Editing Jewish Combat Organization

{{Short description|World War II Jewish resistance movement in Nazi-occupied Poland}}
{{More citations needed|date=August 2020}}
{{Infobox military unit
|native_name = Jewish Combat Organization
|unit_name = ''Żydowska Organizacja Bojowa''<br />{{Nobold|{{lang|yi|{{Script/Hebrew| ייִדישע קאַמף אָרגאַניזאַציע}}}}}}
|image = Flag of ZOB (Jewish Fighting Organization).svg
|image_size = 220px
|caption = Flag of ŻOB{{dubious|OR image?|date=September 2023}}
|dates = 28 July 1942
|country = [[Nazi occupied Poland]]
|allegiance = 
|type =
|role = 
|size =
|command_structure =
|past_commanders =
|notable_commanders = [[Mordechai Anielewicz]]<br />[[Yitzhak Zuckerman]]<br />[[Marek Edelman]]
|nickname =
|march = 
|mascot =
|battles = [[World War II]]
* [[Warsaw Ghetto Uprising]]
|anniversaries =
|decorations =
|battle_honors =
|identification_symbol = [[File:ZOB_Badge.svg|100px]]
|identification_symbol_label = [[Military eagle]]{{dubious|OR image?|date=September 2023}}
}}

{{Polish Underground State sidebar |expanded=Military}}

The '''Jewish Combat Organization''' ({{langx|pl|Żydowska Organizacja Bojowa}}, '''ŻOB'''; {{langx|yi|{{Script/Hebrew|ייִדישע קאַמף אָרגאַניזאַציע}}}} ''Yidishe Kamf Organizatsie''; often translated to English as the '''Jewish Fighting Organization''') was a [[World War II]] [[resistance movement]] in [[occupied Poland]], which emerged from the merger of five Jewish political and youth organizations: [[Hashomer Hatzair]], the [[Polish Workers' Party]], [[Habonim Dror]], [[Poale Zion]], and the [[General Jewish Labour Bund|Bund]],<ref>{{Citation |title=Żydowska Organizacja Bojowa |date=2025-05-21 |work=Wikipédia |url=https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C5%BBydowska_Organizacja_Bojowa |access-date=2025-05-21 |language=fr}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Levana Frenk, historienne de la résistance juive - Nonfiction.fr le portail des livres et des idées |url=https://www.nonfiction.fr/article-11202-levana-frenk-historienne-de-la-resistance-juive.htm |access-date=2025-05-21 |website=www.nonfiction.fr |language=fr}}</ref> and was central in organizing and launching the [[Warsaw Ghetto Uprising]].<ref name="britannica">{{cite web|url=http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/303571/Jewish-Fighting-Organization|title=Jewish Fighting Organization - Polish history|access-date=20 October 2018}}</ref> ŻOB took part in a number of other resistance activities as well.

==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>

==ŻOB resistance to the second deportation==
{{Unreferenced section|date=August 2020}}

On 18 January 1943, the Nazis began a second wave of deportations. The first Jews the Germans rounded up included a number of ŻOB fighters who had intentionally crept into the column of deportees. Led by [[Mordechai Anielewicz]] they waited for the appropriate signal, then stepped out of formation, and fought the Nazis with small arms. The column scattered and news of the [[Jewish Military Union|ŻZW]] and ŻOB action quickly spread throughout the ghetto. During this small deportation, the Nazis only managed to round up about 5,000 to 6,000 Jews.<ref name="USHMM" />

The deportations lasted four days during which the Germans met other acts of [[resistance movement|resistance]] from the ŻOB. When they left the ghetto on 22 January 1943, the remaining Jews regarded it as a victory, however [[Israel Gutman]], a member of the ŻOB who subsequently became one of the leading authors on Jewish Warsaw wrote, "It [was] not known [to the Jews] that the Germans had not intended to liquidate the entire ghetto by means of the January deportations." However, Gutman concludes that the "[January] deportations... had a decisive influence on the ghetto's last months."

==Final deportation and uprising==
{{Unreferenced section|date=August 2020}}
[[File:Odezwa ŻOB 23 kwietnia 1943.jpg|thumb|left|ŻOB's appeal to the Polish people issued on 23 April 1943]]
[[File:Plakat wydany przez Zydowska Organizacje Bojowa.png|thumb|A poster of the Jewish Combat Organization. The Yiddish text reads:<br />"All people are equal brothers;<br />Brown, White, Black, and Yellow.<br />To talk of peoples, colors, races -<br />Is all a made-up story!"]]

The final deportation began on the eve of [[Passover]], 19 April 1943. The streets of the ghetto were vacant; most of the remaining 30,000 Jews were hiding in carefully prepared [[bunkers]] including their headquarters located in [[Miła 18|Ulica Miła 18]], many of which had electricity and running water, however they offered no route of escape.

When the Germans marched into the ghetto, they met fierce armed resistance from fighters attacking from open windows in vacated apartments. The defenders of the ghetto used [[guerrilla warfare]] tactics and had the strategic advantage not only of surprise but also of being able to look down on their opponents. This advantage was lost when the Germans began systematically burning all of the buildings of the ghetto forcing the fighters to seek cover in the underground bunkers. The fires above consumed much of the available oxygen below ground, turning the bunkers into suffocating death traps.

