When German troops invaded Poland in September 1939, Marek Edelman was living in Warsaw. He was a member of the General Jewish Labour Bund. Like other Warsaw Jews, Edelman was persecuted by the German occupiers. In 1940 Edelman had to move into the Warsaw ghetto, where he worked in a hospital.
In 1942 Edelman joined the Jewish Combat Organization (Żydowska Organizacja Bojowa). He became one of the leaders of the armed resistance in the Warsaw ghetto. During the ghetto uprising in April 1943, he commanded the fighters in five resistance groups. After the uprising was quashed, Edelman escaped from the ghetto in May 1943. He went into hiding in Warsaw along with other Jewish resistance fighters. Edelman could not find a permanent place to stay and had to change hiding places frequently. In 1944 he joined the communist underground organization Armia Ludowa (People’s Army) and took part in the Warsaw Uprising.
After the end of the war, Marek Edelman moved to Łódź. He studied medicine and became a respected heart surgeon.
Marek Edelman (left) after the end of the war at the site of the Jewish Combat Organization’s destroyed headquarters in the Warsaw ghetto at ulica Miła 18, 1945. Source: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Washington D.C., 02345, courtesy of Benjamin (Miedzyrzecki) Meed
