Cursed soldiers

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Further information: Anti-communist resistance in Poland (1944–1953)

Cursed soldiers
Żołnierze wyklęci
"Cursed soldiers" of anti-communist underground, June 1947. From left:
  • Henryk Wybranowski - pseudonym "Tarzan" (killed Nov. 1948)
  • Edward Taraszkiewicz - "Żelazny" (killed Oct. 1951)
  • Mieczysław Małecki - "Sokół" (killed Nov. 1947)
  • Stanisław Pakuła - "Krzewina"
Active1944–1947
Country 
Polish Government-in-Exile
SizeVaried, c. 150,000-200,000 at peak.[1]
After amnesty of 1947, 200-400 people remained in active, armed conspiracy.[2]

The "cursed soldiers"

anti-communist Polish resistance movements formed in the later stages of World War II and in its aftermath by members of the Polish Underground State. The above terms, introduced in the early 1990s,[6]
reflect the stance of many of the diehard soldiers.

These clandestine organisations continued their armed struggle against Poland's communist regime waged guerrilla warfare well into the 1950s, including attacks against prisons and state security offices, detention facilities for political prisoners, and the concentration camps that had been set up across the country. Most Polish anti-communist groups ceased to exist in the late 1950s, as they were hunted down by agents of the Ministry of Public Security and the Soviet NKVD.[7] The last known "cursed soldier", Józef Franczak, was killed in a 1963 ambush.[8][9]

The best-known Polish anti-communist resistance organisations operating in

Wolność i Sprawiedliwość, WiS).[9]

Similar anti-communist insurgencies occurred in other Central European countries. The "cursed soldiers" have prompted controversy over the degree to which individual fighters or their units were involved in war crimes against Jews or other ethnic minorities on Polish soil or against civilians generally. Common responses to such accusations have included that the accusations were partly or completely fabricated as communist propaganda to discredit the soldiers, or that any genuine victims were killed because of their involvement in, or cooperation with, communist authorities and that their ethnicity had little if any bearing on their demise.[10][11]

Historical background

Armia Krajowa in Sopot, Poland

In the summer of 1944, as Soviet forces advanced into Poland, the USSR set up a provisional

General Secretary of the Polish United Workers' Party, said that "Soldiers of the Armia Krajowa (AK) are a hostile element which must be removed without mercy". Another prominent communist, Roman Zambrowski, said that the AK had to be "exterminated".[13]

The Armia Krajowa officially disbanded on 19 January 1945 to prevent a slide into armed conflict with the Red Army and the increasing threat of civil war over Poland's sovereignty. However, many resistance cells decided to continue their struggle for Polish independence, and regarded Soviet forces as merely the new occupiers. Soviet partisans in Poland had already been ordered by Moscow on 22 June 1943 to engage Polish partisans in combat.[14]

According to

postwar period.[15]

Formation of the anti-communist underground

Uniform of a Polish anti-communist fighter, with breast badge displaying image of the Black Madonna of Częstochowa

The first AK structure designed primarily to deal with the Soviet threat was NIE (short for niepodległość "independence", and also meaning "no"), formed in mid-1943. NIE's goal was to observe and spy while the Polish government-in-exile decided how to deal with the Soviets, rather than to engage in combat. At that time, the exiled government still believed that negotiations could result in a solution leading to Poland's post-war independence.

On 7 May 1945, NIE was disbanded and transformed into the

Delegatura Sił Zbrojnych na Kraj ("Armed Forces Delegation for Homeland"). This organization lasted only until August 8, 1945, when the decision was made[who?] to disband it and cease partisan resistance on Polish territory.[13]

In March 1945 a

Armia Krajowa, were invited by Soviet general Ivan Serov, with the agreement of Joseph Stalin, to a conference on their eventual entry into the Soviet-backed Provisional Government. They were presented with a warrant of safety, but the NKVD arrested them in Pruszków on 27 and 28 March.[20][21] Leopold Okulicki, Jan Stanisław Jankowski, and Kazimierz Pużak were arrested on 27 March, and 12 more the following day. Alexander Zwierzynski had already been detained earlier. They were all taken to the Lubyanka prison in Moscow for interrogation before trial.[22][23][24] After several months of brutal interrogation and torture,[25] they were falsely charged with "collaboration with Nazi Germany" and "planning a military alliance with Nazi Germany".[26][27]

