Rabbi Ziemba was one of the few rabbinic leader who called for armed resistance. He redefined traditional martyrdom "Kiddush HaShem" as "Kiddush Ha'Chaim", the sanctification of life. According to scholar Pesach Schindler, Rabbi Ziemba summarized his idea of Kiddush Ha'Chaim when he begged for the Jews to resist right before the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising in April 1943:‘Thus, by the authority of the Torah of Israel, I insist that there is absolutely no purpose nor any value of Kiddush Hashem inherent in the death of a Jew. Kiddush Hashem in our present situation is embodied in the will of a Jew to live. This struggle for aspiration and longing for life is a mitzvah to be realized by means of nekamah, vengeance, mesiras nefesh, and the sanctification of the mind and will.’Rabbi Ziemba was given two opportunities to escape from the ghetto. Through the efforts of Chaim Israel and the Sternbuch family of Switzerland, he was sent a Costa Rican passport and citizenship papers. His last name, however, was misspelled—Ziember instead of Ziemba. This was enough excuse for his papers to be declared void.