Reply #5: There seems to have been several well established armed resistance movements in Poland [View All]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polish_resistance_movement_in_World_War_II

Polish resistance movement in World War II

The Polish resistance movement was a resistance movement in Poland which fought against the occupation of Poland by Nazi Germany during World War II. It was an important part of the European anti-fascist resistance movement. In Poland resistance to the Nazi German occupation began already before the German invasion of Poland has ended, although there is little terrain in Poland suitable for guerrilla operations.

The largest of the Polish resistance organizations was the Home Army (in Polish Armia Krajowa or AK), loyal to the Polish government in exile in London. It was formed in 1942 from the Union of Armed Struggle (Związek Walki Zbrojnej or ZWZ which was created in 1939) and incorporated most of the other Polish resistance groups (with the exceptions of communists and some far-right groups). It was also the military arm of the Polish Secret State. From 1943 the AK was increasingly in competition with the communist resistance People's Army (Polish Armia Ludowa or AL), backed by the Soviet Union and controlled by the Polish Workers' Party (Polish Polska Partia Robotnicza or PPR). By 1944 the AK had some 380,000 men, although not all of them were armed: the AL was much smaller, numbering around 30,000 . By the summer of 1944 Polish underground forces numbered more than 300,000 with some estimates of over 400,000-500,000.

In April 1943 the Germans began deporting the remaining Jews from the Warsaw ghetto, provoking the Warsaw Ghetto Rising, April 19 to May 16, one of the first armed uprisings against the Germans in Poland (see also Zamosc Uprising). Some units of the AK tried to assist the Ghetto rising, but for the most part the resistance was unprepared and unable to defeat the Germans. The Jewish leaders knew that the rising would be crushed but they preferred to die fighting than wait to be deported to their deaths in the camps.