The Polish Committee of National Liberation declined jurisdiction over former AK soldiers. Consequently, for more than a year, Soviet agencies such as the NKVD dealt with the AK. By the end of the war, approximately 60,000 AK soldiers had been arrested, and 50,000 of them were deported to the Soviet Union's prisons and prison camps. Most had been captured by the Soviets during or in the aftermath of Operation Tempest when many AK units tried to cooperate with the Red Army during their nationwide uprising against the Germans.

Other veterans were arrested when they approached the communist authorities after being promised

People's Republic of Poland proclaimed an amnesty for most wartime resistance fighters. The authorities expected around 12,000 people to give up their arms, but the total number of partisans to come out of the forests eventually reached 53,000. Many of them were arrested despite the promises. After repeated broken promises in the first few years of communist rule, former AK members refused to trust the government.[13]

After the

Urząd Bezpieczeństwa (UB), came in the second half of 1945 when they convinced several leaders of WiN that they truly wanted to offer amnesty to AK members. Within a few months, intelligence gathered by the authorities led to thousands more arrests.[13] The primary period of WiN activity lasted until 1947. The organisation finally disbanded in 1952.[28]

Persecution

Home Army
).

The NKVD and UB used brute force and deception to eliminate the underground opposition. In the autumn of 1946, a group of 100–200 "cursed soldiers" of the

Narodowe Siły Zbrojne (National Armed Forces, NSZ) were lured into a trap and massacred. In 1947, Colonel Julia ("Bloody Luna") Brystiger of the Polish Ministry of Public Security proclaimed at a security briefing that: "[t]he terrorist and political underground" had ceased to be a threatening force for the UB, although the "class enemy" at universities, offices and factories still had to be "found out and neutralised."[13]

The persecution of AK members was only one aspect of the reign of Stalinist terror in postwar Poland. In the period from 1944 to 1956, at least 300,000 Polish civilians were arrested.

Auschwitz.[13]

A further six million Polish citizens (i.e., one out of every three adult Poles) were classified as suspected members of a 'reactionary or criminal element' and subjected to investigation by state agencies. During the

fall of communism, that the convictions of AK soldiers were finally declared invalid and annulled by Polish law.[13]

Largest operations and actions

Main article: Anti-communist resistance in Poland (1944–1953)

The biggest battle in the history of the National Military Union (Narodowe Zjednoczenie Wojskowe, NZW) took place on 6–7 May 1945, in the village of Kuryłówka in southeastern Poland. In the Battle of Kuryłówka, the partisans fought against the Soviet 2nd Border Regiment of the NKVD, gaining a victory for the underground forces commanded by Major Franciszek Przysiężniak ("Marek"). The anti-communist fighters killed up to 70 Soviet agents. The NKVD troops retreated in haste, only to later return to the village and burn it to the ground in retaliation, destroying over 730 buildings.[30][31]

On 21 May 1945, a heavily armed AK unit led by Colonel Edward Wasilewski, attacked and destroyed the NKVD camp in Rembertów on the eastern outskirts of Warsaw. The Soviets had incarcerated hundreds of Polish citizens there,[32][33][34] including members of the Armia Krajowa.[35]

Pacification

One of the biggest anti-partisan operations by the communist authorities took place from 10 to 25 June 1945, in and around the

LWP units, against Armia Krajowa resistance fighters. The operation extended into the territory of occupied Lithuania. More than 2,000 suspected anti-communist Polish fighters were captured and detained in Soviet internment camps. About 600 of the "Augustów Missing" are presumed to have died in Soviet custody, their bodies buried in unknown mass graves on the present territory of Russia. The Polish Institute of National Remembrance has declared the 1945 Augustów roundup to be "the largest crime committed by the Soviets on Polish lands after World War II."[36]

Anti-communist resistance organizations

Among the best-known Polish underground organizations,[9] engaged in guerrilla warfare were:

