This picture's opening prologue states: "This film is based on the historical events and the actual people who participated in the resistance movement leading up to and through the Warsaw Ghetto uprising in 1943".
Despite Mordechai Anielewicz being 24 at the time of his death, his actor Hank Azaria was 36 at the time of production. Yitzhak Zuckerman was 4 years older than Anielcewicz but Azaria is 2 years older than David Schwimmer. Although Adam Czerniaków was 15 years older than Jürgen Stroop, Donald Sutherland is 3 years older than Jon Voight.