Warsaw revisited? Photo: AFP

IN 1943 the Jews herded in the Warsaw Ghetto had enough. After being uprooted from their homes and forced to live in overwhelmingly crowded urban conditions, the ghetto was being strangled by a complete blockade of any food and medical supplies. At the time the true scope of the holocaust was not known; there were dark rumours what the German plan of "resettlement to the east" truly entailed, but the true horror of the Nazi extermination plan was not yet known.

The Ghetto bravely attacked its German watchmen, firing pistols, revolvers and throwing Molotov cocktails. The Polish resistance army provided much needed weapons, smuggling them into the Ghetto through tunnels and by blowing up parts of the wall that separated the Ghetto from the rest of Warsaw. The Ghetto uprising was crushed by the German army by the use of overwhelming force. The civilian population was not spared; the German forces ignored the fact that the military resistance and the civilian population were intermingled. In order to crush the uprising the Germans systematically burned and blew up all houses block by block, ignoring civilian casualties.

The result of the German policy was horrendous. Despite the Jewish fighters numbering less than 1000, 13,000 Jewish civilians perished in the Ghetto. The casualties on the German side were slim: 16 killed and 86 wounded. The story of the Ghetto is one of bravery and despair; its valiant people were my inspiration while growing up.

The story of Warsaw Ghetto came back to haunt me this week. The parallels with Gaza today cannot be ignored. It is not true that the IDF is pursuing a policy of holocaust: the mass machine of extermination set up by the Nazis does not exist today. Hamas is not the valiant ZZW resistance force of 1943. Hamas is an organisation that holds maximal and extreme views despite being elected into government. I am sure that Hamas fighters are mixing with the civilian population. However retaliatory fire is not allowed if the sanctity of civilian life is to be upheld in order for tragedies such as the Warsaw Ghetto to be avoided.

What is true is that extreme violence against civilians can take place when one does not question the use of overwhelming force in cases that fighters and civilians mix. The disregard of civilian deaths in an effort to combat enemy fighters results in the sheer carnage we see today.

The Gaza residents are also unwilling residents of that area. The overwhelming majority of them are refugees from the 1947 war, herded into a tiny urban strip. During 2008 supplies were being systematically cut off. As a result a giant smuggling operation began which was controlled by military troops, allowing for weapons to be smuggled into Gaza. I am sure that many residents must have cheered when missiles were fired into Israel, feeling that the rockets were a way to show their frustration over their miserable existence. That does not make them legitimate targets for overwhelming IDF fire. Let us hope that lessons from the past will help stop this current butchery.

Alexander Apostolides is a Research Fellow, University of Warwick.