Thus. in the summer of 1942. the Nazis decided to put into fullscale operation their plans to exterminate all of the Jews in Poland. Between July and September. over 300.000 Jews from the Warsaw ghetto were forced into cattle cars and sent to Treblinka. Anyone who resisted deportation was beaten mercilessly. if he was not executed immediately. Some submitted voluntarily to deportation because the SS had declared that those who reported without coercion would not be separated from their families. They were also told that they were only being sent to labor camps. Therefore. significant opposition to the first massive deportation did not materialize. Even had the destination of the trains and the fate of their human freight been known. however. the Jewish underground organization. then only several months old. would have been unable to act effectively. Devitalized by the deportations. the resistance. at that point. lacked arms and the time to organize efficiently and effectively. Between September of 1942 and January of 1943. the Jews learned the real destination of the deportees and the real meaning of Treblinka. The underground. gradually recovering from the human loss that had resulted from the deportations. sprang into action. Thus. when the Germans marched into the ghetto in January of 1943 to deport 150.000 of those remaining. they were met with armed resistance. After 4 days of skirmishes. the Germans withdrew after suffering more than 20 losses in their ranks.
Keywords matched
deportations deportation deportees