  1. Wolność i Niezawisłość
     ("Freedom and Independence", WIN) founded on September 2, 1945, active to 1952.
  2. Narodowe Siły Zbrojne
     ("National Armed Forces", NSZ) created on September 20, 1942, split in March 1944.
  3. Narodowe Zjednoczenie Wojskowe
     ("National Military Union", NZW) established in mid-to-late 1940s, active until mid-1950s.
  4. Konspiracyjne Wojsko Polskie ("Underground Polish Army", KWP) which existed from April 1945 to as late as 1954.
  5. Ruch Oporu Armii Krajowej ("Resistance of the Home Army", ROAK) formed in 1944 against UB collaborators
    .
  6. Armia Krajowa Obywatelska ("Citizens' Home Army", AKO) founded in February 1945, incorporated into Wolność i Niezawisłość in 1945.
  7. NIE ("NO") formed in 1943, active till 7 May 1945.
  8. Delegatura Sił Zbrojnych na Kraj
     ("Delegature of the Polish Forces at Home") formed on May 7, 1945, dissolved on August 8, 1945.
  9. Wolność i Sprawiedliwość
     ("Freedom and Justice", WIS) founded in early 1950s.

Events

Notable members

The following list (in most part), was taken from the book Not Only Katyń (Nie tylko Katyń) by Ireneusz Sewastianowicz and Stanisław Kulikowski (Białostockie Wydawn. Prasowe, 1990); Part 10: "The Augustow Missing," compiled by the Citizen Committee for Search of Suwałki Region Inhabitants who Disappeared in July 1945 (Obywatelski Komitet Poszukiwań Mieszkańców Suwalszczyzny Zaginionych w Lipcu 1945 r., in Polish).[37]

Cultural references

The "cursed soldiers" served as an inspiration for numerous films, documentaries, books, stage plays, and songs and, in Poland, they have become the ultimate symbol of patriotism and heroic fight for fatherland against all odds. Notable examples include:

Film

The "cursed soldiers" graphic design on patriotic apparel
  • In 1958,
    anti-Communist
    underground in Poland.
  • In 1990, Tadeusz Pawlicki directed a documentary film entitled Witold, which is dedicated to the life of Witold Pilecki, the author of Witold's Report, the first comprehensive intelligence report on the atrocities committed at the Auschwitz concentration camp. The film features interviews with Pilecki's wife and his children Zofia and Andrzej. It was broadcast on TVP2 and TVP Historia television channels.[41]
  • In 1995, Alina Czerniakowska directed a documentary in collaboration with historian Leszek Żebrowski on the Polish anti-communist underground after the end of World War II entitled Zwycięstwo ("Victory").[42]
  • In 1996, Tadeusz Pawlicki, directed the film My, ogniowe dzieci, telling the story of Józef Kuraś alias Ogień ("Fire").[43]
  • In 2000, Mariusz Pietrowski, directed Łupaszko, a documentary film on the life of major Zygmunt Szendzielarz (known as Łupaszko).[44]
  • In 2002, Grzegorz Królikiewicz directed a documentary film devoted to the life of Józef Kuraś entitled A potem nazwali go bandytą ("And Then They Called Him a Bandit...").
  • In 2004, a documentary Against the Odds: Resistance in Nazi Concentration Camps was produced. It features the story of Witold Pilecki.[45]
  • In 2007, Jerzy Zalewski's film Elegia na śmierć Roja is dedicated to portraying the history of Mieczysław Dziemieszkiewicz.
  • In 2008, Discovery Historia channel broadcast a two-part documentary entitled In the Name of the Polish People's Republic.
  • In 2009, a documentary series Cursed Soldiers was produced by Discovery Historia.[46]
  • In 2013, Dariusz Walusiak's film Escape from Hell. Tracing the Steps of Witold Pilecki is dedicated to the escape of Witold Pilecki, Jan Redzeja and Edward Ciesielski from the notorious Auschwitz concentration camp.
  • In 2014, Heroes of War: Poland was produced by
    History Channel UK and features the life of Witold Pilecki.[47]
  • In 2015, the
    5th Wilno Brigade in Home Army who was captured, tortured and sentenced to death at the age of 17 by the communist authorities.[48][49][50]
  • 2016 saw the premiere of Jerzy Zalewski's film Historia Roja starring Krzysztof Zalewski as the main character.[51]
  • In 2017, Konrad Łęcki directed Wyklęty ("The Cursed"), a film based on the life of anti-communist resistance member Józef Franczak.[52]

