Uprising

Content Warning: This section discusses wartime violence, the Holocaust, and antisemitism.

The German invasion of Poland, which occurred on September 1, 1939, is often considered the start of World War II. Because of Poland’s geographical location—situated between Germany and Russia—it was an easy target for German military aggression, as Russia aided in their efforts to expand their territory. Additionally, because Germany is bordered on the west by France, France feared a future invasion of their territory; this caused them to align with Great Britain and declare war on Germany. These events also mark the beginning of Uprising, as Lidia sees the first Nazi bombers fly over Poland and then remains in her basement for a month, learning of Russia’s invasion and then the German-Soviet Frontier Treaty on September 28. As Lidia notes, “The Germans and Soviets had signed a treaty that divided our country in half. Just like that, Poland was erased from the map” (44).

After invading and taking control of Poland, Germany established areas known as “ghettos,” where they forced Jewish residents to live. Nazi Germany used ghettos as spaces to segregate Jewish citizens, forcing them to live in specific areas under extreme hardship with little food, housing, or necessities like electricity and warmth. Germany would establish “at least 1,143 ghettos in the occupied eastern territories” like Poland, the largest of which was “the Warsaw Ghetto [which] held more than 400,000 Jews in an area of approximately 1.3 square miles” (“Nazi Germany and the Establishment of Ghettos.” The National WWII Museum, 19 Oct. 2023). Lidia sees these harsh conditions as she looks out of her apartment window over the Warsaw ghetto. When she visits Mama, the extreme “grief” that she sees there overwhelms her, as people are extremely thin, dirty, and poorly dressed for the weather. As the novel depicts, it was punishable by death to aid the Jewish people in any way; Lidia sees a man shot simply for providing a slice of bread to one prisoner.

One of the initial forms of resistance within Poland occurred within these ghettos, as Jewish citizens felt the first impact of Nazi brutality. In the novel, Lidia sees trains that deport thousands of Jewish residents, including Doda and Bubbe. While initial Nazi propaganda stated that they were being transported to another camp, word slowly spread throughout Warsaw that they were being taken to “death camps.” Lidia discovers this information through Stefan, and the news shocks and devastates her. In the Warsaw ghetto, after tens of thousands of people were deported and they learned the truth about the death camps, the Jewish residents revolted. In Uprising, Lidia watches from her window as she sees ghetto residents—mostly young people—set off explosions and fend off dozens of Nazi soldiers. The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising lasted nearly a month, from April 19 to May 16, 1943. It ended with the Nazi soldiers “systematically raz[ing] the ghetto buildings, block by block, destroying the bunkers where many residents had been hiding,” killing “an estimated 7,000 Jews” and deporting the 50,000 survivors (“Warsaw Ghetto Uprising.” History, 17 Apr. 2023). For Lidia, this is a key moment in her character development as she stands outside Maryna’s house and smells the ghetto beginning to burn. She realizes that she has no choice but to help fight back against the Nazi occupation.

During the Nazi occupation of Poland, the number of deaths and the destruction of the country were staggering. While the number of deaths is difficult to calculate, “it is estimated that the Germans killed between 1.8 and 1.9 million non-Jewish Polish civilians” and “at least 3 million Jewish citizens” (“Polish Victims.” United States Holocaust Memorial Museum). About 90% of the Jewish population fled, were deported, or killed during the war; today, only about 40,000-50,000 Jewish people live in Poland (Easton, Adam. “Poland’s Jews: A Tragic History.” BBC News, 19 Apr. 2013). Nazi Germany controlled Poland throughout World War II, and Russia withdrew their support and joined the Allied nations. However, Russia later took control of Poland and kept it under communist rule until the 1990s.