UTW 11

Woman fighter after capture, during the Warsaw ghetto uprising, spring 1943 

Art: 1993
Media: Ink, colored pencil
Framed, 25 3/4 in. H x 36 ¾ W

Inspired by a photo of 5 captured ghetto prisoners and 4 Nazi soldiers and another man, wearing a helmet, who may have been a Polish* police officer. The photo was taken during the time of the Warsaw ghetto uprising, April-May 1943. It was published in The Stroop Report, with a handwritten ink caption: These bandits offered armed resistance. The wing was drawn at the Burke Museum of Natural History, Seattle.

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The photo is also seen in The 45th Anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising (Interpress, Warsaw, 1988). The wing was drawn at the ornithology lab, Burke Museum of Natural History, University of Washington, Seattle.

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While the Polish government, in 2018, has criminalized any Poles mentioning, speaking of, writing about, etc. , in involvement of any Christian Poles who aided and abetted the Nazis during the Nazi occupation, there are references to such involvement in The Stroop Report to (Christian). An example is found in the beginning pages of the report, in the section For Fuehrer and Fatherland – The following fell in the battle to destroy the Jews and bandits in the former Jewish quarter of Warsaw. (following a list of the names of 15 Nazis, mainly SS, the following text): “In addition, the Polish Police Sergeant-Major Julian Zielinski, born 13 November 1891, 14th Commissariaty, was killed on 19 April 1943 while carrying out his duties.”

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The Stroop Report has been published in facsmile editions in both English and German; perhaps in otherl languages, etc.
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Stoop himself was charged by the allies, after his arrest following the war, with having ordered the execution of captured U.S. Army air corpsmen. Convicted and sentenced to death, the sentence was not carried out. He was eventually sent to Poland, where he was charged, prosecuted and  convicted of crimes against humanity, and executed.