On 21 October 1963, in the village of Majdan Kozice Górne in the Lublin region, Józef Franczak “Lalek”, a soldier of the ZWZ-AK, WiN, and the last partisan of the independence underground, was killed by ZOMO officers. He was the last of the post-war anti-communist resistance fighters, the so-called “Cursed Soldiers”.

Nicknamed “Lalek” or “Lalus” because of his impeccable appearance, Franczak was born on 17 March 1918 in Kozice Górne in the Lublin region. Before the war, he graduated from the Non-Commissioned Officer School of Gendarmerie in Grudziądz, after which he served in the Gendarmerie Platoon in Rivne in Volhynia.

He reached the rank of sergeant in the Polish Army. After the USSR attacked Poland on 17 September 1939, he did not lay down his arms and fought the invaders from the East. He was taken prisoner by the Soviets, from whom he managed to escape after a few days. From then until he died in 1963, he was active in a conspiracy for a free Poland.

In the Polish Army, Franczak reached the rank of sergeant. After the USSR attack on Poland on 17 September 1939, he did not lay down his arms and fought the Soviet invaders.

He was taken prisoner by the Soviets, from whom he managed to escape after a few days. From then until he died in 1963, he was active in the underground movement and fight for a free Poland.

As a soldier of the Polish independence underground, he was active in the Lublin district of the ZWZ. He first fell victim to denunciation in 1941, when he was denounced to the Gestapo by a resident of Piaski near Lublin.

In August 1944, the Red Army occupied the Lublin region and Franczak was conscripted into the 2nd Polish Army, stationed in the area of Kąkolewnica near Radzyń Podlaski. 

There he witnessed the murder of underground soldiers by the communists. Fearing for his fate, Franczak left the ranks of the People’s Polish Army.

He went into hiding in Łódź and Sopot, before returning to his hometown, where he became involved in underground activity. He took part in actions against communist security officers and carried out death sentences on informers.

In June 1946, he and his companions were arrested by the secret police. However, they managed to escape from the prison transport and return to the forests near Lublin.

On 21 October 1963, “Lalek” was surrounded on a farm by SB and ZOMO officers, 37 officers. Seeing the threat, ‘Lalek’ fired several shots in the direction of the communists.

Franczak’s corpse was decapitated and placed in a grave in the Lublin cemetery, where soldiers of the anti-communist underground who were sentenced to death by military courts were buried. 

After 20 years, Franczak’s sister received permission to exhume and place her brother’s remains in the family tomb in Piaski.  

“He sacrificed his life for the freedom of his homeland, which he did not live to see,” reads the inscription on the partisan’s grave.

In 2006, IPN prosecutors opened an investigation into the desecration of Józef Franczak’s remains by representatives of the communist state. The crime was reported at the time by Franczak’s son, who was convinced that the decapitation was deliberate revenge after his death. 

Józef Franczak’s skull was found in 2014.

Source: Dzieje.pl

Photo: IPN

Tomasz Modrzejewski