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128-476: The museum sponsors research into the history of the uprising, and the history and possessions of the Polish Underground State . It collects and maintains hundreds of artifacts – ranging from weapons used by the insurgents to love letters – to present a full picture of the people involved. The museum's stated goals include the creation of an archive of historical information on the uprising and

256-621: A Peenemünde launch, a Special Report 1/R, no. 242 , photographs, eight key V-2 parts, and drawings of the wreckage. Polish agents also provided reports on the German war production, morale, and troop movements. The Polish intelligence network extended beyond Poland and even beyond Europe: for example, the intelligence network organized by Mieczysław Zygfryd Słowikowski in North Africa has been described as "the only [A]llied ... network in North Africa". The Polish network even had two agents in

384-529: A voivodeship (see Administrative division of Second Polish Republic ). There were three to five areas: Warsaw ( Obszar Warszawski , with some sources differentiating between left- and right-bank areas – Obszar Warszawski prawo- i lewobrzeżny ), Western ( Obszar Zachodni , in the Pomerania and Poznań regions), and Southeastern ( Obszar Południowo-Wschodni , in the Lwów area); sources vary on whether there

512-661: A 12-point declaration demanding that the Soviet army leave Poland and the repression of the non-communist political parties cease. The Government Delegate's Office at Home, restructured after the arrests of its leadership and headed by the last Delegate, Stefan Korboński , disbanded on 1 July, after the creation in Moscow of the Provisional Government of National Unity (Tymczasowy Rząd Jedności Narodowej, TRJN) on 28 June 1945. The disbanding of those structures marked

640-575: A legal continuation of the pre-war Republic of Poland (and its institutions) that waged an armed struggle against the country's occupying powers: Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union . The Underground State encompassed not only military resistance, one of the largest in the world, but also civilian structures, such as justice, education, culture and social services. Although the Underground State enjoyed broad support throughout much of

768-723: A major resource; between the French capitulation and other Allied networks that were undeveloped at the time, it was even described as "the only [A]llied intelligence assets on the Continent". According to Marek Ney-Krwawicz  [ pl ] , for the Western Allies, the intelligence provided by the Home Army was considered to be the best source of information on the Eastern Front. Home Army intelligence provided

896-638: A number of places from German control—for example, the Lublin area, where regional structures were able to set up a functioning government—they ultimately failed to secure sufficient territory to enable the government-in-exile to return to Poland due to Soviet hostility. The Home Army also sabotaged German rail- and road-transports to the Eastern Front in the Soviet Union. Richard J. Crampton estimated that an eighth of all German transports to

1024-492: A sewer system unit. Many women participated in the Warsaw Uprising, particularly as medics or scouts; they were estimated to form about 75% of the insurgent medical personnel. By the end of the uprising, there were about 5,000 female casualties among the insurgents, with over 2,000 female soldiers taken captive; the latter number reported in contemporary press caused a "European sensation". Home Army Headquarters

1152-506: The Kubuś armored car ). Even these light-infantry units were as a rule armed with a mixture of weapons of various types, usually in quantities sufficient to arm only a fraction of a unit's soldiers. Home Army arms and equipment came mostly from four sources: arms that had been buried by the Polish armies on battlefields after the 1939 invasion of Poland , arms purchased or captured from

1280-527: The Council of Ministers at Home (Krajowa Rada Ministrów, KRM) was created. The Underground State however declined sharply in the aftermath of the nationwide uprising, Operation Tempest , initiated in the spring of 1944. In addition to the costly and eventually unsuccessful Warsaw Uprising part of the Operation Tempest, the hostile attitude of the Soviet Union and its puppet Polish government,

1408-568: The Council of National Unity (Rada Jedności Narodowej, RJN), created on 9 January 1944. The council, headed by Kazimierz Pużak , was seen as the Underground State's parliament. Meanwhile, the military arm of the Underground State expanded dramatically, and the ZWZ was transformed into Armia Krajowa (AK, or the Home Army) in 1942. ZWZ-AK commanders included Stefan Rowecki, Tadeusz Komorowski and Leopold Okulicki . In August 1943 and March 1944,

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1536-758: The Jews were. The most important groups that refused to join the structures of the Polish Underground State included the communists ( Polish Workers Party (PPR) and its military arm, the People's Guard , later transformed into the People's Army ), and the far-right extremists from the National Radical Camp ABC ( Group Szaniec and its military arm, the Military Organization Lizard Union ). Both

1664-708: The Katyn massacre of 1940. Until the major rising in 1944, the Home Army concentrated on self-defense (the freeing of prisoners and hostages, defense against German pacification operations) and on attacks against German forces. Home Army units carried out thousands of armed raids and intelligence operations, sabotaged hundreds of railway shipments, and participated in many partisan clashes and battles with German police and Wehrmacht units. The Home Army also assassinated prominent Nazi collaborators and Gestapo officials in retaliation against Nazi terror inflicted on Poland's civilian population; prominent individuals assassinated by

1792-768: The Polish Committee of National Liberation (PKWN), a Soviet puppet government. The government in exile, located first in France and later in the United Kingdom, with the President , Prime Minister and the Commander-in-Chief of the Polish Army was the top military and civilian authority, recognized by the authorities of the Underground State as their commanders. The government in exile

1920-412: The Polish Committee of National Liberation (Polski Komitet Wyzwolenia Narodowego, PKWN) towards the non-communist resistance loyal to the Polish government in exile proved to be disastrous. The Underground State assumed that the Polish resistance would aid the advancing Soviet forces, and AK commanders and representatives of the administrative authority would assume the role of legitimate hosts. Instead,

2048-716: The Polish Secret State ) was a single political and military entity formed by the union of resistance organizations in occupied Poland that were loyal to the Government of the Republic of Poland in exile in London. The first elements of the Underground State were established in the final days of the German and Soviet invasion of Poland , in late September 1939. The Underground State was perceived by supporters as

