Hero of Warsaw Ghetto uprising, Marek Edelman, dies at 86
By Haaretz Correspondent and News Agencies , By Yossi Melman
A hero of the Warsaw Ghetto uprising, Marek Edelman, was the last surviving leader of the small Jewish militant groups who fought against the Nazis in 1943 during the final attempt to liquidate the ghetto. Edelman died Friday at his Warsaw home, age 86.
After the war Edelman served as the right-hand man of uprising leader Mordechai Anielewicz and was a long-time activist in the Bund, the General Jewish Labor Union. The organization was known in part for being anti-Zionist, believing that Jews must assert themselves as a part of the societies of their countries of origin.
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The dispute led to tension with Edelman's former colleagues from the uprising who immigrated to Israel after surviving the war. In later years, Edelman reportedly warmed to Zionism and met with fellow ghetto fighters who had immigrated here.
Poland was home to the biggest Jewish population in Europe before 1939, but most of them perished in the Holocaust.
The Warsaw Ghetto was established in 1940 and nearly half a million people were forced to live there at some point.
Despite the anti-Semitic policies of Poland's communist authorities after World War II, Edelman never left his homeland. He worked as a cardiologist, married and had two children.
Edelman's memoirs were translated into six languages, including Hebrew.
