sign in sign up
<<
Home , Jewish Military Union, Marek Edelman, Mordechai Anielewicz, Union of Armed Struggle, Witold Pilecki

Uprising Rising 1943WARSAW UPRISING 1944WARSAW RISING

19 April – 16 May 1943 1 August – 2 October 1944

1939 1940 1941 1942 1943 1944 1945 1939 1940 1941 1942 1943 1944 1945

CORE INFORMATION PRECEDING EVENTS OUTCOME CORE INFORMATION PRECEDING EVENTS OUTCOME

16.11.1940 22.07.1942 16.05.1943 27.09.1939 Last days of July 1944 2.10.1944 19.01.1945 When the Germans On 22 July 1942 the Germans The fighters were In July 1944, as the Soviets The uprising ended in established the began the Grossaktion, or defeated by the German The uprising was the culmination advanced towards German- the ’ military defeat Ghetto in mass extermination. Over soldiers, who were of the actions of the Polish occupied Warsaw, the Poles in the and failed to prevent the 1940, their initial aim the course of 43 days they well-armed and trained, Underground State, whose underground launched introduction of communist was to separate the deported 300,000 and the ghetto area constituent structures their fight for independence, rule in . Still, it Jews from the city’s from the to was reduced to a sea of were formed after Poland’s believing the would instantly became both other inhabitants. They Treblinka rubble. occupation by the Germans offer military support. a symbol of the Poles’ eventually confined and murdered them. The fighters’ resistance and Soviets in September For the Home Army soldiers determination to gain 450,000 people within demonstrated their 1939. The Underground State the insurrection demonstrated independence and proof the walls; almost heroism, bravery and organized the country’s the Poles’ aspirations to form of the treacherous and a quarter of them 10.1942 desperation. They resistance and its fight for a free a sovereign state after the war. inhuman attitude of the died of disease and decided on armed combat Poland. It encompassed both Despite having fought the Germans Soviets, who refused to starvation. In October 1942 the ghetto knowing that they would military and civilian sections. alongside the Western Allies since help Poland’s capital city The ghetto was created inhabitants decided they soon die, driven by Its military arm, established 1941, the USSR’s leader Joseph as it perished. Today the in northern Warsaw would rise up in arms if a desire to avenge their from 1942 by the underground Stalin was not prepared to support uprising plays an important (today’s Muranów the deportations continued. loved ones. (Pol. the Poles, as he was planning to part in the collective district). It comprised By early 1943, before the Związek Walki Zbrojnej, ZWZ), turn Poland into a communist state consciousness of Poles two parts, the so-called uprising broke out, there was known as the Home Army. dependent on the . as an example of defiance ‘small ghetto’ and the were around 50,000 people The civilian section arranged aid He therefore withheld military against the evil propagated ‘large ghetto’. still living in the ghetto, that for the victims of the German assistance to the insurgents. by totalitarian regimes. is less than 10% of ghetto occupation (incl. Jews), organized populaction at its peak in 1941. underground educational and justice systems and laid foundations for the country’s administration after the war. ORGANIZATIONS INVOLVED IN THE FIGHTING

Jewish Fighting Home Army Organization (Pol. Armia Krajowa, AK) (Pol. Żydowska Organizacja The Underground State’s military Bojowa, ŻOB) organization; it accounted for c. 90 per cent of the insurrectionary forces Formed by Zionist organizations – Hashomer Hatzair, Dror, Akiba, Gordonia, Poalej Zion Left, Poalej Zion Right, Hanoar Hatzioni – as well as Bund and the Polish Workers’ Party (PPR) (Pol. Narodowe Siły Zbrojne, NSZ)

Jewish Military Union Right-wing military units Jews. The occupying power is commencing the (Pol. Żydowski Związek Wojskowy, ŻZW) second stage of Your annihilation. Don’t go to your deaths passively. Defend yourselves. Take an axe, Formed by Revisionist Zionists of the New crowbar, knife in hand, barricade your home. Let Zionist Organization and them conquer you like that... Fighting gives you a chance to survive... Fight... People’s Army Jewish Historical Institute, Ringelblum Archive, (Pol. , AL) sygn. ARG II 426 b. Military force formed by Polish communists and allied with the Soviet Union

Army courier Bożena Grabowska, nom de guerre ‘Magda’, outside apartment building at 7 Moniuszki Street, north Śródmieście, mid-August 1944. Insurgency posters on wall: ‘One bullet, one German’ by Henryk Chmielewski, ‘Our road to freedom 1939–1944’ and ‘We are fighting for Unity, Freedom, Independence’. Photograph by Eugeniusz Lokajski, nom de guerre ‘Brok’. MPW- IN/407

