Warsaw Uprising vs. Warsaw Ghetto Uprising: What’s the Difference?

The Second World War saw the majority of Europe succumb to Nazi occupation. The brutal repression that followed triggered heroic resistance, often by groups with little chance of success. Nowhere was this better seen than in Poland. A constant battleground, Warsaw saw two of the most striking rebellions: the Warsaw Uprising and the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising.

The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising was the revolt of the last Jewish groups left in the Ghetto before it was liquidated in 1943.

The Warsaw Uprising came a year later, as the Polish Home Army and partisans attempted to overthrow German occupation.

Both ultimately unsuccessful, participants in each uprising showed incredible fortitude in their resistance. Despite their similarity in name, however, they are separated by some key areas.

The two uprisings occurred in nearly completely opposite contexts regarding the strength of occupying forces. The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising began in April of 1943 while WWII was still being fought on Soviet soil. Although the German army had suffered a catastrophic defeat at Stalingrad, much of its force on the Eastern Front was still capable of mounting an offensive, and the Allies were yet to land anywhere in mainland Europe.

Conversely, the Warsaw Uprising came with Germany decidedly on the back foot. Soviet forces were approaching the Polish capital, and it had been nearly two months since Allied forces had landed in Normandy.

The Warsaw Uprising was also part of a broader liberation campaign, whereas the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising was an isolated incident of resistance. Understanding that the incoming Soviet Army would puppet any liberated states, the exiled Polish government planned an uprising that would demonstrate Poland’s viability as a sovereign nation and limit communist influence. The first major clashes began in March 1944, with the major uprising in Warsaw planned for the summer. Although partly organized by Jewish resistance groups, the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising was a much more sporadic response to the liquidation of the Ghetto by the SS.

Composition of Groups

The scale of each uprising was also vastly different. Due to the deportations of able-bodied men in the summer of 1942, known as the Great Action, and executions of many inside the Ghetto, Jewish resistance at most numbered 1,000 sparsely armed fighters who had to make use of whatever they had been able to smuggle into the Warsaw Ghetto. The greater scope of the Warsaw Uprising meant that they were able to muster nearly 50,000 soldiers, bolstered by air support from the Allies and a litany of equipment the Home Army had managed to loot or scavenge from Nazi forces occupying the city.

The German opposition each uprising met was also vastly different. The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising was crushed by the forces occupying the Ghetto, which were mostly Waffen-SS reserve units tasked with the initial liquidation of the remaining Jews in the city. A number of Polish police and Trawniki (Eastern European collaborators) were also present to prevent any escapees.

By August 1944, the situation surrounding Warsaw was much different. A number of units from the retreating Army Group Centre were withdrawing into the city, bolstering a garrison preparing for the Soviet onslaught. As the Warsaw Uprising encompassed a majority of the city, most of the German forces were pulled into putting down insurgents.

The Warsaw Ghetto saw clashes at two stages in 1943. Initial deportations in January saw the Jewish Combat Organization (ZOB) spring into action, delaying German plans until April. In preparation for Hitler’s birthday on the 20th, the SS returned on April 19, also the first day of Passover. ZOB and Jewish Military Union (ZZW) fighters attacked German divisions wherever they could. The resistance lasted much longer than anticipated, holding out for almost a month before the ghetto was finally destroyed. Therefore, much of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising was an impromptu reaction to a German attempt to finally liquidate the ghetto and was reflected in the sporadic fighting that took place.

The greater numbers involved in preparing for the Warsaw Uprising meant there was fighting on a much grander scale. Here, fighting was out in the open as the two sides attempted to wrest control of Warsaw. However, the failure of the Red Army to arrive meant that the Home Army could not survive, holding parts of Warsaw for nearly two months until reinforcing German troops were able to force a surrender from the isolated Polish fighters. However, towards the end of the conflict, the fighting became similar to that seen in the Warsaw Ghetto, as pockets of resistance tried to hold off the German advance.

Goals

The most marked difference between the Warsaw Uprising and the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising was the goals of the participants. No quote can encapsulate the desperation of those still in the Ghetto by 1943 than the memories recounted by Marek Edelman, the only surviving leader of the uprising:

“We knew perfectly well that we had no chance of winning. We fought simply not to allow the Germans alone to pick the time and place of our deaths. We knew we were going to die.”

Edelman summarizes the bravery of those in the final days of the Warsaw Ghetto, who were looking to avoid the same fates that had befallen hundreds of thousands of Jews who had been sent to Treblinka and Majdanek in the previous months, fighting merely to go out on their own terms.

