During World War II, Poland had a highly organized resistance movement, complete with its own fighting force known as the Home Army. Joshua D. Zimmerman discusses the fraught relationship between the Polish underground and the Jews:
Stefan Rowecki, [the commander of the Home Army], authorized the transfer of arms, ammunition, and explosive-device materials to the [Warsaw] ghetto beginning in late January 1943 [in preparation for the uprising there]. The reason for this authorization was a combination of pressure from London and Rowecki’s new appreciation for the demonstrated ability of Jews to fight effectively. Rowecki thus came to the conclusion that Jewish resistance groups inside ghettos deserved, and as citizens of Poland were entitled to, assistance. He also approved or ordered seven documented actions on behalf of the ghetto fighters. During the Warsaw ghetto uprising, Rowecki’s men suffered between fifteen and twenty casualties, [including] two dead, as a result. . . .
Rowecki [also] issued an order to district and sub-district commanders to provide military assistance to Jews inside [other] ghettos wishing to mount self-defense. Almost none, however, obeyed this order and the vast majority of Jews outside Warsaw received no assistance whatsoever. . . .
The most important evidence on this issue comes from the testimony of Yitzḥak Zuckerman. When the ghetto rising began, Zuckerman was residing on the Aryan side of Warsaw while serving as the Jewish Combat Organization’s liaison to the Home Army. He requested a meeting with the Home Army commander to coordinate joint actions. Five days later, the head of the Warsaw district of the Home Army informed Zuckerman that no such meeting would take place. . . .
The ambivalent attitude of the Polish underground to the rising is also evidenced by the important finding of [the historian] Paweł Szapiro, who found that in the extensive coverage of the Warsaw ghetto uprising in the clandestine press of the [resistance], not a single mention was ever made of Home Army aid to the ghetto fighters. Szapiro concluded that the underground authorities had to have imposed a ban on this topic probably out of fear of [negative] public reaction.
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