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In many cities right before World War II, Zionist groups occupied at best a secondary status behind other Jewish political organizations with different beliefs and faiths which represented Poland’s big Orthodox Jewish population. During the war, people in the Zionist youth movements used leadership positions in ghetto resistance and organizations for fighting.

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Jewish Youth Movements in Wartime Poland

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Jewish Youth Movements in Wartime Poland

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Members of Zionist youth movements took on leading positions in partisan fighting groups and ghetto resistance during World War II.

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Members of the Hashomer Hatzair socialist Zionist youth movement are in this photo. Mordechai Anielewicz, Shifra Sokolka, and Tzvi Braun shown in the back row (from left to right). Rachel Zilberberh and Moshe Domb are in the front. Pictured in Poland, Warsaw, 1938.

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After the start of WW2, a lot of Zionist youth groups who had fleed to the east to return to Poland. This was how it was for the youth movement leadership of Warsaw. Many had fled to Vilna to escape the Nazi invasion of Poland. Youth leaders of movements elected to return voluntarily after several months spent in Russia and Lithuania. The youth movement leaders who returned to Warsaw were motivated by wanting responsibility as local leaders, not to the young movement members, but to the Jewish people there.

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Their actions during the German occupation put the youth movements in a great position to take on a leadership role after the war, both in their own and other survivors' eyes, not withstanding this self-criticism.

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Painted Memories of a Jewish Childhood in Poland Before the Holocaust, by B. Kirshenblatt-Gimblett

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“In Jedwabne ordinary Poles slaughtered the Jews, very much as ordinary Germans from the Ordnungspolizei Batallion no. 101 did in Jozefow, as documented in Christopher Browning's Ordinary Men. They were men of all ages and of different professions; entire families on occasion, fathers and sons acting in concert; good citizens, one is tempted to say (if sarcasm were not out of place, given the hideousness of their deeds), who heeded the call of municipal authorities. And what the Jews saw, to their horror and, I dare say, incomprehension, were familiar faces. Not anonymous men in uniforms, cogs in a war machine, agents carrying out orders, but their own neighbors, who chose to kill and were engaged in a bloody pogrom - willing executioners.”
― Jan Tomasz Gross, Neighbors: The Destruction of the Jewish Community in Jedwabne, Poland

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Cover of an underground Jewish newspaper

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Cover of an underground Jewish newspaper

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The front page of the underground Jewish newspaper "Voice of Youth" On the underside of the cover, it is written: "Fascism has to be smashed." Poland's Warsaw ghetto, January–February 1941.

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These leaders of the youth movement went on to the ghetto resistance and took the lead in deciding on secret social and political activities. Prior to the war, the youth movements relied on Palestinian agents, to make policies.

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This picture shows the Jewish Fighting Organization founder and Zionist youth leader Yitzhak Zuckerman. Zuckerman helped in the local rebellion in Warsaw.

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Background Information On The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising In Poland:

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Background Information On The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising In Poland:

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The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising was one of the most potent acts of armed movement against the Nazis in Poland, taking charge from april 19 to May 16, 1943 due to the establishment of the Warsaw Ghetto on October 12, 1940 (a little over 1 year after the Nazi invasion of Poland), which is the same date as Yom Kippur, a significant Jewish holiday ironically. The ghetto’s establishment followed up with the German decree announcing that all Jewish civilians residing in Warsaw had two weeks to move to the ghetto, a small area in Warsaw taking up only 1.3 square miles of the most densely Jewishly populated city in Europe. This forceful Jewish-filled ghetto was in horrible condition and absurdly overcrowded. The peak population was around 450,000 Jewish residents within this compact area. Czerniaków, president of Warsaw’s Jewish Community Council, got tragic orders from the SS to take a listed group of Jewish residents to be “resettled” elsewhere. Czerniaków understood what he had to do, yet some eyewitnesses reported back to the ghetto about the mass murders going on in the woods. A Polish Jew, Jacob Grojanowski, had escaped from the Nazi control during the start of 1942, and came back to report the news to the ghetto of Jews. This news spread and eventually led to the uprising, with people saying and putting up posters saying, “relocation means death.” Czerniaków, who was a Polish citizen after all, ended his life after refusing to play a role in the genocide of his people, showing how truly cruel the Nazis were, asking a man to destroy his own homeland. From here on out, the acts of resistance arose.

