Polish-Jewish Relations: 1,300 Keyword-Phrase-Indexed Book Reviews (by Jan Peczkis)

Zeszyty Do Historii Narodowych Sil Zbrojnych III, by Tadeusz Boguszewski (ed.) 1964. Narodowe Sily Zbrojne, Chicago

The Brygada Swietokrzyska: Combat Operations in Nazi German-Occupied Poland

NOTEBOOKS CONCERNING THE HISTORY OF THE NATIONAL ARMED FORCES is the title of this unpublished Polish-language notebook. It is the third of a series of notebooks published by NSZ veterans, in Chicago, in the early 1960’s.

A SAMPLE OF THE GUERRILLA WARFARE CONDUCTED BY THE BRYGADA SWIETOKRZYSKA. FIGHTING HITLER AND STALIN

In the Kurzelow area, on August 20, 1944, an NSZ unit ambushed the Germans with complete success. The NSZ acquired 300 rifles and 9,000 pieces of ammunition. (p. 59).

At nearby Raszkow, the NSZ learned that an A. K. (Home Army) unit had been disarmed and its 40 members shot by the Germans. In retaliation, an NSZ unit led by “Zbik” ambushed the German gendarmes, killing 40 of them and taking 13 prisoner, with no losses of their own. (pp. 59-60).

At Radoszyce, Captain Bialynia and Sergeant Wilk’s NSZ units encountered 100 Germans that were conducting a pacification of the Polish village. Despite having only 4 hand-held machine guns, and aware of the superior strength of the Germans, the NSZ decided to attack them. After a few-hour battle the Germans fled, leaving behind a few tens of dead. The NSZ suffered no losses, and the pacification was stopped. (p. 60).

The Communist GL-AL bands robbed and murdered the villagers, and indiscriminately attacked the Germans so as to provoke reprisals against the locals. (Second Lieutenant Korwin, p. 53).

GL-AL bands, supported by Soviet paratroopers, attacked the NSZ forces at Skrobaczow near Stopnica. After several hours of combat, the NSZ emerged victorious, killing or apprehending 50 Communists at a cost of one killed and one wounded. (Korwin, p. 54).

There were many GL-AL bands in the Kielce area, and they contained many Russians, sometimes in the majority. Among these bands were those led by Garbaty, Bialy, Gorala, Brzoza, Lokietek, and Osa. (Korwin, p. 59).

At Rzabiec, the Brygade encountered a 300-man GL-AL band led by Bialy, consisting mostly of Russian paratroopers. The NSZ was completely victorious, killing 16 Communists, wounding 20, and capturing 100, at a loss of 2 killed and 8 wounded. The NSZ booty included 2 heavy machine guns, 50 machine pistols, 120 rifles, two antitank guns, and Communist archives. Bialy, however, managed to escape. (Korwin, p. 61).

This work gives little detail about the march of the Brygada Swietokrzyska to the west. For details on that, see:

https://www.jewsandpolesdatabase.org/2019/11/04/nsz-saved-jews-bohun-dabrowski/

THE POGROM AT PRZEDBORZ THAT WASN’T

The accusation against Wladyslaw Kolacinski “Zbik”, of killing Jews at Przedborz (May 1945), is old Communist propaganda, and a slanderous lie. [It is repeated by lewaks (leftists) and certain Jews, to this day.]

To begin with, there were hundreds of Jews at Przedborz, so, if “Zbik” was out to kill Jews, he did an atrociously poor job in killing only a few of them. (p. 94). What “Zbik” did was this: He was sent on a mission, by the Underground Court, to execute a handful of Jews and Poles that were egregiously criminal in their acts as part of the Communist Security forces (U. B., aka Bezpieka). (p. 94). They were paid agents of Moscow, and had used wanton torture in their interrogations of Poles and captured Polish guerrillas. So extreme were their acts that even the Gomulka government reduced their ranks and imprisoned some of them, in October 1956. (p. 95).

As further proof that “Zbik’s” was an anti-Communist act and not an anti-Jewish act, “Zbik” points out that he had to perform the procedure of disarming the militia, gaining control of the town, and severing all phone connections to the outside. If killing Jews was the actual objective, none of this would have been necessary! (p. 94).

“Zbik” never had anything against Jews. The chief doctor of his unit, Dr. Kaminski, was openly a Jew. (p. 95). “Zbik’s” brother Jozef, who was later murdered at Auschwitz, housed a number of fugitive Jews from the nearby ghetto at Piotrkow. “Zbik” helped his brother escort some Jews from the ghetto area to nearby villages for safekeeping. (pp. 95-96). “Zbik’s” sister Wanda hid and took care of the “Jakubka” Jewish family throughout the duration of the German occupation of Poland. (p. 96).

Executions touched “Zbik’s” own family. A cousin, “P.” was in the A. K., but later turned bandit and renegade. He betrayed, to the NKVD and U. B., his former colleagues, and terrorized the villagers with his banditry. He was liquidated by the Underground, with the full approval of “Zbik”. (p. 96).

The foregoing conclusions can be extended to other NSZ units. Captain Jacek Wolanski reports never hearing of a single NSZ operation directed at Jews. (p. 10). A Jewish family was hidden in his household. (p. 10).

EMPTINESS OF COMMUNIST PROPAGANDA

Communist propaganda had become so stale, by the early 1960’s, that nobody was perturbed by it any longer. (Wolanski, p. 5). The lore about “NSZ bands” was also mostly fiction: The NSZ had largely ceased to exist by early 1945. (p. 11).

THE COMPOSITION OF THE NSZ

It is a mistake to think of the NSZ as composed of former ONR members. Fact is, the NSZ also had populists, socialists, assorted nationalists, and especially people of no previous political persuasion. (Wolanski, p. 7).