The January action in the Warsaw Ghetto, also known as the second liquidation action or January self-defense, was an extermination operation conducted by German occupation forces in the Warsaw Ghetto from 18 to 21 January 1943. Its primary goal was the deportation of approximately 8,000 Jews – mainly those residing illegally in the closed district – to the Treblinka extermination camp. This marked the first deportation action in the ghetto to encounter organized armed resistance from the Jewish resistance movement.
During Grossaktion Warsaw in the summer of 1942, approximately 300,000 Jews were murdered. In the significantly reduced "residual ghetto" that remained, around 60,000 inhabitants survived, including an estimated 40% living illegally without employment certificates issued by the occupiers. This situation had been temporarily tolerated by the Germans, but during an inspection in Warsaw on 9 January 1943, Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler ordered the immediate deportation of 8,000 "illegal" Jews and the relocation of German-run production facilities (known as "shops") to the Lublin Land. On 18 January, German forces and their collaborators entered the ghetto. They encountered widespread passive resistance, as Jews ignored calls to assemble voluntarily and hid in bunkers and concealed shelters. Despite being caught by surprise, the Jewish Combat Organization initiated armed fighting to defend the population.
After four days, the Germans withdrew from the ghetto. At least 5,000 Jews were deported and murdered at Treblinka, with 1,171 others killed on the streets or in their homes. Although the Germans did not intend full liquidation of the ghetto at this stage, the halt to the operation was credited to the Jewish resistance. The Jewish Combat Organization's authority among ghetto inhabitants grew substantially, and its actions earned admiration from the Polish population and the Polish Underground State. When German forces re-entered the ghetto on 19 April 1943, the full-scale Warsaw Ghetto Uprising erupted, which they suppressed only after nearly a month.
Warsaw Ghetto after Grossaktion Warsaw
On 22 July 1942, German occupation forces commenced Grossaktion Warsaw in the Warsaw Ghetto. It lasted 62 days, resulting in a reduction of more than 300,000 in the number of inhabitants of the closed district. At least 253,742 Jews, and possibly more, were deported and murdered in the Treblinka extermination camp. Approximately 10,300 people died or were murdered within the ghetto territory, while a further 11,580 were transported to various labor camps. A number of Jews, difficult to determine but estimated at up to around 8,000, managed to escape to the "Aryan side".
On 28 October 1942, the Higher SS and Police Leader "East" (HSSPF "Ost"), SS-Obergruppenführer Friedrich-Wilhelm Krüger, issued an order concerning the establishment of so-called residual ghettos (German: Restgetto) in selected cities of the Lublin and Warsaw districts. On 10 November, he issued a similar order regarding the creation of residual ghettos in the Galicia, Kraków, and Radom districts. These became the only places in the General Government where Jews were permitted to reside legally. The closed district in Warsaw was one of six such ghettos in the Warsaw District. Krüger's order allowed Jews hiding on the "Aryan side" until 30 November 1942 to relocate to the residual ghettos, with failure to comply punishable by death.
According to official data, after Grossaktion Warsaw only 35,639 Jews remained in the Warsaw Ghetto. As many as 75.5% were people aged 20–50, with a ratio of 78 women per 100 men. Children up to 9 years of age and people over 60 constituted 1.4% and 1.5% respectively of the official ghetto population. German statistics did not, however, include "wild" or "illegal" Jews who had survived Grossaktion Warsaw and remained in the ghetto territory but – unlike registered Jews – lacked the so-called life numbers. Their number was estimated at around 20,000–25,000.
Jews who survived Grossaktion Warsaw were subjected to forced labor. Of the 35,639 registered people, the largest number – around 26,000 – worked in German enterprises (shops) located in the ghetto territory. A further 2,797 were employed in Judenrat agencies, while the remainder worked at posts outside the ghetto or in the Werterfassungsstelle commando. The latter was responsible for clearing abandoned apartments and premises of valuable items and employed around 4,000 Jews, including many "wild" ones. Most workers were required to work on piece work and received only food stamps entitling them to minimal allocations. In practice, the majority of Jews subsisted by selling their possessions or purchasing food from "square traders" or smugglers who brought it in from the "Aryan side".
