Dr. Marek Edelman, a cardiologist who was the last surviving commander of the 1943 Warsaw ghetto uprising against the Germans, died Friday in Warsaw, Poland. He was 90.
A friend, Paula Sawicka, said he died “among friends, among his close people,” at her home, where he had lived for the past two years.
Dr. Edelman was one of a handful of young leaders who in April 1943 led a force of 220 young Jewish men and women in a hopeless struggle against the Germans.
This man is the one who deserves to have his face plastered across millions of t-shirts. Not Che.
A few facts on the heroic stand of the Warsaw Ghetto.
The insurgents started with less guns than you and I have in our safes right now.
They armed themselves by killing Nazis, usually with knives or their bare hands, and taking their service weapons.
They had little military experience among them, but they ran logistics for a force that was spread out over a large city, ran numerous simultaneous offensive operations against the Nazis in Warsaw, took care of their wounded, and provisioned their people. An operation this complex today would take a General Staff to support it.
They tied down at least three entire German divisions with their insurgency. Their toll on Nazi soldiers and armor would be considered significant if made on an open battlefield by trained professional soldiers having unlimited warfighting supplies.
Above all, this story shows what a determined MILITIA can do against a force determined to break it.
Results of this nature would NOT have to be repeated very often to break the will of any oppressor.
BTW, Keep Marek Edelman’s name in your memory. It would be VERY appropriate to name a militia brigade after him, should our present oppression require such a response.