17 Facts About Mordechai Anielewicz

Mordechai Anielewicz was the Polish leader of the Jewish Combat Organization during the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising; the largest Jewish resistance movement during the Second World War.

Mordechai Anielewicz's character was engraved as a symbol of courage and sacrifice, and was a major figure of Jewish resistance during the Holocaust.

Mordechai Anielewicz was born to a Polish-Jewish family of Abraham and Cyryl nee Zaltman, in the town of Wyszkow near Warsaw where they met during the reconstitution of sovereign Poland.

Mordechai Anielewicz had a brother and two sisters: Pinchas, Hava and Frida.

Mordechai Anielewicz finished Tarbut elementary with Hebrew instructions in 1933, at the age of 14.

Mordechai Anielewicz was a member of the Betar youth movement from 1933 until 1935.

Mordechai Anielewicz completed the private Jewish Laor Gimnazjum.

Mordechai Anielewicz later switched over to the left-leaning Hashomer Hatzair.

On 7 September 1939, a week after the German invasion of Poland, Mordechai Anielewicz traveled with a group from Warsaw to the east of the country in the hopes that the Polish Army would slow down the German advance.

Mordechai Anielewicz travelled to Wilno and attempted to convince his colleagues to send people back to other Polish occupied territories to continue the fight against the Germans.

Mordechai Anielewicz then attempted to cross the Romanian border to open a route for young Jews to get to the Mandate of Palestine, but was caught and thrown into the Soviet jail.

Mordechai Anielewicz was released a short time later and returned to Warsaw in January 1940 with his girlfriend, Mira Fuchrer.

In March 1942, Mordechai Anielewicz was among the founders of the anti-fascist group.

Towards the end Mordechai Anielewicz, surrounded by several gendarmes, was saved by Yitzhak Suknik throwing two grenades at the SS officers who were pursuing him, one grenade killing two Germans whilst the others ran away, allowing Mordechai Anielewicz to escape.

Mordechai Anielewicz decided to use the guerrilla way of fighting with a vast network of tunnels, bunkers, roofs and surprise moments.

Mordechai Anielewicz believed that enough Jews could withstand the ghetto for months.

Mordechai Anielewicz estimated that 7,000 Jews died during the rebellion, and another 7,000 German authorities deported to Treblinka.