2176-519: 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 Home Army sabotaged German transports bound for the Eastern Front in the Soviet Union, destroying German supplies and tying down substantial German forces. It also fought pitched battles against

2304-620: The Soviet one ) appeared inevitable. SZP founder General Michał Karaszewicz-Tokarzewski received orders from Polish Commander-in-Chief Marshal Edward Rydz-Śmigły to organize and carry out the struggle in occupied Poland. Karaszewicz-Tokarzewski decided that the organization he was creating needed to move beyond a strictly military format; and in line with the traditions of the underground 19th-century Polish National Government and World War I -era Polish Military Organization , it would need to encompass various aspects of civilian life. Hence,

2432-619: The Warsaw Uprising began, only a sixth of Home Army fighters in Warsaw were armed. Home Army members' attitudes toward Jews varied widely from unit to unit, and the topic remains controversial. The Home Army answered to the National Council of the Polish government-in-exile, where some Jews served in leadership positions (e.g. Ignacy Schwarzbart and Szmul Zygielbojm ), though there were no Jewish representatives in

2560-841: The cursed soldiers , fighting the Soviet-backed communist forces until eradicated. The Underground State represented most, though not all, political factions of the Second Polish Republic . The Political Consultative Committee (PKP) represented four major Polish parties: the Socialist Party (PPS-WRN), the People's Party (SL), the SN , and the Labor Party (SP). The SP joined the PKP in June 1940, four months after

2688-533: The fall of France , in London). Sikorski's government opted for a much more democratic procedure then the less democratic prewar Sanacja regime. The National Council (Rada Narodowa) was formed by the government in exile in December 1939, including representatives from different Polish political factions. Meanwhile, in occupied Poland, a major step toward the development of the organization's civilian structure

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2816-415: The fall of communism , Poland regained full independence and Polish scholars could begin unrestricted research into all aspects of Polish history. Scholars who chose to investigate the Underground State were also confronted with the issue of its uniqueness (no country or nation has ever created a similar institution), and hence, the problem of defining it. Polish historian Stanisław Salmonowicz , discussing

2944-420: The historiography of the Polish Underground State, defined it as a "collection of state-legal, organizational and citizenship structures, which were to ensure the constitutional continuation of Polish statehood on its own territory". Salmonowicz concluded that "This constitutional continuity, real performance of the state's functions on its past territory and the loyalty of a great majority of Polish society were

3072-693: The "London government" fully aware of the other's situation. After Germany started its invasion of the Soviet Union on 22 June 1941, the Soviet Union joined the Allies and signed the Anglo-Soviet Agreement on 12 July 1941. This put the Polish government in a difficult position since it had previously pursued a policy of "two enemies". Although a Polish–Soviet agreement was signed in August 1941, cooperation continued to be difficult and deteriorated further after 1943 when Nazi Germany publicised

3200-521: The Allied armed effort much more effectively than subversive and guerilla activities". The Home Army also conducted psychological warfare . Its Operation N created the illusion of a German movement opposing Adolf Hitler within Germany itself. The Home Army published a weekly Biuletyn Informacyjny (Information Bulletin), with a top circulation (on 25 November 1943) of 50,000 copies. Sabotage

3328-838: The Allies with information on German concentration camps and the Holocaust in Poland (including the first reports on this subject received by the Allies ), German submarine operations, and, most famously, the V-1 flying bomb and V-2 rocket . In one Project Big Ben mission ( Operation Wildhorn III ; Polish cryptonym , Most III , "Bridge III"), a stripped-for-lightness RAF twin-engine Dakota flew from Brindisi , Italy , to an abandoned German airfield in Poland to pick up intelligence prepared by Polish aircraft-designer Antoni Kocjan , including 100 lb (45 kg) of V-2 rocket wreckage from

3456-638: The Allies; 48 per cent of all reports received by the British secret services from continental Europe between 1939 and 1945 came from Polish sources. The total number of those reports is estimated at 80,000, and 85 per cent of them were deemed to be high quality or better. The Polish intelligence network grew rapidly; near the end of the war, it had over 1,600 registered agents. The Western Allies had limited intelligence assets in Central and Eastern Europe. The extensive in-place Polish intelligence network proved

3584-592: The Delegate could be seen as equivalent to that of a Deputy Prime Minister (particularly since the legislation of 1944). Unlike the GRP and PKP, which operated alongside the military structures but had no influence over them, the Delegation had budgetary control over the military. The Delegation was to oversee the military and recreate the civilian administration. As early as 1940, the Underground State's civilian arm

3712-628: The Department for Elimination of the Consequences of War, the Department for Public Works and Reconstruction, and the Department for Information and the Press; the other departments mirrored pre-war Polish ministries (e.g., Department of Post Offices and Telegraphs, or Department of the Treasury). The Delegate's Office was divided into departments, 14 of which existed toward the end of the war;

3840-407: The Department of National Defence. On the geographical division level, the Delegation had local offices, dividing Polish territories into 16 voivodeships , each under an underground voivode , further divided into powiats headed by starostas , and with separate municipal bodies. In early 1944, the Delegation employed some 15,000 people in its administration; those were primarily older people, as

3968-448: The Eastern Front were destroyed or substantially delayed due to Home Army operations. The Polish Resistance carried out dozens of attacks on German commanders in Poland, the largest series being that codenamed " Operation Heads ". Dozens of additional assassinations were carried out, the best-known being: As a clandestine army operating in an enemy-occupied country and separated by over a thousand kilometers from any friendly territory,

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4096-546: The French government, Wieniawa-Długoszowski was replaced by Władysław Raczkiewicz on 29 September. General Władysław Sikorski , a long-term opponent of the Sanacja regime who resided in France and had the support of the French government, would become the Polish Commander-in-Chief (on 28 September) and Poland's Prime Minister (on 30 September). This government was quickly recognized by France and

