Essentially there were two major uprisings in Poland during World War II. The first took place in the Warsaw ghetto beginning on January 13, 1943, with the most active portion of the insurgency occurring between April 19 through May 16. The intent of the rebellion was to stop Nazi Germany’s continued transport of Jews to the extermination camp Treblinka. The Uprising ended when poorly armed and insufficiently supplied fighters were crushed by German troops under the command of Juergen Stroop. The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising was the largest single revolt by Jews during the Holocaust.
The second uprising, a nationwide struggle against the Nazis, was waged by the Polish Resistance Movement and began on August 1, 1944. Named Operation Tempest, it was intended to last only a few days until the Soviet Army reached Warsaw. However, the Soviet advance stopped short while Polish resistance against the German forces continued for sixty-three days. The Poles surrendered on October 2, 1944.
Initially, the resistant Poles seized large areas of Warsaw, but because the Soviet Army did not make it to the city as planned, the uprising failed. Allegations point to the theory that Josef Stalin stalled his troops so that later Soviet occupation of Poland would not be contested.
With both uprisings, it is estimated that by January 1945, 85% of Warsaw was destroyed. Although no exact number of casualties is known, it is estimated that 16,000 members of the Polish resistance were killed and another 6,000 wounded. Nearly 200,000 civilians died, many as a result of mass murders conducted by the Nazis. During the uprisings 16,000 German soldiers lost their lives.
