Marek Edelman, a driving force behind the Jewish uprising in Nazi-occupied Poland, has died.

Edelman was the last surviving leader of small Jewish militant groups which fought against the Nazis Before 1939, Poland was home to the biggest Jewish population in Europe, but most of them perished in the Holocaust. Despite the anti-Semitic policies of Poland’s communist authorities after World War Two, Edelman never left his homeland. He was, however, a member of the Solidarity trade union which helped topple the communist regime in 1989. The Warsaw ghetto was established in 1940 and nearly half a million people were forced to live there at some point. Edelman fought the Nazis when they tried to liquidate the ghetto in 1943. In the uprising, Jewish fighters were poorly armed and they were crushed in a few weeks.More about: Funerals, History, Poland

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