4224-499: The German and Soviet occupation of Poland was illegal. Hence, all institutions created by the occupying powers were considered illegal, and parallel Polish underground institutions were set up in accordance with Polish law . The scale of the Underground State was also inadvertently aided by the actions of the occupiers, whose attempts to destroy the Polish state, nation, and its culture, including most importantly genocidal policies that targeted Polish citizens, fuelled popular support for

4352-550: The German defeat in World War II. By the final years of the war, the civilian structure of the Underground State included an underground parliament, administration, judiciary ( courts and police ), secondary and higher-level education , and supported various cultural activities such as the publishing of newspapers and books, underground theatres, lectures, exhibitions, concerts and safeguarded various works of art. It also dealt with providing social services , including to

4480-624: The German high command itself. The researchers who produced the first Polish–British in-depth monograph on Home Army intelligence ( Intelligence Co-operation Between Poland and Great Britain During World War II: Report of the Anglo-Polish Historical Committee , 2005) described contributions of Polish intelligence to the Allied victory as "disproportionally large" and argued that "the work performed by Home Army intelligence undoubtedly supported

4608-504: The Germans (the forest people are estimated at some 40 groups, numbering 1,200–4,000 persons in early 1943, but their numbers grew substantially during Operation Tempest ). The third, largest group were "part-time members": sympathisers who led "double lives" under their real names in their real homes, received no payment for their services, and stayed in touch with their undercover unit commanders but were seldom mustered for operations, as

4736-419: The Germans and their allies, arms clandestinely manufactured by the Home Army itself, and arms received from Allied air drops. From arms caches hidden in 1939, the Home Army obtained 614 heavy machine guns, 1,193 light machine guns, 33,052 rifles, 6,732 pistols, 28 antitank light field guns, 25 antitank rifles, and 43,154 hand grenades. However, due to their inadequate preservation, which had to be improvised in

4864-454: The Germans in 1943, was Stefan Rowecki ( nom de guerre " Grot ", "Spearhead"). Tadeusz Bór-Komorowski (Tadeusz Komorowski, nom de guerre " Bór ", "Forest") commanded from July 1943 until his surrender to the Germans when the Warsaw Uprising was suppressed in October 1944. Leopold Okulicki , nom de guerre Niedzwiadek ("Bear"), led the Home Army in its final days. The Home Army

4992-484: The Germans, particularly in 1943 and in Operation Tempest from January 1944. The Home Army's most widely known operation was the Warsaw Uprising of August–October 1944. The Home Army also defended Polish civilians against atrocities by Germany's Ukrainian and Lithuanian collaborators . Its attitude toward Jews remains a controversial topic. As Polish–Soviet relations deteriorated, conflict grew between

5120-700: The Government Delegation for Poland. Traditionally, Polish historiography has presented the Home Army interactions with Jews in a positive light, while Jewish historiography has been mostly negative; most Jewish authors attribute the Home Army's hostility to endemic antisemitism in Poland . More recent scholarship has presented a mixed, ambivalent view of Home Army–Jewish relations. Both "profoundly disturbing acts of violence as well as extraordinary acts of aid and compassion" have been reported. In an analysis by Joshua D. Zimmerman , postwar testimonies of Holocaust survivors reveal that their experiences with

5248-518: The Holocaust to the Western powers, after having personally visited the Warsaw Ghetto and a Nazi concentration camp. Another crucial role was played by Witold Pilecki , who was the only person to volunteer to be imprisoned at Auschwitz (where he would spend three and a half years) to organize a resistance on the inside and to gather information on the atrocities occurring there to inform

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5376-455: The Home Army and Soviet forces. The Home Army's allegiance to the Polish government-in-exile caused the Soviet government to consider the Home Army to be an impediment to the introduction of a communist -friendly government in Poland, which hindered cooperation and in some cases led to outright conflict. On 19 January 1945, after the Red Army had cleared most Polish territory of German forces,

5504-419: The Home Army faced unique challenges in acquiring arms and equipment, though it was able to overcome these difficulties to some extent and to field tens of thousands of armed soldiers. Nevertheless, the difficult conditions meant that only infantry forces armed with light weapons could be fielded. Any use of artillery, armor or aircraft was impossible (except for a few instances during the Warsaw Uprising, such as

5632-590: The Home Army had closer ties and ideological similarities. Antoni Chruściel , commander of the Home Army in Warsaw, ordered the entire armory of the Wola district transferred to the ghetto. In January 1943 the Home Army delivered a larger shipment of 50 pistols, 50 hand grenades, and several kilograms of explosives, along with a number of smaller shipments that carried a total of 70 pistols, 10 rifles, 2 hand machine guns, 1 light machine gun, ammunition, and over 150 kilograms of explosives. The number of supplies provided to

5760-576: The Home Army in its own secret workshops, and by Home Army members working in German armaments factories. In this way the Home Army was able to procure submachine guns (copies of British Stens , indigenous Błyskawicas and KIS ), pistols ( Vis ), flamethrowers, explosive devices, road mines, and Filipinka and Sidolówka hand grenades . Hundreds of people were involved in the manufacturing effort. The Home Army did not produce its own ammunition, but relied on supplies stolen by Polish workers from German-run factories. The final source of supply

5888-509: The Home Army in order to survive in hiding, but Jews serving in the Home Army were the exception rather than the rule. Most Jews in hiding could not pass as ethnic Poles and would have faced deadly consequences if discovered. In February 1942, the Home Army Operational Command's Office of Information and Propaganda set up a Section for Jewish Affairs, directed by Henryk Woliński . This section collected data about

6016-478: The Home Army included Elżbieta Zawacka , an underground courier who was sometimes called the only female Cichociemna . Grażyna Lipińska  [ pl ] organised an intelligence network in German-occupied Belarus in 1942–1944. Janina Karasiówna  [ pl ] and Emilia Malessa were high-ranking officers described as "holding top posts" within the communication branch of

6144-473: The Home Army included Igo Sym (1941) and Franz Kutschera (1944). In February 1942, when the Home Army was formed from the Armed Resistance, it numbered around 100,000 members. Less than a year later, at the start of 1943, it had reached a strength of around 200,000. In the summer of 1944, when Operation Tempest began, the Home Army reached its highest membership: estimates of membership in

