Cursed soldiers

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 Poland
AllegiancePoland (Polish Government-in-Exile)
RoleArmed forces of the Polish Underground State and the 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"[3] (also known as "doomed soldiers",[4] "accursed soldiers", or "damned soldiers"; Polish: żołnierze wyklęci) or "indomitable soldiers"[5] (Polish: żołnierze niezłomni) were a heterogeneous array of anti-Soviet-imperialist and 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 government 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 Stalinist-era Poland included Freedom and Independence (Wolność i Niezawisłość, WIN), the National Armed Forces (Narodowe Siły Zbrojne, NSZ), the National Military Union (Narodowe Zjednoczenie Wojskowe, NZW), the Underground Polish Army (Konspiracyjne Wojsko Polskie, KWP), the Home Army Resistance (Ruch Oporu Armii Krajowej, ROAK), the Citizens' Home Army (Armia Krajowa Obywatelska, AKO), NO (NIE, short for Niepodległość), the Armed Forces Delegation for Poland (Delegatura Sił Zbrojnych na Kraj), and Freedom and Justice (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]

  1. ^ Atlas polskiego podziemia niepodległościowego 1944–1956, Warszawa–Lublin 2007, s. XXXIII.
  2. ^ Sławomir Poleszak, Rafał Wnuk: Zarys dziejów polskiego podziemia niepodległościowego 1944–1956. W: Atlas polskiego podziemia niepodległościowego 1944–1956. Wyd. 1. Warszawa – Lublin: IPN, 2007, s. XXII–XXXVIII. ISBN 978-83-60464-45-8.
  3. ^ Kostov, Chris (14 May 2015). The Communist Century: From Revolution To Decay: 1917 to 2000. Andrews UK Limited. 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. ^ Tennent H. Bagley (2007). Spy wars: moles, mysteries, and deadly games. Yale University Press. pp. 120. 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 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. ^ Engelking, Barbara; Leociak, Jacek; Libionka, Dariusz (2006). [Zagłada Żydów. Pamięć narodowa a pisanie historii w Polsce i we Francji (in Polish). Maria Curie-Skłodowska University. p. 195. 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".