World Affairs
The Polish underground in Nazi-occupied Europe.
As we commemorate the 75th anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto uprising, the doomed battle by Polish Jews against the Nazi murderers, which began on April 19, 1943, it is also important that we re-evaluate the role of the Polish underground during the Holocaust.
In his book ‘The Polish Underground and the Jews 1939-1945,’ Joshua D. Zimmerman, a professor of history at Yeshiva University in New York, maintains that the reaction of the Polish underground to the ongoing catastrophe of Jews trapped in the ghettos varied, some elements being more sympathetic than others.
As historian Peter Hayes of Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, has suggested in ‘Why? Explaining the Holocaust,’ the Poles who actively helped to hide Jews and those who persecuted them were actually both minorities. The Germans made concealing Jews a crime punishable by death for everyone living in a house where Jews were discovered. Yet it is estimated that some 200,000 Poles were engaged in helping Jews despite the threat of execution. Poland had no collaborationist regime, and the London-based Polish government-in-exile included the participation of Jewish representatives on its governing council.
This strengthened the support for the Jews from within the government, especially as it needed Allied support, and so had portray their struggle for Poland as a democratic one. The Social Committee to Aid the Jewish Population, later the Zegota Council, was formed on Sept. 17, 1942.
A clandestine organization, it ran an extensive network of welfare activities, disseminated information in Poland and abroad regarding the ongoing mass murder of Jews, and demanded strong action against those who denounced Jews. The major Polish underground force, the Home Army (AK), by the end of 1942 numbering 200,000 soldiers, at first had counseled Jews against fighting back in cities and camps.
But the Warsaw Ghetto Jews in 1943 established a fighting organization. The AK had undergone a change of heart at this time. Its commander, General Stefan Rowecki authorized the transfer of arms, ammunition, and explosives to the ghetto beginning in late January 1943. These were essential in the battle to come. Rowecki came to the conclusion that Jewish resistance groups inside ghettos deserved, and as citizens of Poland were entitled to, assistance. He also approved or ordered actions on behalf of the ghetto fighters. Some AK soldiers would even join the battle.
When the armed uprising began, news was sent to the outside world, praising the ghetto fighters. The underground also asked Poles to help any Jews fleeing the ghetto. A Krakow paper called the German action “an attack on Poland itself.” The AK had already created a Jewish Department on Feb. 1, 1942, distributing funds and passing on Jewish correspondence to London.
In late 1942, an AK courier, Jan Karski, was smuggled in and out of the Warsaw ghetto. He then traveled to London where he delivered a report to the Polish government-in-exile, describing what he had seen.
The clandestine press of the Home Army was mostly favorable towards the Jews, reporting accurately on crimes committed not only by Germans but also by szmalcownicy, Polish blackmailers.
The top authorities of the underground issued powerful condemnations of their activities. On May 6, 1943, a declaration was printed in the largest circulation underground papers, condemning them as traitors who would be put to death. Special Civil Courts were created to prosecute collaborators. Meanwhile, the final German “action” had begun on April 19. The ghetto population had constructed subterranean bunkers and shelters in preparation for an uprising and had barricaded themselves in these hideouts, taking the Germans by surprise.
At least 13,000 ghetto fighters were killed in the battle, almost half burnt alive in collapsing buildings set on fire by the Nazis. The Home Army called the struggle “worthy of emulation.”
Last month, Polish officials held ceremonies honoring Poles who gave shelter and aid to Jews during the Holocaust, as the country for the first time marked a new national holiday in their memory.
Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said helping Jews at that time was “one of the most glorious pages of Polish history.”