6272-402: The Home Army planned to use them only during a planned nationwide rising. The Home Army was intended to be representative of the Polish nation, and its members were recruited from most parties and social classes. Its growth was largely based on integrating scores of smaller resistance organisations into its ranks; most of the other Polish underground armed organizations were incorporated into

6400-399: The Home Army was disbanded. After the war, particularly in the 1950s and 1960s, communist government propaganda portrayed the Home Army as an oppressive and reactionary force. Thousands of ex-Home Army personnel were deported to gulags and Soviet prisons, while other ex-members, including a number of senior commanders, were executed. After the fall of communism in Central and Eastern Europe,

6528-644: The Home Army were mixed even if predominantly negative. Jews trying to seek refuge from Nazi genocidal policies were often exposed to greater danger by open resistance to German occupation. Members of the Home Army were named Righteous Among the Nations for risking their lives to save Jews, examples include Jan Karski , Aleksander Kamiński , Stefan Korboński , Henryk Woliński , Jan Żabiński , Władysław Bartoszewski , Mieczysław Fogg , Henryk Iwański , and Jan Dobraczyński . However, Polish historian Ewa Kołomańska noted that many individuals associated with

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6656-708: The Home Army, involved in rescuing the Jews, did not receive the Righteous title. A Jewish partisan detachment served in the 1944 Warsaw Uprising , and another in Hanaczów  [ pl ] . The Home Army provided training and supplies to the Warsaw Ghetto 's Jewish Combat Organization . It is likely that more Jews fought in the Warsaw Uprising than in the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, some fought in both. Thousands of Jews joined, or claimed to join,

6784-533: The Home Army, though they retained varying degrees of autonomy. The largest organization that merged into the Home Army was the leftist Peasants' Battalions ( Bataliony Chłopskie ) around 1943–1944, and parts of the National Armed Forces ( Narodowe Siły Zbrojne ) became subordinate to the Home Army. In turn, individual Home Army units varied substantially in their political outlooks, notably in their attitudes toward ethnic minorities and toward

6912-579: The Jewish resistance would be futile. This reasoning was the norm among the Allies , who believed that the Holocaust could only be halted by a significant military action. The Home Army provided the Warsaw Ghetto with firearms, ammunition, and explosives, but only after it was convinced of the eagerness of the Jewish Combat Organization ( Żydowska Organizacja Bojowa , ŻOB) to fight, and after Władysław Sikorski 's intervention on

7040-436: The Jews. The fact remains that its leadership did not want to do so." Rowecki's attitudes shifted in the following months as the brutal reality of the Holocaust became more apparent, and the Polish public support for the Jewish resistance increased. Rowecki was willing to provide Jewish fighters with aid and resources when it contributed to "the greater war effort", but had concluded that providing large quantities of supplies to

7168-536: The Organization's behalf. Zimmerman describes the supplies as "limited but real". Jewish fighters of the Jewish Military Union ( Żydowski Związek Wojskowy , ŻZW) received from the Home Army, among other things, 2 heavy machine guns, 4 light machine guns, 21 submachine guns, 30 rifles, 50 pistols, and over 400 grenades. Some supplies were also provided to the ŻOB, but less than to ŻZW with whom

7296-656: The PKP was created; and the PPS-WRN withdrew from the PKP between October 1941 and March 1943. Those parties, known as the Big Four , were also represented in the Home Political Representation (KRP). Compared to PKP and KRP, the Council of National Unity was much more representative, and included representatives of several smaller political groupings. Several other groups lacked significant representation in PKP and KRP, but nonetheless had supported

7424-458: The PKWN was proclaimed in 1944. PKWN was recognized by the Soviet Government as the only legitimate authority in Poland, while Mikołajczyk's Government in London, was termed by the Soviets an "illegal and self-styled authority." Mikołajczyk would serve in the Prime Minister's role until 24 November 1944, when, realizing the increasing powerlessness of the government in exile, he resigned and was succeeded by Tomasz Arciszewski , "whose obscurity", in

7552-412: The Poles receiving no aid from the approaching Red Army, the Germans eventually defeated the insurrectionists and burned the city, quelling the Uprising on 2 October 1944. Other major Home Army city risings included Operation Ostra Brama in Wilno and the Lwów Uprising . The Home Army also prepared for a rising in Kraków but aborted due to various circumstances. While the Home Army managed to liberate

7680-461: The Poles to regain their national sovereignty, particularly after Hitler attacked the Soviet Union in June 1941 and the Soviets joined the Western Allies in the war against Germany. In the end, despite all efforts, most Home Army forces had inadequate weaponry. In 1944, when the Home Army was at its peak strength (200,000–600,000, according to various estimates), the Home Army had enough weaponry for only about 32,000 soldiers." On 1 August 1944, when

7808-452: The Polish Underground State announced its long-term plan, which was partly designed to undercut the attractiveness of some of the communists' proposals. The communists, in their increasingly radical What We Fight For declarations (from March and November 1943), were proposing the creation of a heavily socialist or even communist state , denouncing capitalism, which they equated to slavery. They demanded nationalization of most if not all of

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7936-405: The Polish Underground State mirrors that of the Polish non-communist resistance in general. The Underground State traces its origins to the Service for Poland's Victory (Służba Zwycięstwu Polski, SZP) organization, which was founded on 27 September 1939, one day before the surrender of the Polish capital of Warsaw , at a time when the Polish defeat in the German invasion of Poland (accompanied by

8064-433: The Polish government in exile. A rift developed between Poland and the Soviet Union, an increasingly important ally for the West, particularly after the revelation of the Katyn massacre in 1943 (on 13 April), followed by the breaking-off of diplomatic relations with Poland by the Soviets (on 21 April). The subsequent death (on 4 July) of the charismatic General Sikorski, succeeded by less influential Stanisław Mikołajczyk as

