Germany
121-401: [REDACTED] Polish resistance: Supported by: The Zamość uprising comprised World War II partisan operations, 1942–1944, by the Polish resistance (primarily the Home Army and Peasant Battalions ) against Germany's Generalplan-Ost forced expulsion of Poles from the Zamość region ( Zamojszczyzna ) and the region's colonization by German settlers. The Polish defense of
242-733: A German decision to supply the UPA with arms and ammunition. In May of that year, the OUN issued instructions to "switch the struggle, which had been conducted against the Germans, completely into a struggle against the Soviets." In a top-secret memorandum, General-Major Brigadeführer Brenner wrote in mid-1944 to SS-Obergruppenführer General Hans-Adolf Prützmann , the highest ranking German SS officer in Ukraine, that "The UPA has halted all attacks on units of
363-468: A UPA-East region, including Kiev and Zhytomyr regions, but the project never came to fruition. Similarly, the UPA-South region ceased to exist in the summer of 1944, but continued to appear in documents. Three military schools for low-level command staff were also established. UPA's largest unit type, the kurin , consisting of 500–700 soldiers, was equivalent to a battalion , and its smallest unit,
484-547: A group consisting of several thousand men which moved deep into the Carpathians. Attacks by the German Luftwaffe and military forced Kovpak to break up his force into smaller units in 1944; these groups were attacked by UPA units on their way back. Soviet NKVD agent Nikolai Kuznetsov was captured and executed by UPA members after unwittingly entering their camp while wearing a Wehrmacht officer uniform. As
605-733: A lesser extent, Ukrainian) settlers as part of Nazi plans for establishment of German colonies in the conquered territories ( Generalplan Ost ). In the Warsaw or Lublin area some villagers were resettled , but about 50,000 of those expelled were sent as forced labour to Germany while others were sent to the Nazi concentration camps never to return. Some villages were simply razed and the inhabitants murdered. 4,454 Polish children were kidnapped by German authorities from their parents for potential Germanisation . Only 800 of them were found and sent back to Poland after World War II. Local people resisted
726-795: A light machine gun – mounted the truck and drove away in an unknown direction. In August 1943 the headquarters of the Armia Krajowa ordered Operation Belt which was one of the large-scale anti-Nazi operations of the AK during the war. By February 1944, 13 German outposts were destroyed with few losses on the Polish side. Operation Heads began: the serial executions of German personnel who had been sentenced to death by Polish underground Special Courts for crimes against Polish citizens in German-occupied Poland. On 7 September 1943,
847-526: A memorandum from 14 August 1941, the OUN (B) petitioned the Germans to create a Ukrainian Army "which [would] unite with the German Army ... until [our] final victory", in exchange for German recognition of an allied, independent Ukrainian state. At the beginning of October 1941, during the first OUN Conference, the OUN formulated its future strategy. This called for transferring part of its organizational structure underground, in order to avoid conflict with
968-770: A secondary threat compared to their main enemies (the Communist forces of the Soviet Union and Poland), the Third Conference of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists, held near Lviv from 17 to 21 February 1943, decided to begin open warfare against the Germans (OUN fighters had already attacked a German garrison earlier that year on 7 February). Accordingly, on 20 March 1943, the OUN-B leadership issued secret instructions ordering their members who had joined
1089-544: A series of combat actions carried out by the Home Army during the uprising between 19 April 1943 and May 16, 1943. Some units of the AK tried to assist the ghetto rising, but for the most part, the resistance was unprepared and unable to defeat the Germans. One Polish AK unit, the National Security Corps ( Państwowy Korpus Bezpieczeństwa ), under the command of Henryk Iwański ("Bystry"), fought inside
1210-581: A total of 26,304 NKVD soldiers were stationed in Western Ukraine. In addition, two regiments with 1,500 and 1,200 persons, one battalion (517 persons) and three armoured trains with 100 additional soldiers each, as well as one border guard regiment and one unit were starting to relocate there in order to reinforce them. During late 1944 and the first half of 1945, according to Soviet data, the UPA suffered approximately 89,000 killed, approximately 91,000 captured, and approximately 39,000 surrendered while
1331-508: Is between 50,000 and 100,000. Victims of the UPA included Ukrainians who did not adhere to its form of nationalism and so were considered traitors. After the initiation of the massacres, Polish self-defense units responded in kind. Estimates of Ukrainians killed in acts of reprisal range from 2,000 to 30,000. On 22 July 2016, the Sejm of the Republic of Poland passed a resolution declaring
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#17327657349921452-636: The Battle of Murowana Oszmianka the largest clash between the Polish anti-Nazi Armia Krajowa and the Nazi Lithuanian Territorial Defense Force a Lithuanian volunteer security force subordinated to Nazi Germany . The battle took place in and near the village of Murowana Oszmianka in the Generalbezirk Litauen of Reichskommissariat Ostland . The outcome of the battle was that the 301st LVR battalion
1573-664: The Bureau of Information and Propaganda of the Union for Armed Struggle started Operation N headed by Tadeusz Żenczykowski . It involved sabotage , subversion and black-propaganda activities. From March 1941, Witold Pilecki's reports were forwarded to the Polish government in exile and through it, to the British and other Allied governments. These reports informed the Allies about
1694-558: The Chetnik leader General Draža Mihailović , the UPA limited its actions against the Germans in order to better prepare itself for and engage in the struggle against the Communists. Because of this, although the UPA managed to limit German activities to a certain extent, it failed to prevent the Germans from deporting approximately 500,000 people from Western Ukraine and from economically exploiting Western Ukraine. Due to its focus on
1815-546: The Hollywood film industry and artists, but without success. Many of those he spoke to did not believe him, or supposed that his testimony was much exaggerated or was propaganda from the Polish government in exile . In April 1943 the Germans began deporting the remaining Jews from the Warsaw ghetto provoking the Warsaw Ghetto Rising , 19 April to 16 May. Polish Underground State ordered Ghetto Action –
