Warsaw Ghetto Uprising 1943 and Warsaw Rising 1944
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Uprising Rising 1943WARSAW GHETTO 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 Poles’ military defeat Warsaw 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 Home Army launched introduction of communist was to separate the deported 300,000 Jews and the ghetto area constituent structures their fight for independence, rule in Poland. Still, it Jews from the city’s from the Warsaw Ghetto to was reduced to a sea of were formed after Poland’s believing the Red Army would instantly became both other inhabitants. They Treblinka extermination camp 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. Union of Armed Struggle (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 Soviet Union. 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) NATIONAL ARMED FORCES (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 Betar them conquer you like that... Fighting gives you a chance to survive... Fight... PEOPLE’S ARMY Jewish Historical Institute, Ringelblum Archive, (Pol. Armia Ludowa, 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 Mordechai Anielewicz 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 Great Synagogue 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 IGHTERS F 500 in ŻOB 260 in ŻZW = 100 soldiers = 100 soldiers ERmaN ERmaN c.