8192-404: The Polish resistance movement and its development. During the Cold War era, research on the Underground State was curtailed by Polish communist officials, who instead emphasized the role that communist partisans played in the anti-Nazi resistance. Hence, until recently, the bulk of research done on this topic was carried out by Polish scholars living in exile. In many respects, the history of

8320-430: The Prime Minister, and General Sosnkowski as the Commander-in-Chief, contributed to the decline. No representative of the Polish government was invited to the Tehran Conference (28 November – 1 December 1943) or the Yalta Conference (4–11 February 1945), the two crucial events in which the Western Allies and the Soviet Union discussed the shape of the post-war world and decided on the fate of Poland, assigning it to

8448-508: The SZP, in contact with (and subordinate to) the Polish Government in Exile , envisioned itself not only as an armed resistance organization, but also as a vehicle through which the Polish state continued to administer its occupied territories. Following the Polish Constitution , President Ignacy Mościcki , interned in Romania after the Polish government evacuated itself from Poland on 17 September, resigned and appointed General Bolesław Wieniawa-Długoszowski as his successor; unpopular with

8576-408: The Sanacja regime, and supported the formation of the Main Political Council (Główna Rada Polityczna, GRP). Sikorski named General Kazimierz Sosnkowski the head of the ZWZ and Colonel Stefan Rowecki was appointed the commander of the ZWZ German occupation zone. Karaszewicz-Tokarzewski became the commander of the ZWZ Soviet zone but was arrested in March 1940 by the Soviets when attempting to cross

8704-449: The Service for Poland's Victory was superseded by the Armed Resistance ( Związek Walki Zbrojnej ), which in turn, a little over two years later, on 14 February 1942, became the Home Army. During that time, many other resistance organisations remained active in Poland, although most of them, merged with the Armed Resistance or with its successor, the Home Army, and substantially augmented its numbers between 1939 and 1944. The Home Army

8832-420: The Soviet sphere of influence . In Tehran, neither Churchill nor Roosevelt objected to Stalin 's suggestion that the Polish government in exile in London was not representing Polish interests; as historian Anita Prażmowska noted, "this spelled the end of that government's tenuous influence and raison d'être." After the Tehran Conference, Stalin decided to create his own puppet government for Poland, and

8960-410: The Soviet military. Polish intelligence operatives supplied valuable intelligence information to the Allies; 43 percent of all reports received by British secret services from continental Europe in 1939–45 came from Polish sources. At its height, AK numbered over 400,000 and was recognized as one of the three largest, or even the largest, resistance movement of the war. Axis fatalities due to

9088-592: The Soviet-backed and increasingly communist TRJN body. Seeing this as a " Western betrayal ", the government in exile protested that decision and continued to operate till the fall of communism in 1989, when it recognized the post-communist Polish government. Following the rigged Polish legislative election of 1947, the few independent politicians like Mikołajczyk who attempted to form an opposition were threatened with arrests, retired or emigrated. The Underground State's military arm, Armia Krajowa, officially disbanded on 19 January 1945 to avoid armed conflict with

9216-473: The Soviets and civil war. Over the next few years the communists solidified their hold on Poland, falsifying elections, persecuting the opposition and eliminating it as a political power. Remnants of the armed resistance ( NIE , Armed Forces Delegation for Poland , Freedom and Independence ) that refused to lay down their weapons and surrender to the communist regime continued to hold out for several years as

9344-649: The Soviets commonly surrounded, disarmed and arrested the Underground's military authority members and its civilian representatives, instituting their own administrative structures instead. In early July 1944, even as the AK resistance continued its struggle against the Germans, the Underground State was forced to order the AK and its administrative structure to remain in hiding from the Soviets, due to continued arrests and reprisals experienced by those who revealed themselves. Events taking place in 1943 significantly weakened

9472-457: The Soviets. The largest group that completely refused to join the Home Army was the pro-Soviet, communist People's Army ( Armia Ludowa ), which numbered 30,000 people at its height in 1944. Home Army ranks included a number of female operatives. Most women worked in the communications branch, where many held leadership roles or served as couriers. Approximately a seventh to a tenth of the Home Army insurgents were female. Notable women in

9600-730: The Underground State. For example, the nationalists from the National Radical Camp Falanga formed the Confederation of the Nation , which included most members of the pre-war far-right, partially merging with the ZWZ around 1941 and finally joining the AK around fall 1943. Non-Polish ethnic minorities , primarily the Ukrainians and the Belarusians , were not represented in the Underground State; however

9728-678: The United Kingdom. Raczkiewicz, described as "weak and indecisive", held relatively little influence compared to charismatic Sikorski. Due to political differences among factions in the Polish exile government, and in particular, SZP ties to the Sanacja regime which dominated the Polish government since the mid-1920s, the SZP was reorganized into the Union of Armed Struggle (Związek Walki Zbrojnej, ZWZ) on 13 November 1939. Karaszewicz-Tokarzewski supported that move, aiming to include parties marginalized by

9856-711: The West (the Silent Unseen ). The basic organizational unit was the platoon, numbering 35–50 people, with an unmobilized skeleton version of 16–25; in February 1944, the Home Army had 6,287 regular and 2,613 skeleton platoons operational. Such numbers made the Home Army not only the largest Polish resistance movement, but one of the two largest in World War II Europe. Casualties during the war are estimated at 34,000 to 100,000, plus some 20,000 –50,000 after

9984-548: The Western Allies about the fate of the Jewish population . Home Army reports from March 1943 described crimes committed by the Germans against the Jewish populace. AK commander General Stefan Rowecki estimated that 640,000 people had been murdered in Auschwitz between 1940 and March 1943, including 66,000 ethnic Poles and 540,000 Jews from various countries (this figure was revised later to 500,000). The Home Army started carrying out death sentences for szmalcowniks in Warsaw in

