Initially consisting of only 39 men, each armed only with a Polish Vis 9 mmsemi-automatic pistol, with time it had grown to become one of the most numerous and most notable Jewish resistance organizations in Poland. Between 1940 and 1942 additional cells were formed in most major towns of Poland, including the most notable groups in Lublin, Lwów and Stanisławów. Although initially formed entirely by professional soldiers, with time it also included members of pre-war right wing Jewish-Polish parties such as Betar (among them Perec Lasker, Lowa Swerin, Paweł Frenkiel, Merediks, Langleben and Rosenfeld), Hatzohar (Joel Białobrow , Dawid Wdowiński) (Political Chair), and the Revisionist faction of the Polish Zionist Party (Leon Rodal and Meir Klingbeil).[2]
The ŻZW was formed in close ties with Iwański's organization and initially focused primarily on acquisition of arms and preparation of a large-scale operation in which all of its members could escape to Hungary, from where they wanted to flee to join the Polish Armed Forces in the West. With time however it was decided that the members stay in occupied Poland to help organize the struggle against the occupiers. In the later period the ŻZW focused on acquisition of arms for the future struggle as well as on helping the Jews to escape the ghettos, created in almost every town in German-held Poland. Thanks to the close ties with the Związek Walki Zbrojnej and then the AK (mainly through Iwański'sSecurity Corps, the Polish underground police force), the ŻZW received a large number of guns and armaments, as well as training of their members by professional officers. Those resistance organizations also provided help with weapons and ammunition acquisition, as well as with organizing the escapes.[5]
Although the ŻZW was active in a number of towns in Poland, its major headquarters remained in Warsaw. When most of the Jewish inhabitants were forced into the Warsaw Ghetto, the ŻZW remained in contact with the outside world through Iwański and a number of other officers on the Aryan side. By the summer of 1942, the League had 320 well-armed[6] members in Warsaw alone.[7] During the first large deportation from the Warsaw Ghetto, the ŻZW received the news of the German plans and managed to hide most of its members in bunkers, which resulted in fewer than 20 of them being arrested by the Germans[citation needed]. Although Dawid Mordechaj Apfelbaum could not convince Adam Czerniaków to start an armed uprising against the Germans during the deportation, the organization managed to preserve most of its members - and assets. It also started to train more members and by January 1943 it already had roughly 500 men at arms in Warsaw alone. In addition, the technological department of the ŻZW, together with Captain Cezary Ketling's group of the PLAN resistance organization managed to dig two secret tunnels under the walls of the ghetto, providing contact with the outside and allowing smuggling of arms into the ghetto.[5]
Structure
The military leader of the ŻZW at the time of the uprising was Dr. Paweł Frenkiel,[8] and its political leader (Zionist Revisionist), Dr. David Wdowiński.[7] The organization was divided onto groups of five soldiers. Three groups formed a unit, four units formed a platoon and four platoons - a company, composed of roughly 240 men. In early January 1943 the ŻZW had two entirely manned and fully armed companies and two additional en cadre companies, to be manned by newly arrived volunteers when need arises. This indeed happened in April 1943, though the actual number of ŻZW soldiers to take part in the Uprising is a matter of debate.[2] Apart from the fighting groups, the ŻZW was organized into several departments.[2][7]
During the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising ŻZW is said to have had about 400 well-armed fighters grouped in 11 units. ŻZW fought together with AK fighters in Muranowska Street (4 units under Frenkel). Dawid M. Apfelbaum took position in Miła Street. Heniek Federbusz group organized a strong pocket of resistance in a house near Zamenhoff Street. Jan Pika unit took position in Miła Street, while unit of Leizer Staniewicz fought in the Nalewki, Gęsia Street and Franciszkańska street. Dawid Berliński's group took position in second part of Nalewki. Roman Winsztok commanded group near Muranowska, where also the headquarters of the Union was located (Muranowska 7/9 Street).[7] Photograph of ŻZW headquarters at 2 Muranów Street Warsaw [9]
After the war
Already during the war the influence and the importance of the Żydowski Związek Wojskowy was being downgraded. The surviving commanders of the leftist ŻOB either did not mention the ŻZW's fight in the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising in their writings at all,[2] or belittled its importance.[10] Also the war-time Soviet propaganda did only briefly mention the fighters as they collided with its aims of presenting the Soviet Union as the only defender of the European Jewry.[11] In addition, except for Dawid Wdowiński none of the high-ranking commanders of the ŻZW survived the war to tell their part of the story and it was not until 1963 that Wdowiński's memoirs[7] were published.