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Acts Of Resistance Shown By The Warsaw Ghetto Rebellion:

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Acts Of Resistance Shown By The Warsaw Ghetto Rebellion:

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During the summer of 1943, soon after the deportation and execution of over 250,000 people (over half of the ghettos population), several group representations of many leftist groups, such as youth groups, Socialists, and Zionists, came together to talk about the appropriate actions to take. The groups disputed quite a bit, arguing whether to take a violent or cautious approach. Eventually, the groups (particularly the youthful representatives of the General Jewish Labor Bund, Hashomer Hatzair, and Dror) came together to make the Żydowska Organizacja Bojowa, or the ZOB (meaning the Jewish Fighting Organization). The group later established the Jewish Military Union in an active attempt to resist the Nazis. The group tried several times to make contact with outside Polish rebellions in order to gain supplies and weapons, but failed multiple times in the start. They mainly used collections from jews in the ghetto to make money in order to buy supplies off the black market, although this was inefficient and the black market sold no cheap supplies to say the least. January 22 was the date of the expected deportation and elimination of more Warsaw Ghetto civilians, and the date of the first true act of rebellion from the ZOB. The Nazis thought they were one step ahead when they entered on january 18th in an attempted surprise deportation, though, the ZOB was ready, and resistance fighters jumped in and opened fire on the guards. Even though the Nazis remained on top throughout the rebellion until its end on January 22, the act was seen as a success by the Polish, due to its impact on the other underground rebellions building up in Poland. The ZOB gained major popularity due to this action, and other rebellions were willing to reach out and give supplies, now knowing that the Warsaw Ghetto rebels were true fighters who stood proud during an impossible battle. On April 19, early in the morning at four, the next rebellious battle took place. Although the Germans were caught off guard, the battle ended in another loss for the ZOB as the Germans replied with a full-blown attack of cannons, mortars, and rapid gunfire. The ghetto was left in flames. After several other attempts, the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising was finally put to an end after German Nazis slowly gained more control over the ghetto and destroyed what remained.

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Impact of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, and the Jewish youth in Poland:

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Impact of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, and the Jewish youth in Poland:

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The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising is seen as one of the largest acts of rebellion during the entire time of the Holocaust. The ZOB influenced many other underground rebellions to take a stand and attempt to stop what the Nazis were disgustingly doing. Although the rebellions didn’t fully stop Hitler from murdering millions of innocent people, they helped the Jews gain something that they didn’t have before. It gave the Polish Jews something to fight for, something that, sadly, many Jews didn’t have at the time. The Jews were being killed left and right, and they knew it was only a matter of time before they would most likely end up in that same situation. But instead of sitting around like cattle before slaughter, they took a stand and died fighting for what they knew was right. You could look at these rebellions in Poland as a loss, or you could look at these actions as a win, not by ending the Holocaust, but instead by saving the Jewish people from dying a worthless death.

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Map Of The Warsaw Ghetto Rebellion (1943).

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A Picture That Shows The Pain That Jews Had To Endure In The Warsaw Ghetto.

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Heinrich Himmler was in charge of another “inspection” of the Warsaw Ghetto, leaving people frightened and putting up signs that read…

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Heinrich Himmler was in charge of another “inspection” of the Warsaw Ghetto, leaving people frightened and putting up signs that read…

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“During the past six months, we have been living in constant, mortal fear, never knowing what the coming day would bring. News has reached us from all sides, about the extermination of Jews in the General Gouvernement [German zone of occupation in Poland], in Germany, and in the occupied countries…”

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Simha Rotem, a member of the Warsaw Ghetto Rebellion, talks about his experience watching the Germans enter the ghetto unprepared for their rebellious attack…

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Simha Rotem, a member of the Warsaw Ghetto Rebellion, talks about his experience watching the Germans enter the ghetto unprepared for their rebellious attack…

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“On April 19, at four in the morning, we saw German soldiers crossing the Nalewki intersection on their way to the Central Ghetto, walking in an endless procession. Behind them were tanks, armored vehicles, light cannons, and hundreds of Waffen-SS units on motorcycles. “They look like they’re going to war,” I said to Zippora, my companion at the post. Suddenly I felt how weak we were. What force did we have against an army, against tanks and armored vehicles? We had nothing but pistols and grenades.”