1936-715: The Holocaust and were the principal source of intelligence on Auschwitz-Birkenau for the Western Allies. On 7 March 1941, two Polish agents of the Home Army killed Nazi collaborator actor Igo Sym in his apartment in Warsaw. In reprisal, 21 Polish hostages were executed. Several Polish actors were also arrested by the Nazis and sent to Auschwitz , among them such notable figures as directors Stefan Jaracz and Leon Schiller . In July 1941 Mieczysław Słowikowski (using
2057-523: The Intercession of the Theotokos , and Ukrainian Cossacks' Day—as the official anniversary of the UPA. The relationship between Ukrainian Insurgent Army and Nazi Germany was complex and varied on account of the intertwined interests of the two actors, as well as the decentralized nature of the UPA. Despite the stated opinions of Dmytro Klyachkivsky and Roman Shukhevych that the Germans were
2178-488: The Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN) was to drive out occupying powers in a national revolution and set up an independent government headed by a dictator; OUN accepted violence as a political tool against enemies of their cause. In order to achieve this goal, a number of partisan units were formed, merged into a single structure in the form of the UPA, which was created on 14 October 1942. From February 1943,
2299-695: The Polish government in Exile . Most of the other Polish underground armed organizations were created by a political party or faction, and included: The largest groups that refused to join the AK were the National Armed Forces and the pro-Soviet and communist People's Army (Polish Armia Ludowa or AL), backed by the Soviet Union and established by the Polish Workers' Party (Polish Polska Partia Robotnicza or PPR). Regarding
2420-695: The Reich , while 60,000 were shipped to death and concentration camps such as Ravensbrück , Auschwitz , Mauthausen and others. The city was almost totally destroyed after German sappers systematically demolished the city. The Warsaw Uprising 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. Ukrainian Insurgent Army The Ukrainian Insurgent Army ( Ukrainian : Українська повстанська армія, УПА , romanized : Ukrayins'ka Povstans'ka Armiia , abbreviated UPA )
2541-666: The Second battle of Kiev . Several weeks later an NKVD battalion was annihilated by the UPA near Rivne . This resulted in a full-scale operation in the spring of 1944, initially involving 30,000 Soviet troops against the UPA in Volhynia. Estimates of casualties vary depending on the source. In a letter to the State Defense Committee of the USSR , Lavrentiy Beria stated that in spring 1944 clashes between Soviet forces and
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#17327657349922662-540: The Secret Polish Army ( Tajna Armia Polska , TAP), one of the first underground organizations in Poland after defeat. Pilecki became its organizational commander as TAP expanded to cover not only Warsaw but Siedlce , Radom , Lublin and other major cities of central Poland. By 1940, TAP had approximately 8,000 men (more than half of them armed), some 20 machine guns and several anti-tank rifles . Later,
2783-594: The Szare Szeregi (Gray Ranks) Polish Underground The successful operation led to the release of arrested troop leader Jan Bytnar "Rudy" . In an attack on the prison, Bytnar and 24 other prisoners were freed. In 1943 in London Jan Karski met the then much known journalist Arthur Koestler . He then traveled to the United States and reported to President Franklin D. Roosevelt . His report
2904-715: 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 (damaging or destroying 1/8 of all rail transports), and providing intelligence reports to the British intelligence agencies (providing 43% of all reports from occupied Europe ). It was a part of the Polish Underground State . The largest of all Polish resistance organizations
3025-624: The rii (literally bee swarm), with eight to ten soldiers, equivalent to a squad . Occasionally, and particularly in Volyn, during some operations three or more kurins would unite and form a zahin or brigade . Organizational methods were borrowed and adapted from the German, Polish and Soviet military, while UPA units based their training on a modified Red Army field unit manual. In terms of UPA soldiers' social background, 60 percent were peasants of low to moderate means, 20 to 25 percent were from
3146-739: The "rocket assembly hall', 'experimental pit', and 'launching tower'. When reconnaissance and intelligence information regarding the V-2 rocket became convincing, the War Cabinet Defence Committee (Operations) directed the campaign's first planned raid (the Operation Hydra bombing of Peenemünde in August 1943) and Operation Crossbow . On 26 March 1943 in Warsaw Operation Arsenal was launched by
3267-621: 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 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 and 300,000 killed, 90,000 civilians were sent to labor camps in
3388-767: The British foreign secretary, and included a detailed statement on what he had seen in Warsaw and Bełżec. The Zamość Uprising was an armed uprising of Armia Krajowa and Bataliony Chłopskie against the forced expulsion of Poles from the Zamość region under the Nazi Generalplan Ost . The Germans attempted to remove the local Poles from the Greater Zamość area (through forced removal, transfer to forced labor camps, or, in some cases, mass murder ) to get it ready for German colonization . It lasted from 1942 until 1944 and despite heavy casualties suffered by
3509-543: The German V-2 rocket . In effect some 50 kg of the most important parts of the captured V-2, as well as the final report, analyses, sketches and photos, were transported to Brindisi by a Royal Air Force Douglas Dakota aircraft. In late July 1944, the V-2 parts were delivered to London. In early 1943 the strength of the forest-based groups can be estimated at 40 groups numbering in total 1,200 to 4,000 fighters, but
3630-410: The German army. The UPA systematically sends agents, mainly young women, into the enemy-occupied territory, and the results of the intelligence are communicated to Department 1c of the [German] Army Group" on the southern front. By the autumn of 1944, the German press was full of praise for the UPA for their anti-Bolshevik successes, referring to the UPA fighters as "Ukrainian fighters for freedom" After
3751-456: The Germans defeated this action. AK and GL engaged the Germans between 19 and 23 April at six different locations outside the ghetto walls, shooting at German sentries and positions and in one case attempting to blow up a gate. Participation of the Polish underground in the uprising was many times confirmed by a report of the German commander – Jürgen Stroop . When we invaded the Ghetto for