On May 8 in the bunker at 18 Mila Street, [[Jurek Wilner]] called on the fighters to commit mass suicide to avoid falling into Germans' hands. As the first one, [[Lejb Rotblat|Lutek Rotblat]] initially shot his mother and then himself. In the bunker most of the members of the Combat Organization found their deaths, including Commander [[Mordechai Anielewicz|Mordechaj Anielewicz]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Krall |first=Hanna |title=Shielding the Flame |isbn=0-03-006002-8}}</ref>

By 16 May 1943, the German Police General [[Jürgen Stroop]], who had been in charge of the final deportation, officially declared what he called the ''Grossaktion'', finished. To celebrate he razed [[Great Synagogue, Warsaw|Warsaw's Great Synagogue]]. The ghetto was destroyed and what remained of the uprising was suppressed.<ref name="USHMM" />
{{clearleft}}

==Epilogue==
{{Unreferenced section|date=August 2020}}
Even after the destruction of the ghetto, small numbers of Jews could still be found in the underground bunkers on both sides of the ghetto wall. In fact, during the last months of the ghetto some 20,000 Jews fled to the [[Aryan]] side. Some Jews who escaped the final destruction of the ghetto, including youth group members and leaders [[Simcha Rotem|Kazik Ratajzer]], [[Zivia Lubetkin]], [[Yitzhak Zuckerman]] and [[Marek Edelman]], would participate in the 1944 [[Warsaw Uprising]] against the Nazis. <ref name="USHMM" />

While many members and leaders of the [[youth groups]] perished in the Warsaw Ghetto, [[Zionist youth movement|Zionist]] and non-Zionist youth movements remain active. One can still find the left Zionist youth groups [[Hashomer Hatzair]] and [[Habonim Dror]] in countries such as Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, Chile, France, Germany, Hungary, Israel, Italy, Mexico, the Netherlands, Poland, South Africa, Switzerland, Ukraine, the United Kingdom, the United States and Uruguay. There are still remnants of the non-Zionist Jewish Labour Bund's [[Sotsyalistishe Kinder Farband|S.K.I.F.]] in [[Sotsyalistishe Kinder Farband#SKIF in Melbourne|Australia]], the United Kingdom, [[:fr:Club_laïque_de_l'enfance_juive|France]] and the United States. The right youth group [[Betar (youth movement)|Betar]] operates in Australia, Brazil, Western Europe and the United States, and [[Bnei Akiva]], a religious Zionist organization, operates worldwide.

==Similar organizations==
A second Jewish resistance organization called the [[Jewish Military Union]] ({{langx|pl|Żydowski Związek Wojskowy}}, ŻZW), formed primarily of former [[military officer|officers]] of the [[Polish Army]] in late 1939, operated side by side with ŻOB & was also instrumental in the [[Jewish resistance during the Holocaust|Jewish armed struggle]].<ref name="Wdowiński">{{cite book |first=David |last=Wdowiński |author-link=Dawid Wdowiński | title=And We Are Not Saved | year=1963 | publisher=Philosophical Library | location=New York | isbn=0802224865 | quote=''Note:'' Chariton and Lazar were never co-authors of Wdowiński's memoir. Wdowiński is considered the single author.}}
</ref>
<gallery>
File:Mordechai Anielewicz.jpg|Mordechai Anielewicz 
File:Mira Fuchrer.jpg|Mira Fuchrer
File:Yitzhak Zukermann, during his testimony at the trial of Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann D408-073 (cropped).jpg|Yitzhak Zukermann
File:Zivia_Lubetkin.jpg|Zivia_Lubetkin
File:Marek Edelman - Warsaw Ghetto Uprising.jpg|Marek Edelman
File:Izrael Kanal.jpg|Izrael Kanal
File:Itzhak Katzenelson.jpg|Itzhak Katzenelson
File:MichaelKlepfisz.jpg|Michael Klepfisz
File:Vladka Meed (2005).jpg|Vladka Meed
File:Symcha Ratajzer i Agnieszka Arnold 052 (cropped).JPG|Symcha Ratajzer
File:Yitzhak Sukenik.jpg|Yitzhak Sukenik
File:Dawid Wdowiński.jpg|Dawid Wdowiński [ZZW]
</gallery>

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
*{{Commonscatinline}}
*[http://www.yadvashem.org/holocaust/about/combat-resistance/warsaw-ghetto?WT.mc_id=wiki The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising] on the [[Yad Vashem]] website


{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Anti-fascist organisations in Poland]]
[[Category:Jewish anti-fascism]]
[[Category:Military units and formations of Poland in World War II]]
[[Category:National liberation movements]]
[[Category:Polish anti-fascists]]
[[Category:Warsaw Ghetto Uprising]]
[[Category:Military units and formations established in 1942]]
[[Category:Paramilitary organisations based in Poland]]
[[Category:Polish underground organisations during World War II]]
[[Category:Polish resistance during World War II]]
[[Category:Jewish resistance during the Holocaust]]