The Home Army was the dominant resistance movement in German-occupied Poland during World War II. The Home Army was formed in February 1942 from the earlier Związek Walki Zbrojnej established in the aftermath of the German and Soviet invasions in September 1939. Over the next two years, the Home Army absorbed most of the other Polish partisans and underground forces. Its allegiance was to the Polish government-in-exile in London, and it constituted the armed wing of what came to be known as the Polish Underground State. Estimates of the Home Army's 1944 strength range between 200,000 and 600,000. The latter number made the Home Army not only Poland's largest underground resistance movement but, along with Soviet and Yugoslav partisans, one of Europe's largest World War II underground movements.
Young Radosław Group soldiers, 2 September 1944, a month into the Warsaw Uprising. They had just marched several hours through Warsaw sewers.
Der Klabautermann (an Operation N magazine), 3 January 1943 issue, satirizing Nazi terror and genocide. From the right, emerging from the "III" (Roman numeral three", of the "Third Reich"): Himmler, Hitler, and Death.
"To arms!" Home Army poster during the 1944 Warsaw Uprising
German poster listing 100 Polish hostages executed in reprisal for assassinations of German police and SS by a Polish "terrorist organization in the service of the English", Warsaw, 2 October 1943
Polish resistance movement in World War II
In Poland, the resistance movement during World War II was led by the Home Army. The Polish resistance is notable among others for disrupting German supply lines to the Eastern Front, and providing intelligence reports to the British intelligence agencies. It was a part of the Polish Underground State.
Sequentially from top: soldiers from Kolegium "A" of Kedyw on Stawki Street in Wola district, during the Warsaw Uprising, 1944; Jewish prisoners of Gęsiówka concentration camp liberated by Polish Home Army soldiers from "Zośka" Battalion, 5 August 1944; Polish partisans of "Jędrusie" unit in Kielce area, 1945; Old Town of Warsaw in flames during Warsaw Uprising
Image: Warsaw Uprising by Deczkowki Kolegium A 15861
Image: Jewish prisones of KZ Gesiowka liberated by Polish Soldiers of Home Army Warsaw 1944
Image: Warsaw 1944
