(Zydowska Organizacja Bojowa, ZOB; in Yiddish, Yidishe Kamf Organizatsye), underground Jewish military group established in the Warsaw Ghetto to resist Deportations of Jews to Extermination Camps. The ZOB was formed on July 28, 1942, during a two-month wave of deportations to Treblinka.
During the deportations of the summer of 1942, the ZOB appealed to the Ghetto'S Jews to resist. However, the Jews did not heed their call. In addition, the ZOB was made up of different political factions who had trouble cooperating, and the group did not have enough weapons. Thus, the ZOB was unable to execute any effective attacks at that time.
When the deportations ended, ZOB members saw that they needed to settle their differences and shape up in order to be of any help to the Jews of the ghetto. Many new members joined under the leadership of Mordecai Anielewicz, who became head of a revitalized ZOB in November 1942. They prepared for the next onslaught by the Germans, and executed those Jews in the ghetto who had helped the Nazis carry out the deportations. In January 1943, they resisted Nazi attempts to round up Jews. The ZOB then organized the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, and when the revolt broke out in April 1943, ZOB members fought heroically to the bitter end.
