Holocaust and Heroism: the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising in Zionist Mythology Open Access

Abstract

The April 1943 Warsaw Ghetto Uprising represented the single largest instance of Jewish resistance to the Nazis during the Second World War. Despite its status as an anomalous instance of armed resistance, the Israeli narrative of the Holocaust came to disproportionately center around this outlier. Through a process of mythologization, the Zionist movement adopted the narrative of Zionist-inspired heroism conveyed by a group of survivors of the Uprising who made their way to Palestine. Through parallel processes of myth-making, the surviving leaders of the Uprising established themselves and their fallen comrades as national heroes, while the State of Israel embraced their mythologization, and retroactively established the Uprising as part of the Zionist struggle for a homeland in Palestine. By firmly placing the Uprising into the context of other foundational national myths, the Zionist movement positioned the Uprising as the focal point of Holocaust memory. In essence, the story of the Holocaust became the story of the Uprising.

The narrative of the Holocaust as expressed through the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising began to shift after the trial of Adolf Eichmann in 1961, as it broadened to reflect the multiplicity of experiences the Jews of Europe underwent. Nevertheless, the Uprising has retained its symbolic significance. Israeli commemoration of the Holocaust continues to invoke imagery of the Ghetto Uprising disproportionately. The State of Israel has continued to both bankroll and endorse projects initiated by the Uprising's survivors which present the mythologized narrative. Though the memory of the Ghetto Uprising has been the subject of shifts and contestations, it remains a central symbol of both the Holocaust and state-building in Israel.

Table of Contents

Introduction: The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising

1

I. "They Have Learned the New Lesson": The Zionist Mythologization of the Uprising

8

II. "Who Defended Our Honor?": The First-Hand Accounts of the Zuckermans, Marek Edelman and Israel Gutman

22

III. "None of Them Had Ever Looked Like This": Israeli Commemoration of the Uprising

38

IV. "From Holocaust to Revival": The Two Kibbutzim

50

V. "The Truth Conquers": Political Contestations over Memory

62

Conclusion: The State of the Myth Today

73

Bibliography

80

About this Honors Thesis

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School	Emory College
Department	History
Degree	BA
Submission	Honors Thesis
Language	English
Research Field	Holocaust Studies History, Middle Eastern
Keyword	Warsaw Ghetto Uprising Mythmaking Israel Holocaust Zionism
Committee Chair / Thesis Advisor	Schainker, Ellie R, Emory University
Committee Members	Yeglin, Ofra, Emory University Goldstein, Eric L, Emory University

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