Polish resistance movement in World War II

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Polish Secret State History of Poland
The authorities
Government
Administration
Parliament
Courts
Political organizations
¹PPS (socialists)
²SL (agrarian party)
³SN (right-wing party)
SP (Christian democrats)
⁴PPR (communists)
⁵Bund and Hatzoar (Jewish left)
⁶Betar (Zionist)
⁷Camp of National Unity (Sanacja)
ONR (right-wing)
Falanga (extreme right)
SD (centrist)
Military organizations
ZWZ
Armia Krajowa
Szare Szeregi

¹MR PPR-WRN and GL WRN
²KB and BCh
³NOW and NSZ
⁴GL and AL
⁵ŻOB
⁶ŻZW
⁷OPW
Others
Press and Media
Education
See also:
History of Poland (1939–1945)
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German supply train blown up by the Armia Krajowa during World War II.

The Polish resistance movement was a resistance movement in Poland, part of the anti-fascist resistance movement which fought against the occupation of Poland by Nazi Germany during World War II. Resistance to the Nazi German occupation began almost at once, although there is little terrain in Poland suitable for guerrilla operations. The Home Army (in Polish Armia Krajowa or AK), loyal to the Polish government in exile in London and a military arm of the Polish Secret State, was formed from a number of smaller groups in 1942. From 1943 the AK was in competition with the People's Army (Polish Armia Ludowa or AL), backed by the Soviet Union and controlled by the Polish Workers' Party (Polish Polska Partia Robotnicza or PPR). By 1944 the AK had some 380,000 men, although few arms: the AL was much smaller, numbering around 30,000[1]. By the summer of 1944 Polish underground forces numbered more than 300,000[2]. The Polish partisan groups (Leśni) killed about 150,000 Axis forces during the occupation. In August 1943 and March 1944 Polish Secret State announced their long-term plan, partially designed to counter attractiveness of some of communists' proposals. That plan promised a land reform, nationalisation of industrial base, demands for territorial compensation from Germany as well as re-establishment of pre-1939 eastern border. Thus the main difference between the Underground State and the communists, in terms of politics, amounted not to radical economic and social reforms, which were advocated by both sides, but to their attitudes towards national sovereignty, borders and Polish-Soviet relations.^[1] In April 1943 the Germans began deporting the remaining Jews from the Warsaw ghetto, provoking the Warsaw Ghetto Rising, April 19 to May 16, one of the first armed uprisings against the Germans in Poland. Some units of the AK tried to assist the Ghetto rising, but for the most part the Jews were left to fight alone. The Jewish leaders knew that the rising would be crushed but they preferred to die fighting than wait to be deported to their deaths in the camps. During 1943 the Home Army built up its forces in preparation for a national uprising. The plan was code-named Operation Tempest and began in late 1943. Its most widely known elements were Operation Ostra Brama and the Warsaw Uprising. In August 1944, as the Soviet armed forces approached Warsaw, the government in exile called for an uprising in the city, so that they could return to a liberated Warsaw and try to prevent a Communist take-over. The AK, led by Tadeusz Bór-Komorowski, launched the Warsaw Uprising. Soviet forces were less than 20 km away but on the orders of Soviet High Command they gave no assistance. Stalin described the rising as a "criminal adventure". The Poles appealed for the western Allies for help. The Royal Air Force, and the Polish Air Force based in Italy, dropped some arms but, as in 1944, it was almost impossible for the Allies to help the Poles without Soviet assistance. The fighting in Warsaw was desperate, with selfless valour being displayed in street-to-street fighting. The AK had between 12,000 and 20,000 armed soldiers, most with only small arms, against a well-armed German Army of 20,000 SS and regular Army units. Bór-Komorowski's hope that the AK could take and hold Warsaw for the return of the London government was never likely to be achieved. After 63 days of savage fighting the city was reduced to rubble, and the reprisals were savage. The SS and auxiliary units recruited from Soviet Army deserters were particularly brutal. After Bór-Komorowski's surrender the AK fighters were treated as prisoners-of-war by the Germans, much to the outrage of Stalin, but the civilian population were ruthlessly punished. Overall Polish casualties are estimated to be between 150,000–300,000 killed, 90,000 civilians were sent to labor camps in the Reich, while 60,000 were shipped to death and concentration camps such as Ravensbruck, Auschwitz, Mauthausen and others. The city was almost totally destroyed after German sappers systematically demolished the city. The Warsaw Rising allowed the Germans to destroy the AK as a fighting force, but the main beneficiary was Stalin, who was able to impose a communist government on postwar Poland with little fear of armed resistance. In the latter years of the war, there were increasing conflicts between Polish and Soviet partisans, some groups continued to oppose the Soviets long after the war.