Encyclopaedia Judaica
Jews in Poland
05-9: Holocaust and Jewish partisans
Forming of groups - Jewish partisan units and
leaders
from: Poland; In: Encyclopaedia Judaica 1971, vol. 13
presented by Michael Palomino (2008 / 2020)
<PARTISANS.
[Jewish partisans are not
wanted within the anti-Semitic population]
The guerrilla warfare in Poland (i.e., within the area
designated by post-World War II boundaries) was confined to
the territories of the so-called General-Government and the
province of Bialystok. The first Jewish attempts to organize
partisan units were undertaken by the resistance movement of
the *Warsaw Ghetto in spring 1942, but these, as well as some
other early attempts, failed due to lack of experience and the
lack of support from the local population.
[[Jewish partisans were not at all welcomed in the general
anti-Semitic population of Poland]].
[Mass flight from the ghettos
to the forests in July 1942 - forming of groups -
coordination with the Polish partisans since 1943]
In July 1942, the Germans began to implement the so-called
"Operation Reinhard". At that time, mainly in the provinces of
Lublin and Kielce, there began a spontaneous movement of
thousands of Jews fleeing the townlets to the forests to
escape deportation. Many of them (col. 774)
formed groups that offered active resistance to the Nazis.
Although numerically strong, they had very few arms and no
supply bases at all. Those who managed to hold out through the
winter of 1942/43 came in contact with the Polish underground,
as in the course of spring and summer 1943 a number of Polish
partisan units began to operate from the forests.
[[This picture is too beautiful. Principally Jews were not at
all welcomed in the national Polish partisan groups. There
were national partisan groups discriminating or even murdering
Jews. So, many Jewish partisans were hiding their identity. At
the same time there were Polish families accepting Jewish
children and protected them from the anti-Semites]].
[Jewish partisan units]
The attitude of the Polish partisans toward the Jews depended
upon the political framework to which they belonged and the
goodwill of local commanders. The closest relations were
between the Jewish partisans and the Communist-dominated
People's Guard (Gwardia Ludowa). About a dozen Jewish partisan
units were subordinated to the command of that organization
and later acted as its units. Among them were:
-- partisan detachment "Chil"
(known also as the Second Company of the "Holod" battalion),
under the command of Yehiel Grynszpan, which operated in the
eastern part of the Lublin province;
-- detachment "Emilia Plater", under the command of Samuel
Jegier, and
-- detachment "Kozietulski", under the command of Mietek
Gruber, in the northern parts of the Lublin province;
-- detachment "Berek Joselewicz", under the command of
Forst, in the southern part of the Lublin province;
-- detachment "Lwy" ("Lions"), under the command of Julian
Ajzenman (Kaniewski), in the northern part of the Kielce
province;
-- detachment "Zygmunt", under the command of Zalman
Fajnsztat, in the southwestern part of the Kielce province;
-- detachment "Iskra" ("Spark"), under the command of Lejb
Birman, in Rzeszow province;
-- and detachment "Mordecai Anielewicz" commanded by Adam
Szwarcfus, Mordecai Growas, and Ingac Podolski, in the
forests near Wyszkow (northeast of Warsaw) which was
organized after the Warsaw Ghetto uprising by remnants of
the Jewish Fighting Organization.
Jews also constituted a significant percentage in a number of
other units of the People's Guard.
Remnants of the fighters in the *Bialystok Ghetto uprising
formed the partisan unit "Forwards" ("Foroys"), which was
later part of a Soviet partisan brigade under the command of
General Kapusta. The attitude of the Armia Krajowa (Home
Army), sponsored by the Polish government-in-exile residing in
London, and of the Peasant's Battalions ("Bataliony
Chlopskie") were different. These organizations did not accept
Jewish units, but some of them accepted individual Jewish
fighters, while others often took part in the murder of Jews.
The extreme right-wing National Armed Forces ("Narodowe Sily
Zbrojne") wee strongly hostile toward Jews, organized attacks
against Jewish partisans, and murdered all Jews they found
hiding in the forests.
Some Jewish units managed to operate independently of any
Polish underground organization. The greatest of them was the
unit in the Doleza forests under the command of Abraham
Amsterdam.
[Jewish partisan leaders]
A number of Jews won great fame in various Polish partisan
units, mainly in those belonging to the People's Guard. Among
the best known are:
-- Colonel Ignacy
Robb-Rosenfarb (Narbutt), commander of the People's Guard in
the Kielce region;
-- Colonel Robert Satanowski, commander of a partisan
brigade;
-- Colonel Niebrzydowski, commander of the Peasants'
Battalions in the Miechow region;
-- Major Menashe Matywiecki, member of the general staff of
the People's Guard;
-- Alexander Skotnicki, commander of the "Holod" battalion;
-- Yehiel Brawerman, commander of the detachment "Bartosz
Glowacki", and
-- Captain Lucyna Herz, the only Polish women officer
parachuted into the woods for partisan activity.
Jews also played a significant role in the Special Attack
Battalion, which organized parachute units for guerrilla
warfare in the rear [[background]] of the German army. The
commander of that unit was (col.775)
the Jewish officer Lieutenant Colonel Henryk Toruńczyk. Four
of the 12 units parachuted into the forests during the summer
and autumn of 1944 were commanded by Jewish officers: Robert
Satanowski, Julian Komar, Joseph Krakowski, and Zygmunt Gutman
(later known as one of the best partisan commanders in the
Kielce province).
The significant feature of the Jewish partisan movement in
Poland was that almost all Jewish partisans started their
guerrilla activity at a very early period (second half of
1942), when the Polish partisan movement hardly existed; thus
Jews constituted in the early period a high proportion of the
partisans and guerrilla fighters. Among the first nine
partisan detachments organized at the beginning of 1943 in the
Kielce province, four were Jewish units, with a number of Jews
present in all other units. Later in spring 1944, when the
partisan movement in Poland grew rapidly, thanks to the great
flow of arms from England (for the Armia Krajowa) and from the
Soviet Union (for the left-wing guerrillas), the Jewish
communities were already destroyed and there were no more
Jewish youth who could fill the partisan ranks.
(See also: *Partisans).
[S.KR.]> (col. 776)
Sources
|
Encyclopaedia Judaica (1971): Poland, vol. 13, col.
773-774 |
Encyclopaedia Judaica (1971): Poland, vol. 13, col.
775-776
|
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