National Armed Forces

Territorial structure and organization of the NSZ

The NSZ was created on September 20, 1942, as a result of the merger of the Military Organization Lizard Union (Organizacja Wojskowa Związek Jaszczurczy) and part of the National Military Organization (Narodowa Organizacja Wojskowa). At its maximum strength in 1943-44 the NSZ reached between 70,000 and 75,000 members, making it the third largest organization of the Polish resistance (after the Home Army (AK) and the Bataliony Chlopskie).[9] NSZ units participated in the Warsaw Uprising.

In March 1944 the NSZ split, with the more moderate faction coming under the command of the AK. The other part of the organization became known as the NSZ-ZJ (the Lizard Union). This branch of the NSZ conducted operations against Polish communist activists, partisans and secret police, the Soviet partisans, NKVD and SMERSH, and their own (NSZ) former leaders.[10]

The NSZ committed crimes against minorities, including:

• The murder of almost 200 Ukrainian villagers in Wierzchowiny, Krasnystaw County.[11]
• Historians Israel Gutman and Shmuel Krakowski tallied 120 incidents in which the NSZ and the Home Army murdered Jews.[11]

The NSZ's program included the fight for Polish independence against Nazi Germany as well as against the Soviet Union, with its focus on keeping the Second Polish Republic's prewar eastern territories and borders while regaining additional former German territories to the west which they deemed "ancient Slavic lands". The General Directive Nr. 3 of the National Armed Forces General Command, L. 18/44 from January 15, 1944, reads: "In the face of crossing of Polish borders by Soviet forces, the Polish Government in London and its Polish citizens living on the territory of Poland express their unwavering desire for the return of the sovereignty to the entire area of Poland within the Polish borders established prior to 1939 through the mutually-binding Treaty of Riga and reaffirmed by the general principles of the Atlantic Charter, as well as by the declarations of the Allied governments which did not concede to any territorial changes that took place in Poland after August 1939."

During the war, the NSZ fought the Polish communists including their military organizations such as the Gwardia Ludowa (GL) and the Armia Ludowa (AL).[12] After the war former NSZ members were persecuted by the newly installed communist government of the Polish People's Republic. Reportedly, communist partisans engaged in planting false evidence like documents and forged receipts at the sites of their own robberies in order to blame the NSZ.[13] It was a method of political warfare practiced against the NSZ also by the Ministry of Public Security of Poland and Milicja Obywatelska (MO) right after the war, as revealed by communist Poland's court documents.[13]

The National Armed Forces (though not uniformely[12]) did not accept Jews in their ranks, and expressed explicit antisemitic sentiment.[14]

The solution of the Jewish question is almost as important for the future of our nation as the regaining of independence. The loss of independence and the continuation of Jewish presence in Poland are both an equal danger of slow death for the Poles.

— National Armed Forces newspaper Szaniec, cited in Gazeta Wyborcza, 24–5 September 1993[14]

We may condemn the Germans for their bestial methods but we must not forget that Jewry was always and will remain a destructive element in our state organism. The liquidation of the Jews in the Polish territories is of great importance for future development because it frees us from a million-headed parasite.

— National Armed Forces newspaper Barykada, no. 3, March 1943[15]

From November 1944 to mid-1947, during the period of armed anti-communist insurgency against the Soviet takeover of Poland, many Jews who were part of communist groups were killed by the National Armed Forces.[16] In Warsaw, the National Armed Forces killed Jerzy Makowiecki and Ludwik Widerszal, two Polish Home Army officers of Jewish origin.[14][17] Polish historian Alina Cała said that the doctrine of the National Armed Forces was primarily the elimination of what they considered to be Communist bands.[18][19] According to Tadeusz Piotrowski, these attacks later "became more focused on individual Jews who were placed in highly visible positions of authority in the PRL [People's Republic of Poland]".[20]

In some districts, the National Armed Forces actively pursued Jews. Some units of the National Armed Forces were on the lookout for Jews hiding in the forests to deliver to the Germans.[14] In Radom, the National Armed Forces cooperated with the Germans towards that goal in 1943-1944.[14] According to the Encyclopedia of the Holocaust, Polish Jews who had sought shelter among ethnic Poles after escaping from ghettos were also directly murdered by the National Armed Forces.[21]

According to other sources, many National Armed Forces soldiers and their families are credited with having saved Jews, including such noted ones as Maria Bernstein, Leon Goldman, Jonte Goldman, and Dr. Turski. The National Armed Forces had Jews in its ranks, including Calel Perechodnik, Wiktor Natanson, Captain Roman Born-Bornstein (chief physician of the Chrobry II unit), Jerzy Zmidygier-Konopka, Feliks Pisarewski-Parry, Eljahu (Aleksander) Szandcer (nom de guerre Dzik), Dr. Kaminski, a physician who served in an NSZ unit led by Captain Władysław Kolaciński (nom de guerre Zbik), Major Stanisław Ostwind-Zuzga, and others.[22][23]

In January 1945, the National Armed Forces Holy Cross Mountains Brigade (Brygada Świętokrzyska) retreated before the advancing Red Army and, after negotiating a ceasefire with the Germans, moved into the Nazi-controlled Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia. It resumed operations against the Nazis on 5 May 1945 in Bohemia, where the brigade liberated prisoners from a concentration camp in Holýšov, including 280 Jewish women prisoners slated for death.[24]

In the fall of 1946, 100-200 soldiers of an NSZ unit under the command of Henryk Flame, nom de guerre "Bartek," were lured into a trap and massacred by communist military and police forces.[25]

In 1992, Polish authorities recognized National Armed Forces underground soldiers as war veterans. Some NSZ war criminals were rehabilitated, for instance Mieczysław Pazderski who in 1945 murdered almost 200 Ukrainian villagers in Wierzchowina was rehabilitated and was awarded two medals by Polish president Lech Wałęsa.[11]

In the 1990s the topic of "cursed soldiers" remained for the most part outside of mainstream politics in Poland. However, in the early 21st century the cult of "cursed soldiers" has been widely promoted, in particular by President Lech Kaczyński and the IPN.[11] In 2012, the Polish Parliament (Sejm) passed a bill in 2012 commemorating the 70th anniversary of the creation of Narodowe Siły Zbrojne in 1942.[26][27]

The role of NSZ and its relations with the Jews remains a controversial topic in modern Poland. The 2012 Sejm declaration has been criticized by former Polish Prime Minister Leszek Miller.[27] Several members of parliament criticized the bill and walked out from a related commemorative ceremony.[28][29]

• Col. Ignacy Oziewicz (IX 1942 – VI 1943)
• Col. Tadeusz Kurcyusz (VIII 1943 – IV 1944)
• Col. Stanisław Nakoniecznikoff-Klukowski (IV 1944 – VII 1944)
• Gen. Tadeusz Jastrzębski (VII 1944 – X 1944)
• Col. Stanisław Nakoniecznikoff-Klukowski (X 1944)
• Gen. Zygmunt Broniewski (X 1944 – VIII 1945)
• Col. Stanisław Kasznica (VIII 1944 – II 1947)

• Forest Brothers
• Cursed soldiers
• Ukrainian Insurgent Army

• Siemaszko, Zbigniew S. (1985). Narodowe Siły Zbrojne (2nd ed.). Warszawa: Głos. OCLC 69304656.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Narodowe Siły Zbrojne.

• Official website of the Association of the National Armed Forces Soldiers
• Narodowe Siły Zbrojne at the Wayback Machine (archived November 27, 2003)
• (in English) The Doomed soldiers - Polish Underground Soldiers 1944-1963 - The Untold Story
• National Armed Forces Historical Brief