This led to a number of myths concerning both the ŻZW and the Uprising being commonly repeated in many modern publications.[12] This was even strengthened by the post-war propaganda of the Polish communists, who openly underlined the value of the leftist Żydowska Organizacja Bojowa, while suppressing all publications on the Armia Krajowa-backed ŻZW.[2]
The "Contact" ring used as a sign between the ŻZW and the Armia Krajowa is displayed in Yad Vashem. A means of identification, used in particular during meetings of higher level officers, were two identical gold rings set with a red stone engraved with Jewish symbols. It was not enough for the contacts to show the ring, they were expected to explain the significance of the symbols.[citation needed]
The ring that was in the possession of the Jewish underground fighters, was destroyed in the ruins of the Ghetto. Its twin remained in the hands of Henryk Iwanski, the Polish underground fighter and later was brought to the museum in Jerusalem, Israel.[13]
Doubts about veracity of some accounts
In recent years, new research has been published on the ŻZW which has called into question the validity of some accounts, especially by Henryk Iwanski, which had influenced Maciej Kledzik, Marian Apfelbaum, Stefan Bratkowski and Moshe Arens and uncritically transmitted by many of those who wrote about the revolt and which later found their way into many secondary sources. The research of a Polish-Israeli team, for example, has raised many doubts around the veracity of testimony and memoirs by Henryk Iwański, Kalman Mendelson, Tadeusz Bednarczyk, Jack Eisner, David J. Landau, Maurice Shainberg, Joseph Greenblatt and a number of others.[14] Moreover, they have suggested that Dawid Moryc Apfelbaum may actually have been an entirely fictitious figure and that the contact ring, the most emblematic relic of the Revisionist group, is in all likelihood a forgery. Dariusz Libionka and Laurence Weinbaum suggested the manipulations of the Communist secret police as the source of the alleged distortions. "[...] it should be emphasized that deconstructing the story of Apfelbaum and his purported Polish patrons in no way detracts from the heroism of the ŻZW. Just the contrary. To be sure, the ŻZW fought heroically and played a major role in the revolt. Unfortunately, after the uprising was put down, the ŻZW was sentenced to drown in the waters of Lethe."[15]
↑ Mosho Arens. Flags Over the Warsaw Ghetto, p.3., Independently published (April 16, 2019)
↑ Some sources render his surname as Appelbaum; in fact most surnames mentioned in this article are often misspelt in the sources, cf. Frenkel - Frenkiel, Wajnsztok - Weinsztok; see also Kledzik, op.cit.
↑ By Polish resistance standards obviously; see also Moshe Arens, op.cit.
1 2 3 4 5 David Wdowiński (1963). And we are not saved. New York: Philosophical Library. p.222. ISBN0-8022-2486-5. Note: Chariton and Lazar were never co-authors of Wdowiński's memoir. Wdowiński is considered the "single author."
↑ Dariusz Libionka & Laurence Weinbaum - Bohaterowie, hochsztaplerzy, opisywacze Wokół Żydowskiego Związku Wojskowego (Stowarzyszenie Centrum Badań nad Zagładą Żydów, Warsaw: 2011)
Apfelbaum, Marian 2007, "Two Flags; Return to the Warsaw Ghetto", Gefen Publishing House. ISBN978-965-229-356-5
David Wdowiński (1963). And we are not saved. New York: Philosophical Library, 222. ISBN0-8022-2486-5.
Antony Polonsky, "Heroes, Hucksters, and Storytellers: A New History of the Jewish Military Union (ŻZW) in the Warsaw Ghetto" Yad Vashem Studies, 41:2 (2013)
The Warsaw Ghetto was the largest of the Nazi ghettos during World War II and the Holocaust. It was established in November 1940 by the German authorities within the new General Government territory of occupied Poland. At its height, as many as 460,000 Jews were imprisoned there, in an area of 3.4 km2 (1.3 sq mi), with an average of 9.2 persons per room, barely subsisting on meager food rations. Jews were deported from the Warsaw Ghetto to Nazi concentration camps and mass-killing centers. In the summer of 1942, at least 254,000 ghetto residents were sent to the Treblinka extermination camp during Großaktion Warschau under the guise of "resettlement in the East" over the course of the summer. The ghetto was demolished by the Germans in May 1943 after the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising had temporarily halted the deportations. The total death toll among the prisoners of the ghetto is estimated to be at least 300,000 killed by bullet or gas, combined with 92,000 victims of starvation and related diseases, the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, and the casualties of the final destruction of the ghetto.
The Home Army was the dominant resistance movement in German-occupied Poland during World War II. The Home Army was formed in February 1942 from the earlier Związek Walki Zbrojnej established in the aftermath of the German and Soviet invasions in September 1939. Over the next two years, the Home Army absorbed most of the other Polish partisans and underground forces. Its allegiance was to the Polish government-in-exile in London, and it constituted the armed wing of what came to be known as the Polish Underground State. Estimates of the Home Army's 1944 strength range between 200,000 and 600,000. The latter number made the Home Army not only Poland's largest underground resistance movement but, along with Soviet and Yugoslav partisans, one of Europe's largest World War II underground movements.
The Jewish Combat Organization was a World War II resistance movement in occupied Poland, which was instrumental in organizing and launching the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. ŻOB took part in a number of other resistance activities as well.