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3872-498: The Germans. In the autumn of 1943, some detachments of the UPA attempted to find rapprochement with the Germans, despite a 25 November OUN/UPA order to the contrary. In early 1944, UPA forces in several Western regions cooperated with the German Wehrmacht , Waffen-SS , SiPo and SD . Nevertheless, the winter and spring of 1944 did not see a complete cessation of armed conflict between UPA and German forces, as
3993-606: The Germans. It also refrained from open anti-German propaganda activities. A captured German document of 25 November 1941 ( Nuremberg Trial O14-USSR) ordered: "It has been ascertained that the Bandera Movement is preparing a revolt in the Reichskommissariat which has as its ultimate aim the establishment of an independent Ukraine. All functionaries of the Bandera Movement must be arrested at once and, after thorough interrogation, are to be liquidated..." At
4114-427: The Home Army killed Franz Bürkl during Operation Bürkl . Bürkl was a high-ranking Gestapo agent responsible for the murder and brutal interrogation of thousands of Polish Jews and resistance fighters and supporters. In reprisal, 20 inmates of Pawiak were murdered in a public execution by the Nazis. In November 1943, Operation Most III started. The Armia Krajowa provided the Allies with crucial intelligence on
4235-684: The Home Army units cooperated with reconnaissance groups of the Soviet 3rd Belorussian Front . The Red Army entered the city on 15 July, and the NKVD started to intern all Polish soldiers. On 16 July, the HQ of the 3rd Belorussian Front invited Polish officers to a meeting and arrested them. On 23 July the Lwów Uprising – the armed struggle started by the Armia Krajowa against
4356-673: The Nazi occupiers in Lwów during World War II – started. It started in July 1944 as a part of a plan of all-national uprising codenamed Operation Tempest. The fighting lasted until 27 July and resulted in liberation of the city. However, shortly afterwards the Polish soldiers were arrested by the invading Soviets and either forced to join the Red Army or sent to the Gulags . The city itself
4477-619: The OUN (B) met in December 1942 near Lviv . The conference resulted in the adoption of a policy of building up the OUN-B's military forces. The conference emphasized that "the entire combat capable population must support, under the OUN banner, the struggle against the Bolshevik enemy". On 30 May 1947, the Main Ukrainian Liberation Council (Головна Визвольна Рада) adopted the date of 14 October 1942—the feast of
4598-560: The OUN-B—local OUN and UPA leaders were frequently the same person. The OUN's military referents were the superiors of UPA unit commanders. The UPA was established in Volhynia and initially limited its activities to this region. Its first commander was the OUN military referent for Volhynia and Polesie, Vasily Ivachiv. In July, the UPA Supreme Command was organized with Dmytro Klyachkivsky at its head. Organizationally,
4719-547: The Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN) and Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA). The anthem of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army was called the March of Ukrainian Nationalists , also known as We were born in a great hour ( Ukrainian : Зродились ми великої години ). The song, written by Oles Babiy, was officially adopted by the leadership of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists in 1932. The organization
4840-439: The Polish resistance, presented to his superiors a plan to enter Germany's Auschwitz concentration camp , gather intelligence on the camp from the inside, and organize inmate resistance. The Home Army approved this plan, provided him a false identity card, and on 19 September 1940, he deliberately went out during a street roundup ( łapanka ) in Warsaw and was caught by the Germans along with other civilians and sent to Auschwitz. In
4961-457: The Red Army approached Galicia, the UPA avoided clashes with the regular units of the Soviet military. Instead, the UPA focused its energy on NKVD units and Soviet officials of all levels, from NKVD and military officers to the school teachers and postal workers attempting to establish Soviet administration. In March 1944, UPA insurgents mortally wounded front commander Army General Nikolai Vatutin , who captured Kiev when he led Soviet forces in
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5082-580: The Second Conference of the OUN-B, held in April 1942, the policies for the "creation, build-up and development of Ukrainian political and future military forces" and "action against partisan activity supported by Moscow" were adopted. Although German policies were criticized, the Soviet partisans were identified as the primary enemy of the OUN (B) and its future armed wing. The Military Conference of
5203-554: The Second Polish Republic, and a few months later, local units of the UPA were instructed to complete the operation soon. Among those who were behind the decision, Polish investigators singled out Dmytro Klyachkivsky , Vasyl Ivakhov, Ivan Lytvynchuk and Petro Oliynyk. The ethnic cleansing operation against the Poles began on a large scale in Volhynia in late February (or early Spring ) of that year and lasted until
5324-419: The Soviet Army and NKVD troops, after which the OUN/UPA submitted an order to temporarily cease anti-Soviet activities and prepare for the further struggle against the Soviets. Despite heavy casualties on both sides during the initial clashes, the struggle was inconclusive. New large-scale actions of the UPA, especially in Ternopil Oblast , were launched in July–August 1944, when the Red Army advanced West. By
5445-401: The Soviet active and a secretary of the county Communist party, and also kidnapped four other officials. The UPA travelled at will throughout the area. In this county, there were no courts, no prosecutor's office, and the local NKVD only had three staff members. According to Otto Skorzeny , from May to September 1945 the UPA fought more than 80 battles and lost 5,000 men (killed and wounded);
5566-431: The Soviet forces lost approximately 12,000 killed, approximately 6,000 wounded and 2,600 MIA. In addition, during this time, according to Soviet data UPA actions resulted in the killing of 3,919 civilians and the disappearance of 427 others. Despite the heavy losses, as late as summer 1945, many battalion -size UPA units still continued to control and administer large areas of territory in Western Ukraine. In February 1945
