Armia Krajowa na Kresach Północno-Wschodnich II Rzeczypospolitej a partyzantka żydowska

Abstract

THE HOME ARMY IN THE NORTH-EASTERN BORDERLANDS OF THE SECOND POLISH REPUBLIC AND JEWISH PARTISANS The main impetus for the participation of Jews in the Soviet partisan movement was the German terror aimed at the total destruction of the Jewish populace. For many Jews, joining Soviet partisan units was the only way of rescue. Several dozen Jewish partisan units fought in the forests of Belarus. At the beginning of 1944, in the Baranów district, Jews constituted 12% of the total number of 8,492 Soviet partisans. In the Lidzki region, where 4,892 partisans operated, 28% of them were Jews. In total, throughout the Belarus Socialist Soviet Republic, Jewish partisans constituted about 5.7% of Soviet units, according to official statistics. It is estimated that over 20,000 Jews fought in Soviet partisan units. However, the share of Jews in the leadership positions was much greater. According to incomplete data, 134 people of Jewish origin held the positions of commanders, commissars and chiefs of staff in partisan units and brigades. The participation of Jews was also significant in the propaganda apparatus of the Soviet partisan movement (they were editors of newspapers and other underground partisan publications). Jews in Soviet partisan units found themselves in the middle of a guerrilla war between the Home Army and the Soviet partisans in the forests of Belarus. It was an armed conflict caused mainly by the German Holocaust policy and the Soviet destruction of all signs of Polish national life in the borderlands. This war was based on the principle: “the enemy of my enemy is my ally”, and was full of mutual crimes. Both Jews and Poles fell victim to the deadly struggle between two powerful totalitarian regimes: the Soviet and the German ones. They were, however, victims of unequal status. For Jews, losing this fight meant extermination, for Poles – a military-political defeat and loss of sovereignty.