10112-448: The actions of the Polish underground, of which AK formed the bulk, are estimated at up to 150,000. For decades, research on the Polish Underground State was restricted, largely because the communist People's Republic of Poland did not wish to fully acknowledge the role of the non-communist resistance. During the first postwar Stalinist years, efforts to explore this topic were regarded as dangerous, bordering on illegal. Research into

10240-475: The basis of the post-war government in Poland . During the Soviet-backed communist takeover of Poland at the end of the war, many Underground State members were prosecuted as alleged traitors and died in captivity. Abandoned by the Western Allies , finding it impossible to negotiate with the Soviets, and wishing to avoid a civil war, the key institutions of the Underground State dissolved themselves in

10368-557: The chaos of the September Campaign, most of the guns were in poor condition. Of those that had been buried in the ground and had been dug up in 1944 during preparations for Operation Tempest, only 30% were usable. Arms were sometimes purchased on the black market from German soldiers or their allies, or stolen from German supply depots or transports. Efforts to capture weapons from the Germans also proved highly successful. Raids were conducted on trains carrying equipment to

10496-508: The crucial confrontation that, it was assumed, would determine the fate of Poland. ... [However,] to the Home Army, the Jews were not a part of 'our nation' and ... action to defend them was not to be taken if it endangered [the Home Army's] other objectives." He added that "it is probably unrealistic to have expected the Home Army—which was neither as well armed nor as well organized as its propaganda claimed—to have been able to do much to aid

10624-589: The day of 27 September (anniversary of the founding of the Service for Poland's Victory organization) to be the Day of the Polish Underground State . Armia Krajowa#Membership The Home Army ( Polish : Armia Krajowa , pronounced [ˈarmja kraˈjɔva] ; abbreviated AK ) was the dominant resistance movement in German-occupied Poland during World War II . The Home Army

10752-575: The destitute Jewish population (through the council to Aid Jews, or Żegota ). Through the Directorate of Civil Resistance (1941–1943) the civil arm was also involved in lesser acts of resistance, such as minor sabotage , although in 1943 this department was merged with the Directorate of Covert Resistance , forming the Directorate of Underground Resistance , subordinate to AK. The departments can be seen as loosely corresponding to ministries . Three departments were dedicated to war-related issues:

10880-405: The economic sector, planned economy would be endorsed, by embracing the socialist and Christian Democrat principles, such as income redistribution , aiming at a reduction of economic inequality . The plan promised land reform , nationalization of the industrial base, demands for territorial compensation from Germany, and re-establishment of the country's pre-1939 eastern border. According to

11008-539: The economy, introduction of central planning , The Underground State's declaration What the Polish Nation is Fighting For declared the reconstruction of Poland as a democratic parliamentary state as its goal, guaranteeing full equality to the minorities, as well as full freedom of speech , freedom of religion , and freedom of political activity. The plan also called for the creation of a Central European federal union, without domination by any single state. In

11136-430: The end of the German occupation, a general armed rising to be prosecuted until victory. Home Army plans envisioned, at war's end, the restoration of the pre-war government following the return of the government-in-exile to Poland. The Home Army, though in theory subordinate to the civil authorities and to the government-in-exile, often acted somewhat independently, with neither the Home Army's commanders in Poland nor

11264-603: The end of the Underground State. The TRJN was composed primarily of communist representatives from the PKWN, with a token representation of the opposition as a gesture towards the Western Allies. With the establishment of the TRJN, the government in exile stopped being recognized by the Western Allies (France withdrew its recognition on 29 June, followed by United Kingdom and the United States on 5 July), who decided to support

11392-508: The events occurring in the Soviet-annexed territories in the 1939–1941 period was particularly difficult. The limited research devoted to the Underground State that did take place was done mainly by Polish émigré historians living in the West. The communist state downplayed the importance of the non-communist resistance movements, while the communist movement ( Armia Ludowa ) was emphasized as being of primary importance; in fact,

11520-544: The extreme left (the communists) and the extreme right (the nationalists) did not recognize the Underground State and in some cases actively persecuted people connected with it. Only the PPR, however, opposed to Polish independence and supporting full inclusion of Poland in the Soviet Union, was seen as completely outside the framework of the State; the other groups were seen as a justifiable opposition. In 1944 PPR would become part of

11648-440: The first half and summer of 1944 range from 200,000, through 300,000, 380,000 and 400,000 to 450,000–500,000, though most estimates average at about 400,000; the strength estimates vary due to the constant integration of other resistance organisations into the Home Army, and that while the number of members was high and that of sympathizers was even higher, the number of armed members participating in operations at any given time

11776-465: The first half of 1945. Ultimately, hundreds of thousands of people were directly involved with various agencies of the Underground State ( the estimates for membership in Armia Krajowa alone are often given at approaching half a million people), and they were quietly supported by millions of Polish citizens. The rationale behind the creation of the secret civilian authority drew on the fact that

11904-471: The front, as well as on guardhouses and gendarmerie posts. Sometimes weapons were taken from individual German soldiers accosted in the street. During the Warsaw Uprising, the Home Army even managed to capture several German armored vehicles, most notably a Jagdpanzer 38 Hetzer light tank destroyer renamed Chwat  [ pl ] and an armored troop transport SdKfz 251 renamed Grey Wolf  [ pl ] . Arms were clandestinely manufactured by

12032-539: The full list included: the Presidential Department, the Department of Internal Affairs, Justice Department, Employment and Social Welfare Department, Agriculture Department, Treasury Department, Trade and Industry Department, Postal and Telegraph Services Department, the Department for Elimination of the Consequences of War, Transport Department, Information and the Press, Department of Public Works and Reconstruction, Department of Education and Culture and

12160-421: The ghetto resistance has been sometimes described as insufficient, as the Home Army faced a number of dilemmas which forced it to provide no more than limited assistance to the Jewish resistance, such as supply shortages and the inability to arm its own troops, the view (shared by most of the Jewish resistance) that any wide-scale uprising in 1943 would be premature and futile, and the difficulty of coordinating with