5687-410: The Soviets as the principal threat, the UPA's anti-German struggle did not contribute significantly to the recapture of Ukrainian territories by Soviet forces. In 1943, the UPA adopted a policy of massacring and expelling the Polish population east of the Bug River . In March 1943, the OUN-B (specifically Mykola Lebed ) imposed a collective death sentence on all Poles living in the former east of
5808-404: The UPA adopted a new structure, creating a Main Military Headquarters and the General Staff. Roman Shuchevych headed the HQ, while Dmytro Hrytsai became chief of staff. The General Staff consisted of operations, intelligence, logistics, personnel, training, political education, and military inspectors departments. In addition to the three regions named above, there was also an attempt to create
5929-451: The UPA continued to defend Ukrainian villages against the repressive actions of the German administration. For example, on 20 January, 200 German soldiers on their way to the Ukrainian village of Pyrohivka were forced to retreat after a several-hour long firefight with 80 UPA soldiers after having lost 30 killed and wounded. In March–July 1944, a senior leader of OUN-B in Galicia conducted negotiations with SD and SS officials, resulting in
6050-408: The UPA directly with captured Soviet arms. Many kurins were equipped with light 51 mm and 82 mm mortars . During large-scale operations in 1943–1944, insurgent forces also used artillery ( 45 mm and 76.2 mm ). In 1943 a light Hungarian tank was used in Volhynia. In 1944, the Soviets captured a Polikarpov Po-2 aircraft and one armored car and one personnel carrier from the UPA; however, it
6171-401: The UPA issued an order to liquidate kurins (battalions) and sotnyas (companies) and to operate predominantly in chotys ( platoons ). After Germany surrendered in May 1945, the Soviet authorities turned their attention to the guerrilla wars taking place in Ukraine and the Baltics . Combat units were reorganized and special forces were sent in. One of the major complications that arose was
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#17327657349926292-462: The UPA resulted in 2,018 killed and 1,570 captured UPA fighters and only 11 Soviets killed and 46 wounded. A captured UPA member, quoted in Soviet archives, stated that he received reports about UPA losses of 200 fighters against 2,000 Soviet losses. The first significant sabotage operations against communications of the Soviet Army before their offensive against the Germans was conducted by the UPA in April–May 1944. Such actions were promptly stopped by
6413-418: The UPA stopped the practice of killing the families of collaborators by mid-1945. Other victims of the UPA included Soviet activists sent to Galicia from other parts of the Soviet Union; heads of village Soviets, those sheltering or feeding Red Army personnel, and even people turning food into collective farms. The effect of such terrorist acts was such that people refused to take posts as village heads, and until
6534-431: The UPA used weapons collected from the battlefields of 1939 and 1941. Later, they bought weapons from peasants and individual soldiers or captured them in combat. Some light weapons were also brought by deserting Ukrainian auxiliary policemen . For the most part, the UPA used light infantry weapons of Soviet and, to a lesser extent, German origin (for which ammunition was less readily obtainable). In 1944, German units armed
6655-525: The UPA was divided into regions. UPA West operated in Western Ukraine ; UPA South, in the centre-southern regions of Podolia , parts of Kyiv region , and parts of Zhytomyr region and Odesa ; UPA North, in the northern regions of Volhynia , Rivne , and parts of Kiev and Zhytomyr regions; in eastern Ukraine , the UPA fled north, as Stalinist dictatorship had executed a number of the UPA's participants. The members of UPA East joined other UPA units in Dnipro and in Chernihiv region . In November 1943,
6776-427: The UPA were subjected to torture, deprivation, and rape at the hands of Soviet security in order to "break" them and get them to reveal UPA members' identities and locations or to turn them into Soviet double-agents. Mutilated corpses of captured rebels were put on public display. Ultimately, between 1944 and 1952 alone as many as 600,000 people may have been arrested in Western Ukraine, with about one-third executed and
6897-541: The UPA, the Germans lost more than 3,000 men killed or wounded, while the UPA lost 1,237 killed or wounded. According to post-war estimates, the UPA had the following number of clashes with the Germans in mid-to-late 1943 in Volhynia: 35 in July, 24 in August, 15 in September and 47 during October–November. In the fall of 1943, clashes between the UPA and the Germans declined, so that Erich Koch in his November 1943 report and New Year 1944 speech could claim that "nationalistic bands in forests do not pose any major threat" for
7018-407: The Ukrainian nationalist movement. The colors of the flag symbolize "red Ukrainian blood spilled on the black Ukrainian earth. Use of the flag is also a "sign of the stubborn endurance of the Ukrainian national idea even under the grimmest conditions." The UPA made use of a dual rank system that included functional command position designations and traditional military ranks . The functional system
7139-407: The Ukrainian population or UPA units. According to German general Ernst August Köstring , UPA fighters "fought almost exclusively against German administrative agencies, the German police and the SS in their quest to establish an independent Ukraine controlled by neither Moscow nor Germany." During the German occupation, the UPA conducted hundreds of raids on police stations and military convoys. In
7260-635: The Underground, the Germans failed. On the night from 7 to 8 October 1942 Operation Wieniec started. It targeted rail infrastructure near Warsaw. Similar operations aimed at disrupting and harrying German transport and communication in occupied Poland occurred in the coming months and years. It targeted railroads, bridges and supply depots, primarily near transport hubs such as Warsaw and Lublin . In early 1943 two Polish janitors of Peenemünde's Camp Trassenheide provided maps, sketches and reports to Armia Krajowa Intelligence, and in June 1943 British intelligence had received two such reports which identified
7381-413: The Zamość region was one of Poland's largest resistance operations of World War II . In 1942, as part of Generalplan Ost , the Zamość region, with its fertile black soil, in the General Government , was chosen for further German colonisation. In fact the Zamość region expulsions and colonization can be considered the beginning of the large-scale implementation of the Generalplan Ost. The city itself
