Fighters in The Warsaw Ghetto

What did we tell the Jews that night? We told the Jews that night, anyone who possessed arms should come out to fight. Not only the Jewish fighting force but the ordinary Jews as well had arms. And we advised those who did not have arms, women, children and babies that they should go down into the bunkers, and at the first opportunity of the general confusion, which would arise following the battle, they should go over to the *** sector, they should break through and make their way to the forest - some would survive. When the Germans came near the foot of one of our strong points and passed by in formation, and we threw the bombs and the hand-grenades, and we saw German blood pouring in the streets of Warsaw, after so much Jewish blood and tears had previously flowed in the streets of Warsaw - we felt within us, great rejoicing and it was of no importance what would happen the following day. There was a great rejoicing amongst us, the Jewish fighters. And behold the miracle: the great German heroes withdrew in tremendous panic in the face of the handmade Jewish hand- grenades and bombs. And we noticed, one hour later, how a German officer was spurring the soldiers on to go to battle, to go out and bring in the wounded, and not one of them moved and they abandoned their wounded men whose weapons we subsequently collected. A surprise attack was needed, and that is what we did. After two days of heavy fighting They said that we had burnt a tank.. with a Molotov cocktail... I don't know if we burnt it or not. In any case, it was aflame. We didn't have enough strength to fight with an organized front We thought that that they would continue coming in and there would be a face-to-face battle, we would kill as many as we could. We knew that our end was certain. But they did it differently. They retreated And carried out the destruction from outside, so we had no resources. Within three or four days the ghetto was in flames. People were burned alive. "We won't advance, we will hide during the day and go out at night." And so it was for several days. I can't say with any certainty what their fear of us was based upon. We had few weapons and little ammunition. Every bullet was like gold. One shot, accurate or not, would disperse a whole group of Germans Because they reasoned that they were not supposed to be killed by the Jewish vermin. It was very strange to see that some Jewish boys and girls, confronting this enormous enemy with all his weapons, were joyful and merry. Why were they joyful and merry? We knew that our end had come. We knew beforehand that they would defeat us, but we also knew that they would pay a heavy price for our lives.