The Jewish Combat Organization (, ŻOB; 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, Habonim Dror, Poale Zion, and the Bund, and was central in organizing and launching the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. 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 German Nazis under SS General Jurgen Stroop began the 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." Thus began massive "deportations" 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 Jewry and began to shift from an educational and cultural focus to self-defense and eventual armed struggle.

Unlike the older generation, the youth groups took these reports seriously and had no illusions about the true intentions of the Germans. A document published three months before the start of the deportations by Hashomer Hatzair declared: "We know that Hitler's system of murder, slaughter and robbery leads steadily to a dead end and the destruction of the Jews."

A number of the left Zionist youth groups, such as Hashomer Hatzair and 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 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 that any armed resistance would provoke the Germans to retaliate against the whole Jewish community.

Women played a central role in the ŻOB as couriers, organizers, smugglers, intelligence operatives, and fighters. Because women were often perceived by German authorities as less likely to be involved in armed resistance, they were frequently able to move between ghettos and on the "Aryan side" using forged documents, transporting weapons, messages, and supplies.

Several women became prominent members of the organization, including Zivia Lubetkin, one of the leaders of the Warsaw Ghetto resistance; Frumka Płotnicka, who helped organize underground activity in multiple ghettos; Mira Fuchrer, a liaison and resistance activist closely associated with Mordechai Anielewicz; and Vladka Meed, who served as a courier between Jewish and Polish underground networks.

The formation of the ŻOB represented an unusual political alliance within prewar Polish Jewish politics. The organization brought together members of socialist-Zionist youth movements, Labor Zionist groups, communists, and the Jewish Labour Bund, despite longstanding ideological divisions between Zionist and non-Zionist Jewish political currents. Historians have noted that the mass deportations during the Grossaktion Warsaw in the summer of 1942 and growing awareness of Nazi extermination policies helped create the conditions for broader political cooperation and armed resistance within the Warsaw Ghetto.

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. The organization was spied upon by Jewish collaborators which the Nazis called the Society of Free Jews (Towarzystwo Wolnych Żydów).

ŻOB resistance to the second deportation

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 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.

On May 8 in the bunker at 18 Mila Street, Jurek Wilner called on the fighters to commit mass suicide to avoid falling into the Germans' hands. As the first one, 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 Mordechaj Anielewicz.

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 Warsaw's Great Synagogue. The ghetto was destroyed, and what remained of the uprising was suppressed.

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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]

File:Regina Fuden.JPG|Regina Fudem

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References

  • The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising on the Yad Vashem website