The story of the Jewish uprisings in the Warsaw Ghetto during World War II often is remembered for its ultimate futility - a final, sad chapter in the Nazis' successful campaign to wipe out that city's population of 360,000 Jews. But the NBC miniseries "Uprising" takes a different measure of the Warsaw resistance. The rebellion against Nazi domination is presented as a noble defense of the human spirit, even when it was attained through death at the enemy's hands. A moving and masterful television event, "Uprising" stars Hank Azaria, Leelee Sobieski, David Schwimmer and Stephen Moyer as leaders of a ragged band of Jewish freedom fighters who struck back with surprising effectiveness against the Germans who occupied Poland from 1939 to 1945. It's based on the memoir of Simha Rotem, who was known as Kazik during the resistance (he's played by Moyer in the film). Azaria plays Mordechai Anielewicz, who in the words of one ghetto survivor was "the soul of the organization." Azaria, the heir to Richard Chamberlain as king of the TV spectaculars (he also starred in "Tuesdays With Morrie"), is tough and wily as the teacher turned guerrilla leader. "Can a man maintain his moral code in an immoral world?" Mordechai asks those around him. He raises the question more than once during Sunday's first part, in between scenes that abundantly document the cruelties and growing sadism of the Nazi occupiers. Mordechai is preparing his comrades for the end game with the Nazis, but not everyone is ready to accept the ethical logic of armed resistance. The rabbi who serves as Warsaw's spiritual leader and liaison to the Nazis (played by Donald Sutherland) urges appeasement and cooperation. He bows to the Nazis' demands even as they become more unreasonable. There's a compelling debate between the rabbi and Mordechai over the morality of killing Nazis. "It's a romantic notion that will get you all killed," the rabbi says with a huff. As Hollywood is wont to do, "Uprising" resolves this debate by focusing on a single person - in this case, an appeaser who takes up arms against the Nazis after watching one atrocity too many. What really galvanized the Warsaw resistance, in all likelihood, was simple attrition. All but 60,000 of the Jewish population either died in the ghetto or got shipped off to Treblinka. Death seemed imminent whether one fought the Nazis or not. In Part 2, the German high command responds to the growing problem in Warsaw by sending in a new and more ruthless general (Jon Voight). He orders the entire ghetto blown to bits. After a second Jewish uprising is crushed, the last of the fighters are led by Kazik into the sewers to safety. Fans of Claude Lanzmann's "Shoah" will recall the sewer rescue as the coda to that miniseries. Among viewers who have seen both, "Uprising" probably won't measure up to the majesty of "Shoah." Yet as popular entertainment this is a very fine work, and cheers to NBC for taking it on. A lot of credit is due to the unlikely partnership that created its script: executive producer Jon Avnet, whose penchant for the political is seen in his China protest movie "Red Corner," and Paul Brickman, best known for writing Tom Cruise's breakout movie, "Risky Business." "Uprising" arrives on television just as a military campaign against terrorist bands in Afghanistan is going full throttle. It is a coincidence as accidental as it is instructive. Today a military power makes a moral claim against a band of rogues; in "Uprising" the roles are reversed. Leaving morality aside - as wars will do at times - it is not hard to see in the rebels of the Warsaw Ghetto a fierce resilience, a willingness to use their deaths as valuable currency, similar to what now fuels Osama bin Laden's network of hate. The Nazis were well-fed and well-armed. The Jewish resistance was hungry and smart. Yet they continued to resist long after they had been declared officially vanquished. From that perspective, "Uprising" is a cautionary tale about imperial arrogance we would do well to remember today. Of course, bin Laden is no longer a freedom fighter. He has graduated into a full-time aggressor, turning anti-Western resentment into support for his permanent campaign of terror. By contrast, all the Warsaw resistance wanted to do was live out their days in peace. Many, in fact, pined for the one place bin Laden wants to see wiped off the planet. As Mordechai tells his girlfriend, "If we can't get to Palestine and be farmers, we'll stay here and be fighters." - To reach Aaron Barnhart, phone (816) 234-4790 or visit the TV Barn Web site at www.tvbarn.com. @ART CAPTION:NBC presents the story of Jewish resistance in Warsaw in "Uprising" at 8 p.m. Sunday and Monday. @ART:Photo @ART CREDIT:NBC
