Żagiew ("The Torch", ''Die Fackel''), also known as Żydowska Gwardia Wolności (the "Jewish Freedom Guard"), was a Nazi-collaborationist Jewish agent-provocateur group in German-occupied Poland, founded and sponsored by the Germans and led by Abraham Gancwajch.

Operations

Many ''Żagiew'' members were related to the collaborationist Jewish organization Group 13, which was also led by Gancwajch. The organization operated primarily within the

Warsaw Ghetto The Warsaw Ghetto (, officially , ; ) was the largest of the Nazi ghettos during World War II and the Holocaust. It was established in November 1940 by the Nazi Germany, German authorities within the new General Government territory of Occupat ...

. Żagiew was established in late 1940 and existed until the Ghetto's elimination during the 1943

Warsaw Ghetto Uprising The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising was the 1943 act of Jewish resistance in the Warsaw Ghetto in German-occupied Poland during World War II to oppose Nazi Germany's final effort to transport the remaining ghetto population to the gas chambers of the ...

. Żagiew had over a thousand Jewish secret agents and some were permitted by their

Gestapo The (, ), Syllabic abbreviation, abbreviated Gestapo (), was the official secret police of Nazi Germany and in German-occupied Europe. The force was created by Hermann Göring in 1933 by combining the various political police agencies of F ...

handlers to possess firearms. Żagiew's prime goal was to infiltrate the Jewish resistance network and reveal its connections with the

Polish underground The Polish Underground State (, also known as the Polish Secret State) was a single political and military entity formed by the union of resistance organizations in occupied Poland that were loyal to the Government of the Republic of Poland ...

that aided and hid Jews in the

General Government The General Government (, ; ; ), formally the General Governorate for the Occupied Polish Region (), was a German zone of occupation established after the invasion of Poland by Nazi Germany, Slovak Republic (1939–1945), Slovakia and the Soviet ...

. The organization was able to inflict considerable damage on both fronts.Henryk Piecuch, ''Syndrom tajnych służb: czas prania mózgów i łamania kości'' (A Syndrome of Secret Services: A Time of Brainwashing and of Breaking Bones), Agencja Wydawnicza CB, 1999, . Żagiew agents were also instrumental in organizing the '' Hotel Polski'' affair, in Warsaw, a German scheme to lure thousands of wealthy Jews, under false promises of evacuation to South America, into a trap and extort their money and valuables before killing most of them.

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Zagiew Poland in World War II Jewish collaboration with Nazi Germany Jewish Polish history Polish collaborators with Nazi Germany 1940 establishments in Poland 1943 disestablishments in Poland

Operations

See also

Notes