VolksdeutscheIn Nazi German terminology, Volksdeutsche (ˈfɔlksˌdɔʏtʃə) were "people whose language and culture had German origins but who did not hold German citizenship". The term is the nominalised plural of volksdeutsch, with Volksdeutsche denoting a singular female, and Volksdeutsche(r), a singular male. The words Volk and völkisch conveyed the meanings of "folk". The Volksdeutsche shed their identity as Auslandsdeutsche (Germans abroad), and morphed into the Volksdeutsche in a process of self-radicalisation.
ŁódźŁódź, also seen without diacritics as Lodz, is a city in central Poland and a former industrial centre. It is the capital of Łódź Voivodeship, and is located approximately south-west of Warsaw. The city's coat of arms is an example of canting, as it depicts a boat (łódź in Polish), alluding to the city's name. Łódź has a population of 670,642 making it the country's fourth largest city. Łódź was once a small settlement that first appeared in 14th-century records.
Warsaw Ghetto UprisingInfobox military conflict | conflict = Warsaw Ghetto Uprising | partof = World War II and the Holocaust | image = Stroop Report - Warsaw Ghetto Uprising BW.jpg | alt = A Jewish boy surrenders in Warsaw, from the Stroop Report to Heinrich Himmler from May 1943 | image_size = 300px | caption = Jewish women and children forcibly removed from a bunker by Schutzstaffel (SS) units for deportation either to Majdanek or Treblinka extermination camps (1943); one of the most iconic pictures of World War II.
RadomRadom is a city in east-central Poland, located approximately south of the capital, Warsaw. It is situated on the Mleczna River in the Masovian Voivodeship (since 1999), having previously been the seat of a separate Radom Voivodeship (1975–1998). Radom is the fourteenth-largest city in Poland and the second-largest in its province with a population of 214,755 (31.06.2022) For centuries, Radom was part of the Sandomierz Province of the Kingdom of Poland and the later Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth.
Operation TempestOperation Tempest (akcja „Burza”, sometimes referred to in English as "Operation Storm") was a series of uprisings conducted during World War II against occupying German forces by the Polish Home Army (Armia Krajowa, abbreviated AK), the dominant force in the Polish resistance. Operation Tempest's objective was to seize control of German-occupied cities and areas while the Germans were preparing their defenses against the advancing Soviet Red Army. Polish underground civil authorities hoped to take power before the Soviets arrived.
GęsiówkaGęsiówka (ɡɛ̃ˈɕufka) is the colloquial Polish name for a prison that once existed on Gęsia ("Goose") Street in Warsaw, Poland, and which, under German occupation during World War II, became a Nazi concentration camp. In 1945–56 the Gęsiówka served as a prison and labor camp, operated first by the Soviet NKVD to imprison Polish resistance fighters of the Home Army and other opponents of Poland's new Stalinist regime, then by the Polish communist secret police.
Soviet Air ForcesThe Soviet Air Forces (Военно-Воздушные Силы Союза Советских Социалистических Республик, VVS SSSR; literally "Military Air Forces of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics"; initialism VVS, sometimes referred to as the "Red Air Force", were one of the air forces of the Soviet Union. The other was the Soviet Air Defence Forces. The Air Forces were formed from components of the Imperial Russian Air Service in 1917, and faced their greatest test during World War II.
Western betrayalWestern betrayal is the view that the United Kingdom, France, and sometimes the United States failed to meet their legal, diplomatic, military, and moral obligations with respect to the Czechoslovak and Polish states during the prelude to and aftermath of World War II. It also sometimes refers to the treatment of other Central and Eastern European states at the time. The term refers to several events, including the treatment of Czechoslovakia during the Munich Agreement and the resulting occupation by Germany, as well as the failure of France and the UK to aid Poland when the country was invaded by Germany and the Soviet Union in 1939.
PawiakPawiak (ˈpavjak) was a prison built in 1835 in Warsaw, Congress Poland. During the January 1863 Uprising, it served as a transfer camp for Poles sentenced by Imperial Russia to deportation to Siberia. During the World War II German occupation of Poland, it was used by the Germans, and in 1944 it was destroyed in the Warsaw Uprising. Pawiak Prison took its name from that of the street on which it stood, ulica Pawia (Polish for "Peacock Street").
Polish Armed Forces in the EastThe Polish Armed Forces in the East (Polskie Siły Zbrojne na Wschodzie), also called Polish Army in the USSR, were the Polish military forces established in the Soviet Union during World War II. Two armies were formed separately and at different times. Anders' Army, created in the second half of 1941, was loyal to the Polish government-in-exile. After Operation Barbarossa and the consequent Polish-Soviet Sikorski–Mayski agreement, an amnesty for Polish citizens in the Soviet Union was declared, which made the formation of Polish military units possible.