12288-526: The government in exile, through radio communications and "hundreds, if not thousands" of couriers, such as Jan Karski . One of the most significant developments of 1940 was the creation of the office of Government Delegation for Poland (Delegatura Rządu na Kraj), with Cyryl Ratajski (nominated on 3 December) as the first Delegate ; this event marked the official beginning of the Underground State (Ratajski would be followed by Jan Piekałkiewicz , Jan Stanisław Jankowski and Stefan Korboński ). The post of

12416-466: The internally divided Jewish resistance, coupled with the pro-Soviet attitude of the ŻOB. During the 1943 Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, Home Army units tried to blow up the Ghetto wall twice, carried out diversionary actions outside the Ghetto walls, and attacked German sentries sporadically near the Ghetto walls. According to Marian Fuks , the Ghetto uprising would not have been possible without supplies from

12544-608: The last AK Commander-in-Chief, General Leopold Okulicki , who decided to reveal themselves and upon the Soviet invitation begun open negotiations with the communist authorities, were arrested and sentenced by the Soviets in Moscow in the infamous Trial of the Sixteen (arrests were carried out in March 1945, and the trial itself took place in June that year). On 27 June 1945 the Council of National Unity held its last session, issuing

12672-408: The many sections and exhibits include: Hanson, Joanna K. M. (2004). The Civilian Population and the Warsaw Uprising of 1944 . ISBN   0-521-53119-5 . 52°13′56″N 20°58′51″E  /  52.23222°N 20.98083°E  / 52.23222; 20.98083 Polish Underground State The Polish Underground State ( Polish : Polskie Państwo Podziemne , also known as

12800-562: The most significant elements of its existence." The Underground State also became officially recognized by the Polish government, local authorities and the community, with most major cities in Poland erecting various memorials to the Underground State-affiliated resistance. In Poznań , there is a dedicated Polish Underground State Monument erected in 2007. On 11 September 1998 the Sejm (parliament) of Poland declared

12928-482: The new German-Soviet border. In June Sikorski appointed Rowecki as the commander of both zones. Given that the ZWZ focused on military aspects of the struggle, its civilian dimension was less clearly defined and developed more slowly—a situation exacerbated by the complex political discussions that were then unfolding between politicians in occupied Poland and the government in exile (first located in Paris, and after

13056-464: The opposite was true. The absence of research by Polish scholars, along with obstacles presented to foreign scholars seeking access to source material in communist Poland, contributed to a situation in which there was virtually no discussion by Western scholars of one of Europe's largest resistance movements—the non-communist Polish resistance movement. The bulk of Western research centred on the much smaller French Resistance ( la Résistance ). With

13184-434: The organisation. Wanda Kraszewska-Ancerewicz  [ pl ] headed the distribution branch. Several all-female units existed within the AK structures, including Dysk  [ pl ] , an entirely female sabotage unit led by Wanda Gertz , who carried out assassinations of female Gestapo informants in addition to sabotage. During the Warsaw Uprising , two all-female units were created—a demolition unit and

13312-493: The plan, the country's Eastern borders, as delineated by the 1921 Treaty of Riga, would be kept while in the north and west compensation would be sought from German territories. Thus, the main differences between the Underground State and the communists, in terms of politics, were not rooted in radical economic and social reforms, which both sides advocated, but rather in their divergent positions on such issues as national sovereignty, borders, and Polish-Soviet relations. The program

13440-435: The portrayal of the Home Army was no longer subject to government censorship and propaganda. The Home Army originated in the Service for Poland's Victory ( Służba Zwycięstwu Polski ), which General Michał Karaszewicz-Tokarzewski set up on 27 September 1939, just as the coordinated German and Soviet invasions of Poland neared completion. Seven weeks later, on 17 November 1939, on orders from General Władysław Sikorski ,

13568-616: The recording of the stories and memories of living participants. Its director is Jan Ołdakowski , with historian Dariusz Gawin from the Polish Academy of Sciences as his deputy. The museum is a member organisation of the Platform of European Memory and Conscience . The museum covers all aspects of the Warsaw Uprising. There are exhibits over several floors, containing photographs, audio and video, interactive displays, artifacts, written accounts, and other testimonies of how life

13696-472: The situation of the Jewish population, drafted reports, and sent information to London. It also centralized contacts between Polish and Jewish military organizations. The Home Army also supported the Relief Council for Jews in Poland ( Żegota ) as well as the formation of Jewish resistance organizations . From 1940 onward, the Home Army courier Jan Karski delivered the first eyewitness account of

13824-463: The state's military arm was responsible for maintaining communication with the London-based government in exile, and for protecting the civilian arm of the state. The Armia Krajowa's primary resistance operations were the sabotage of German activities, including transports headed for the Eastern Front in the Soviet Union. The sabotage of German rail and road transports to the Eastern Front

13952-457: The summer of 1943. Antony Polonsky observed that "the attitude of the military underground to the genocide is both more complex and more controversial [than its approach towards szmalcowniks ]. Throughout the period when it was being carried out, the Home Army was preoccupied with preparing for ... [the moment when] Nazi rule in Poland collapsed. It was determined to avoid premature military action and to conserve its strength (and weapons) for

14080-490: The war (casualties and imprisonment). The Home Army was intended to be a mass organisation that was founded by a core of prewar officers. Home Army soldiers fell into three groups. The first two consisted of "full-time members": undercover operatives, living mostly in urban settings under false identities (most senior Home Army officers belonged to this group); and uniformed (to a certain extent) partisans, living in forested regions ( leśni , or "forest people"), who openly fought

14208-464: The war, it was not supported or recognized by the communists and some of the right-wing extremists . The influence of the communists eventually declined amid military reversals (most notably, the failure of the Warsaw Uprising ) and the growing hostility of the USSR. The Soviet Union had created an alternative, puppet government in 1944 (the Polish Committee of National Liberation ) and ensured it formed

