July 28 1942 – 14 Av 5702
Warsaw
The ZOB Jewish resistance organization was founded in the
Warsaw Ghetto after mass deportations to Treblinka had begun on
Tisha Be-Av six days earlier. The parallel Revisionist Zionist ZZW
(or Jewish Military Union) already existed in Polish cities such as
Warsaw. When more deportations were ordered the next winter, ZOB
and ZZW members opened fire on SS guards, temporarily driving the
Nazis from the ghetto. By the time the Warsaw Ghetto uprising
began in earnest the following Pesach, fighters were scattered in
bunkers all over the ghetto, including the infamous Mila 18, where
Mordekhai Anielewicz and other ZOB leaders were killed. Some
took their own lives rather than surrender; others escaped through
the sewers. The story of the ZZW, which was wiped out in the
revolt, has been largely forgotten.
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