Zamość uprising | |||||||
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Part of World War II and Polish resistance | |||||||
Kreis of General Government after Operation Barbarossa with the new Lublin Distrikt and Zamość (brown, upper centre) |
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Belligerents | |||||||
Nazi Germany |
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Commanders and leaders | |||||||
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Casualties and losses | |||||||
Around 110,000 Poles and Jews from 297 villages expelled |
Supported by:
The Zamość uprising refers to the partisan actions by Polish resistance (primarily Armia Krajowa and Bataliony Chłopskie) against the forced expulsion of Poles from the Zamość region (Zamojszczyzna, "Zamość Lands") conducted under the Nazi German colonization policy of Generalplan Ost during occupation of Poland. The uprising lasted from 1942 to 1944.
The defense of the Zamość region is considered to be among the largest actions of the Polish resistance during World War II.
In 1942, the Zamość region, due to its fertile black soil, was chosen for further German colonisation in the General Government as part of Generalplan Ost. In fact the Zamość region expulsions and colonization can be considered the beginning of the large-scale implementation of the Generalplan Ost. The city itself was to be renamed "Himmlerstadt" (Himmler City), later changed to Pflugstadt (Plow City), which was to symbolise the German "plow" that was to "plow the East". The German occupiers had planned the relocation of at least 60,000 ethnic Germans to the area before the end of 1943. An initial "test trial" expulsion was performed in November 1941, and the whole operation ended in anti-partisan pacification operations combined with expulsions in June–July 1943 which were codenamed Wehrwolf Action I and II.