Zygmunt Szendzielarz

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This article is part of the series: Polish Secret State History of Poland

Zygmunt Edward Szendzielarz aka "Łupaszko" (March 12, 1910 in Stryj - February 8, 1951 in Warsaw) was a Polish commander of the 5th Vilnian Home Army Brigade.

Zygmunt Szendzielarz was born March 12, 1910, in Stryj (Stanisławów Voivodship), to a family of a railway worker. After graduating from primary school in Lwów, Szendzielarz started studying in a biological-mathematical gymnasium in Lwów and then in his home town. After finishing his studies he volunteered for the Polish Army and finished the Infantry NCOs School in Ostrów Mazowiecka (in 1932) and then Cavalry NCOs School in Grudziądz. He was then promoted to Lieutenant and transferred to Wilno, where he assumed command of one of the squadrons in the 4th Uhlans Regiment.

With his unit he took part in the Polish Defensive War of 1939. His unit was attached to the Wilno Cavalry Brigade under Gen. Władysław Anders, part of the Prusy Army. After retreating from northern Poland, the forces of Gen. Anders fought their way towards the city of Lwów and the Romanian Bridgehead. However, in the area of Lublin Szendzielarz's unit was surrounded and suffered heavy losses. Soon afterwards Szendzielarz was taken prisoner of war by the Soviets, but he managed to escape to Lwów, where he lived for a short period under a false name. He tried to cross the Hungarian border to escape from Poland and reach the Polish Army being formed in France, but he failed and finally moved with his family to Wilno.

In Wilno Szendzielarz started working on various posts under false names. In mid-1943 he joined the Home Army under the nom de guerre Łupaszko, and in August he started organizing his own partisan group in the forests surrounding the city. Soon the unit was joined by local volunteers and the remnants of a unit of Antoni Burzyński "Kmicic", destroyed by Soviet Partisans and the Wehrmacht. By September, the unit was 700 men strong and was officially named the V Vilnian Home Army Brigade (V Wileńska Brygada Armii Krajowej).

Łupaszko's unit fought against the German army and SS units in the area of southern Wilno Voivodship, but was also frequently attacked by the Soviet Partisans paradropped in the area by the Red Army. In April 1944, Zygmunt Szendzielarz was arrested by Lithuanian police and handed over to the German Gestapo. Łupaszko escaped or was released in unknown circumstances at the end of April. In reprisal actions his brigade captured several dozen German officials and sent several threatening letters to Gestapo but it remains unknown if and how these contributed to his release.

On June 23, two squads of his brigade (commanded by "Maks" and "Rakoczy") attacked the Lithuanian policemen in Dubingiai and mass-murdered the civilians of the village.

In August the commander of all Home Army units in the Wilno area, Gen. Aleksander Krzyżanowski "Wilk" ordered all six brigades under his command to prepare for the Operation Tempest - a plan for an all-national uprising against the German forces occupying Poland. In what became known as the Operation Ostra Brama, the V Brigade was to attack the Vilnian suburb of Zwierzyniec in cooperation with the advancing units of the 3rd Belorussian Front. However, for fear of being arrested with his units by the NKVD and killed on the spot, Łupaszko decided to disobey the orders and instead moved his unit to central Poland. Indeed the Operation Ostra Brama was a success and the city was liberated by Polish soldiers, but the Polish commander was then arrested by the Russians and the majority of his soldiers were sent to Gulags and sites of detention in the Soviet Union.

It is uncertain why Szendzielarz was not court-martialled for desertion. It is highly probable that in fact his unit was moved out of the battlefield by Gen. "Wilk" himself, due to the fact that Łupaszka's unit has been long involved in fights with the Soviet partisans and he did not want to provoke the Red Army. Regardless, after crossing into Podlachia and Białystok area in October, the brigade continued the struggle against withdrawing Germans in the ranks of the Białystok Home Army Area. After the region was overrun by the Soviets, Łupaszka's unit remained in the forests and Łupaszka decided to wait for the outcome of Russo-Polish talks held by the Polish Government in Exile. At the same time the unit was reorganized and captured enough equipment to fully arm 600 men with machine guns and machine pistols. After the governments of the United Kingdom and United States broke the pacts with Poland and accepted the so-called PKWN as the provisional government of Poland, Łupaszka restarted the hostilities - this time against a new oppressor, in the ranks of Wolność i Niezawisłość organization. However, after several successful actions against the NKVD units in the area of Białowieża Forest, it became apparent that such actions would result in a total destruction of his unit.

In September 1945, Zygmunt Szendzielarz moved with a large part of his unit to Gdańsk-Oliwa, where he remained underground while preparing his unit for a new partisan offensive against the Soviet-backed communist authorities of Poland. On April 14, 1946, Szendzielarz finally mobilized his unit and headed for the Tuchola Forest, where he started operations against the forces of Korpus Bezpieczenstwa Wewnetrznego, Urzad Bezpieczenstwa and the communist authorities. Łupaszko was hoping that in the spring of 1946 the former Western Allies of Poland would start a new war against the Soviet Union and that the Polish underground units could prove useful in liberating Poland. However, when he realized that no such war was planned he decided to disband his unit. He saw further fight as a waste of blood of his men and decided to retire from open fight against the communists.

After several years underground, he was arrested by the UB on June 28, 1948, in Osielec near Nowy Targ. After more than two years of brutal interrogation and torture in Warsaw's Mokotów Prison he was sentenced to death on November 2, 1950 by the Soviet-controlled court martial in Warsaw. He was executed on February 8, 1951, together with several other Home Army soldiers. The place of their burial remains unknown, although it is highly probable that their bodies were disposed of at the Służewiec dump.

After his death, the communist propaganda connected Łupaszko with all sorts of crimes - from crimes against humanity, robbery and common theft to being a member of the UPA. In 1988 Zygmunt Szendzielarz was posthumously promoted to rotmistrz and awarded with Virtuti Militari, the highest Polish military award, by Kazimierz Sabbat, the President of Poland in exile. In 1993 he was officially rehabilitated.