Poland during World War 2 Essay -- essays research papers

I. History of Poland After the Partitions of Poland (1772-1795), which had decreased the size of the country, giving most of the land to Russia, Prussia, and Austria-Hungary. The First World War provided a practical chance for Poland to restore its independence. The powers, which had separated the country more than one hundred years earlier, were fighting on opposite sides. Germany with the Austro-Hungarian Empire (the Central Powers) fought Imperial Russia allied with France and Great Britain. Polish troops, under their own banners, also joined the fight. At first, under the command of the anti-Russian revolutionary Jà ³zef Pi ³sudski, Polish battalions were formed to fight Russia. But in 1917, after a number of successful operations against Russians, the legions were disbanded and Pi ³sudski was tossed into jail when the Polacks refused to take an oath of allegiance to the Central Powers. Meanwhile, with the fall of its monarchy, Russia's grip on Poland began to slowly decrease to nothing. This enabled the Polacks to organize a Polish army in France to fight against the Central Powers. Russia was defeated first and Germany and Austria soon followed . Finally, on November 11, 1918, Poland re-emerged as a free nation after 123 years of captivity. However, some problems remained. After the Communist Revolution Russia was determined to carry the flame, so successfully kindled at home, to Poland, Germany and beyond. In 1920, not quite two years after regaining independence, Poland was forced to fight again to maintain its sovereignty and to defend Europe. II. Pre World War II The brief, nineteen-year period of peace following the war and lasting until 1939 was marked by a consolidation of the three partitioned territories, which for over one hundred years had belonged to an alliance of different countries. It also marked a time of vigorous economic growth for Poland. In the early 1920s German intrigues in the Free City of Gdansk prevented the free flow of Polish trade through that port. Poland's response was to build a new port in the small fishing town of Gdynia. By 1938, Gdynia became the busiest port in the Baltic Sea and provided serious competition for Gdansk. In south-central Poland, construction of an industrial complex began in 1936. It had hydroelectric power plants, steel works, aircraft manufacturing, machinery, ammunition and fertilizers. In 1938 P... ...d and they were rounded up and sent to ghettos in towns and cities. The two largest ghettos were established in Warsaw and Lodz. Between 22nd July and 3rd October 1942, 310,322 Jews were deported from the Warsaw ghetto to these extermination camps. Information got back to the ghetto what was happening to those people and it was decided to resist any further attempts at deportation. In January 1943, Heinrich Himmler gave instructions for Warsaw to be free of all Jews by Hitler's birthday on 20th April. Warsaw contained several resistance groups. The largest was the Polish Home Army. There was also the Jewish Military Union and the communist Jewish Fighter Organization (ZOB) led by Mordechai Anielewicz, Yitzhak Zuckerman, Gole Mire and Adolf Liebeskind. On 19th April 1943 the Waffen SS entered the Warsaw ghetto. Although they only had two machine-guns, fifteen rifles and 500 pistols, the Jews opened fire on the soldiers. They also attacked them with grenades and petrol bombs. The Germans took heavy casualties and the Warsaw military commander, Brigadier-General Jà ¼rgen Stroop, ordered his men to retreat. He then gave instructions for all the buildings in the ghetto to be set on fire.