated clearing the
ghetto in three days, the Jews successfully held out for over month.
Aftermath
Although the Warsaw
Ghetto Uprising was not really very successful, it was the first time in all of
German-occupied Europe that there was any organized uprising against the Nazis.
Word got out, and it set a climate. And afterwards, there was Jewish resistance
in many other places, including some of the camps.
While the Warsaw
Ghetto was fighting for its life, the world had called another conference. They
met in Bermuda and, again, absolutely nothing was done to help.
Over
Reaction?
Now, when we have refreshed the historical facts, let’s
get back to the fabricated image. Yes, it was definitely fabricated, and there
is no doubt of it.
It is hard to see some of the text, so there is some
transcribed posts below:
European
politicians avoid apportioning blame
BRUSSELS,
April 30, 1943 — European leaders today expressed their “acute concern” over
the intensifying conflict between Jews and the Gestapo in Warsaw, which they
fear may further deteriorate fragile peace in Europe. Foreign ministers of the
few remaining independent European powers adopted a declaration calling for an
immediate end to the hostilities. Reflecting differing views among European
nations, the document appears worded to avoid apportioning blame. It notes the
Nazi Resistance must immediately make the operation of their gas chambers more
transparent, while adding that Jews must show “utmost restraint” and not resort
to “disproportionate action.”
******************
League
of Nations anti-bias panel accuse Jews of racism
Members
of a League of Nations anti-bias panel criticized Warsaw Jews on Thursday for
violating humanitarian law and racially targeting the Nazis.
******************
Jewish
Uprising Triggers Humanitarian Crisis
16 Germans dead and 85 wounded In Warsaw Slaughter
16 Germans dead and 85 wounded In Warsaw Slaughter
Europe’s
call for an end to hostilities in the Warsaw Ghetto raises questions over how
long Jews can stave off international pressure to end their three-week
offensive in Warsaw, which has claimed hundreds of lives and created a refugee
crisis. While moderate politicians are urging Jews to exercise “restraint” in
their retaliation against the Nazis, most European leaders are denouncing
Jewish retaliation as “disproportionate.”
******************
Goebbels:
Jews must be held accountable for war crimes
Joseph
Goebbels, a charismatic spokesman for the popular National Socialist German
Workers Party, described the aftermath of Jewish strikes as “dramatic” and said
Jewish forces had struck “very important elements of infrastructure,” demanding
that perpetrators be brought to justice at a press-conference in Berlin on
Wednesday. “Jews must be held accountable for their war crimes, terrorism, and
systematic human rights violations committed against the Aryan people,” Mr.
Goebbels said.
******************
How
could both sides have blundered so badly?
Miscalculations
by Jews and Nazis have weakened Europe’s fragile unity. A ceasefire is needed
immediately. Where is Zionist exit strategy? Jewish hawks have started a war
without any plausible objectives, any viable plan for disengagement, or any
rational assessment of costs and benefits. Are they ready to absorb damage on the
home front?
******************
Poll:
The tide of public opinion has shifted in the direction of Gestapo
The
Jews’ bloody response to concentration camps has united their enemies and
divided their friends, the results of a current poll show. Atrocities committed
by the Zionist militants in Warsaw and elsewhere have appalled Western opinion.
The stature of the Gestapo grows, and the uprising has succeeded in
discrediting moderate Germans and silencing the Nazi leaders in Berlin who were
ready to start talking instead of killing.
******************
Analysis
So, what is all about? Why take the Holocaust
tragedy as the background for the political satire? The fabrication is directing on world critics
of Israel resistance approaches in the modern situation, accusing the country
of a "disproportionate use of force" during its recent military
conflicts with terrorists from Hezbollah and Hamas.
Sources
and Additional Information:
No comments:
Post a Comment