Saturday, September 27th, is the day of the Polish Underground State. It was established in 1998 by the Sejm to commemorate the largest specified structure in occupied Europe, with armed forces, government, parliament and justice.
The creation of the Polish triumph Service is considered a symbolic beginning of the Polish Underground State. This happened on 27 September 1939, which was inactive at the time erstwhile the Polish Army was fighting the last Wehrmacht. On the basis of the Polish triumph Service, the Armed Forces Association and then the National Army were formed.
From the beginning, they were subject to the legal emigration (and recognized by the Western powers, and from 1941 to 1943 besides by the USSR) of the Polish authorities: the President, the Government and the Chief Leader.
The emigration besides formed a parliament, composed of representatives of the main political forces before September 1939: the People's Party, the Polish Socialist Party, the National organization and the Labour Party. Excluded from the government were communists (considered as Moscow's agent) and a sanction, held liable for the September defeat. From 1940 to 1943, this parliament functioned as the Political Consultative Committee, from 1943 to 1944 – the National Political Council, and from 1944 until the end of the war – the Council of National Unity.
On behalf of the emigration authorities in the occupied areas (also in those seized by the USSR), the Government Delegate for the Country acted. He led a contravened civilian administration apparatus – the Government Delegate at central level, in voivodships and counties. The delegation consisted of 18 departments, including Home Affairs, Information and Press, Labour and Social Welfare and Education and Culture.
In 1940, the Prime Minister Władysław Sikorski sent Gen. Jan Skebybohatego-Jakubowski to the position of Government Delegate to the Country. Then Cyril Ratajski (former president of Poznań), activist of the People's organization Jan Piekałkiewicz (in 1943 arrested and murdered by the Gestapo), took this position Jan Stanislaw Jankowski (in 1945, insidiously arrested by the NKVD and sentenced in Moscow in the alleged trial of sixteen), Stefan Korboński (also arrested by the NKVD) and for 3 days (to dissolve the Delegation) – Jerzy Braun.
Justice was dealt with by civilian Combat Management (a separate body of the Delegation) along with the civilian peculiar Courts and the State safety Corps (underground police). They were judged to have collaborated with the occupier and punished, from boycotts, flogging, contributions to death sentences. Sentences were besides issued for common crimes. The Council of Aid to Jews “Żegota” was active at the Government Delegate of the country.
Among the achievements of the Polish Underground State was organizing a secret teaching. The largest centre was Warsaw, where 4.5 1000 students were educated in this form (most frequently in private apartments). Secret academic teaching besides took place in Krakow, Vilnius, Lviv, Częstochowa and Kielce. Degrees of secret studies were obtained by 6.5 1000 people.
In underground printing houses, information and political press, publications, literary works and textbooks were published. Conspiracy concerts, theatre performances, first evenings and technological lectures were besides organized. Care activities (studies, grants, meals for those in need, especially children and young people) were partially assisted by openly operating organizations specified as the Red Cross and the Main Council of Care.
Within the framework of the Underground State structures, actions were undertaken beyond the time of the war, conducting studies on Poland's improvement and expansion after regaining independence. In the Home Army, the armed forces of the Polish Underground State, about 380 1000 soldiers and officers served at the highest point (in the summertime of 1944).
The AK staff was recruited from pre-war officers and sub-commissioners of the Polish Army, graduates of secret Substitution Schools of Reserves and Substitution Courses of the Infantry Infantry, as well as from the alleged silent, i.e. Polish soldiers trained in the United Kingdom for peculiar tasks (diversion, sabotage, intelligence, communications, conducting guerrilla activities) and carried by air to occupied Poland.
As of 1943, companies and battalions were created in units subordinate to the Home Army Headquarters, since 1944 – regiments, brigades, divisions, regimental and divisional groups. The Union of Revenge was established for the current fight in 1940, and outside the borders of the Republic of Poland, in the back of the east Front, a diversionary organization Wachlarz was established in 1941. At the end of 1942, the manager of Diversion – Kedyw was formed from the merger of these formations.
The underground weapons manufacture produced explosives, device guns, grenades, mines, self-inflamming bottles, and thousands of ammunition. The AK in arms and materials essential to carry out combat activities was besides supplied with airdrops made by Western allies.
In conjunction with the AK, the underground organization of the Association of Polish Scouting – Grey Serials, whose elder members, trained in military training, were supplying Kedyw's diversion troops.
The AK pursued its objectives by conducting the current fight and preparing the universal uprising. The current fight was mainly conducted by tiny sabotage actions, sabotage-diversity actions, combat actions, as well as guerrilla battles with police forces and regular German troops. peculiar place in the fighting activities of the AK were retaliatory and repressive actions in relation to SS and police and traitors and provokers.
The culmination of the armed effort of the AK was the Warsaw Uprising which is simply a key component of the action “Burza”. On 19 January 1945, in view of the fast advancement of the large Red Army offensive, National Army Commander General Leopold Okulicki issued an order to dissolve the AK.
After the Red Army entered Poland, the leaders of the Polish Underground State were arrested by the NKVD. On 21 June 1945, the Military College of the ultimate Court of the USSR in Moscow sentenced them, as a justification, for their actions against the Red Army and the russian Union and their cooperation with Germany.
Three of the sentenced in the trial died in russian prisons: the last commander of the Home Army General Leopold Okulicki, Deputy Prime Minister and Government Delegate to the Country Jan Stanisław Jankowski and Stanisław Jasiukowicz, associate of the Council of Ministers for the Country of National Party.
On 1 July 1945, the Council of National Unity announced the message of the Polish Underground State, called the Testament of Fighting Poland, talking about Poland free, just and democratic.
Source: PAP
True independence, Christian principles... This is the kind of Poland the “White Eagle” fought for.
