April 19, 2022

On April 19, 2022 we remember and celebrate the 79th Anniversary of Warsaw Ghetto Uprising.

Join POLIN Museum and people around the world 19 April, 2022 for the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising Campaign. 🌼 How can you get involved? Simply take a photo with a daffodil, post it on your social media platforms on 19 April, 2022, and share why it is important to remember both the heroes that arose for dignity against the Nazis, and those who perished in the Holocaust. Use hashtags: #RememberingTogether #WarsawGhettoUprising #POLINMuseum 🌼

From the POLIN Museum:

We welcome you to join the 2022 Warsaw Ghetto Uprising Campaign. This campaign has been hosted by POLIN Museum, 1000 year history of the Polish Jews for close to a decade. Read about how to join the daffodils campaign.

Marek Edelman, the last surviving leader of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, used to receive a bouquet of yellow daffodils from an anonymous person every year on April 19. He would lay them at the Monument to the Ghetto Heroes in memory of those who fought and died. The paper daffodils, which people wear on this day, are inspired by this custom. Edelman, who remained in Poland after the war, passed away in 2009.

Marek Edelman, one of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising commanders, wrote in his book titled “And There Was Love in the Ghetto”: “Why nobody ever asks me about love in the ghetto? Why nobody is interested in that?”. During this edition of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising Campaign, we will ponder not only on the question posed by Edelman, but also on the meaning and significance of love in the Warsaw ghetto. We will talk about its various manifestations: parents’ love towards their children, love for friends or for an idea and, finally, romantic love.

We will also focus on emotional states and attitudes – utterly timeless and universal – which are very closely related to love: empathy, sensitivity in the face of a suffering of others, devotion to those in need. We will be guided by the words of Marek Edelman: “Hatred is easy. Love requires effort and sacrifice.”

This year’s edition of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising Campaign is taking place at a time when people are yet again being killed in Eastern Europe, including women and children. We want the participation in the Campaign – run with love as its leading motif — to be a manifestation of sorts of our opposition to war, and to any form of violence. With Marian Turski’s words in mind — “Auschwitz did not fall from the sky” – we wish to stand united with those who are fighting for their country, for the freedom and dignity of their loved ones.

Warsaw Ghetto Uprising Commemoration in New York

Tuesday, April 19 at 1 PM ET
Der Shteyn at the stone in Riverside Park
Between 83rd and 84th Streets

Commemoration of  the 79th Anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising The program will feature talks and readings. Judy Batalion will talk on her book, The Light of Days: The Untold Story of Women Resistance Fighters in Hitler’s Ghettos. Steven Meed, translator, will read from his mother Vladka Meed’s book, On Both Sides of the Wall: Memoirs from the Warsaw Ghetto. Eleanor Reissa will read from her book, The Letters Project: A Daughter’s Journey.   Songs and readings by the Khaveyrim: Sarah Aoki Joanne H Borts Maida Feingold Michael Fox Ben Gurdus Shifee Losacco Zalmen Debra Mlotek Steven Skybell Marcel Kshensky, Chair.   In partnership with Friends of the Bund and in association with the Jewish Labor Committee, the National Yiddish Theater-Folksbiene, POLIN: The Museum of the History of Polish Jews, the Workers Circle, and the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research.

Polish Cultural Institute New York shares recommended resources.

POLIN Museum: Voices from the Warsaw Ghetto is a series (2020)
Biographies of key individuals from the Warsaw Ghetto
by POLIN Museum

Tablet Magazine: Remembering the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising Today (April 24, 2017)
A daughter of the resistance notes the true inspiration of the survivors: their refusal to disconnect from the past
By IRENA KLEPFISZ