However, Edelman and some others were able to escape thanks to contacts within the Polish resistance and took part in the Warsaw Uprising a year later. There, the goal appeared much clearer: to seize key positions within the city and disrupt the German defenders enough to make the new Soviet offensive easier. Many within the Home Army also had the political aim of controlling enough of Poland’s infrastructure to prevent Soviet/Polish communist operatives from gaining a foothold once the Red Army arrived. This latter reason was likely the key reason the Warsaw Uprising failed.

As outlined above, the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising faced insurmountable odds and had no chance of succeeding. The surrounding German garrison was too heavily armed, and so the outbreak of violence was only to hold off the eventual cleansing of the Warsaw Ghetto. With no Allied armies in German territory by 1943, there was no hope of relief from the German defenders, so the Jewish fighters were left to fend for themselves.

In a point of similarity between the two events, the 50,000 members of the Home Army who rose up in 1944 were also left to fend for themselves. Yet the reason for the Warsaw Uprising’s failure was entirely different. The Soviet Union was in the midst of its onslaught into German territory and on the cusp of seizing Warsaw. However, the Red Army stopped short of the city and did not provide the crucial support the Polish rebels needed. Stalin was keen to ensure that the authority that took power in Poland following the war was communist and wouldn’t give a Western-aligned government any chance of viability.

The result of this stoppage was that the Home Army was decimated and forced to sign a surrender after nearly ninety percent of the city was destroyed. This being said, although the Soviet halt did severely hamper the Warsaw Uprising, some historians also lay blame on the Polish insurgents themselves. The understandable over-eagerness to liberate their homeland meant that the uprising was not as effective as it could have been, and the failure to take certain strongholds in the city meant the ensuing counter-offensive was easier to launch by the Germans. The issue still remains hotly contested and is unlikely to find a clear answer soon.

A key reason for this discrepancy among historians is the available documents surrounding each of the uprisings. SS Commander and Police leader in Poland and Greece, Jürgen Stroop, kept meticulous day-to-day records of the events of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, particularly the German casualties and number of people deported from the Ghetto as SS forces regained control. These notes were presented to Heinrich Himmler after the Ghetto had been cleared. Once the copies were discovered after the war, they became a key component of the Nuremberg Trials. The easier access to documentation surrounding the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising made historical analysis of the conflict much more straightforward.

Conversely, the documentation of the Warsaw Uprising remains much less clear, primarily from the Soviet side. Although many Polish and German accounts of the Uprising have survived the war,  continued secrecy surrounds the Red Army’s decision-making at the time, particularly the extent of interaction between the Home Army and the Soviet advance. This has made creating a holistic image of events much more difficult and so has led to increased speculation from historians. This discussion is intensified by the contentious legacies of the Warsaw Uprising.

Aftermath

Once the Second World War had ended, the extent of destruction that occurred in both uprisings was revealed to the wider world. Where they differed is how the participants of each were treated by the victorious powers.

For the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, the SS officers who oversaw the liquidation of the ghetto were tried in the years after the war, with Stroop being executed by the new Polish government. The few Jews who survived the uprising were forced to scatter, some going into hiding while others were linked up with the Home Army and other resistance groups scattered around the city.

Conversely, the subsequent justice for the Warsaw Uprising was much less substantial. Two of the key SS commanders responsible for the brutal repression that occurred after the uprising, Erich von dem Bach-Zelewski and Heinz Reinefarth, managed to escape prosecution for their complicity in the destruction of Warsaw.

The group that faced the most vicious reprisals for the Warsaw Uprising was, in fact, the Home Army. Throughout the final years of the war, the Soviet Union executed any Polish resistance fighters not aligned with the communists. This was to prevent the formation of an independent Polish movement in the post-war era and ensure that communist Poles would take over with as little resistance as possible.

The Warsaw Uprising and Warsaw Ghetto Uprising are examples of heroic defiance in the face of overwhelming German dominance, both ultimately crushed but not before holding out much further than expected. Where they differ is in their background, goals, and ultimate legacies.

The Warsaw Uprising was an attempt to take advantage of weak German garrisons and establish some semblance of an independent Polish state, but it was let down by a halted Soviet advance.

The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising was the response of a doomed Jewish population in the final days of the Warsaw Ghetto, holding out much longer than anyone would have thought.

They both take their place as examples of heroic resistance against the Nazi occupation.