"Simcha Rotem, an Israeli Holocaust survivor who was among the last known Jewish fighters from the 1943 Warsaw ghetto uprising against the Nazis, has died at the age of 94. Rotem, who went by the underground nickname 'Kazik,' took part in what is widely considered the single greatest act of Jewish resistance during the Holocaust. Though guaranteed to fail, the Warsaw ghetto uprising symbolised a refusal to succumb to Nazi atrocities and inspired other resistance campaigns by Jews and non-Jews alike. Rotem, who died in Israel on Saturday after a long illness, helped save the last survivors of the uprising by smuggling them out of the burning ghetto through sewage tunnels. The Jewish fighters battled for nearly a month, fortifying themselves in bunkers and managing to kill 16 Nazis and wound nearly 100. Rotem was born in 1924 in Warsaw, at a time when its vibrant Jewish community made up a third of the city's population. After World War II broke out, he was wounded in a German bombing campaign that destroyed his family home. His brother and five other close relatives were killed. Shortly after, the city's Jews were herded into the infamous ghetto. The ghetto initially held some 380,000 Jews who were cramped into tight living spaces, and at its peak housed about a half million. Life in the ghetto included random raids, confiscations and abductions by Nazi soldiers. Disease and starvation were rampant, and bodies often appeared on the streets. The teenage Rotem served as a liaison between the bunkers and took part in the fighting, before arranging for the escape of the few who did not join revolt leader Mordechai Anielewicz in the command bunker on 18 Mila Street for the final stand." www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6524409/Last-Warsaw-ghetto-uprising-fighter-Simcha-Rotem-dies-94.html
