I. History of Poland
After the Partitions of Poland (1772-1795), which had decreased the size of the country, giving most of the land to Russia, Prussia, and Austria-Hungary.
The First World War provided a practical chance for Poland to restore its independence. The powers, which had separated the country more than one hundred years earlier, were fighting on opposite sides. Germany with the Austro-Hungarian Empire (the Central Powers) fought Imperial Russia allied with France and Great Britain. Polish troops, under their own banners, also joined the fight. At first, under the command of the anti-Russian revolutionary Józef Pi³sudski, Polish battalions were formed to fight Russia. But in 1917, after a number of successful operations against Russians, the legions were disbanded and Pi³sudski was tossed into jail when the Polacks refused to take an oath of allegiance to the Central Powers. Meanwhile, with the fall of its monarchy, Russia's grip on Poland began to slowly decrease to nothing. This enabled the Polacks to organize a Polish army in France to fight against the Central Powers. Russia was defeated first and Germany and Austria soon followed. Finally, on November 11, 1918, Poland re-emerged as a free nation after 123 years of captivity.
However, some problems remained. After the Communist Revolution Russia was determined to carry the flame, so successfully kindled at home, to Poland, Germany and beyond. In 1920, not quite two years after regaining independence, Poland was forced to fight again to maintain its sovereignty and to defend Europe.
II. Pre World War II
The brief, nineteen-year period of peace following the war and lasting until 1939 was marked by a consolidation of the three partitioned territories, which for over one hundred years had belonged to an alliance of different countries. It also marked a time of vigorous economic growth for Poland. In the early 1920s German intrigues in the Free City of Gdansk prevented the free flow of Polish trade through that port. Poland's response was to build a new port in the small fishing town of Gdynia. By 1938, Gdynia became the busiest port in the Baltic Sea and provided serious competition for Gdansk. In south-central Poland, construction of an industrial complex began in 1936. It had hydroelectric power plants, steel works, aircraft manufacturing, machinery, ammunition and fertilizers. In 1938 P...
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...d and they were rounded up and sent to ghettos in towns and cities. The two largest ghettos were established in Warsaw and Lodz.
Between 22nd July and 3rd October 1942, 310,322 Jews were deported from the Warsaw ghetto to these extermination camps. Information got back to the ghetto what was happening to those people and it was decided to resist any further attempts at deportation. In January 1943, Heinrich Himmler gave instructions for Warsaw to be free of all Jews by Hitler's birthday on 20th April.
Warsaw contained several resistance groups. The largest was the Polish Home Army. There was also the Jewish Military Union and the communist Jewish Fighter Organization (ZOB) led by Mordechai Anielewicz, Yitzhak Zuckerman, Gole Mire and Adolf Liebeskind.
On 19th April 1943 the Waffen SS entered the Warsaw ghetto. Although they only had two machine-guns, fifteen rifles and 500 pistols, the Jews opened fire on the soldiers. They also attacked them with grenades and petrol bombs. The Germans took heavy casualties and the Warsaw military commander, Brigadier-General Jürgen Stroop, ordered his men to retreat. He then gave instructions for all the buildings in the ghetto to be set on fire.
confined to live in the slums. The slums were in a way like ghettos. They were very poor,
At the start of Adolf Hitler’s reign of terror, no one would have been able to foresee what eventually led to the genocide of approximately six million Jews. However, steps can be traced to see how the Holocaust occurred. One of those steps would be the implementation of the ghetto system in Poland. This system allowed for Jews to be placed in overcrowded areas while Nazi officials figured out what to do with them permanently. The ghettos started out as a temporary solution that eventually became a dehumanizing method that allowed mass relocation into overcrowded areas where starvation and privation thrived. Also, Nazi officials allowed for corrupt Jewish governments that created an atmosphere of mistrust within its walls. Together, this allowed
Illegal organisations, Jewish militias and underground political groups also formed, planning and executing attacks and resisting the Nazi rule in occupied Europe. The biggest, most coordinated act of armed resistance took place in the Warsaw Ghetto in Poland in 1943. Planned by a group called the Zydowska Organizacja Bojowa (Z.O.B), which was Polish for Jewish fighting organisation, the ZOB refused to board railroad cars which they knew would take them to Treblinka, the killing centre where over 300,000 Jews from Warsaw had already been exterminated. However Jews prayed and held ceremonies in secret, hiding in cellars, attics, and basements, as others watched to make sure no Germans saw.
