The Jewish and Polish Underground During WWII

Abstract

The Jewish underground resistance, with much help from the Polish underground, played a crucial role in saving thousands of Warsaw Jews — and Poles — during the Nazi occupation. It did this through small-scale organized resistance, military strategies, terrorist attacks, and propaganda campaigns. The underground political, military, and journalist networks in Warsaw during World War II were vital to the survival and escape of thousands of Jews and Poles and were a primary source of information to the Polish government-in-exile and the Allied powers. Although their impact was not massive, and could have been much more extensive if their political differences did not obstruct their coordination of self-defense, they achieved a level of success that no one expected in occupied Poland.