Famous Paintings Codexery

Warsaw Ghetto boy

Unidentified child symbolizing Jewish victims of the Holocaust.

Last updated

It was originally included in the Stroop Report, a Nazi document intended to celebrate the suppression of the uprising.[1][2] The boy's identity remains unknown, though several individuals have been proposed.[3] Armed German soldiers forced a small child with raised hands out of a bunker during the suppression of the Jewish revolt in the Warsaw Ghetto, as shown in the photograph known as "Warsaw Ghetto boy".[4][5]

Quick Facts

Field
Victim of the Holocaust
Known for
Central figure in the iconic photograph of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising
Status
Deported to an extermination camp; exact fate unknown

Facts from the source article.

Key facts and history

Following the September 1939 German invasion, anti-Jewish laws were imposed, and by 1941 Jews were compelled to relocate to the Warsaw Ghetto, a space comprising merely 2.4% of the city's area that held up to 460,000 people.[6] Each person received an official daily food ration of merely 180 calories.[6] Armed resistance by the Jewish Combat Organization occurred in January 1943 when deportations restarted, and at that time Jews started constructing bunkers and bringing weapons in secretly.[6] Lasting four weeks, the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising stands as the biggest Jewish resistance action against the Holocaust.[6]

To force Jews out for deportation to Majdanek and Treblinka, the Germans ignited the ghetto, released poison gas into bunkers, and used explosives.[6] The photograph dates from the period of this uprising, specifically between 19 April and 16 May 1943.[7][2]

What the cited sources add

Raskin's account identifies the SS man aiming the submachine gun as Josef Blösche, a feared predator who terrorized ghetto occupants on hunting expeditions.[8][9] Raskin's work lists four possible identities for the boy: Artur Dab Siemiatek, Tsvi Nussbaum, Levi Zeilinwarger, and another unnamed claimant.[8]

References

  1. Wikipedia, "Warsaw Ghetto boy" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Tomasz Stempowski, "Zdjęcia z powstania w getcie", 17 March 2013; Raskin, "The Boy in the Photo?", 2007; "Stroop Report (full high resolution copy)", Tiergartenstrasse 4 Association; "Stroop's Report in the new version", Jewish Historical Institute; Kirsch, "Caught on Film", Tablet Magazine, 23 November 2010; ""L'Enfant juif de Varsovie. Histoire d'une photographie", de Frédéric Rousseau", Le Monde, 8 January 2009; "Stroop's Report in the new version", Jewish Historical Institute (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  2. "L'enfant juif de Varsovie", 2 October 2013. facts only, no text reused. histoire-image.org
  3. Wikipedia, "Warsaw Ghetto boy" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Stein, "Who is that Boy in the Famous Warsaw Ghetto Picture?", Hidabroot, 24 August 2014; Raskin, "The Boy in the Photo?", 2007; "Boy An Icon For Childhoods Lost In Holocaust", NPR; Magilow, "Holocaust Representations in History: An Introduction", Bloomsbury Publishing, 2019, p. 17–18; "Boy An Icon For Childhoods Lost In Holocaust", NPR; Margolick, "Rockland Physician Thinks he is the Boy in Holocaust Photo Taken in Warsaw", The New York Times, 28 May 1982; Berger, "The Ghetto, the Nazis and One Small Boy", The New York Times, 12 Octo en.wikipedia.org
  4. Wikipedia, "Warsaw Ghetto boy" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Nowik, "Only the oppressor has a name. The story of the boy from the picture", TVN24, 19 May 2018 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  5. Wikipedia, "Warsaw Ghetto boy" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Nowik, "Only the oppressor has a name. The story of the boy from the picture", TVN24, 19 May 2018; "L'enfant juif de Varsovie", 2 October 2013; Radstone, "Social Bonds and Psychical Order: Testimonies", Cultural Values, January 2001, p. 64–65 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  6. Wikipedia, "Warsaw Ghetto boy" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Freilich, "Ghettos in German-Occupied Eastern Europe", United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, 2012, p. 456–459 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  7. Wikipedia, "Warsaw Ghetto boy" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "L'enfant juif de Varsovie", 2 October 2013 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  8. Raskin, "The Boy in the Photo?", 2007. facts only, no text reused. holocaustresearchproject.org
  9. Wikipedia, "Warsaw Ghetto boy" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Maltz, "Holocaust Studies / A picture worth six million names", Haaretz, 3 March 2011; Raskin, "The Boy in the Photo?", 2007; Nowik, "Only the oppressor has a name. The story of the boy from the picture", TVN24, 19 May 2018; Raskin, "The Boy in the Photo?", 2007 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org

Each numbered sentence above was checked against the source it cites before publication. Sentences citing Wikipedia adapt text from the English Wikipedia article Warsaw Ghetto boy (contributors), used under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is available under the same licence. Other sources were used for facts only; no text or images are copied from them.

Related entries

Named in this entry

Extermination campThe New York Times

More in Famous Paintings

The Vulture and the Little GirlThe Weeping WomanThe Wounded DeerThirty-six Views of Mount FujiTiger in a Tropical StormTriptych of the Temptation of St. AnthonyV-J Day in Times SquareVeiled ChristVenus CallipygeVenus de' MediciVenus of UrbinoView from the Window at Le Gras

Sources

Compiled from Wikipedia and the sources listed below. Text from Wikipedia is available under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is adapted from it.

Spotted an error? Know more?

Reader corrections go straight into our review queue. Suggest an edit · How this site is sourced

Comments

Loading…
Open in the interactive codex →