On Saturday, wreaths and flowers were placed on the monument to the Heroes of the Polish capital, marking the 82nd anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. Today, the daffodils have become a memorial symbol.
The 1943 Warsaw Ghetto Uprising was the largest armed Jewish uprising during World War II. On April 19, a group of young men led by Mordecai Anierwitz resisted and fought against the Nazi forces who had entered the Warsaw Ghetto to expel residents into concentration camps.
In an interview with Euronows, Zofia Bojańczyk, coordinator of the Narcissus Campaign by the Polish Jewish History Museum, spoke about the importance of today’s memorial.
“The rebels knew there was no opportunity for the extinction machines represented by the Germans. So it was a battle for dignity, a battle for death with dignity, no hope of victory.”
The uprising was destined to fail, but the rebels achieved some early successes in the first few days.
“These handfuls of Jews, young people, were unarmed, but they were able to surprise mostly the Germans,” Bozianzig said.
“It was 1943, and the war had been going on for four years, and the Germans were killing Jews, so I remember these young people already seeing the deaths of their friends, their families.
“You had to die with a weapon in your hand.”
Porin Museum of Jewish History in Poland is committed to commemorating war heroes, including Marek Edelman, the last surviving leader of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising.
Bojanczyk said, “In addition to being an important figure in solidarity as an outstanding doctor, he survived the Holocaust and was a guardian of Jewish memory.”
In a Facebook post, the museum remembers Edelman as follows:
“He had no illusions – he knew they would not defeat the Germans. But he fought, not for himself, but for those who did not want to die passively. After the war, he spoke in simple terms about the uprising. “You had to die with a weapon in your hand. ‘But his battle did not end in 1943 – throughout his life he defended the weak, as a social activist who fought for the minds of the people, and for the dignity of others. ”
Why daffodils?
Marek Edelman, who passed away in 2009, became a prominent voice of conscience in Poland. With each view of the uprising, Edelman receives a bouquet of yellow daffodils from an anonymous person.
“It was a daffodil very often, because it is the season of the daffodils. And he places this bouquet on the memorial of the heroes of the ghetto heroes in the Muranow district of Warsaw. The yellow flowers of the memorial,” Bojańczyk said.
Since 2013, volunteers at the Porin Museum have been handing out paper yellow daffodils to Warsaw residents and have asked them to pin them to their clothes. In doing so, they commemorate the anniversary of the uprising and all those who fought in the Warsaw Ghetto.
“When I say all the people I fought, I mean not only those who fought with weapons in my hands, but also those who resisted civilians. These were people who hid in attics, bunkers, and fought every day of my life.”
“But these were also people who supported the uprising from the other side of the wall, who tried to supply weapons, and arranged money, false evidence, and therefore the whole group of people who put the whole device out of this resistance.”
Powerful Warsaw Identity
In 2013, volunteer bases were sparse. However, since then, more than 15,000 volunteers have participated in the action, handing out over 2 million yellow flowers.
“And this action has also reached many countries around the world, from local to national, as well as within that range,” Bojańczyk emphasized.
Daffodils have been sent to over 30 countries.
“This year, our daffodils will actually be transported from Buenos Aires to Melbourne, Australia,” added Bojangzik.
“The motivation is not family history, as our volunteers are people who do not have mostly Jewish roots, but they are people who have strong identities with such flesh and blood Valsovians or Warsaw. Before the Warsaw uprising, there was also the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising in 1943.”
Empathy, help, openness
Every year, more and more schools participate in the Daffodil Campaign. Bojańczyk said more than 6,000 schools, libraries and institutions across Poland participated this year.
“But what’s important is that it’s not just history, such as learning the dates of important people who took part in uprisings and so on. We also look closely at concepts such as empathy, help, openness, openness to others. Conclusion.
This article uses photos from a virtual Shtetl archive.
