Mordechai Anielewicz

Mordechai Anielewicz
Mordechai Anielewicz
Nickname(s)	"Little Angel" (Aniołek)
Born	1919 Wyszków, Second Polish Republic
Died	8 May 1943 Warsaw, General Government
Allegiance	Jewish Combat Organization
Rank	Commander
Battles/wars	Warsaw Ghetto Uprising
Awards	Cross of Valour Cross of Grunwald, 3rd class

Mordechai Anielewicz (1919 – 8 May 1943) was the leader of Żydowska Organizacja Bojowa (English: Jewish Combat Organization), also known as ŻOB, during the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising from January to May 1943. His predecessor in command was Pinkus Kartin.

Anielewicz was born into a poor Jewish family in the small town of Wyszków, near Warsaw. After completing secondary school, he joined and became a leader of the "Hashomer Hatzair", the Zionist-socialist youth movement.

On 7 September 1939, a week after the German invasion of Poland, Anielewicz escaped with a group from Warsaw to the east of the country in the hopes that the Polish Army would slow down the German advance. When the Soviet Red Army invaded and then occupied Eastern Poland in accordance with the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, Anielewicz heard that Jewish refugees, other youth movement members and political groups had flocked to Wilno, which was then under Soviet control. He travelled to Wilno and attempted to convince his colleagues to send people back to Poland to continue the fight against the Germans. He then attempted to cross the Romanian border in order to open a route for young Jews to get to the Mandate of Palestine, but was caught and thrown into a Soviet jail. He was released a short time later, and returned to Warsaw in January 1940 with his girlfriend, Mira Fuchrer.

In the summer of 1942, Anielewicz visited the southwest region of Poland – annexed to Germany – attempting to organize armed resistance. Upon his return to Warsaw, he found that a major deportation to the Treblinka extermination camp had been carried out and only 60,000 of the Warsaw Ghetto's 350,000 Jews remained. He soon joined the ŻOB, and in November 1942, he was appointed as the group's chief commander. A connection with the Polish government in exile in London was made and the group began receiving weapons from the Polish underground on the "Aryan" side of the city. On 18 January 1943, Anielewicz was instrumental in the first act of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising by leading the first battle with a "dozen fighters with pistols," preventing the majority of a second wave of Jews from being deported to extermination camps. This initial incident of armed resistance was a prelude to the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising that commenced on 19 April.