Narodowe Siły Zbrojne
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Polish Secret State
 History of Poland |
|---|
| The authorities |
| Government |
| Administration |
| Parliament |
| Courts |
| Political organizations |
| 1PPS (socialists) |
| 2SL (agrarian party) |
| 3SN (right-wing party) |
| SP (Christian democrats) |
| 4PPR (communists) |
| 5Bund and Hatzoar (Jewish left) |
| 6Betar (Zionist) |
| 7Camp of National Unity (Sanacja) |
| ONR (right-wing) |
| Falanga (extreme right) |
| SD (centrist) |
| Military organizations |
| ZWZ |
| Armia Krajowa |
| Szare Szeregi |
| 1MR PPR-WRN and GL WRN |
| 2KB and BCh |
| 3NOW and NSZ |
| 4GL and AL |
| 5ŻOB |
| 6ŻZW |
| 7OPW |
| Others |
| Press and Media |
| Education |
| See also: |
| History of Poland (1939–1945) |
Narodowe Siły Zbrojne (English Nationalist Armed Forces, NSZ) was a part of the Polish resistance movement in World War II, fighting Nazi German occupation in General Government.
NSZ was created on September 20, 1942. It reached about 75,000 members. Part of NSZ joined the Armia Krajowa in March 1944, where after the faction that did not join was known as NSZ-ZJ (after "Zwiazek Jaszczurczy" or the "Salamander Union"). NSZ units took part in the Warsaw Uprising.
In January 1945, the NSZ Holy Cross Mountains Brigade (Brygada Świętokrzyska) retreated before the Red Army with the Germans approval, into the German protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia. It, however, fought against Germans again in May 5, 1945 in Bohemia, where the brigade freed women from a concentration camp in Holiszowo. The brigade suffered heavy casualties.
It occupied the extreme right wing of political spectrum. Its program included fighting against Nazi Germany and Stalinist Soviet Union for the independence of Poland, keeping the Second Polish Republics pre-war eastern border and gaining territories of current Poland in the west.
The NSZ has been accused of chauvinism and anti-Semitism.[citation needed] Some historians believe that the NSZ murdered hundreds of Jews who sought refuge in the forests.[citation needed] NSZ itself underlined, that it fought with Soviet partisans.
NSZ also fought with the Polish communist partisans of Armia Ludowa (AL). Thanks to the policy of non-cooperation with the Soviets and unlike Home Army (AK), that was completely transparent to Soviet security services, NSZ remained a military and political power when Poland was taken over by the Red Army. The anti-communist stance of the National Armed Forces was never thoroughly analyzed. One should not consider it as an exclusively ideological conflict. The Polish communists, controlled and at the disposal of Moscow, tried to sabotage the patriotic movement with no less energy than the German invader. The communist bands plundered the country side. Murder and rape was the order of the day. One of the NSZ goals was to give protection to the population against the banditry and violence. The NSZ described and evaluated the communist activities in the following way:
"One can die by the method proven in Katyn, that is by a single shot in the back of the head, or in the Soviet Forced Labour Camps, or in the gas chambers of German concentration camps (...) there is no real difference in the way one dies (...) therefore it is our duty to stamp out the Soviet agents in Poland. This is simply demanded by the Polish reasons of state."
The members of NSZ were persecuted in the stalinist years after the war. In 1992 after Poland regained independence from Soviet occupation their soldiers were rehabilitated and given the status of veterans.
Commanders:
- Colonel Ignacy Oziewicz
- Colonel Tadeusz Kurcyusz
- Colonel Stanislaw Kasznica
