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On September 1, 1939,
Germany invades Poland.
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The ill-equipped, undermanned Polish
army surrenders in less than a month.
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Soon the Germans discover
an unexpected consequence of victory.
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After devoting themselves to making
Germany's territories free of Jews...
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... they suddenly have two million
new Jews under their control.
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In October of 1940,
the Jews of Warsaw are told...
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... they'll be forced into a ghetto
dubbed the Jewish Residential Quarter.
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In November, the quarter is sealed.
A wall is built.
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And soon, more than 400,000 people...
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...are confined in an area
less than one square mile.
:00:50
The question that has often been asked
is, ''Why didn 't the Jews resist?''
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As I've studied the history,
the thing that surprises me most is. . .
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. . .in fact, how much
resistance there was.
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Which takes us to the issue of,
what is resistance?
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It's easier for us to see a man
holding a gun, firing at an enemy. . .
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. . .but is it really more courageous
than a woman, a mother. . .
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. . .marching with her two children,
with dignity. . .
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. . .to get a loaf of bread
and a kilo of jam. . .
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. . .to keep them alive for another day.
:01:30
All this was going on in the ghetto.
:01:35
Illegal soup kitchens,
education, health care. . .
:01:39
. . .all this was taking place.
:01:41
And all this was resistance.
:01:44
Life in the ghetto is one of hunger,
squalor and disease.
:01:49
Dead bodies, victims of starvation
or typhus...
:01:52
...are often left on the street.
:01:55
And ghetto residents never know
what tomorrow will bring.