Saturday, March 10, 2018

Poland: WW II: 3

From Wikipedia:
"Polish Resistance During World War II"


The Polish resistance movement in World War II, with the Polish Home Army at its forefront, was the largest underground resistance movement in all of occupied Europe, covering both German and Soviet zones of occupation. The Polish resistance is most notable for disrupting German supply lines to the Eastern Front, providing military intelligence to the British, and for saving more Jewish lives in the Holocaust than any other Western Allied organization or government. It was a part of the Polish Underground State.
Organizations:
The largest of all Polish resistance organizations 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 for Armed Combat (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 the Polish government in Exile.  Most of the other Polish underground armed organizations were created by a political party or faction, and included:
The Bataliony Chłopskie (Peasants' Battalions). Created by the leftist People's Party around 1940–1941, it would partially merge with AK around 1942–1943. 
The Gwardia Ludowa WRN (People's Guard of WRN) of Polish Socialist Party (PPS) (joined ZWZ around 1940, subsequently merged into AK)
The Konfederacja Narodu (Confederation of the Nation). Created in 1940 by far-right Obóz Narodowo Radykalny-Falanga (National Radical Camp Falanga).  It would partially merge with ZWZ around 1941 and finally join AK around fall 1943.
The Narodowa Organizacja Wojskowa (National Military Organisation), established by the National Party in 1939, mostly integrated with AK around 1942.
Narodowe Siły Zbrojne (National Armed Forces); created in 1943 from dissatisfied NOW units, which refused to be subordinated to the AK.
The Obóz Polski Walczącej (Camp of Fighting Poland), established by the Obóz Zjednoczenia Narodowego (Camp of National Unity) around 1942, subordinated to AK. in 1943.
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.)
Resistance Group Size:
In February 1942, when AK 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 begun 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, the communist Armia Ludowa, never merged with AK, numbered about 30,000 people.  One estimate for the summer 1944 strength of AK and its allies, including NSZ, gives the strength of 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.
^ This helps to explain the different resistance groups in Poland. Some were both anti-German and anti-Soviet, some were just anti-German and some were anti-German and anti-Capitalist. The Polish- Jewish Resistance groups were already included in the previous posts.  ^


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