Cursed soldiers
The "cursed soldiers" (also known as "doomed soldiers", "accursed soldiers", or "damned soldiers"; Polish: żołnierze wyklęci) or "indomitable soldiers" (Polish: żołnierze niezłomni) were a heterogeneous array of anti-Soviet-imperialist and anti-communist Polish resistance movements formed in the later stages of World War II and in its aftermath by members of the Polish Underground State. The above terms, introduced in the early 1990s, reflect the stance of many of the diehard soldiers.
| Cursed soldiers | |
|---|---|
| Żołnierze wyklęci | |
"Cursed soldiers" of anti-communist underground, June 1947. From left:
| |
| Active | 1944–1947 |
| Country | Poland |
| Allegiance | Poland (Polish Government-in-Exile) |
| Role | Armed forces of the Polish Underground State and the Polish Government-in-Exile |
| Size | Varied, c. 150,000-200,000 at peak. After amnesty of 1947, 200-400 people remained in active, armed conspiracy. |
These clandestine organisations continued their armed struggle against Poland's communist regime waged guerrilla warfare well into the 1950s, including attacks against prisons and state security offices, detention facilities for political prisoners, and the concentration camps that had been set up across the country. Most Polish anti-communist groups ceased to exist in the late 1950s, as they were hunted down by agents of the Ministry of Public Security and the Soviet NKVD. The last known "cursed soldier", Józef Franczak, was killed in a 1963 ambush.
The best-known Polish anti-communist resistance organisations operating in Stalinist-era Poland included Freedom and Independence (Wolność i Niezawisłość, WIN), the National Armed Forces (Narodowe Siły Zbrojne, NSZ), the National Military Union (Narodowe Zjednoczenie Wojskowe, NZW), the Underground Polish Army (Konspiracyjne Wojsko Polskie, KWP), the Home Army Resistance (Ruch Oporu Armii Krajowej, ROAK), the Citizens' Home Army (Armia Krajowa Obywatelska, AKO), NO (NIE, short for Niepodległość), the Armed Forces Delegation for Poland (Delegatura Sił Zbrojnych na Kraj), and Freedom and Justice (Wolność i Sprawiedliwość, WiS).
Similar anti-communist insurgencies occurred in other Central European countries. The "cursed soldiers" have prompted controversy over the degree to which individual fighters or their units were involved in war crimes against Jews or other ethnic minorities on Polish soil or against civilians generally. Common responses to such accusations have included that the accusations were partly or completely fabricated as communist propaganda to discredit the soldiers, or that any genuine victims were killed because of their involvement in, or cooperation with, communist authorities and that their ethnicity had little if any bearing on their demise.