Page 37 - Centrum Dialogu im. Marka Edelmana. Edelman. The Man

The Jewish Combat Organization was created on 15 October,
1942, when the terror in the ghetto was peaking –
the Germans were shooting without any reason, and innocent
ghetto residents were being caught en masse and murdered.
The organization was established by the youth of Bund, Dror,
Hashomer-Hatsair, Akiba and a group of people from the
Polish Workers’ Party (PPR). The founders included Icchak
Antek Cukierman, Cywia Lubetkin, Marek Edelman, Josef
Kapłan and Mordechaj Tanenbaum. Mordechaj Anielewicz
was appointed the commander of JCO. They were all very
young, about twentysomething. The command numbered
five people; Marek Edelman became one of the deputy
commanders.

The uprising broke out on the eve of Passover, on 19 April 1943.
On that day, the German combat troops, Waffen-SS entered
the ghetto through the gate at Nalewki Street in order to
carry out the final liquidation. However, they were met with
armed resistance on the part of JCO, which forced them to
withdraw from the ghetto. They returned in the afternoon,
and the command was taken over by Jürgen Stroop, an SS
general. But the Germans were driven out again. Instead of
close quarters combat, the Germans decided to burn the
houses one after another, looking for the combatants and
people hiding in bunkers. Blowing up the Great Synagogue
at Tłomackie Street was the last act of the destruction of the
Jewish quarter.