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#17327657349927502-418: The action with great determination; they escaped into forests, organised self-defence, helped people who were expelled, and bribed kidnapped children out of German hands. Units of Polish resistance (primarily of Armia Krajowa and Bataliony Chłopskie ) as well as elements of Soviet partisans and the Soviet-created Gwardia Ludowa helped to evacuate Polish civilians and assaulted German colonists and forces in
7623-637: The autumn of 1944, UPA forces enjoyed virtual freedom of movement over an area of 160,000 square kilometers in size and home to over 10 million people, and had established a shadow government. In November 1944, Khrushchev launched the first of several large-scale Soviet assaults on the UPA throughout Western Ukraine, involving—according to OUN/UPA estimates—at least 20 NKVD combat divisions supported by artillery and armoured units. Soviet forces blockaded villages and roads, and set forests on fire. Soviet archival data states that on 9 October 1944, one NKVD Division, eight NKVD brigades, and an NKVD cavalry regiment with
7744-417: The border. Local agreements between the UPA and the Polish post- Home Army units began to appear as early as April/May 1945 and in some places lasted until 1947, such as in the Lublin Voivodeship . One of the most notable joint actions of the UPA and the post-Home Army Freedom and Independence Association (WiN) took place in May 1946, when the two partisan formations coordinated their attack and took over of
7865-410: The camp he organized the underground organization – Związek Organizacji Wojskowej – ZOW. From October 1940, ZOW sent its first report about the camp and the genocide in November 1940 to Home Army Headquarters in Warsaw through the resistance network organized in Auschwitz. During the night of 21–22 January 1940, in the Soviet-occupied Podolian town of Czortków , the Czortków Uprising started; it
7986-461: The casualties occurred after 1944 and involved UPA soldiers and Ukrainian civilians on one side, and members of the Polish Communist Security Office (UB) and Border Protection Troops (WOP). Out of the 2,200 Poles who died in the fighting between 1945 and 1948, only a few hundred were civilians, with the remainder being functionaries or soldiers of the Communist regime in Poland. The total number of local Soviet partisans acting in Western Ukraine
8107-502: The city of Hrubieszów . The cooperation between the UPA and the post-Home Army underground came about partly as a response to increasing Communist terror and the forced population exchange between Poland and Ukraine. According to official statistics, between 1944 and 1956 around 488,000 Ukrainians and 789,000 Poles were transferred. On the territories of present-day Poland, 8,000–12,000 Ukrainians were killed and 6,000–8,000 Poles, between 1943 and 1947. However, unlike in Volhynia, most of
8228-461: The civilian population ( Aktion Wehrwolf ). After several battles between the partisans and the German units (the most notable being the battles of Wojda , Róża , Zaboreczno , Długi Kąt , Lasowce and Hrubieszów as well as the Battle of Osuchy ), the Germans had to halt the action and in the end very few German settlers were brought to the area. Until the middle of 1943, the Germans managed to settle 9,000 colonists, and an additional 4,000 until
8349-413: The codename "Rygor" – Polish for "Rigor") set up " Agency Africa ", one of World War II's most successful intelligence organizations. His Polish allies in these endeavors included Lt. Col. Gwido Langer and Major Maksymilian Ciężki . The information gathered by the Agency was used by the Americans and British in planning the amphibious November 1942 Operation Torch landings in North Africa. These were
8470-411: The collaborationist Ukrainian Auxiliary Police in 1941–1942 to desert with their weapons and join with UPA units in Volhynia. This process often involved armed conflict with German forces trying to prevent this. The number of trained and armed personnel who joined the ranks of the UPA was estimated to be between 4 and 5 thousand. Anti-German actions were limited to situations where the Germans attacked
8591-486: The communist Armia Ludowa, which never merged with AK, numbered about 30,000 people. One estimate for the summer 1944 strength of AK and its allies, including NSZ, gives its strength at 650,000. Overall, the Polish resistance have often been described as the largest or one of the largest resistance organizations in World War II Europe. On 9 November 1939, two soldiers of the Polish army – Witold Pilecki and Major Jan Włodarkiewicz – founded
8712-494: The end of 1943. The increasing harassment from the partisans meant that the Germans began to lose the control of the region in the spring of 1943. In the first half of 1944, Polish civilians and the Polish resistance were also attacked by Ukrainian units of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (see massacres of Poles in Volhynia ). Nonetheless, by the summer of 1944 the Polish partisans, based in the large forests of
8833-488: The end of 1944. Taras Bulba-Borovets , the founder of the UPA, criticized the attacks as soon as they began: The axe and the flail have gone into motion. Whole families are butchered and hanged, and Polish settlements are set on fire. The “hatchet men,” to their shame, butcher and hang defenceless women and children.... By such work Ukrainians not only do a favor for the SD [German security service], but also present themselves in
8954-671: The expense of those of the other resistance. A recent Polish documentary dedicated to the uprising has been recognized in the New York Festivals of 2008 with a bronze medal. Polish resistance movement in World War II Polish Victory [REDACTED] Germany [REDACTED] Polish Underground State [REDACTED] Germany [REDACTED] Ukrainian Insurgent Army [REDACTED] Polish Underground State [REDACTED] Polish People's Army In Poland,
9075-673: The eyes of the world as barbarians. We must take into account that England will surely win this war, and it will treat these “hatchet men” and lynchers and incendiaries as agents in the service of Hitlerite cannibalism, not as honest fighters for their freedom, not as state-builders. 11 July 1943, the Volhynian Bloody Sunday , was one of the deadliest days of the massacres, with UPA units marching from village to village, killing Polish civilians. On that day, UPA units surrounded and attacked 99 Polish villages and settlements in three counties – Kovel , Horokhiv , and Volodymyr . On
9196-531: The first large-scale Allied landings of the war, and their success in turn paved the way for the Allies' Italian campaign. On 20 June 1942, the most spectacular escape from Auschwitz concentration camp took place. Four Poles, Eugeniusz Bendera, Kazimierz Piechowski , Stanisław Gustaw Jaster and Józef Lempart made a daring escape. The escapees were dressed as members of the SS-Totenkopfverbände , fully armed and in an SS staff car. They drove out
