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Poland's resistance
against the Nazis' General Government in pictures
by James Mayfield (Chairman, European Heritage Library)
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this Article • About
the Author • Bibliography/Sourcs
This is a gallery of various
famous photos showing Poland's resistance to the rule of the
German General Government of Hans Frank throughout World War
II, including the resistance of Poles, Jews, and priests.
Included are some of my photos from my research trip to the
Jewish Warsaw ghetto and to Hans Frank's headquarters.
From September 1939 until
1945, Poland was dominated by the Third Reich. Whereas other
territories (such as Austria, the Sudetenland of Czechoslovakia,
and eastern France) were directly incorporated into Germany,
other occupied territories were administered by separate regional
governors called Reichskommisariats (including in Ukraine
and the Baltic). Poland was controlled by the General Government
until its dissolution by the triumphant Soviet Red Army. Headquarted
in the magnificent Wawel Castle in Krakow where the old Polish-Lithuanian
sovereigns resided (see my photos below), the General Government
was led by Governor General Hans Frank.
Governor General Hans Frank,
administrator of German-occupied Poland against whose authority
the Polish Underground fought
My photo of Hans Frank's headquarters of the General Government
in Wawel Castle (CLICK TO ENLARGE)
My photo of part of Hans Frank's headquarters (CLICK TO ENLARGE)
My photo of Hans Frank's headquarters alongside one of the
most magnificent cathedrals in Europe (CLICK TO ENLARGE)
Hans Frank and the General
Government oversaw the pacification of Polish resistance,
the forced relocation of Poland's ethnic Jewish minority into
ghettoes that Poland had built centuries prior to the German
conquest, and the expedited completion of the creation of
Auschwitz, Birkenau, and Treblinka for the Holocaust. See
our ethnic map of Poland
for more information. Although Poland lost anywhere from 10-17.2%
of its total pre-war population [1], most were not ethnically
Polish. Occupied Poland was swept by tremendous national revolt
by an eclectic array of political and ideological movements,
including anarchists, Communists, Jews in ghettos resisting
their impending oblivion, and Polish ultranationalists who
sought to re-establish the long-sought independence of the
Polish nation or pursue their own ideological/ethnic interests.
One famous example of the resistance of ethnic Jews (Ashkenazim)
in Poland was that of the Bielski brothers (depicted in the
2008 film "Defiance"), who organized fleeing Jews
into a band of partisans along the Belarusian-Polish border
and assaulted German soldiers and native Polish civilians
in order to steal their provisions and food. Most survived
the war thanks to the Soviet triumph, and ultimately departed
for Israel and the United States.
The Bielski brothers' partisans
were fleeing Jews who assaulted German soldiers and civilians,
as well as native Polish and Belarusian civilians (source:
Rzeczpospolita)
Many widely respected Polish
priests in this quite religious country became willing martyrs
for the sovereignty of their nation and in defiance of German
administrative policy. One Polish priest, Maximilian Kolbe,
became canonized as a saint for forfeiting his life in place
of a prisoner in Auschwitz. A shrine to him exists in the
central focal point of Polish Catholicism, the Jasna Gora
Basilica in Czestochowa (see photo below). His icon depicts
a praying priest basking in radiant light whilst wearing a
prisoner's uniform adorned with the triangle of a political
prisoner/dissenter.
My photo of a shrine to Catholic
saint Maximilian Kolbe in Czestochowa, an example of Poles'
resistance to German rule. Notice the uniform of prisoners
in Auschwitz alongside the triangle, a symbol of a political
prisoner. (CLICK TO ENLARGE)
After 1943, as the Germans'
Operation Barbarossa increasingly resulted in the impending
collapse of the Third Reich whilst the Soviet Red Army approached
Poland from the east, Polish nationalists initated the nation-wide
revolt to throw off the remaining elements of German hegemony
called Operation Tempest. The supreme underground organization
leading the revolt was known as the Polish Underground.
Although the revolt was planned in anticipation for an incoming
Soviet victory, it was not at all intended to allow the re-established
Polish state to become a subject of the Soviet Union. Poles
today intensely lionize their independence efforts during
the Warsaw Uprising at the same time as they bitterly despise
the succeeding 40 years of Communist rule as a member of the
semi-independent Warsaw Pact.
