Ghetto Action
Akcja Getto) was the code name for the armed actions of the Polish Underground State during the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising aimed at helping the insurgents.
According to data collected by Władysław Bartoszewski, the Warsaw district of the AK donated ŻOB: 90 pistols with two magazines each and ammunition, 600 hand grenades (approximately 500 defensive and 100 offensive), 1 eraser, 1 submachine gun, and about 165 kg of explosives (mainly seamed production) and about 400 fuses for them (including own production) and plastic from English discharges.
Shortly before the uprising, Polish-Jewish historian Emanuel Ringelblum (who managed to escape from the Warsaw Ghetto, but was later discovered and executed in 1944) visited a ŻZW armoury hidden in the basement at 7 Muranowska Street.
"[9] "In mid-April at 4 am, the Germans began to liquidate the Warsaw Ghetto, closed down the remnants of the Jews with a police cordon, went inside tanks and armored cars and carried out their destructive work.
Józef Pszenny "Chwacki" ordered an alarm for a previously created 55-man group, which in the strength of three platoons at 18 o'clock got into the vicinity of the wall on Bonifraterska Street in Warsaw.
The aim of diversionary and sapper divisions was to break up the walls and, through the breaches, allow the inhabitants of the ghetto to escape Warszawa Gdańska station and Żoliborz and from there to Kampinos Forest.
In addition to the planned activities of the "Chwacki" patrols, three cars of Blue Police arrived to which the AK soldiers from the miners' cover opened fire.
A shooting took place, which was joined by German forces along with an armored car[11] resulting in the death of two soldiers of the Home Army, Eugeniusz Morawski and Józef Wilk, and the remaining four were wounded.
The first concept for relieving the Jewish insurgents by the Home Army (Armia Krajowa) with an attack on the Nazis, involving the blowing up a section of the Warsaw ghetto wall, was conceived in early 1943, some months before the actual outbreak of the uprising.
Tomasz Strzembosz in his book "Armed Actions of Underground Warsaw 1939-1944" leaves no illusions in that, at that time, only the sabotage units were able to take part in an open fight with the Germans.
to take part and the chief commander of the Home Army issued an order to provide military assistance to the ghetto.
By February 1943 Kedyw (Kierownictwo Dywersji – Directorate of Diversion) assigned a specific unit for the task, which was placed under the command of Józef Pszenny, pseudonym "Chwacki".
The Jewish Fighting Organization undertook to support the attempt from their side of the ghetto, concentrating their insurgency groups at the agreed point and creating an area of strong resistance.
A gate in a house was selected in the vicinity of Sapieżyńska and Bonifraterska, where members of the unit were to assemble the two mines onto boards under the supervision of "Chwacki".
The unit, comprising "Młodek" (Eugeniusz Morawski), "Jasny" (Jerzy Postek), "Tygrys" (Włodzimierz Malinowski) and "Marek" (Marian Dukalski) were tasked with hanging the assembled mines on the ghetto wall, light the fuses and withdraw as quickly as possible.
- Zygmunt Malinowski "Kruk" [16] On the day of the Uprising, "Chwacki" arranged for his men to meet at 16.00 at "Sternika", located on Podwale Street where he distributed weapons and gave final orders.
Machine guns had been placed on the roofs and balconies of the surrounding houses, which were spreading dense fire beyond the walls into the ghetto.
"Chwacki" waited for an opportune moment before giving the order to start the action but a German gendarme sees "Tygrys" and the others carrying the mines and runs towards them armed with a weapon.
The Germans, after their initial surprise, were able to take control of the situation and the access to the wall by the mine unit or from inside the ghetto by ŻOB was no longer possible.
Participation of the Polish underground in the uprising was many times confirmed by a report of the German commander Jürgen Stroop, who wrote:[20] "When we invaded the Ghetto for the first time, the Jews and the Polish bandits succeeded in repelling the participating units, including tanks and armored cars, by a well-prepared concentration of fire.
(...) The main Jewish battle group, mixed with Polish bandits, had already retired during the first and second day to the so-called Muranowski Square.
