Editing Jewish Combat Organization (section)

==Offshoot of Jewish youth groups==
The ŻOB was formed on 28 July 1942, six days after the [[Nazi Germany|German Nazis]] under [[SS]] General [[Jurgen Stroop]] began the [[Grossaktion Warsaw|''Grossaktion'' Warsaw]], started on 15 July on the same year, and sealing the fate of the Jews confined in the [[Warsaw Ghetto]]: "All Jewish persons living in Warsaw, regardless of age and gender, [would] be resettled in the East."<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vjJimC--9-kC&q=%22all+jewish+persons+living+in+warsaw+regardless+of+age+and+sex%22+%22be+resettled+in+the+east%22&pg=PA73|title=Secret City: The Hidden Jews of Warsaw, 1940-1945|first=Gunnar S.|last=Paulsson|authorlink=Gunnar S. Paulsson|date=20 October 2018|publisher=Yale University Press|access-date=20 October 2018|via=Google Books|isbn=978-0300095463}}</ref><ref name="USHMM">{{Cite web |url=https://www.ushmm.org/outreach/en/article.php?ModuleId=10007745 |title=The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising |website=www.ushmm.org |language=en |access-date=2018-05-03}}</ref> Thus began massive "[[deportation]]s" of about 254,000 Jews, all of whom were sent to the [[Treblinka extermination camp]]. The ''Grossaktion'' lasted until 12 September 1942. Overall it reduced the once thriving [[Warsaw]] Jewish community of some 400,000 to a mere 55,000 to 60,000 inhabitants.

The youth groups that were instrumental in forming the ŻOB had anticipated German intentions to annihilate Warsaw [[Jews|Jewry]] and began to shift from an educational and cultural focus to self-defense and eventual [[armed struggle]].<ref>{{in lang|pl}} 23 IV 1943, Warsaw:
[http://dziedzictwo.polska.pl/katalog/skarb,Odezwa_Zydowskiej_Organizacji_Bojowej_do_walki_o_wolnosc_z_dnia_23_IV_1943_roku,gid,116293,cid,2389.htm?body=desc Odezwa Żydowskiej Organizacji Bojowej z pozdrowieniami z walczącego getta i wezwaniem do walki o wspólną wolność Żydów i Polaków.] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081020202706/http://dziedzictwo.polska.pl/katalog/skarb,Odezwa_Zydowskiej_Organizacji_Bojowej_do_walki_o_wolnosc_z_dnia_23_IV_1943_roku,gid,116293,cid,2389.htm?body=desc |date=2008-10-20 }} Polska.pl Skarby Dziedzictwa Narodowego; Nask, 2008</ref>

Unlike the older generation, the youth groups took these reports seriously and had no illusions about the true intentions of the Germans.{{cn|date=May 2024}} A document published three months before the start of the deportations by [[Hashomer Hatzair]] declared: "We know that [[Adolf Hitler|Hitler]]'s system of murder, slaughter and robbery leads steadily to a dead end and the destruction of the Jews."<ref>[http://www1.yadvashem.org/about_holocaust/documents/part2/doc125.html Call to Armed Self-Defense, from Ha-Shomer Ha-Zair newspaper in the Warsaw Underground ''Jutrznia'' ("Dawn"), March 28, 1942.]</ref>

A number of the left [[Zionism|Zionist]] youth groups, such as [[Hashomer Hatzair]] and [[Habonim Dror|Dror]], proposed the creation of a self-defense organization at a meeting of Warsaw Jewish leaders in March 1942. The proposal was rejected by the [[General Jewish Labour Bund in Poland|Jewish Labour Bund]] who believed that a fighting organization would fail without the help of the Polish resistance. Others rejected the notion of armed insurgency saying that there was no evidence of a threat of deportation. Moreover, they argued any armed resistance would provoke the Germans to retaliate against the whole Jewish community.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Society_&_Culture/artzi.html|title=The Kibbutz Artzi Federation|website=www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org|access-date=20 October 2018}}</ref><ref>[http://www.hashomerhatzair.net Hashomer Hatzair World Movement] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080912202154/http://www.hashomerhatzair.net/ |date=2008-09-12 }}</ref>{{better source|date=May 2024}}

In November 1942, ŻOB officially became part of and subordinated its activities to the High Command of the [[Armia Krajowa]]. In return the [[Home Army]] (''Armia Krajowa'') began providing ŻOB with weapons and training, with the first shipment of guns and ammunition being provided in December 1942.<ref>{{cite book|first=Stefan|last=Korboński|authorlink=Stefan Korboński|title=Jews Under Occupation|pages=123-124 and 130|url=http://www.ucis.pitt.edu/eehistory/H200Readings/Topic4-R3.html|access-date=2008-09-14|archive-date=2011-09-27|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110927072018/http://www.ucis.pitt.edu/eehistory/H200Readings/Topic4-R3.html|url-status=dead}}</ref> The organization was spied upon by Jewish collaborators which the Nazis called the Society of Free Jews (''Towarzystwo Wolnych Żydów'').<ref>{{cite book|title=The Eagle Unbowed |first=Halik |last=Kochanski|authorlink=Halik Kochanski|page=306|publisher= Harvard University Press|year= 2012}}</ref>