Addendum 2 – Facts about Polish Resistance and Aid to Ghetto Fighters

Blitzkrieg or the "September Campaign" began on September the 1st, 1939 and final battles took place near Kock the 2nd thru the 5th of October where the German army with Soviet air support defeated Polish army units under general Franciszek Kleeberg's command. On the 28th of September Germany and the USSR agreed upon partitioning Poland, wiping it off the map.

On the 19th of April, 1943, conspirators of ZOB (Zydowska Organizacja Bojowa) under Mordechai Anielewicz's command began pitched battles after a 900 member unit of SS troops under the command of SS general Jurgen Stroop entered the Warsaw ghetto the day before April the 18th with orders to liquidate the ghetto. The walls of the ghetto were sealed off by German police and Lithuanian, Latvian and "Granatowe" conscripts of the Police.

On the 19th, 20th, 23rd of April units of the AK engaged the beseigers at different locations outside the walls attempting to breach the ghetto. On the 27th of April, an 18-member unit of the AK penetrated the cordone of the ghetto at Muranowska street and together with forces of ZOB engaged German forces with artillery and tanks in a heavy pitched battle lasting several hours.

In the last days of April, Boy scouts, and members of the clandestine "Officer School" of the AK numbering 15, attacked a German position at the wall of the ghetto killing 3 SS troops and retreating without loss.

AK command disseminated several appeals to the nation to help the plight of the Jews in the ghetto, as well as sending radio transmissions to inform the allies and the world of the tragic status and the difficulty of the fight being undertaken by the Jews in the ghetto. The resistance fighters fought on till the 8th of May. Mordechai Anielewicz, and a dear friend Arie Wilner and others of ZOB command committed suicide in a surrounded bunker by the SS near 18 Mila street. Several partisans of ZOB and part of the command structure with help from the Poles managed escape via canals.

On the 16th of May - General Stroop in a message to General Kruger in Krakow noted, "There was a Jewish Neighborhood in Warsaw, it no longer exists. Our great Action was completed at 20.15 (8:15pm) by blowing up the Warsaw synagogue. Jews taken (to camps) and dead (that we know of), number 56065."

In his report of the liquidation of the ghetto to higher authorities of the SS in the General Gouvernement and Himmler, General Stroop referred to coordinated resistance of Poles with the Jews, and the attacks on Police positions by the "Polish Bandits."

As for The Warsaw Uprising of 1944, (under the auspices of a nationwide uprising), it's duration was from the 1st of August till the final units in Srodmiescie section of Warsaw capitulated on the 2nd of October 1944 - 63 days.

References: These facts were drawn from (1) Polskie Dzieje - "Od czasow Najdawniejszych do wspolczesnych" published by the ministry of Education in Warszawa in 1998, written by Alicja Dybkowska, Jan Zaryn, Malgorzata Zaryn and (2) "Narod W Walce", published by the AK foundation in the United States in 1989.

Roman Barczynski