A large portion of the people who were eliminated were normally dispatched to one of the twelve concentration camps. Families would be separated, then divided into two groups the healthy and strong men and occasionally
Throughout the history of the world there have been hundreds of wars fought and thousands of new creations and advancements in weaponry, which aided certain sides in their victories. Many of the advancements that played big parts in history took place during the late 18th century proceeding all the way through the 19th century because this was the time period of our important Revolutionary Wars, such as the American Revolution and the French Revolution. The Revolutionary Wars lead to much advancement that helped to define the outcomes of many wars that followed, for instance the impact on military strategies due to the advancement of the rifle during the Napoleonic Wars. The Napoleonic Wars took place just after the French Revolution from roughly 1792 until 1815 when Napoleon Bonaparte took over the French troops and continued to fight Great Britain for European supremacy. Napoleon was always known to be a proud leader and made a proclamation 1796 to his troops in Italy in order to raise their spirits that consisted of quotes such as, “The two armies which but recently attacked you with audacity are fleeing before you in terror; the wicked men who laughed at your misery and rejoiced at the thought of the triumphs of your enemies are confounded and trembling” (Kreis). These wars led by Napoleon consisted of a decade’s worth of wars fought between the British and French that lead up to the defeat of Napoleon at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815, due to the use of advanced weaponry and strategies by the British army (Dugdale).
England, Austria, and Prussia then formed an alliance with Russia against Napoleon, who rebuilt his armies and won several minor victories over the Allies, but was soundly defeated in a three-day battle at Leipzig. On March 30, 1814, Paris was captured by the Allies. Napoleon then lost the support of most of his generals and was forced to abdicate on Apr...
In particular, the Germans began ghettos like this one, in order to gather and contain Jews until the “Final Solution” could be further implemented. In particular, after the Germans invaded Poland, they knew that it would be necessary to get rid of the Polish Jews, knowing that with 30% Jews, Warsaw had the 2nd greatest Jewish population. An area was needed to contain the Jews as the concentration camps would take time to build and had limited human capacity. As a result, they chose to create a closed ghetto, as it was easier for the Nazis to block off a part of a city than to build more housing for the Jews. The Germans saw the ghettos as a provisional measure to control and segregate Jews while the Nazi leadership in Berlin deliberated upon options for the removal of the Jewish population. In essence, the Warsaw ghetto was a step from capturing and identifying the Jewish to deporting them to another location. So how exactly was the ghetto
Napoleon established himself as the leader of France and ambitiously worked to make France the most powerful country in Europe. In 1799, Bonaparte carried out a coup on the First Republic of France government and installed himself as the ruler and first Consul.1 Eventually, he would go on to make this a lifetime position and even establish himself as the first Emperor of France. Britain and its Allied forces of Dutch, Belgian, German, and Prussian soldiers recognized Napoleon's growing strength and declared war on France, in 1803. The ensuing Napoleo...
In addition, the city of Danzig was also a very important trade center in Germany. As it was taken away, it limited Germany’s foreign trade, resulting in a decline in the economy. Not only that, all of Germany’s overseas colonies were ceded to the Allies. The land obtained was either split and distributed to other countries, or formed new countries (Background). Of course, Germany did not take these conditions favorably.... ...
His superior military ability lead to the defeat of the Prussian and Austrian armies, as well as the defeat of many other countries such as Germany, England, Spain and Italy. He earned France a fearsome reputation and created a superpower out of a country that had just emerged from civil war [A]. International powers were threatened by Napoleon’s success and began using propaganda to try and diminish his power [H].
On April 19, 1943, after months of secret planning, something revolutionary occurred for Jews during the Holocaust. It was the day of the largest Jewish revolt against German-occupied Europe; the uprising of the Warsaw Ghetto. On the eve of Passover, around 750 Jewish resistance fighters stood up to the Nazi soldiers in refusal of mass deportation, an attempt to save themselves from what was thought to be the inevitable. The heavily-armed and well-trained German troops eventually defeated the resistance; this event demonstrated the dedication of the Jewish fighters to attempt to save the others during a time of life or death. The Jews initiated this uprising because it was thought to be the only option of continued life for Jews in the Ghetto,
They were not allowed to go to any other school unless it was a Jewish school.” (Rossel 54) The Jews were moved into towns called ghettos, forced to live away from non Jews.... ... middle of paper ... ...
In September of 1939 German soldiers defeated Poland in only two weeks. Jews were ordered to register all family members and to move to major cities. More than 10,000 Jews from the country arrived in Krakow daily. They were moved from their homes to the "Ghetto", a walled sixteen square block area, which they were only allowed to leave to go to work.
It’s 4:30am on September 1st, 1939 and the German battleship Schleswig-Holstein awaits for the order to open fire on the Polish garrison of the Westerplatte Fort, Danzig in what was to become the first military engagement of World War II. Meanwhile, sixty two German divisions supported by 1,300 fighter planes prepared for the invasion of Poland. Fifteen minutes later the invasion would take place and spark the beginning of World War II. Two days later at 9am Great Britain would send an ultimatum to Germany, demanding that they pull from Poland or go to war with Great Britain. Four hours later the Ultimatum would expire and Great Britain would officially be at war with Germany on September 3rd, 1939. Six hours later France would also declare war on Germany.
Before being fighter, Napoleon was a brilliant statesman, he knew what he wanted and aligned the necessary resources accordingly. The use of military force was for him the last resort. After having exhaust political means, he committed the maximum possible force to maximize the chance of the success of his campaign. He avoided making the same error than Austrians who have engaged against him, in 1796, only a segment of the available forces then a second and a third, what was easy to defeat in the