Mordechai Anielewicz

Mordechai Anielewicz (1919–1943) was the commander of the Żydowska Organizacja Bojowa (English: Jewish Fighting Organization), also known as ŻOB, during the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising.

Born to a poor family in Wyszkow near Warsaw, he joined and became a leader of the Zionist-socialist youth movement "Hashomer Hatzair" after he completed his high school studies. On September 7, 1939, a week after war with Germany started, Anielewicz escaped with his members of the group from Warsaw to the eastern regions in the hopes that the Polish would slow down the German advance. When the Red Army finally occupied Eastern Poland, Anielewicz attempted to pass the Romanian border in order to open a route for young Jews to get to Israel; however, he was caught and thrown into a Soviet jail. He was released a short time later and return to the Warsaw Ghetto.

When he heard that Jewish refugees, other youth movement members and political groups flocked to Vilna, Lithuania, which was then under Soviet control, he went there too and convinced his colleagues to send people back to Poland to continue the fight against the Nazis. He returned to Warsaw in January, 1940 with his girlfriend, Mira Fuchrer, where he organized cells and youngsters groups, instructed, participated in underground publications, organized meetings and seminars and visited other groups in different cities.