Poster on wall in Śródmieście during Warsaw Rising: ‘Call to Arms in the Home Army’s ranks’, 9 August 1944. Photograph by Joachim Joachimczyk, nom de guerre ‘Joachim’. MPW- IP/789 COURSE OF EVENTS

april 1943 may 1943 august 1944 september 1944 october 1944

stage I Stage I (19–21 April) (1–4 August) Stage III: May Stage III On 19 April ŻOB units under the command In the first days of the uprising the Poles took (3 September – 2 October) of and ŻZW units led On 8 May the Germans found the bunker control of large tracts of the city, including the by Paweł Frenkel attacked armed German at Miła 18 in which the ŻOB command (c. 100 central districts of Śródmieście and the Old Town. Having gained control of the Old Town, the soldiers who had entered the ghetto. On fighters) were hiding together with their In the first few days there was an explosion Germans continued their main offensive along the second or third day of combat the commander, Mordechai Anielewicz. A small of euphoria and joy. After five years of humiliation, the riverside districts of Powiśle and Czerniaków. fighters raised two flags, one Polish and number managed to escape, but the others, the Poles could at last raise their flag and sing Between 10 and 14 September the Red Army the other Jewish, in pl. Muranowski. The seeing no possibility of further resistance, the national anthem. They quickly started to occupied Warsaw’s eastern district of Praga and Germans were surprised by the scale of the committed group suicide. On 10 May two groups organize their new state and its institutions. During the right bank of the Vistula, but offered no help resistance. When after three days the fighters of fighters (c. 80 in all) tried to leave the burning the uprising there was a fledgling parliament, to the insurgents. ran out of ammunition, the ŻOB fighters went ghetto via the sewers. Some from the first group a postal service, a radio station and even a cinema. into hiding within the ghetto area, while managed to reach nearby forests, while the rest A daily newspaper was published, bringing the latest By the beginning of October the Polish fighters still those from ŻZW crossed to the so-called hid in Warsaw. All those in the second group news from the uprising and from around the world, controlled just a fragment of Śródmieście. At this Aryan side, where virtually almost all of them perished in combat with the Germans. and also featuring debates on the shape of the point they decided to capitulate, negotiating perished. future independent Poland. the terms. Initially the German command wanted The Germans did not sign a capitulation treaty to push the insurgents away from the river, as they The Polish underground observed the fighting with the fighters as they didn’t view them were expecting the Soviets to attack from the right in the ghetto. The Home Army and the as equals. On 16 May Jürgen Stroop, who was Stage II bank. In the end, a few hundred soldiers from Polish Peoples’ Guard (Polish military underground in charge of suppressing the uprising, blew up (5 August – 2 September) units serving under Soviet command made it across forces) made an unsuccessful attempt to Warsaw’s on Tłomackie Street to the left bank, but they were unable to change support the fighters from outside the ghetto to mark the end of Jewish presence in the city. On 5 August the Germans launched the final outcome of the uprising. After the fall of by breaching the wall in a number of places. a concentrated offensive on the city’s Czerniaków, the Germans suppressed the fighting western districts of Wola and Ochota, both in the southern district of Mokotów enacting Hitler’s heinous order to wipe (27 September) and in Żoliborz to the north tage pril ay S II: A –M out the civilian population. In Wola they (30 September). The Germans set fire to the executed close to 40,000 civilians. After ghetto to force out the more capturing both districts, fighting for the than 40,000 Jews who were Old Town continued to 2 September. hiding in bunkers. Wola and Ochota both fell to the Germans The captured Jews were by 11 August. The fighting then shifted to shot on the spot, sent to the Old Town. After fierce battles that labour camps or deported involved air support and heavy artillery to Treblinka. the German forces took control of the Old Town on 2 September. MAP OF WARSAW

Żoliborz

Stare Miasto Ghetto Wola Powiśle

Śródmieście Czerniaków

Ochota

Mokotów

Key Key ghetto in 1940 Main areas of fighting: ghetto during uprising 1–4 August 5 August – 3 September 3 September – 2 October

canals used by the insurgents FIGHTERS ENGAGED

Insurgents c. 50,000 Fighters in ŻOB 500 260 in ŻZW = 100 soldiers

= 100 soldiers

erman erman c. 50,000 G c. 2000 G well-armed forces forces mechanized infantry and ; police units; artillery and corps of engineers; = 100 soldiers auxiliary Ukrainian units

= 100 soldiers WEAPONS German forces Fighters EMPLOYED German forces Insurgents

more than 1,174 rifles 760each fighter armed with light400 and heavy 181light and heavy a hand gun machine guns machine guns

semi-automatic135 guns more than 2,000hand grenades

10,000semi-automatic guns, 5,754semi-automatic rifles and pistols guns, rifles, hand light machine69 guns guns