Music

Theatre

  • On 15 May 2006, a stage production Śmierć rotmistrza Pileckiego ("The Death of Captain Pilecki") directed by Ryszard Bugajski and starring Marek Probosz had its premiere.
  • On 22 January 2007, a play Inka. 1946 produced by Teatr Telewizji and diredcted by Natalia Koryncka-Gruz had its premiere in Poland.[61]

Books

See also

References

  1. ^ Atlas polskiego podziemia niepodległościowego 1944–1956, Warszawa–Lublin 2007, s. XXXIII.
  2. ISBN 978-83-60464-45-8
    .
  3. ISBN 9781785382178
    – via Google Books.
  4. ^ "Polish group sues Argentine paper under new Holocaust law". Reuters. 4 March 2018. Retrieved 4 March 2018.
  5. ^ "1st of March - "Indomitable" Soldiers National Remembrance Day". www.msz.gov.pl.
  6. ^ "Od wyklętych do Smoleńska: jak - i po co - PiS przepisuje najnowszą historię Polski?", and interview with professor Rafał Wnuk
  7. ISBN 978-0-300-12198-8
    . Retrieved 24 May 2011. puppet government they had set up formally disbanded the AK.
  8. ^ "Żołnierze wyklęci: Antykomunistyczne podziemie po 1945 roku". Muzeum Podkarpackie, Krosno. 2007. Archived from the original on 3 May 2007. Retrieved 29 May 2011. w 50 lat po zamordowaniu członków IV Zarządu Głównego Zrzeszenia Wolność i Niezawisłość  (in Polish)
  9. ^ a b c Agnieszka Adamiak, Oddziałowe Biuro Edukacji Publicznej (2001). "Żołnierze wyklęci. Antykomunistyczne podziemie na Rzeszowszczyźnie po1944 roku". Institute of National Remembrance. Archived from the original on 7 February 2012. Retrieved 29 May 2011.  (in Polish)
  10. ISBN 9788322724323
    .
    • Siegień, Paulina; Siegień, Wojciech (24 February 2020). "An unwanted march: Polish nationalists honour anti-communist partisans accused of war crimes". Notes from Poland. Retrieved 22 March 2023. "I very much appreciate the actions of Romuald 'Bury' Rajs," one participant in the march, Wiesław Bielawski, tells us. [...] "Bury was one of the greatest Polish heroes of the postwar period. He and his troops fought communists, managed to eliminate communist party cells, fought people collaborating with communists, executed traitors to the Polish nation." Asked if civilians killed in 1946 were traitors to the Polish nation, Bielawski and his friends argue that civilians died only because they did not obey the orders of Bury's soldiers. Why did Bury burn one of the villages? Because this property served traitors to the Polish nation.
  11. ^ Koschalka, Ben (2 March 2020). "Poles should be willing to die for their country like the "cursed soldiers", says PM". Notes from Poland. Retrieved 22 March 2023. But commemoration of the cursed soldiers also often stirs controversy, given that among the undisputed heroes, such as [Witold] Pilecki, are some figures who have been found responsible for the killing of civilians, including from ethnic minorities such as Jews and Belarusians.
    • Tilles, Daniel (3 March 2021). "Controversy over state commemoration of Polish anti-communist partisan accused of war crimes". Notes from Poland. Retrieved 22 March 2023. But many in Poland – particularly on the political right – regard [Zygmunt] Szendzielarz as a hero for his role in fighting the wartime German occupiers and postwar communist authorities, who executed him in 1951. They often argue that the reputation of the cursed soldiers was deliberately and falsely tarnished by the communists. "The communists considered Szendzielarz one of their greatest opponents," said Piotr Niwiński, a historian at the University of Gdańsk, quoted by the Polish Press Agency (PAP). "[So] they tried to annihilate him not only physically but also through propaganda, blaming him for many crimes."
    • Tilles, Daniel (9 February 2022). "Opposition MPs walk out as Polish parliament honours resistance fighter accused of war crime". Notes from Poland. Retrieved 22 March 2023.
    • Tilles, Daniel (22 March 2023). "Jewish leaders condemn Polish coin honouring WWII partisan accused of murdering Jews". Notes from Poland. Retrieved 22 March 2023. On its website, the Institute of National Remembrance (IPN) [...] defends [Józef] Kuraś's legacy. It argues he has been unfairly portrayed as a murderous antisemite due to the lasting effect of communist propaganda, which sought to sully the name of the cursed soldiers. The IPN admits that "Jews died at the hands of the [Polish] underground". However, this was not because they were Jews, but because "of their service in the [communist] organs of repression, Polish Workers' Party or cooperation with the Department of Security".
