Warsaw ghetto uprising commander remembers what drove revolt

0 Comments | AFP, April, 2008

WARSAW (AFP) — As Poland prepares to commemorate the 1943 Warsaw ghetto uprising against the Nazis, the last leader of the Jewish revolt is still crystal clear about what drove him and his comrades to take up arms.

"We knew perfectly well that there was no way we could win," Marek Edelman, 85, told AFP in an interview.

"It was a symbol of the fight for freedom. A symbol of standing up to Nazism, and of not giving in," he said ahead of the April 15 commemoration.

The annual ceremony has been brought forward because this year the actual April 19 anniversary of the outbreak of the revolt falls on the Jewish Sabbath.

Edelman is not planning to take part in the official event, due to be attended by Polish President Lech Kaczynski and his Israeli opposite...