Józef Franczak

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Józef Franczak

Józef Franczak (17 March 1918 - 21 October 1963) was a soldier of the Polish Army, Armia Krajowa WWII resistance, and last of the cursed soldiers - members of the militant anti-communist resistance in Poland. He used codenames Lalek (best known), Laluś, Laleczka, Guściowa, and fake name Józef Babiński. He was a resistance fighter for 24 out of 45 years of his life.

[edit] Biography

Józef Franczak was born on March 25, 1918 in the Polish vilalge Kozice Górne, some 30 kilometers from Lublin. After attending a school for gendarmerie in Grudziadz, he was stationed as a professional soldier of the Polish Army in Równe (now Rivne, Ukraine, then part of the Second Polish Republic). After his capture during the Soviet invasion of Poland, he escaped and joined one of the first Polish resistance organizations, the Związek Walki Zbrojnej, which later became the Armia Krajowa.

In August of 1944 he was conscripted into the Polish Second Army. In 1945, having witnessed some of his Home Army colleagues being executed by the communist Polish government, he left the Second Army and hid for a few months in different locations, such as Sopot and Lodz, using the false name of Jozef Baginski. Later, he returned to the area of Lublin, and joined the militant anti-communist resistance in Poland, known as the cursed soldiers; he was first in a unit under Hieronim Dekutowski. Caught by the Urzad Bezpieczenstwa in June of 1946, together with other prisoners, he killed four guards and escaped.

At the beginning of 1947, he started taking part in actions against the law enforcement agencies and the military of the Polish communists, particularly milicja and Urząd Bezpieczeństwa functionaries, as well as their informers. In 1947 he joined a unit led by a Wolność i Niezawisłość officer, Zdzisław Broński (nom de guerre "Uskok"),which operated northeast of Lublin. In 1949 he personally executed a former resistance member, now a traitor, who turned in Broński. Then, for several years he led a team dedicated to executing traitors and informers.

In 1948, during an attempted robbery, his team was intercepted by government forces and destroyed; from that time Franczak worked alone, as more and more of his former colleagues were killed, arrested, or just gave up - particularly after the amnesty of April 27, 1956. For the next few years he would be one of the most wanted people in the People's Republic of Poland. He hid near the village of Piaski, and in the area of Krasnystaw, Chelm and Lublin counties. It has been estimated that some 200 people were involved in helping him. Supporting Franczak was very risky, as he was regarded a 'dangerous criminal', and the government punished all those who helped with several years in prison.

The Lublin field office of the Polish secret police, Służba Bezpieczeństwa, worked on a plan to capture or kill him from November of 1951, under the codename "Pozar" ("Fire"). In time over 100 different people were involved in the effort to eliminate him. Agents of SB would install bugs in several houses in the villages around Lublin, for the first time it happened in May of 1957, in a house that belonged to Czeslawa Franczak, Jozef's sister. Soon afterwards, bugs were installed in the house of his second sister, Celina Mazur, and other places.

Eventually, in 1963, he was turned in by a relative of his partner/mother of his child, a man named Stanislaw Mazur, who informed the agents about Franczak's whereabouts and his planned meeting with Danuta Mazur, who was his partner. On 21 October, 35 functionaries of ZOMO (a paramilitary riot police) surrounded a barn in Majdan Kozic Górnych village where Franczak was staying. They demanded his surrender; Franczak tried to present himself as a local peasant, but after having been asked about documents, he opened fire and was mortally wounded in the ensuing firefight. After autopsy, Franczak's body (without the head), was returned to the family. He was buried on a cemetery in Piaski Wielkie.

[edit] Remembrance

In modern Poland, Franczak is considered a hero of the anti-communist resistance. On 17 March 2006, a special event was organized in his honor, with a mass led by bishop of Lublin, Józef Życiński and a memorial ceremony attended by last president of Polish government in exile, Ryszard Kaczorowski, then director of Institute of National Remembrance, Janusz Kurtyka, several members to Polish parliament (Sejm). The Institute has also organized a conference about Franczak and anti-communist resistance movements, local Telewizja Lublin has made a film dedicated to him. All of the events were sponsored by TV Polonia (Gazeta Wyborcza, 2006-03-17).