14336-461: The war. Air drops were infrequent. Deliveries from the west were limited by Stalin 's refusal to let the planes land on Soviet territory, the low priority placed by the British on flights to Poland; and the extremely heavy losses sustained by Polish Special Duties Flight personnel. Britain and the United States attached more importance to not antagonizing Stalin than they did to the aspirations of

14464-520: The words of historian Mieczysław B. Biskupski , "signaled the arrival of the government in exile at total inconsequentiality." The communists refused to deal with the Underground State just like they refused to deal with the government in exile; its leaders and soldiers in "liberated" Polish territories were persecuted. A number of prominent leaders of the Underground State, including the Government Delegate, Jan Stanisław Jankowski and

14592-431: The younger ones were recruited for the military side of the operations. The military arm of the Polish Underground State consisted primarily of various branches of the Armia Krajowa (AK) and, until 1942, the Union of Armed Struggle . This arm of the state was designed to prepare the Polish society for a future fight for the country's liberation. Apart from armed resistance, sabotage, intelligence, training, and propaganda,

14720-532: Was Allied air drops , which was the only way to obtain more exotic, highly useful equipment such as plastic explosives and antitank weapons such as the British PIAT . During the war, 485 air-drop missions from the West (about half of them flown by Polish airmen) delivered some 600 tons of supplies for the Polish resistance. Besides equipment, the planes also parachuted in highly qualified instructors ( Cichociemni ), 316 of whom were inserted into Poland during

14848-476: Was a Northeastern Area (centered in Białystok – Obszar Białystocki ) or whether Białystok was classified as an independent area ( Okręg samodzielny Białystok ). In 1943 the Home Army began recreating the organization of the prewar Polish Army, its various units now being designated as platoons, battalions, regiments, brigades, divisions, and operational groups . The Home Army supplied valuable intelligence to

14976-410: Was actively supporting underground education ; it then set out to develop social security , information (propaganda) and justice networks. By 1942, most of the differences between politicians in occupied Poland and those in exile had been positively settled. By 1943, the PKP had evolved into the Home Political Representation (Krajowa Reprezentacja Polityczna, KRP), which served as the basis of

15104-515: Was coordinated by the Union of Retaliation and later by Wachlarz and Kedyw units. Major Home Army military and sabotage operations included: The largest and best-known of the Operation Tempest battles, the Warsaw Uprising, constituted an attempt to liberate Poland's capital and began on 1 August 1944. Polish forces took control of substantial parts of the city and resisted the German-led forces until 2 October (a total of 63 days). With

15232-581: Was criticized by the nationalist factions, for being too socialist, and not "Christian" enough. The Underground State achieved its zenith of influence in early 1944. In April, the Polish government in exile recognized the administrative structure of the Delegate's Office as the Temporary Governmental Administration. This was when the Delegate officially became recognized as the Deputy Prime Minister, and

15360-440: Was divided geographically into regional branches or areas ( obszar ), which were subdivided into subregions or subareas ( podokręg ) or independent areas ( okręgi samodzielne ). There were 89 inspectorates ( inspektorat ) and 280 (as of early 1944) districts ( obwód ) as smaller organisational units. Overall, the Home Army regional structure largely resembled Poland's interwar administration division, with an okręg being similar to

15488-476: Was divided into five sections, two bureaus and several other specialized units: The Home Army's commander was subordinate in the military chain of command to the Polish Commander-in-Chief ( General Inspector of the Armed Forces ) of the Polish government-in-exile and answered in the civilian chain of command to the Government Delegation for Poland. The Home Army's first commander, until his arrest by

15616-417: Was during the German occupation of Warsaw, the uprising, and its aftermath. There are displays dedicated to each district of Warsaw. There are many free informative leaflets and flyers (in Polish and English), including 63 calendar pages covering the dates from 1 August 1944 to 2 October 1944 – each containing a summary of the most important events that took place on that particular day of the uprising. Some of

15744-517: Was formed in February 1942 from the earlier Związek Walki Zbrojnej (Armed Resistance) 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

15872-480: Was loyal to the Polish government-in-exile and to its agency in occupied Poland, the Government Delegation for Poland ( Delegatura ). The Polish civilian government envisioned the Home Army as an apolitical, nationwide resistance organisation. The supreme command defined the Home Army's chief tasks as partisan warfare against the German occupiers, the re-creation of armed forces underground and, near

16000-521: Was represented in the occupied Poland by the Government Delegation for Poland, headed by the Government Delegate for Poland . The main role of the civilian branch of the Underground State was to preserve the continuity of the Polish state as a whole, including its institutions. These institutions included the police, the courts , and schools . This branch of the state was intended to prepare cadres and institutions to resume power after

16128-458: Was smaller—as little as one per cent in 1943, and as many as five to ten per cent in 1944 —due to an insufficient number of weapons. Home Army numbers in 1944 included a cadre of over 10,000–11,000 officers, 7,500 officers-in-training (singular: podchorąży ) and 88,000 non-commissioned officers (NCOs). The officer cadre was formed from prewar officers and NCOs, graduates of underground courses, and elite operatives usually parachuted in from

16256-468: Was so extensive it is estimated that one-eighth of all German transports to the Eastern Front were destroyed or significantly delayed due to AK's activities. The AK also fought several full-scale battles against the Germans, particularly in 1943 and 1944 during Operation Tempest . They tied down significant German forces, worth at least several divisions (upper estimates suggest about 930,000 troops), diverting much-needed supplies, while trying to support

16384-678: Was taken in late February 1940, when the ZWZ established its local version of the National Council, the Political Consultative Committee (Polityczny Komitet Porozumiewawczy, PKP). PKP was formed in 1940 pursuant to an agreement between several major political parties: the Socialist Party , People's Party , National Party and Labor Party . In 1943 it was renamed to Home Political Representation ( Krajowa Reprezentacja Polityczna ) and in 1944 to Council of National Unity ( Rada Jedności Narodowej ). The structures in occupied Poland maintained close communication with

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