Larry Adams is wrong when he questions the historical accuracy of the film Uprising. Marek Edelman and Simha Rotem ("Kazik"), both former ZOB Ghetto fighters, were advisors on set during the making of the film and commended its authenticity. The Polish Home Army gave minimal help to the Jewish fighters even though they had considerable caches of weapons organised through the Polish Government in exile in England. In a documentary about the making of the film, Marek Edelman said the Jewish fighters, numbering around 750, got a mere 100 weapons or so from the Poles, some pistols, rifles and explosive material (he called it "powder"). The pistols proved useless once the fighting started. The Poles attitude was that Jews would not be good fighters so weapons were wasted on them. They, the Poles, argued that they had to conserve their weapons for their own rebellion when the Russians arrived to provide support. They paid a terrible price because the Russians stopped on the far bank of the Vistula and let the Germans decimate the Poles. Stalin wanted any potential Polish leaders destroyed before a Soviet takeover. If the Jews had strong Polish support, why didn't the Poles fight alongside them in the ghetto or at least help to organise a rescue effort from outside? Apart from a feeble attempt to blow a hole in the ghetto wall they did nothing.In his book,"Resistance", Israel Gutman, Professor of Jewish History at Hebrew University, describes the Easter Sunday celebrations on April 25th as depicted in the film, with Poles dancing to music and children riding carousels, hawkers selling Easter treats etc a stone's throw from the burning ghetto where Jews were dying.The Jews fought and died alone. Many Poles did indeed help Jews to survive in hiding,for example the Zegota organisation, but many also informed on them, betrayed them to the Germans or blackmailed them in their desperate circumstances. When the Poles own uprising took place in 1944 a company of Jewish fighters, among them former members of the ZOB, led by Yitzhak Gutterman, actively participated in the campaign. Uprising is a tremendous film that genuinely endeavours to portray the heroism and tragedy of the Jewish Ghetto rebellion. As director, John Avnet, said "I just let the story tell itself."
