Poland ? Marek Edelman, the last surviving leader of the ill-fated 1943 Warsaw ghetto revolt against the Nazis, died Friday at the age of 90.

Edelman died of old age at the family home of his friend Paula Sawicka, where he had lived for the past two years.

“He died at home, among friends, among his close people,” Sawicka told The Associated Press.

Most of Edelman’s adult life was dedicated to the defense of human life, dignity and freedom. He fought the Nazis in the doomed Warsaw ghetto revolt and later in the Warsaw city Uprising. And then for decades he fought communism in Poland.

His heroism earned him the French Legion of Honor and Poland’s highest civilian distinction, the Order of the White Eagle.

Former Israeli ambassador to Poland Shevach Weiss paid tribute to Edelman.

“He will remain in my memory as a fighting hero, a man of great courage,” Weiss said. “He never ceased in his struggle for human freedom and for Poland’s freedom.”