Polish Resistance may refer to:
The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising was the 1943 act of Jewish resistance in the Warsaw Ghetto in German-occupied Poland during World War II to oppose Nazi Germany's final effort to transport the remaining ghetto population to the gas chambers of the Majdanek and Treblinka extermination camps.
Państwowy Korpus Bezpieczeństwa was a Polish underground police force organized under German occupation during World War II by the Polish Home Army and Government Delegation for Poland. It was trained as the core of a future police force for a planned Polish all-national uprising, and for after Poland's liberation. The Corps' first commander was Lt. Col. Marian Kozielewski. He was later replaced by Stanisław Tabisz. In October 1943 the PKB had 8,400 officers; by early 1944 the number had grown to almost 12,000.
Moshe Arens was an Israeli aeronautical engineer, researcher, diplomat, and Likud politician. A member of the Knesset between 1973 and 1992 and again from 1999 until 2003, he served as Minister of Defense three times and once as Minister of Foreign Affairs. Arens also served as the Israeli ambassador to the U.S. and was a professor at the Technion in Haifa.
Marek Edelman was a Polish political and social activist and cardiologist. Edelman was the last surviving leader of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. Long before his death, he was the last one to stay in the Polish People's Republic despite harassment by the Communist authorities.
In Poland, the resistance movement during World War II was led by the Home Army. The Polish resistance is notable among others for disrupting German supply lines to the Eastern Front, and providing intelligence reports to the British intelligence agencies. It was a part of the Polish Underground State.
Henryk Woliński (1901–1986) was a member of the Polish resistance movement in World War II, specifically the Armia Krajowa (AK), where he reached the rank of colonel. He was the head of the "Jewish Department" in AK's Bureau of Information and Propaganda. His codename was "Wacław". He was recognized by Yad Vashem as one of the Righteous among the Nations. He himself harbored in his apartment over 25 Jews for a period going from a few days to several weeks.
Henryk Iwański (1902-1978), nom de guerre Bystry, was a member of the Polish resistance during World War II. He is known for leading one of the most daring actions of the Armia Krajowa in support of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, however later research cast doubts on the veracity of his claims. For his assistance to the Polish Jews Iwański was bestowed the title of the Righteous Among the Nations by Yad Vashem in Jerusalem in 1964.
Jewish partisans were fighters in irregular military groups participating in the Jewish resistance movement against Nazi Germany and its collaborators during World War II.
Paweł Frenkiel was a Polish Army officer and a Jewish youth leader in Warsaw and one of the senior commanders of the Jewish Military Union, or the ŻZW. Although one of the most important leaders of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising and the Jewish resistance in the months preceding April 1943, Frenkiel is also one of the least well known to historians; both his early life and ultimate fate are a subject of some controversy.
Dawid Moryc Apfelbaum, sometimes also known as Mieczysław Dawid Apfelbaum is a fictional soldier, and a hoax, who was incorrectly credited as the commander of the Jewish Military Union, that fought in the 1943 Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, during the Second World War. It is claimed he died on 28 April 1943. In some versions of the story, he also allegedly served as a lieutenant of the Polish Armed Forces prior to the conflict. His existence was disproven by historians in the 2010s.
Dawid (David) Wdowiński (1895–1970) was a psychiatrist and doctor of neurology in the Second Polish Republic. After the 1939 invasion of Poland by Nazi Germany, he became a political leader of the Jewish resistance organization called Żydowski Związek Wojskowy active before and during the Warsaw Ghetto uprising.
Irena Adamowicz, was a Polish-born scout leader and a resistance member during World War II. She was a courier for the underground Home Army. In 1985, Adamowicz was posthumously bestowed the title of the Righteous Among the Nations by Yad Vashem in Jerusalem for her activities involving providing information to a number of Jewish ghettos in occupied Poland.
Mira Fuchrer was a Polish Jewish activist of the Jewish resistance movement in the Warsaw Ghetto during the occupation of Poland in World War II; member of the Jewish Combat Organization (ŻOB), and resistance fighter during the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising of 1943. Surrounded by the Germans and their auxiliaries in the ghetto bunker, she refused to surrender and committed suicide with the other members of the Jewish resistance.
Action Ghetto was the code name for the armed actions of the Polish Underground State during the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising aimed at helping the insurgents. The name was given to a series of combat actions carried out by the Home Army during the uprising between 19 April 1943 and May 16, 1943.
Leon Rodal, also Arie or Lejb Rodal, was a Polish journalist, Zionist-Revisionist party activist, co-founder and one of the commanders of the Jewish Military Union. He participated and died in the Warsaw Ghetto uprising.
The Battle of Muranów Square was a battle between the Jewish Military Union (ŻZW) and Third Reich troops which took place during the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising on April 19–22, 1943. The fighting between the German pacification forces under Jürgen Stroop, which were destroying the ghetto, and the Jewish insurgent forces of ŻZW, under Paweł Frenkel, took place in the now non-existent Muranów Square.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
Polish