10rifles

more than

heavy machine13 guns 100tanks 2captured German tanks 1machine gun (ŻZW)

more than

self-propelled3 artillery guns armoured120 vehicles 3armoured vehicles 2landmines deployed

more than unknown unknown number captured number of of Molotov 1 artillery guns German self-propelled artillery, tanks cocktails 140 assault gun

unknown number more than lack of own of handmade hand air support flame grenades throwers aircraft 200and remote- controlled demolition vehicles CASUALTIES AND LOSSES = 100 dead = 100 deported = 100 dead = 100 dead = 100 dead

(The numbers below represent jews both civilians and fighters) German forces civilians Insurgents

incl. c. dead civilians 17,000 16 130,000–150,000 soldiers dead c. 7,000 executed in the ghetto 85 wounded

c. 7,000 transported to Treblinka extermination camp

c. 6,000 killed in combat or in the bunkers

erman forces G

incl. c. 17,000 c. 36,000 soldiers dead and deported missing in combat to labour camps KEY FIGURES

Mordechai Anielewicz Gen. Tadeusz Komorowski, nom de guerre ‘Bór’ (1919-1943) (1895-1966) member of Hashomer Hatzair, leader of the Ghetto Uprising, Home Army commander member of ŻOB (Jewish Fighting Organisation)

Zivia Lubetkin Col. Antoni Chruściel, nom de guerre ‘Monter’ (1914-1978) co-foundress of ŻOB (Jewish Fighting (1895-1960) Organisation), escaped the ghetto commander of the Warsaw Rising through the sewers on 10 May; fought in the Warsaw Rising

Marek Edelman Jan Stanisław Jankowski, nom de guerre ‘Soból’ (1919-2009) (1882-1953) member of Bund, the last leader of the Ghetto Uprising; delegate of the Polish government-in-exile fought in the Warsaw Rising in the rank of deputy prime minister, civilian leader of the uprising

Simcha Rotem, nom de guerre ‘Kazik’ Rotmistrz (cavalry captain) (1924) , masterminded an escape from the ghetto nom de guerre ‘Witold’ through the sewers on 10 May; fought in the Warsaw Rising (1901-1948) one of the Warsaw Rising’s most outstanding company commanders

Paweł Frenkel N/A (1920-1943) member of Betar, commander of ŻZW () PHOTOGRAPHY

Burning PAST (telephone operator) buildings at 37/39 Zielna Street, 20 August 1944. Photograph by Eugeniusz Lokajski, nom de guerre ‘Brok’. MPW- IN/551 https://www.1944.pl/szukaj-zdjec,strona,1.html/szukaj/PAST#673

Emerging from sewer in Warecka Street, north Śródmieście, 1 September 1944. Photograph by Joachim Joachimczyk, nom de guerre ‘Joachim’. MPW-IH/4102 https://www.1944.pl/fototeka/kanaly,64.html#7154

Photograph taken during Warsaw Rising. View of roofs – . Apartment Stroop Report – Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. Captured between Widok Street and Jerozolimskie Avenue, building burns during suppression of Warsaw Ghetto Jews led by German Waffen-SS soldiers to gathering taken from building at 8 Widok Street, looking south, Uprising. point for deportation. 24 August 1944. Photograph by Joachim Joachimczyk, https://pl.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plik:Stroop_Report_-_Warsaw_ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Getto_warszawskie#/media/ nom de guerre ‘Joachim’. MPW-IP/1208 Ghetto_Uprising_-_26552.jpg File:Stroop_Report_-_Warsaw_Ghetto_Uprising_11.jpg https://www.1944.pl/fototeka/warszawa-zniszczona,99.html#1706

Warsaw Ghetto destroyed by Germans, 1945. Photograph by Zbyszko Siemaszko of Central Photographic Agency (CAF) in Warsaw. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Warsaw_Ghetto_destroyed_ by_Germans,_1945.jpg Authors © Foundation European Network ‘Remembrance Posters & Photographs and Solidarity’, Institute of European Network Justyna Majewska Remembrance and Solidarity. This infographic Research Department may be downloaded and printed in unchanged Jewish Historical Institute (ŻIH) Jewish Historical Institute form (citing its source) only for educational and Warsaw Rising Museum (MPW) not-for-profit purposes. Wikimedia Commons (CC)

Karol Mazur Head of Education Department Warsaw Rising Museum

Substantive editing

Prof. Jan Rydel

Graphic design

Translation

Lidia Polubiec