A further consequence of Grossaktion Warsaw was a significant reduction in the area of the ghetto. The territories south of , as well as the northern side of that street between and Przejazd streets, were excluded from the ghetto and designated for Polish residence. However, an enclave remained in this area in the form of Walther Többens' shop near . The main part of the Warsaw residual ghetto henceforth consisted of the so-called central ghetto, bounded by the streets: – – – Bonifraterska – Franciszkańska – – – Parysowska – Szczęśliwa. This section contained the Judenrat offices, six shops, and the headquarters of the Werterfassungsstelle. It also served as the primary refuge for most "illegal" Jews and as the residence of "square traders". In the territories between Gęsia and Franciszkańska streets to the north and Leszno Street to the south, officially uninhabited ("wild") areas intermingled with four closed zones occupied by individual shops, which also formed part of the residual ghetto. These zones were:
the main shop area (bounded by Leszno – – – Smocza – – Karmelicka streets), the brushmakers' shop area (bounded by Bonifraterska – – Wałowa streets and the rear of Franciszkańska Street), the Oschmann-Leszczyński shop area (near Nowolipie and Mylna streets), the Weigle tannery area (the odd-numbered side of Gęsia Street, between Smocza and streets).
Of the registered Jews, the majority – around 22,700 – lived in shop territories, with a further 12,800 in the central ghetto. They were allocated 295 buildings, while "illegals" resided in an additional 133 buildings.
After the conclusion of Grossaktion Warsaw, the ghetto largely ceased to function as a residential district and became a vast labor camp. Its streets and many buildings were largely deserted. For a time, the TransferstelleThe Transferstelle was established in December 1940 within the office of the governor of the Warsaw District. All official commodity traffic between the ghetto and the "Aryan side" took place through it (). and the office of the commissioner for the Jewish district continued to exist, but authority over all matters concerning the ghetto passed to functionaries of the Warsaw Gestapo, who operated from the so-called Befehlstelle at 103 Żelazna Street. The Judenrat and the Jewish Ghetto Police were stripped of any significant competencies and completely lost authority among the Jewish population. In the autumn of 1942, shop territories began to be enclosed with wooden fences and barbed wire. The shops increasingly resembled small labor camps, or as described them, "closed prisons". Isolation was such that workers in one shop often had no contact for long periods with relatives or friends in other parts of the ghetto. The shops also became partially self-sufficient, operating their own bakeries, stores, and service facilities. Within them, German owners and the subordinate factory guard (Werkschutz) exercised absolute authority.The Werkschutz consisted primarily of Jews, often former policemen or individuals from the social margins. Ukrainians and Volksdeutsche could also be found in its ranks (; ). Even minor infractions brought penalties such as fines, reduced food rations, or removal from the workforce and transfer to the SS.
On 28 September 1942, an announcement signed by Judenrat chairman Marek Lichtenbaum was posted throughout the ghetto. It stated that, under an order from the Sonderkommando der Sipo-Umsiedlung, Jews in the area south of Gęsia and Franciszkańska streets were permitted to move only in organized columns to or from their workplaces. In the central ghetto, between the working hours of 8:00 AM and 8:00 PM, only those who could demonstrate a legitimate need to leave their workstation were allowed on the streets. Street trading was banned, as was "aimless loitering or gathering in groups". As a result, during daylight hours the ghetto streets typically saw only Jewish Ghetto Police personnel, columns of workers marching in formation, carts delivering food to the shops, and carts removing corpses. German patrols shot without warning at anyone else found on the streets. Judenrat records show that 546 Jews were killed on the ghetto streets between October and December 1942.
Jewish resistance movement
Failure of self-defense attempts in the summer of 1942
The mass deportations to Treblinka during the summer of 1942 encountered essentially no active resistance from the inhabitants of the Warsaw Ghetto. The Jewish population – consisting primarily of women, children, the elderly, and individuals physically and mentally exhausted by years of hunger and isolation – was unable to mount opposition to the German actions. Meanwhile, underground organizations, lacking weapons and sufficient authority, were incapable of organizing self-defense or rallying the ghetto residents to fight. As Israel Gutman has noted, "many activists and entire groups opposed the idea of armed resistance". In the early days of Grossaktion Warsaw, leaders of the major Jewish political parties rejected the notion of an armed uprising, mistakenly believing that the "resettlement" would affect only a portion of the population. Soon thereafter, the efforts of underground groups shifted toward saving their own members from deportation.
This stance of the traditional parties contrasted sharply with the position of the youth movements. On 28 July 1942, representatives of Dror, Hashomer Hatzair, and Akiva established the Jewish Combat Organization. Its command included , Yitzhak Zuckerman, Zivia Lubetkin, Mordechai Tenenbaum, and Izrael Kanal. The new organization aimed to resist the deportations through armed force, but it lacked a concrete plan of action. Internal differences emerged over tactics, and its armament consisted of only a single pistol. An emissary, Izrael Chaim Wilner, was sent to the "Aryan side" to seek support. He established contact with the Home Army only after several weeks. Somewhat earlier, on 21 August 1942, the Jewish Combat Organization received its first small shipment of weapons from the communist Polish Workers' Party.