The largest partisan unit in the vicinity of Auschwitz was the AK (Home Army) “Sosieńki” group. It had several score members and operated at a distance of a few kilometers from the camp. Similar groups existed also in localities farther from the camp. Unaware of how things stood, prisoners in the camp cherished the hope that the day would come when Polish partisan units attacked the SS garrison and liberated the camp. It was impossible, however, with the camp SS garrison numbering about 3,000 in 1944 and Luftwaffe soldiers operating the anti‑aircraft cannons located around the IG Farben plant, as well as hundreds of German police, gendarmes and other officers, for a total of about 5,000 Germans, armed with rifles and automatic weapons, in the vicinity. In this situation, members of the Polish underground near Auschwitz concentrated on conveying food and medicine to the prisoners and receiving reports from them about the situation in the camp and the crimes being committed by the SS, and then passing the information on to centers of the Polish Underground State and further, to the Polish government‑in‑exile in London.

(Mini dictionary of terms from the history of Auschwitz)