Mordechaj Anielewicz

Mordechaj Anielewicz (1919,1920?-1943) was the commander of the Żydowska Organizacja Bojowa (English: Jewish Fighting Organization, also known as ŻOB) during the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising.

Born to a poor family in Wyszkow near Warsaw, he joined and became a leader of the Zionist-socialist youth group "Hashomer Hatzair" youth movement after he completed his high school studies. On September 7, 1939, a week after war with Germany started, Anielewicz escaped with his members of the group from Warsaw to the eastern regions in the hopes that the Polish would slow down the German advance. When the Soviet army finally occupied Eastern Poland, Anielewicz attemted to pass the Romanian border in order to open a route for young Jews to get to Israel; however, he was caught and thrown into a Soviet jail. He was released a short time later and return to the Warsaw Ghetto.

When he heard that Jewish refugees, other youth movement members and political groups flocked to Vilna, Lithuania, which was now under Soviet control. He went to Vilna a short time later and convinced his colleagues to send people back to Poland to continue the fight against the Nazis. He returned to Warsaw in January, 1940 with his girlfriend, Mira Furker , where he organized cells and youngsters groups, instructed, participated in underground publications, organized meetings and seminars and visited other groups in different cities.

In the summer of 1942, Anielewicz was visiting in the south-west region of Poland after annexed to Germany, trying to organize armed defense. Upon his return he found that a major deportation to the Treblinka extermination camp occurred and only 60,000 of the 350,000 Jews remained. He joined the Żydowska Organizacja Bojowa (ZOB), and in November, 1942 he was elected as chief commander. In early 1943, a connection with the Polish government-in-exile in London was made and the group received weapons from the Polish side of the city. In January 18, 1943, he was instrumental in preventing the majority of a second wave of Jews from being deported to extermination camps. Anielewicz committed suicide, along with his wife and many of his staff, in the ZOB bunker at 18 Miła Street on May 8, 1943. In early 1944 he had been posthumously awarded the Virtuti Militari, the Polish military cross, by the Polish government-in-exile. For more information on his role with the ZOB, see Zydowska Organizacja Bojowa.

The Kibbutz Yad Mordechai in Israel is named after him and a monument was erected in his memory.

External links

• Mordecai Anielewicz article from the Jewish Virtual Library
• Mordecaj Anielewicz article from the Grange Museum Warsaw Ghetto Website.