Polish resistance during World War II | |||||||
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Part of Resistance during World War II | |||||||
Soldiers from Kolegium "A" of Kedyw on Stawki Street in Wola district - Warsaw Uprising 1944, Jewish prisoners of Gęsiówka concentration camp liberated by Polish Home Army soldiers from "Zośka" Battalion, 5 August 1944, Old Town in Warsaw in flames during the Warsaw Uprising, Polish partisans from Kielce area - unit "Jędrusie" 1945, |
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Belligerents | |||||||
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Polish resistance supported by Polish government-in-exile Allies | ||||||
Commanders and leaders | |||||||
Units involved | |||||||
Galician and Volhynian UPA regiments |
Defeat of Nazi Germany
Restoration of Polish statehood after occupation
Sovietization of Poland, imposition of a Communist puppet government and reduction of Poland to a Soviet satellite state until 1989
Liquidation of the Polish Home Army and other anti-Nazi resistance movements by the Soviet secret police
The Polish resistance movement in World War II, with the Polish Home Army at its forefront, was the largest underground resistances in all of Nazi-occupied Europe, covering both German and Soviet zones of occupation. The Polish defence against the Nazi occupation was an important part of the European anti-fascist resistance movement. The Polish resistance is most notable for disrupting German supply lines to the Eastern Front, providing military intelligence to the British, and for saving more Jewish lives in the Holocaust than any other Western Allied organization or government. It was a part of the Polish Underground State.
The largest of all Polish resistance organizations was the Armia Krajowa (Home Army, AK), loyal to the Polish government in exile in London. The AK was formed in 1942 from the Union for Armed Combat (Związek Walki Zbrojnej or ZWZ, itself created in 1939) and would eventually incorporate most other Polish armed resistance groups (except for the communists and some far-right groups). It was the military arm of the Polish Underground State and loyal to the Polish government in Exile.