Polish underground state

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Unofficial flag of the Polish Home Army known as the Kotwica

Polish underground state ( Polish: Polskie Państwo Podziemne ) is a term that describes the entirety of the Polish resistance organizations subordinate to the Polish government in exile during World War II , both military and civil. In Polish historiography, the term is used to describe both armed resistance against the German occupying power and all activities in the areas of politics, social affairs and education.

founding

The underground state formed quickly in Poland in the wake of German oppression and followed the long tradition of Polish resistance against foreign occupiers as part of the Polish partitions . It represented a phenomenon in the history of the European underground that has never been seen before.

The military part mainly consisted of various branches of the Polish Home Army and was intended to prepare Polish society for a future struggle for the liberation of the country. Apart from resistance, sabotage, training and propaganda, it was the task of the military arm of the Polish underground state to maintain communication with the government in exile in London and to protect the civil arm of the state. The main role of the latter was to maintain the continuity of the Polish state as a whole, including its institutions, including police, courts and educational institutions at all levels, from elementary schools through high schools to universities. It found u. a. a conspiratorial training took place at underground universities in Warsaw, Krakow, Vilnius and Lviv. A secret press and social welfare system was also organized. The funds for this came from the population themselves or from funds that had been smuggled in from London. This civil arm of the resistance passed seamlessly into the establishment of armed groups. Cadres and institutions were to be trained to take power after the German defeat in World War II.

The idea behind the Polish underground state was that the occupation of Poland by the German Reich and the Soviet Union was contrary to international law. Therefore, all institutions of the occupying powers were considered illegal and “duplicated” by parallel Polish institutions that followed Polish law.

organization structure

Military area
Civil area

history

Wladyslaw Sikorski , Prime Minister of the Polish government in exile 1939 to 1943
Polish scout soldiers in the Warsaw Uprising of 1944

The Polish military had already founded the underground organization Służba Zwycięstwu Polsce ( Service for the Victory of Poland, SZP ) on September 27, 1939, shortly before the surrender and before the establishment of the government in exile . Furthermore, further resistance groups formed spontaneously just weeks after the defeat of the regular army. They fed themselves mainly from the reservoir of former officers and civil servants, as well as from the youth organizations of the parties. In particular, scout organizations ( Szare Szeregi ) later made up a large and often particularly motivated part of the recruits for the resistance.

The Polish Resistance subordinated itself to the government-in-exile, since, according to its self-image, it was a continuation of the Second Republic from the beginning . The government-in-exile tried to unite all these resistance groups, so that by the turn of the year 1943/44 the ZWZ (Polish: Związek Walki Zbrojnej ; German: Association for the Armed Struggle ) was formed, which combined most of the Polish resistance. The united resistance was referred to as Armia Krajowa (German: Home Army , abbreviation: AK ). In 1944 it comprised a total of around 300,000–350,000 members. Only the forces of the extreme right and the extreme left stayed away from this alliance: on the one hand the right-wing national anti-communist NSZ militia with around 35,000 members, on the other hand the communist Armia Ludowa (German: People's Army ; abbreviation: AL ), which after the attack on the Soviet Union tried to establish itself as a counterpoint to the AK. It reached around 100,000 members.

London and the AK leadership in Poland agreed that the main tasks of the resistance should be to carry out espionage work for the Allies, to damage German armaments and the transport system through acts of sabotage, and to repay particularly brutal actions by the occupier. At first they did not want to carry out open warlike actions. On the one hand because of the low military strength of the ZWZ at the beginning, on the other hand in order not to provoke any repression against the civilian population on the part of the German occupiers. The commander of the ZWZ underground, Colonel Stefan Rowecki, wrote in November 1939: The resistance can only openly emerge when Germany collapses, or at least one leg buckles. Then we should be able to cut veins and tendons in the second leg so that the German colossus falls over.

The resistance only became radicalized when it was recognized that his “moderate” demeanor had no influence on the radical oppression and extermination of Poles and Jews by the German occupiers. In 1943 the Kedyw was founded as an organization for sabotage and acts of diversion. Under her aegis, arson attacks, acts of diversion, liberation of prisoners and even attacks on SS leaders were planned and carried out.

The resistance was connected to the Polish government-in-exile via couriers and was supported financially and, to a lesser extent, with weapons. The resistance also carried out large-scale espionage operations in the service of the Allies. Among other things, the production sites of the V1 rocket weapon were deciphered. In July 1944, a dismantled V2 rocket that had been captured by Polish resistance fighters was flown to England by the RAF .

Action Burza

In 1944 the Home Army went over to the “Burza” (“thunderstorm”) action . The aim of the operation was to weaken or expel the fleeing German units through military action and sabotage and to deprive the advancing Soviet troops of the opportunity to establish a pro-Soviet government in Poland.

