The Jewish Military Union (, ŻZW; ) was an underground resistance organization operating during World War II in the area of the Warsaw Ghetto, which fought during the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising and 1944 Warsaw Uprising. It was formed, primarily of former officers of the Polish Army, in late 1939, soon after the start of the German occupation of Poland.

Due to the ŻZW's close ties with the Armia Krajowa (AK), which was closely linked to the Polish Government in Exile, after the war the Soviet-dependent People's Republic of Poland suppressed publication of books and articles on ŻZW. Its role in the uprising in the ghetto was downplayed, in favour of the larger, more socialist Żydowska Organizacja Bojowa (Jewish Fighting Organization).

History

Formation

thumb|left|[[Monument to the Ghetto Heroes in Warsaw]]

thumb|Commemorative pennant of ŻZW

thumb|Proclamation of ŻZW from January, 1943

thumb|[[Dawid Wdowiński]]

thumb|Commemorative plaque at 1 Muranowska Street in Warsaw

The ŻZW was formed in November 1939, immediately after the German and Soviet conquest of Poland. Among its founding members may have been Dawid Mordechaj Apfelbaum (whom scholars now regard as a fictional persona), a pre-war Lieutenant of the Polish Army, who proposed to his former superior, Captain Henryk Iwański, the formation of a Jewish en cadre resistance as an integral part of the general Polish resistance being formed. At the end of December an organization was formed and received the name of Żydowski Związek Walki. On January 30, 1940, its existence was approved by General Władysław Sikorski, the Polish commander in chief and the prime minister of the Polish Government in Exile. During the first large deportation from the Warsaw Ghetto, ŻZW received the news of the German plans and managed to hide most of its members in bunkers, which resulted in fewer than 20 of them being arrested by the Germans. Although Dawid Mordechaj Apfelbaum could not convince Adam Czerniaków to start an armed uprising against the Germans during the deportation, the organization managed to preserve most of its members - and assets. It also started to train more members and by January 1943 it already had roughly 500 men at arms in Warsaw alone. The technological department of the ŻZW, together with Captain Cezary Ketling's group of the PLAN resistance organization managed to dig two secret tunnels under the walls of the ghetto, providing contact with the outside and allowing smuggling of arms into the ghetto. and its political leader (Zionist Revisionist), Dr. David Wdowiński.

After the war

Already during the war the influence and the importance of the Żydowski Związek Wojskowy was being downgraded. The surviving commanders of the leftist ŻOB either did not mention the ŻZW's fight in the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising in their writings at all, Also the war-time Soviet propaganda did only briefly mention the fighters as they collided with its aims of presenting the Soviet Union as the only defender of the European Jewry. In addition, except for Dawid Wdowiński none of the high-ranking commanders of the ŻZW survived the war to tell their part of the story and it was not until 1963 that Wdowiński's memoirs This was even strengthened by the post-war propaganda of the Polish communists, who openly underlined the value of the leftist Żydowska Organizacja Bojowa, while suppressing all publications on the Armia Krajowa-backed ŻZW.

Doubts about veracity of some accounts

In recent years, new research has been published on the ŻZW which has called into question the validity of some accounts, especially by Henryk Iwanski, which had influenced Maciej Kledzik, Marian Apfelbaum, Stefan Bratkowski and Moshe Arens and uncritically transmitted by many of those who wrote about the revolt and which later found their way into many secondary sources. The research of a Polish-Israeli team, for example, has raised many doubts around the veracity of testimony and memoirs by Henryk Iwański, Kalman Mendelson, Tadeusz Bednarczyk, Jack Eisner, David J. Landau, Maurice Shainberg, Joseph Greenblatt and a number of others. Moreover, they have suggested that Dawid Moryc Apfelbaum may actually have been an entirely fictitious figure and that the contact ring, the most emblematic relic of the Revisionist group, is in all likelihood a forgery. Dariusz Libionka and Laurence Weinbaum suggested the manipulations of the Communist secret police as the source of the alleged distortions. "[...] it should be emphasized that deconstructing the story of Apfelbaum and his purported Polish patrons in no way detracts from the heroism of the ŻZW. Just the contrary. To be sure, the ŻZW fought heroically and played a major role in the revolt. Unfortunately, after the uprising was put down, the ŻZW was sentenced to drown in the waters of Lethe."

See also

  • Jewish Military Organization
  • Warsaw Ghetto Uprising
  • Żegota
  • Marek Edelman

Notes and references

::In-line:

::General:

Further reading

  • Arens, Moshe, "Flags Over the Ghetto"
  • Apfelbaum, Marian 2007, "Two Flags; Return to the Warsaw Ghetto", Gefen Publishing House.
  • David Wdowiński (1963). And we are not saved. New York: Philosophical Library, 222. .
  • Antony Polonsky, "Heroes, Hucksters, and Storytellers: A New History of the Jewish Military Union (ŻZW) in the Warsaw Ghetto" Yad Vashem Studies, 41:2 (2013)
  • The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising on the Yad Vashem website
  • The battle of the ghettos
  • Jews Under Occupation
  • Żydowski Związek Wojskowy
  • Арон Шнеер. Плен A book by Jewish-Latvian author; includes data on Jewish troops in World War II
  • Deconstructing Memory and History
  • "Flags Over the Ghetto" Israeli stamp to honor the 70th anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising
  • Joseph Greenblatt Member of the Z.Z.W. Died in 2003(USHMM Encyclopedia).