9317-504: The first time, the Jews and the Polish bandits succeeded in repelling the participating units, including tanks and armored cars, by a well-prepared concentration of fire. (...) The main Jewish battle group, mixed with Polish bandits, had already retired during the first and second day to the so-called Muranowski Square. There, it was reinforced by a considerable number of Polish bandits. Its plan
9438-404: The following day, 50 additional villages were attacked. In January 1944, the UPA campaign of ethnic cleansing spread to the neighboring province of Galicia. Unlike in Volhynia, where Polish villages were destroyed and their inhabitants murdered without warning, Poles in eastern Galicia were in some instances given the choice of fleeing or being killed. Ukrainian peasants sometimes joined the UPA in
9559-538: The front had passed, by the end of 1944 the Germans supplied the OUN/UPA by air with arms and equipment. In the Ivano-Frankivsk region , there even existed a small landing strip for German transport planes. Some German personnel trained in terrorist and intelligence activities behind Soviet lines, as well as some OUN-B leaders, were also transported through this channel. Adopting a strategy analogous to that of
9680-420: The ghetto along with ŻZW . Subsequently, both groups retreated together (including 34 Jewish fighters). Although Iwański's action is the most well-known rescue mission, it was only one of many actions undertaken by the Polish resistance to help the Jewish fighters. In one attack, three cell units of AK under the command of Kapitan Józef Pszenny ("Chwacki") tried to breach the ghetto walls with explosives, but
9801-526: The ghetto. In 1942 Jan Karski reported to the Polish, British and U.S. governments on the situation in Poland, especially the Holocaust of the Jews. He met with Polish politicians in exile including the prime minister, and members of political parties such as the Socialist Party , National Party , Labor Party , People's Party , Jewish Bund and Poalei Zion . He also spoke to Anthony Eden ,
9922-432: The killings: "Villages were torched. Roman Catholic priests were axed or crucified. Churches were burned with all their parishioners. Isolated farms were attacked by gangs carrying pitchforks and kitchen knives. Throats were cut. Pregnant women were bayoneted. Children were cut in two. Men were ambushed in the field and led away." In total, the estimated numbers of Polish and Jewish civilians killed in Volhynia and Galicia
10043-479: The largest battles between the Polish resistance and Nazi Germany in occupied Poland during World War II – was fought, in what was essentially a continuation of the Zamość Uprising . In 1943 the Home Army built up its forces in preparation for a national uprising. The plan of national anti-Nazi uprising on areas of prewar Poland was code-named Operation Tempest . Preparation began in late 1943 but
10164-543: The late 1940s villages chose single men with no dependents as their leaders. The UPA also proved to be especially adept at assassinating key Soviet administrative officials. According to NKVD data, between February 1944 and December 1946 11,725 Soviet officers, agents and collaborators were assassinated and 2,401 were "missing", presumed kidnapped, in Western Ukraine. In one county in Lviv region alone, from August 1944 until January 1945 Ukrainian rebels killed 10 members of
10285-708: The local support the UPA had from the population. Areas of UPA activity were depopulated. The estimates on numbers deported vary; officially Soviet archives state that between 1944 and 1952 a total of 182,543 people were deported while other sources indicate the number may have been as high as to 500,000. Mass arrests of suspected UPA informants or family members were conducted; between February 1944 and May 1946 over 250,000 people were arrested in Western Ukraine. Those arrested typically experienced beatings or other violence. Those suspected of being UPA members underwent torture; reports exist of some prisoners being burned alive. The many arrested women believed to be affiliating with
10406-634: The main gate in a stolen Steyr 220 automobile with a smuggled report from Witold Pilecki about the Holocaust. Three of the escapees remained free until the end of the war; Jaster, who joined the Polish Underground, was recaptured in 1943 and died shortly afterwards in German custody. In September 1942 "The Żegota Council for the Aid of the Jews" was founded by Zofia Kossak-Szczucka and Wanda Krahelska-Filipowicz ("Alinka") and made up of Polish Democrats as well as other Catholic activists. Poland
10527-470: The massacres committed by the UPA a genocide . After Galicia had been taken over by the Red Army, many units of the UPA abandoned the anti-Polish course of action and some even began cooperating with local Polish anti-Communist resistance against the Soviets and the NKVD. Many Ukrainians, who had not participated in the anti-Polish massacres, joined the UPA after the war on both the Soviet and Polish sides of
10648-468: The military actions started in 1944. Its most widely known elements were Operation Ostra Brama, Lwów Uprising and the Warsaw Uprising. On 7 July, Operation Ostra Brama started. Approximately 12,500 Home Army soldiers attacked the German garrison and managed to seize most of the city center. Heavy street fighting in the outskirts of the city lasted until 14 July. In Vilnius' eastern suburbs,
10769-411: The number at 40,000. By the summer of 1944, estimates of UPA membership varied from 25,000 to 30,000 fighters, up to 100,000, or even 200,000 soldiers. The Ukrainian Insurgent Army was structured into three units: The fourth region, UPA-East, was planned, but never created. The greeting " Glory to Ukraine! Glory to the heroes! " ( Slava Ukrayini! Heroiam slava! ) was used among members of
10890-474: The numbers grew significantly next year. On 11 February 1944 the Resistance fighters of Polish Home Army 's unit Agat executed Franz Kutschera , SS and Reich 's Police Chief in Warsaw in action known as Operation Kutschera . In a reprisal of this action 27 February 140 inmates of Pawiak – Poles and Jews – were shot in a public execution by the Germans. 13–14 May 1944
11011-501: The operation produced no results whatsoever. This development was the subject of several discussions by Himmler's staff that resulted in General von dem Bach-Zelewski being sent to Ukraine. He failed to eliminate the UPA, which grew steadily, and the Germans, apart from terrorizing the civilian population, were virtually limited to defensive actions. From July through September 1943, in an estimated 74 clashes between German forces and