My photo from my research trip
of a massive monument to the Polish Underground, which led
the uprising (CLICK TO ENLARGE)
The most famous manifestations
of the Polish Underground's revolt were the Jewish Warsaw
Ghetto Uprising of 1943 and the Polish Uprising of 1944. In
1943, the famous Jewish Warsaw Ghetto Uprising occurred. The
German government, with many Latvian, Polish, Lithuanian,
and especially Ukrainian volunteers, had forced all ethnic
Jews (Ashkenazim) in Warsaw and Krakow into ghettos that Poland
had built centuries prior. In resistance to the conditions
they faced and in prescient awareness of the increasing extermination
of Jews in Poland, Jews of the Warsaw ghetto formed bands
of ad hoc resistance fighters, such as the Jewish Combat League,
led by David Apfelbaum and Mordechai Anielewicz to assault
German soldiers and their supporting volunteers from occupied
territories. Although typically portrayed today as a cooperative
effort between Jews and Polish resistance fighters, the Poles
only contributed very limited auxilary support when it was
perceived to inflict a definitive blow against the General
Government. Poles had little more love for the Jews than the
Germans. Many Polish nationalists today, however, insist absurdly
that the Poles did all of the work, whilst Jews across the
world rightfully and proudly commemorate it as an example
of Jewish defiance of the Holocaust. The uprising was a disastrous
failure; it only lasted a month and resulted in brutal Axis
reprisals that cost over 20,000 Jewish lives for only 17 dead
Axis soldiers. Today, it is commemorated through mostly foreign
funding with a massive wall (my photos below) whose reverse
depicts wailing Jews and a Rabbi in an artistic expression
of the ageless struggle of the Jews, and whose obverse depicts
Jewish resistance fighters standing tall.
My photo of a monument to the Jewish plight and uprising in
the Warsaw Ghetto, which now is demolished (CLICK TO ENLARGE)
My photo of the "last" remaining wall of the Jewish
ghetto. It is a site of reverence by Jews today (CLICK TO
ENLARGE)
My photo of another monument to the Jewish uprising, with
many Jewish visitors and foreign funding (CLICK TO ENLARGE)
The final significant resistance
was done not by Jews, but by Poles. In 1944, as the Red Army
was at the gates of Poland, the Polish Underground unleashed
a massive city-wide revolt in Warsaw known as the Warsaw Uprising.
It lasted nearly two brutal months of constant shooting, bombing,
and artillery fire and drew the Germans away from the Eastern
Front. As a result, the Polish resistance made a significant
impact on the war effort as a whole. Led by civilian resistance
fighters like Tadeusz Bor Komorowski and Tadeusz Pełczyński,
the Underground tore the entire city apart, creating a significant
problem for the Governor General. Unlike the failed Jewish
Uprising, the Polish equivalent in Warsaw was a tremendous
success in terms of the inflicted damage, leaving more than
15,000 Germans and Nazi volunteers dead in the ensuring chaos
[2]. Although the Germans ultimately obliterated the revolt,
it was only a matter of months before the Soviets arrived
to dismantle the General Government. Today,
the city of Warsaw is saturated with painted black and red
symbols of the Polish Underground's logo (seen below) to commemorate
where significant battles were fought.
From http://www.palha.info/ak.html
From ww2incolor.com
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ABOUT
THE AUTHOR:
James Mayfield is a historian
and the Chairman of the European Heritage Library. I have
a Cum Laude BA in History with a Minor in Germanic Studies
(language and history), am presently working for my Masters
in History, and plan to immediately progress to my PhD Doctorate.
I have a special academic interest in Europe's diverse ethnic
identities, languages, and cultures, and the political struggles
of native European and immigrant minority identities. See
my staff entry for more information.
BIBLIOGRAPHY/SOURCES
USED:
-Personal observations, photos
(with our watermark), and interviews are our property.
-images that do not have
an EHL watermark are not our property. It is difficult to
isolate the original owners. When known, the source link has
been given. If you find your property has been used without
credit, feel free to notify us.
-Lukowski, Jerzy, and Hubert Zawadzki. A Concise History
of Poland. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2006.
[1] http://www.historyplace.com/worldwar2/timeline/statistics.htm
[2] http://www.warsawuprising.com/faq.htm
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