  12. ^ a b Review of Sowjetische Partisanen in Weißrußland, by Marek Jan Chodakiewicz, in Sarmatian Review, April 2006.
  13. ^ a b c d e f g h i Andrzej Kaczyński (2 October 2004), Wielkie polowanie: Prześladowania akowców w Polsce Ludowej [Great hunt: the persecutions of AK soldiers in the People's Republic of Poland], Rzeczpospolita, Nr 232, last accessed 21 March 2016 via Internet Archive.
  14. ISBN 0-7864-0371-3. Google Print, pp. 88, 89, 90
    .
  15. ^ Judith Olsak-Glass, Review of Piotrowski's Poland's Holocaust, in Sarmatian Review, January 1999.
  16. ISBN 0-333-98212-6
    Page 115
  17. ISBN 1-897984-00-6
    , Page 73
  18. ^ Mikolajczyk, S. (1948) The pattern of Soviet domination, Sampson Low, Marston & Co, Page 125
  19. ISBN 0-333-39258-2
    Page 324
  20. ^ Prazmowska, A. (2004) Civil war in Poland, 1942-1948 Palgrave
    ISBN 0-333-98212-6
    Page 116
  21. ISBN 0-8179-8862-9
    Page 39
  22. ISBN 0-333-39258-2
    Page 325-326
  23. ^ Umiastowski, R. (1946) Poland, Russia and Great Britain 1941-1945 Hollis & Carter Pages 462-464
  24. ^ Piesakowski, T. (1990) The fate of Poles in the USSR 1939~1989 Gryf Pages 198-199
  25. ISBN 0-333-39258-2
    Page 335
  26. ISBN 0-333-39258-2
    Page 336
  27. ^ Umiastowski, R. (1946) Poland, Russia and Great Britain 1941-1945 Hollis & Carter Pages 467-468
  28. ISBN 978-83-86244-05-8
    . Retrieved 4 May 2012.
  29. ^
    Instytut Pamięci Narodowej. Archived from the original
    on 30 September 2012. Retrieved 1 June 2011.
  30. ^ Urząd Gminy Kuryłówka. "Kuryłówka village. Calendarium". Portal Podkarpacki. Archived from the original on 2 April 2015. Retrieved 30 May 2011.
  31. ^ Norman Davies, No Simple Victory, Viking Penguin, 2006. [page needed]
  32. ISBN 0-670-03284-0
    , p. 495
  33. ISBN 0-333-90568-7
    , p. 495
  34. ISBN 0-330-48863-5
    , p. 497
  35. ISBN 0-7864-0371-3, p.131 (Google Print
    )
  36. Instytut Pamięci Narodowej. 20 July 2005. Archived from the original
    on 22 July 2011. Retrieved 30 May 2011.  (in Polish)
  37. ^ Ireneusz Sewastianowicz; Stanisław Kulikowski (1990). "Part 10: "The Augustow Missing"". Not Only Katyn. Białostockie Wydawn. Prasowe. {{cite book}}: |website= ignored (help)
  38. ^ Photograph of Franciszek Andrulewicz at DoomedSoldiers.com
  39. ^ List of the Augustow Missing at DoomedSoldiers.com
  40. ^ Stankiewicz, Janusz. "Janusz Stankiewicz. Genealogia, przodkowie, badania genealogiczne, forum dyskusyjne". www.stankiewicze.com.
  41. ^ "Witold". Retrieved 5 March 2020.
  42. ^ "Zwycięstwo". Retrieved 4 March 2020.
  43. ^ "My, ogniowe dzieci". Retrieved 5 March 2020.
  44. ^ "Kino Kresowe w DSH - projekcja filmu dokumentalnego "Łupaszko"". Retrieved 5 March 2020.
  45. ^ "Against the Odds". Retrieved 5 March 2020.
  46. ^ ""Żołnierze wyklęci" - nowy cykl w Discovery Historia". Retrieved 4 March 2020.
  47. ^ History UK orders "Heroes of War" from Sky Vision. Realscreen (25 April 2013). Retrieved 4 March 2020.
  48. ^ "INKA. ZACHOWAŁAM SIĘ JAK TRZEBA". Retrieved 4 March 2020.
  49. ^ "DANUTA SIEDZIKÓWNA, ALIAS 'INKA'". Retrieved 4 March 2020.
  50. ^ "Poland honours Indomitable Soldiers". Retrieved 4 March 2020.
  51. ^ "HISTORIA ROJA". Retrieved 4 March 2020.
  52. ^ "Konrad Łęcki o kulisach powstawania filmu "Wyklęty"". Retrieved 5 March 2020.
  53. ^ "Pieśni Leszka Czajkowskiego". Archived from the original on 22 October 2019. Retrieved 5 March 2020.
  54. ^ "De Press – Myśmy Rebelianci - Piosenki Żołnierzy Wyklętych - Koncert". Retrieved 5 March 2020.
  55. ^ "Tadek Firma Solo będzie rapował o Żołnierzach Wyklętych w Baranowie Sandomierskim". Retrieved 5 March 2020.
  56. ^ "Piosenki na 100-lecie. Hemp Gru "Zapomniani bohaterowie"". Retrieved 6 March 2020.
  57. ^ "Panny wyklęte". Retrieved 4 March 2020.[permanent dead link]
  58. ^ "Kto dziś upomni się o pamięć?". Retrieved 6 March 2020.
  59. ^ "Inmate 4859". Retrieved 5 March 2020.
  60. ^ "Kacper Sikora: Pod znakiem miecza – recenzja". Retrieved 6 March 2020.
  61. ^ "INKA 1946". Retrieved 7 March 2020.
  62. ^ "Korpus Bezpieczeństwa Wewnętrznego a Żołnierze Wyklęci". Retrieved 6 March 2020.
  63. ^ "In Pilecki's footsteps: the story behind the book 'The Volunteer'". Retrieved 4 March 2020.
  64. ^ "Costa Book Awards | Behind the beans | Costa Coffee". Archived from the original on 4 December 2019.