11132-459: The organization fought against the Germans in Volhynia and Polesia . At the same time, its forces fought an evenly matched war against the Polish resistance, during which the UPA carried out massacres of Poles in Volhynia and Eastern Galicia , resulting in between 50,000 and 100,000 deaths. Soviet NKVD units fought against the UPA, which led armed resistance against Soviets until 1949. On
11253-553: The organization was incorporated into the Union for Armed Struggle ( Związek Walki Zbrojnej ), later renamed and better known as the Home Army ( Armia Krajowa ). In March 1940, a partisan unit of the first guerrilla commanders in the Second World War in Europe under Major Henryk Dobrzański "Hubal" destroyed a battalion of German infantry in a skirmish near the village of Huciska . A few days later in an ambush near
11374-617: The region of Zhytomyr insurgents were estimated by the German General-Kommissar Leyser to be in control of 80% of the forests and 60% of the farmland . According to the OUN/UPA, on 12 May 1943, Germans attacked the town of Kolki using several SS-Divisions (SS units operated alongside the Wehrmacht who were responsible for intelligence, central security, policing action, and mass extermination), where both sides suffered heavy losses. Soviet partisans reported
11495-415: The region, had taken control of most of the countryside, limiting German control to the major towns. In the summer of 1944 Germans again initiated major anti-partisan operations ( Sturmwind I and Sturmwind II ) which resulted in the battle of Osuchy (one of the largest battles between the Polish resistance and Nazi Germany), with the insurgents sustaining heavy casualties. However, soon afterwards, in July,
11616-457: The region. In December 1942 one of the first large partisan battles of World War II occurred in the region. The resistance forces numbered several thousand forest fighters. The first phase of the resistance took place from December 1942 to February 1943; the Germans then lessened their activities for a few months but counter-attacked in June, with major anti-partisan actions and terror directed against
11737-410: The reinforcement of German auxiliary forces at Kolki from the end of April until the middle of May 1943. In June 1943, German SS and police forces under the command of Erich von dem Bach-Zelewski , the head of Himmler -directed Bandenbekämpfung ("bandit warfare"), attempted to destroy UPA-North in Volhynia during Operation BB (Bandenbekämpfung). According to Ukrainian claims, the initial stage of
11858-637: The remaining Polish units took part in the nationwide Operation Tempest and managed to liberate several towns and villages in the Zamość region. The Germans, pressured by the advancing Red Army , were forced to abandon the region. Several monuments, museums and cemeteries have been raised in the area over time. In the People's Republic of Poland the actions of the Soviet-sponsored and created Gwardia Ludowa and Armia Ludowa entities were emphasized at
11979-693: The rest imprisoned or exiled. The UPA responded to the Soviet methods by unleashing their own terror against Soviet activists, suspected collaborators and their families. This work was particularly attributed to the Sluzhba Bezpeky (SB), the anti-espionage wing of the UPA. In a typical incident in the Lviv region, in front of horrified villagers, UPA troops gouged out the eyes of two entire families suspected of reporting on insurgent movements to Soviet authorities, before hacking their bodies to pieces. Due to public outrage concerning these violent punitive acts,
12100-604: The scale and scope of the Polish resistance, Reichsfuhrer-SS Heinrich Himmler noted: "Within the framework of the entire enemy intelligence operations directed against Germany, the intelligence service of the Polish resistance movement assumed major significance. The scope and importance of the operations of the Polish resistance movement, which was ramified down to the smallest splinter group and brilliantly organized, have been in (various sources) disclosed in connection with carrying out of major police security operations." Heinrich Himmler, 31 December 1942 In February 1942, when AK
12221-433: The territory of Communist Poland , the UPA tried to prevent the forced deportation of Ukrainians from western Galicia to the Soviet Union until 1947. The UPA was a decentralized movement widespread throughout Ukraine, divided into three operational regions; each region followed a somewhat different agenda, given the circumstances of a constantly moving front line and a double threat from Soviet and Nazi opponents. The UPA
12342-605: The uprising as a "criminal adventure". The Poles appealed to the Western Allies for help. The Royal Air Force , and the Polish Air Force based in Italy, dropped some munitions, but it was almost impossible for the Allies to help the Poles without Soviet assistance. The fighting in Warsaw was desperate. 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
12463-437: The village of Szałasy it inflicted heavy casualties upon another German unit. To counter this threat the German authorities formed a special 1,000 men strong counter-insurgency unit of combined SS – Wehrmacht forces, including a Panzer group. Although the unit of Major Dobrzański never exceeded 300 men, the Germans fielded at least 8,000 men in the area to secure it. In 1940, Witold Pilecki , an intelligence officer for
12584-477: The violence, and large bands of armed marauders, unaffiliated with the UPA, brutalized civilians. In other cases however, Ukrainian civilians took significant steps to protect their Polish neighbors, either by hiding them during the UPA raids or vouching that the Poles were actually Ukrainians. The methods used by the UPA to carry out the massacres were particularly brutal and were committed indiscriminately without any restraint. Historian Norman Davies describes
12705-409: The working class (primarily from the rural lumber and food industries), and 15 percent were members of the intelligentsia (students, urban professionals). The latter group provided a large portion of the UPA's military trainers and officer corps. The number of UPA fighters varied: a German Abwehr report from November 1943 estimated that the UPA had 20,000 soldiers; other estimates at that time placed
12826-403: Was a Ukrainian nationalist paramilitary and partisan formation founded by the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists on 14 October 1942. During World War II , it was engaged in guerrilla warfare against Nazi Germany , the Soviet Union , and both the Polish Underground State and Polish Communists . It conducted the massacres of Poles in Volhynia and Eastern Galicia . The goal of
