At dawn on April 19, 1943, the Germans launched their offensive. Oberführer Ferdinand von Sammern-Frankenegg, SS and Police Commander for the Warsaw District, led the German military (Wehrmacht), SS and police units, as well as auxiliary Ukrainian and Latvian units.
Armed with rifles, automatic pistols, light and heavy machine guns, flamethrowers, and even armored vehicles and tanks, the Germans began the liquidation of the ghetto. They entered it from the south along Nalewki Street and from the intersection of Gęsia Street (today's Anielewicza Street) and Zamenhofa. They concentrated significant forces and weaponry, although they assumed the operation would last no longer than three days. This was intended as a gift for the Führer, who was celebrating another birthday. However, they encountered fierce resistance from Jewish fighters. The largest armed rebellion by the Jewish population during World War II and the first major urban uprising of that time began.
The surprise attack forced the Germans to withdraw from the ghetto. They returned later that afternoon, but this time under the command of SS-Gruppenführer Jürgen Stroop . He directed the pacification operation in the ghetto until its very end.
Fighting in the ghetto raged for several weeks. Fighters attacked the Germans from hiding, using weapons such as grenades and Molotov cocktails.
Although the Germans considered the uprising to have ended on May 16, 1943—because on that day, after several failed attempts, Stroop succeeded in blowing up the Great Synagogue on Tłomackie Street (today's Blue Tower)—armed clashes continued in the following weeks. Most of the ghetto buildings were blown up or burned, and the entire area was razed to the ground. According to Jürgen Stroop's report, tellingly titled "Es gibt keinen jüdischen Wohnbezirk in Warschau mehr!" ("The Jewish residential district in Warsaw no longer exists!"), approximately 56,000 Jews were in the Warsaw Ghetto during the uprising. Nearly 7,000 of them were murdered by the Germans on the spot, and another nearly 7,000 were deported to the Treblinka extermination camp. Around 6,000 Jews perished during the fighting. Nearly 36,000 remaining people were deported to labor and concentration camps in the General Government.
