History /
Polish Underground in WWII ( interview with Dr. Wojciech Muszynski) [12]
- 70 years ago, 14 February 1942, under the order of the Supreme Commander General Wladyslaw Sikorski, in place of the Union of Armed Struggle, AK (Armia Krajowa) was created. Was it only a name change?
- UAS was an underground military organization. The AK became a state institution, an integrated part of the Polish State Underground structures and the Polish Armed Forceswhich were fighting in the west. Let us remember that just before the collapse of the Warsaw uprising General Bor-Komorowski, commander of the Army, was appointed Supreme Commander of Polish Armed Forces. And although this appointment was political, it best demonstrates the importance of AK.
-At its peak 380 000 soldiers served in the AK, including 7.5 thousand officers. How did it's rivals look in comparison - the Communist underground, which did not recognize the Polish Government in Exile?
- The whole of the armed communist underground during the German occupation had no more than 10 thousand people in the military and had no meaning. Against this background organizations of truly Polish political parties were incomparably more numerous. The National Military Organization which merged with AK in 1942 had about 80 thousand people, the National Armed Forces - merged in 1944 - about 70 thousand., the Peasant Battalions had 50 000 soldiers, most of which also became part of the Army.
- The People's Republic taught us that the AK hardly fought the Germans, but the constant "with arms at their feet." Militarily, how did the Polish Underground look in comparison to other occupied countries?
- In Norway and Slovakia, the Germans were able to create a puppet regime. In France, Marshal Petain collaborated closely with Germany and the French partisans presented themselves best in the post-war films. The Dutch resistance is demonstrated by the fact that there were many enlistings in the German army that they formed three divisions of the Waffen - SS. The AK could not win a war and you should always keep in mind when assessing the military effort of our fathers and grandfathers. Therefore, its purpose was primarily to protect the Polish people against all forms of German extermination. The partisan troops played a role in policing, protecting the Polish population. Another priority task was to train officers and non-commissioned officers in the event of widespread outbreak of a national uprising. It was only third place I would put the following operations: acquisition of weapons, supplies, issuing the underground press, the production of false documents, clandestine, underground health care, addressing particularly dangerous traitors or important German officers. A separate chapter was the activity of intelligence, such as in the famous V - The development of technology, the German V1 and V2 rockets.
- Some historians believe that the Army did, however, too little, because the German forces in the General Government and in areas annexed to the Reich again, so were not very numerous.
- It depends on what period. When the front line was on our land, the German forces were counted in the millions of soldiers. Professor Marek Jan Chodakiewicz calculated that in 1942, when the Germans were at the peak of power, in one county Kraśnik members of all German armed formations (Wehrmacht, the Gestapo, police, gendarmerie, Forest Service, railway security, etc.) there were no more than a few hundred . After the German attack on Soviet Russia Polish communists tried to provoke a national uprising. They wanted as many German forces to be tied down on Polish territory as possible, which would relieve pressure off the retreating Red Army and cut off German supply lines. All this had the intention to achieve hands of Poles, or AK. Had they managed to persuade the Polish Underground State for a national uprising, the Germans in a few weeks without problems would be able to download hundreds of thousands of Polish troops from Germany, the occupied countries of Europe and drown the country in blood. Army Command could not be provoked, because even ordinary, ordinary Poles remember well what was the Soviet occupation of 1939 - 1941. They knew that the outbreak of the Soviet-German war many Communists cooperated with the Germans. We have documented evidence that the Communists denounced Army soldiers, sending long letters to the Gestapo Home Army, which the accused that they are ... Communists.
- In 1943, Blanka Kaczorowska, Ludwig Kalkstein and Eugeniusz Swierczewski denounced to the Gestapo General Grot-Rowecki, commander of AK. However, some historians believe that the Communists were behind this.
- None of the three agents of the Gestapo was a communist. However, some evidence suggests that the denunciation of General Rowecki could have been the Soviet work . No lets get back to the communists trying to start a nationwide uprising. How would it look like, can be traced on the example of Yugoslavia. There, in 1941 the Communists provoked a completely uncoordinated and totally senseless armed instance, what caused the reaction of the German troops occupying Serbia, Bulgaria, to some extent also cooperating with Italian and German Croats, who together made a gigantic massacre of Serb civilians. In addition there must be fighting Tito's communists from power pre-war legal representative offices of General Mihailovic. Some sources say that from 1941 to 1942 more than a million Serbs were killed, a nation which is much less numerous than our own.
- Is in occupied Poland - like in Yugoslavia - there were fratricidal fighting among various underground formations?
- In 1944, Holy Cross Brigade of the National Armed Forces killed about 400 communists. They were mainly the People's Army guerrillas, members of the Polish Workers Party and their informants, but the scale of fratricidal fighting in Poland and Yugoslavia, is incomparable.
- You can estimate how many Germans were killed in battles with AK?
- Such a statement seems to me irrelevant. In the Warsaw uprising, according to the sources, 1.5 to 10 thousand Germans were killed. How many died during the whole of the occupation - it's pure speculation.
- When the Red Army was coming to our borders, AK as part of the storm trying to liberate the Polish cities and villages, to the Russians to act as host. In PRL historians put allegations against AK that they supposedly wanted to enter their own anti-Soviet administration. After 1989, many researchers believed that, as in the case of the Warsaw Uprising was an unnecessary waste of lives and ammunition.
- Those were rather acts of desperation. AK liberated Vilnius alone. 27th Volyn Infantry Division liberated many localities in Volhynia. Armia Krajowa troops along with the Soviets won the Lvov and Lublin. There is a famous photo published in PRL-U in all possible ways of two police officers standing in front of a post office in liberated Lublin. Those were in fact not citizens militia but National Armed Forces soldiers which were a part of AK.
- History has remembered many of AK's operations
- First and foremost the assassination of Franz Kutschera, the SS and Police Leader of the Warsaw district,. Attack on an truck with 100 million zlotys. The operation by the arsenal, the recapture of Jan Bytnar (Rudy). The killing of General Renner, commander of the 174th Infantry Division. Capturing and sending too the West part of the V2 rocket.
- AK fought not only with Germans but also with tha Soviets, and after the Red Army entered our country there were many shootings and deportations to the East. What was the price AK paid in human lives?
- The numbers aren't know for sure. It is genreally accepted that from the hands of the Germans and Soviets around 100 thousand AK soldiers perished. That fugure also includes AK soldiers who were sent to Siberia after 1944 and died there. Around 50 thousand AK soldiers ended up in Soviet prisons and gulags. Most were freed from 1946-1947. Yet some had to wait until 1957 to return to Poland. 20% of died there or were killed.
- With the end of the war some AK soldiers decided to continue the struggle and fight with the communist regime.
- Roughly 150 thousand Poles fought in the post war underground, that's more than in the January Uprising. From 1944 to 1956 the communist regime killed or tortured to death about 50 thousand Poles.
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