Further reading

  • Jerzy Ślaski, Żołnierze wyklęci, Warszawa, Oficyna Wydawnicza Rytm, 1996
  • Grzegorz Wąsowski and Leszek Żebrowski, eds., Żołnierze wyklęci: Antykomunistyczne podziemie zbrojne po 1944 roku, Warszawa, Oficyna Wydawnicza Volumen and Liga Republikańska, 1999
  • Kazimierz Krajewski
    et al.
    , Żołnierze wyklęci: Antykomunistyczne podziemie zbrojne po 1944 r., Oficyna Wydawnicza Volumen and Liga Republikańska, 2002
  • Tomasz Łabuszewski, Białostocki Okręg AK- AKO : VII 1944-VIII 1945 (Warszawa: Oficzna Wydawnicza Volumen and
    Dom Wydawniczy Bellona
    , 1997)
  • Zrzeszenie “Wolność i Niezawisłość” w dokumentach, 6 vols. (Wrocław: Zarząd Główny WiN, 1997–2001)
  • Zygmunt Woźniczka, Zrzeszenie “Wolność i Niezawisłość” 1945-1952 (Warszawa: Instytut Prasy i Wydawnictw “Novum” – “Semex”, 1992)
  • Marek Latyński, Nie paść na kolana: Szkice o opozycji lat czterdziestych (London: Polonia Book Fund Ltd., 1985)

External links