Ultimately, only the uprisings in Vilnius and Lviv could be carried out successfully. The units were then disarmed and deported by the Soviets .

Warsaw Uprising

On August 1, 1944, the Warsaw Uprising began and was the largest single armed uprising in occupied Europe during World War II. The insurgents of the Home Army fought against the German occupation forces for 63 days before capitulating due to a lack of outside support and in view of the hopeless situation.

Dissolution and reprisals in the post-war period

On December 31, 1944, the USSR unilaterally recognized the Lublin Committee as the only legitimate government in Poland. Previously, the Polish Prime Minister Mikołajczyk had been successfully urged by the Western Allies and the Soviet Union to recognize Poland's shift to the West . The Soviet side had not waited for its approval anyway. The NKVD had started repatriating Polish residents east of the Curzon Line in October 1944 .

Due to the advancing Soviet offensive, the Home Army was disbanded on January 19, 1945. In July 1945 the civil structures of the Polish underground state were dissolved.

As one of the first western observers, George Orwell saw Poland's way into a satellite state dependent on the Soviet Union .

“No, the 'Lublin Regime' is no victory for socialism. It is the reduction of Poland to a vassal state… Woe to those who want to maintain their independent views and policies. ”

“No, the 'Lublin regime' is not a victory for socialism. It is the degradation of Poland to a vassal state. ... Woe to those who want to uphold their independent ideas and principles. "

The soldiers of the Home Army were subject to reprisals by the communists and the secret service of the Soviet NKVD.

The effort to suppress the forces not dependent on Moscow was also strongly directed against the former resistance fighters. During the Warsaw Uprising, the Lublin Committee had already described the AK as a traitor and as being infiltrated by ethnic Germans . The leadership of the Home Army was accused of collaborating with Germany.

In post-war Poland these tendencies were also quickly promoted with the help of the Soviet security services. In June 1945 a show trial of the last AK commander after Bór-Komorowski Leopold Okulicki and several leaders of Polish parties kidnapped to Moscow was held in Moscow. The prison sentences range from four months to ten years. Several convicts died under unexplained circumstances in the Soviet penal camps. The treatment of ordinary soldiers in Poland was also based on this example. Some of them were deported to the Soviet Union or imprisoned in their homeland. In Poland itself, show trials against AK soldiers followed until the 1950s. They were considered exiled soldiers . Furthermore, the former resistance fighters and their family members were mostly excluded from studies and a professional career in the socialist planned economy.

See also

Web links

Commons : Polish Underground State  - collection of images, videos and audio files

literature

  • Jan Karski : My report to the world: History of an underground state , Munich 2011, ISBN 978-3-7632-6461-2 .
  • Beate Kosmala: Zivia Lubetkin (1914–1978) "How to live on ... when hundreds of thousands are led to their deaths?" ", In Florence Hervé (Ed.): With courage and cunning. European women in the resistance against fascism and war, Cologne 2020, pp. 204ff., Papy Rossa Verlag, ISBN 978-3-89438-724-2 .

Footnotes

  1. ↑ Włodzimierz Borodziej : The Warsaw Uprising 1944. Fischer 2001, ISBN 3-10-007806-3 , p. 33 f.
  2. ^ Norman Davies: Rising '44. Pan Books, London 2004, pp. 184-188.
  3. ^ Włodzimierz Borodziej: The Warsaw Uprising in 1944. Fischer, 2001, ISBN 3-10-007806-3 , p. 56.
  4. ↑ Norman Davies: Boże Igrzysko. Historia Polski. Wydawnictwo Znak, Kraków 2003, p. 925.
  5. ↑ Norman Davies: Boże Igrzysko. Historia Polski. Wydawnictwo Znak, Kraków 2003, p. 926.
  6. ↑ Włodzimierz Borodziej: The Warsaw Uprising 1944. Fischer, 2001, ISBN 3-10-007806-3 , pp. 30–37.
  7. ^ Włodzimierz Borodziej: The Warsaw Uprising in 1944. Fischer, 2001, ISBN 3-10-007806-3 , pp. 57-59.
  8. ^ Norman Davies: Rising '44. Pan Books, London 2004, p. 196 ff.
  9. ^ Norman Davies: Rising '44. Pan Books, London 2004, p. 443 ff.
  10. ↑ Orwell's article in Time and Tide is quoted in Norman Davies' Rising '44 on p. 442.
  11. ^ Norman Davies: Rising '44. Pan Books, London 2004, p. 440, p. 457.
  12. ^ Norman Davies: Rising '44. Pan Books, London 2004, pp. 462 f., 466 ff.