12947-474: Was a major factor in informing the West. In July 1943, again personally reported to Roosevelt about the situation in Poland. He also met with many other government and civic leaders in the United States, including Felix Frankfurter , Cordell Hull , William Joseph Donovan , and Stephen Wise . Karski also presented his report to media, bishops of various denominations (including Cardinal Samuel Stritch ), members of
13068-557: Was a successor of the Ukrainian Sich Riflemen , whose anthem was " Chervona Kalyna ". Leaders of the Ukrainian Sich Riflemen, Yevhen Konovalets and Andriy Melnyk , were founding members of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists. For this reason, "Chervona Kalyna" was also used by the Ukrainian Insurgent Army. The flag of the UPA was a red-and-black banner, which continues to be a symbol of
13189-569: Was developed due to an acute shortage of qualified and politically reliable officers during the early stages of organization. UPA rank structure consisted of at least seven commissioned officer ranks, four non-commissioned officer ranks, and two soldier ranks. The hierarchical order of known ranks and their approximate U.S. Army equivalent is as follows: The rank scheme provided for three more higher general officer ranks: Heneral-Poruchnyk (Major General), Heneral-Polkovnyk (Lieutenant General), and Heneral-Pikhoty (General with Four Stars). Initially,
13310-549: Was drawing graffiti in Warsaw around Christmas Eve of 1940 commemorating the Wawer massacre . Members of the AK Wawer "Small Sabotage" units painted "Pomścimy Wawer" ("We'll avenge Wawer") on Warsaw walls. At first they painted the whole text, then to save time they shortened it to two letters, P and W. Later they invented Kotwica – "Anchor" – which became the symbol of all Polish resistance in occupied Poland. From April 1941
13431-572: Was formally disbanded in early September 1949, but some of its units continued operations until late 1956. Officially, the UPA's last military engagement occurred in October 1956, when remnants of the group fought on the Hungarian border region in support of that country's revolution . In March 2019, surviving UPA members were officially granted the status of veterans by the government of Ukraine . The UPA's command structure overlapped with that of
13552-665: Was formed, it numbered about 100,000 members. In the beginning of 1943, it had reached a strength of about 200,000. In the summer of 1944 when Operation Tempest began, AK reached its highest membership numbers, though the estimates vary from 300,000 to 500,000. The strength of the second largest resistance organization, Bataliony Chłopskie (Peasants' Battalions), can be estimated for summer 1944 (at which time they were mostly merged with AK ) at about 160,000 men. The third largest group include NSZ (National Armed Forces) with approximately 70,000 men around 1943–1944; only small parts of that force were merged with AK. At its height in 1944,
13673-492: Was never high, due to the region enduring only two years of German rule (in some places even less). In 1943, the Soviet partisan leader Sydir Kovpak was sent to the Carpathian Mountains , with help from Nikita Khrushchev . He described his mission to western Ukraine in his book Vid Putivlia do Karpat (From Putyvl to the Carpathian Mountains ). Well armed by supplies delivered to secret airfields, he formed
13794-406: Was not stated that they were in operable condition, while no OUN/UPA documents noted the usage of such equipment. By the end of World War II in Europe , the NKVD had captured 45 artillery pieces (45 and 76.2 mm calibres) and 423 mortars from the UPA. In attacks against Polish civilians, axes and pikes were used. However, the light infantry weapon was the basic weapon used by the UPA. In
13915-514: Was occupied by the Soviet Union. 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
14036-462: Was routed and the entire force was disbanded by the Germans soon afterwards. On 14 June 1944 the Battle of Porytowe Wzgórze took place between Polish and Russian partisans, numbering around 3,000, and the Nazi German units consisted of between 25,000 and 30,000 soldiers, with artillery, tanks and armored cars and air support. On 25–26 June 1944 the Battle of Osuchy – one of
14157-419: Was the Armia Krajowa (Home Army, AK), loyal to the Polish government in exile in London. The AK was formed in 1942 from the Union of Armed Struggle ( Związek Walki Zbrojnej or ZWZ, itself created in 1939) and would eventually incorporate most other Polish armed resistance groups (except for the communists and some far-right groups). It was the military arm of the Polish Underground State and loyal to
14278-511: Was the first Polish uprising during World War II. Anti-Soviet Poles, most of them teenagers from local high schools, stormed the local Red Army barracks and a prison, in order to release Polish soldiers kept there. At the end of 1940 Aleksander Kamiński created a Polish youth resistance organization, known as "Wawer". It was part of the Szare Szeregi (the underground Polish Scouting Association ). This organisation carried out many minor sabotage operations in occupied Poland. Its first action
14399-543: Was the only country in occupied Europe where there existed such a dedicated secret organization. Half of the Jews in Poland who survived the war (thus over 50,000) were aided in some shape or form by Żegota. The best-known activist of Żegota was Irena Sendler , head of the children's division, who saved 2,500 Jewish children by smuggling them out of the Warsaw Ghetto , providing them with false documents, and sheltering them in individual and group children's homes outside
14520-780: Was to be renamed "Himmlerstadt" ( Himmler City), later changed to Pflugstadt (Plow City), which was to symbolise the German "plow" that was to "plow the East". The German occupiers had planned the relocation of at least 60,000 ethnic Germans to the area before the end of 1943. An initial "test trial" expulsion was performed in November 1941, and the whole operation ended in anti-partisan pacification operations combined with expulsions in June–July 1943 which were codenamed Wehrwolf Action I and II. Over 110,000 Polish people from approximately 300 villages were expelled to make room for German (and to
14641-525: Was to hold the Ghetto by every means in order to prevent us from invading it. (...) Time and again Polish bandits found refuge in the Ghetto and remained there undisturbed, since we had no forces at our disposal to comb out this maze. (...) One such battle group succeeded in mounting a truck by ascending from a sewer in the so-called Prosta [Street], and in escaping with it (about 30 to 35 bandits). (...) The bandits and Jews – there were Polish bandits among these gangs armed with carbines, small arms, and in one case
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