On 20 September 1942, the National Armed Forces (NSZ) were established, becoming the second-largest military formation of the Polish Underground. Under Soviet occupation, NSZ soldiers faced particularly brutal repression as part of the anti-communist resistance, while Soviet propaganda falsely accused them of collaborating with the Germans.

The origins of the NSZ can be traced back to the earliest months of the war. As early as October 1939, while Poland remained under German occupation, the first clandestine organisations rooted in the nationalist movement began to take shape. Since most leaders of the National Party had gone into exile, attempts to create a unified underground command proved difficult. General Marian Januszajtis was formally appointed as the first commander of the Military Organisation of the National Party, founded in 1939. It is uncertain whether he ever learnt of this appointment: at the time he was in Lwów, then under Soviet control, where the NKVD arrested him in late October. His duties were therefore assumed by Second Lieutenant Bolesław Kozubowski, codenamed “Bolesław.”

By the end of 1939, the emerging underground military structures adopted the names National Organisation of Struggle and National Military Organisation. Proposals for unification with the Union for Armed Struggle soon arose, but these met with resistance from within the nationalist camp, whose members feared that such a merger would dilute their ideological principles.

The formal creation of the NSZ came on 20 September 1942, following an order issued by Colonel Ignacy Oziewicz (“Czesław”), the organisation’s first commander-in-chief. It was formed from several groups, including the Military Organisation “Lizard Union” (Związek Jaszczurczy), part of the National Military Organisation, and several smaller organisations. Some soldiers of the Home Army (Armia Krajowa, AK) also joined.

The political leadership of the NSZ was vested in the Provisional National Political Council. Its ambition was to operate across all territories belonging to Poland before 1939, as well as areas inhabited by Poles which had lain within pre-war Germany. Within these lands, the NSZ established six inspectorates, further divided into 17 districts. The emergence of a large new formation was not welcomed by the AK command, which pursued the consolidation of the underground. 

Talks on co-operation were initiated, but when the NSZ refused to submit to Home Army authority, negotiations broke down. They resumed months later, leading to the signing of a unification agreement in March 1944. Under its terms, NSZ units were to become part of the AK’s partisan structure, with Colonel Tadeusz Kurcyusz appointed plenipotentiary for the merger. His death, however, triggered a split: one faction became NSZ–AK under AK command, while another continued independently as NSZ–Związek Jaszczurczy.

From 1943, with the rise of communist partisan activity, some NSZ units engaged in fighting them directly. As Soviet forces advanced into Polish territory, plans were drawn up to redeploy NSZ troops into areas controlled by the Western Allies. The NSZ leadership also criticised the idea of launching the Warsaw Uprising, though, like the AK, they had envisaged a nationwide rising. Once the insurrection began, however, NSZ soldiers joined their AK counterparts in combat.

The most prominent NSZ formation was the Holy Cross Mountains Brigade (Brygada Świętokrzyska), established in August 1944 under the command of Captain Antoni Dąbrowski-Szacki (“Bohun”). By December 1944, it numbered 822 men. 

Facing the Soviet advance, the Brigade marched south, eventually crossing into occupied Czechoslovakia. There, it was recognised by the Americans as part of the Allied forces, becoming the only Polish wartime unit to liberate a German concentration camp on its own initiative. On 5 May 1945, the Brigade freed the camp at Holýšov, rescuing, among others, around 200 Jewish women. Shortly afterwards, alongside American troops, it captured the staff of the remnants of the German 13th Army, including two generals. In recognition of their actions, the US Army permitted the Brigade’s soldiers to wear American insignia.

By late 1944, most of the NSZ had merged into the National Military Organisation, forming the National Military Union (Narodowe Zjednoczenie Wojskowe, NZW). Its units carried out partisan operations against the Red Army, the NKVD, the communist security service (UB), and the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA). The last NZW detachments, relentlessly hunted by the communist authorities, continued their struggle until the mid-1950s.

Those who fell into the hands of the communist “justice system” faced show trials or the infamous “cellar trials.” Among those executed was Lieutenant Colonel Stanisław Kasznica, the final commander of the NSZ. Only in 1992 did the Warsaw Military District Court overturn his death sentence, ruling that his actions had been undertaken “in the service of the independent existence of the Polish state.” 

His remains, buried in a Wehrmacht uniform, were discovered during exhumations carried out by the Institute of National Remembrance at Warsaw’s Powązki Military Cemetery in 2012.

Source: Dzieje.pl

Photo: @Rob_Ptaszewski

Tomasz Modrzejewski