Editing Jewish Combat Organization (section)

==Final deportation and uprising==
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[[File:Odezwa ŻOB 23 kwietnia 1943.jpg|thumb|left|ŻOB's appeal to the Polish people issued on 23 April 1943]]
[[File:Plakat wydany przez Zydowska Organizacje Bojowa.png|thumb|A poster of the Jewish Combat Organization. The Yiddish text reads:<br />"All people are equal brothers;<br />Brown, White, Black, and Yellow.<br />To talk of peoples, colors, races -<br />Is all a made-up story!"]]

The final deportation began on the eve of [[Passover]], 19 April 1943. The streets of the ghetto were vacant; most of the remaining 30,000 Jews were hiding in carefully prepared [[bunkers]] including their headquarters located in [[Miła 18|Ulica Miła 18]], many of which had electricity and running water, however they offered no route of escape.

When the Germans marched into the ghetto, they met fierce armed resistance from fighters attacking from open windows in vacated apartments. The defenders of the ghetto used [[guerrilla warfare]] tactics and had the strategic advantage not only of surprise but also of being able to look down on their opponents. This advantage was lost when the Germans began systematically burning all of the buildings of the ghetto forcing the fighters to seek cover in the underground bunkers. The fires above consumed much of the available oxygen below ground, turning the bunkers into suffocating death traps.

On May 8 in the bunker at 18 Mila Street, [[Jurek Wilner]] called on the fighters to commit mass suicide to avoid falling into Germans' hands. As the first one, [[Lejb Rotblat|Lutek Rotblat]] initially shot his mother and then himself. In the bunker most of the members of the Combat Organization found their deaths, including Commander [[Mordechai Anielewicz|Mordechaj Anielewicz]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Krall |first=Hanna |title=Shielding the Flame |isbn=0-03-006002-8}}</ref>

By 16 May 1943, the German Police General [[Jürgen Stroop]], who had been in charge of the final deportation, officially declared what he called the ''Grossaktion'', finished. To celebrate he razed [[Great Synagogue, Warsaw|Warsaw's Great Synagogue]]. The ghetto was destroyed and what remained of the uprising was suppressed.<ref name="USHMM" />
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