Obóz Zjednoczenia Narodowego
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Obóz Zjednoczenia Narodowego (Camp of National Unity), abbreviated as OZN and often reffered to as 'Ozon' (Polish for ozone) was a political party of the Sanacja movement created in 1937.
Soon after the death of Poland's leader and dicator, Józef Piłsudski in 1935, one of his followers, Marshal of Poland Edward Rydz-Śmigły in mid-1936 attempted to unite various factions of the Sanacja movement under his leadership. He failed in uniting them all (as another Sanacja politician, Ignacy Mościcki, also attracted a large following), but a significant number of them decided to follow Rydz-Śmigły.
On 21 colonel and diplomat Adam Koc formally annouced the formation of the organization. It's stated goal was to improve Poland's defences and to guard the April Constitution. OZN was strongly pro-military, and its politicians tried unsuccesfully to portray Edward Rydz-Śmigły as Piłsudski's successor; among their actions was the attempt to portray Śmigły as the 'second person in the country' after president, despite that such attempts were not supported by the Polish constitution.
OZN first official leader was Adam Koc, second general Stanisław Skwarczyński. After the German invaded Poland and the Second World War begun, OZN leadership was passed to colonel Zygmunt Wenda.
In 1937 OZN had between 40-50,000 members. In 1938 it had about 100,000 members.
During the Second World War it's military arm became known as the Obóz Polski Walczącej (Camp of Fighting Poland), created in 1942.
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- This article incorporates text translated from the corresponding Polish Wikipedia article as of 20 September 2006.