Warsaw Ghetto Uprising Commemoration Returns To UWS Park

UPPER WEST SIDE, NY — Nearly 81 years ago, Jewish resistance fighters fought back against the Nazis inside the Warsaw Ghetto.

It began on April 19, 1943 — on the eve of Passover — and it was the largest Jewish uprising during World War II.

And for the past 77 years, New Yorkers have gathered at a memorial stone in Riverside Park — called "Der Shteyn" (The Stone), located between West 83rd and 84th streets — to commemorate the bravery of the fighters and the evil they faced.

On Friday April 19 at 2 p.m., a remembrance will be held at Der Shteyn to again remember the fighters of the Warsaw Ghetto.

The Warsaw Ghetto and its remaining occupants, roughly 60,000 people, were slated for deportation and destruction that morning in 1943.

But a Jewish resistance movement of about 700, armed with only a few small arms, rifles, molotov cocktails and a system of tunnels and bunkers, fought the Nazi forces for roughly a whole month.

"It was the beginning of an epic battle," said Marcel Kshensky, the event's chairperson, at the 2022 ceremony. "Not for victory, as the resistance fighters knew from the outset, but for the honor of our people."

In the end, thousands of Jews were killed, and the Nazis burned the ghetto to the ground.

“They fought without any attainable hope of victory, but with the goal that they would not die in silence,” said last year's press release from lead organizer, Congress for Jewish Culture, according to the West Side Rag. “Heroically, they managed to hold off the German army from April 19 to May 16. It was the largest single revolt by Jews during the Holocaust.”

This year's remembrance was organized by the Congress for Jewish Culture, Friends of the Bund together with the Jewish Labor Committee, National Yiddish Theater Folksbiene, Workers Circle and YIVO.

Julia Mintz and Lily Kshensky Baxter will be this year's speakers, and Kshensky will once again chair the event.

Sarah Gordon, Feygele Jacobs, Shifee Losacco, Zalmen Mlotek, Daniella Rabbani and Esti Zanoni will all perform as part of the artistic program.

"May the invincible soul of those who perished and those who survived inspire us to be compassionate and to have the wisdom to find peace within and build peace between nations,"
said Kshensky at the 2022 ceremony. "The price of freedom is far less dear than the price of forsaking it. Long live their blessings memories."

To learn more about the event, click here.