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The Polish Underground State and the Home Army

1939–1945 · 17 articles · about 135 min of reading

On the night before Warsaw surrendered, on 27 September 1939, the Service for Poland’s Victory was founded. It grew into the Union of Armed Struggle and, in February 1942, the Home Army, answerable to the government in exile. Alongside the army worked the civilian Government Delegation for Poland, with an underground administration and courts. The series shows this state at work: the missions of Pilecki and Karski, Żegota, the actions of the Grey Ranks and Kedyw, the arrest of General Rowecki, Operation Tempest and the Warsaw Uprising, and finally the dissolution of the Home Army and the trial of its leaders in Moscow.

1939

  1. 0127 September 1939EventKey moment6 minEstablishment of the Service for Poland's VictoryThe thread begins here: the underground is born in besieged Warsaw on the night before the capitulation, and the Union of Armed Struggle and the Home Army will grow out of it.On the night of 26-27 September 1939, in besieged Warsaw, Gen. Tokarzewski-Karaszewicz founded the Service for Poland's Victory, seed of the Home Army.
  2. 0213 November 1939Event6 minEstablishment of the Union of Armed StruggleThe government in exile takes the underground army under its command and separates it from politics, a principle that becomes the basis of the whole underground state.On 13 November 1939 in Paris Gen. Sikorski created the Union of Armed Struggle under Gen. Sosnkowski. It replaced the Service for Poland's Victory.

1940

  1. 0319 September 1940Event7 minWitold Pilecki arrives at AuschwitzThe underground sends a man inside Auschwitz, where his camp network passes out reports that reach Rowecki and London.On 19 September 1940 Witold Pilecki let himself be caught in a Żoliborz roundup to enter Auschwitz. As prisoner no. 4859 he built a camp resistance network.
  2. 043 December 1940Event8 minFirst Government Delegate for PolandAlongside the clandestine army grows its civilian counterpart: a secret administration with courts and police, answerable to the legitimate government.On 3 December 1940 Gen. Sikorski appointed Cyryl Ratajski Government Delegate. A secret civil state administration began to take shape in occupied Poland.

1942

  1. 0514 February 1942EventKey moment7 minThe Union of Armed Struggle becomes the Home ArmyThe ZWZ becomes an army, part of the Polish Armed Forces answerable to London, and begins absorbing other underground organisations.On 14 February 1942 Gen. Sikorski renamed the ZWZ the Home Army. All underground soldiers in Poland came under the AK, commanded by Gen. Rowecki.
  2. 064 December 1942Event7 minThe Council to Aid Jews “Żegota” is foundedThe underground state takes on the rescue of Jews: the Council attached to the Delegation has a budget, departments and funds from the government in London.On 4 December 1942 the Council to Aid Jews “Żegota” was founded in Warsaw under the Government Delegation. It gave hiding Jews money, papers and shelter.

1943

  1. 0726 March 1943Event6 minAction at the ArsenalThe Grey Ranks in a Kedyw action: the underground frees its own people from the Gestapo in broad daylight, but the Germans shift the cost onto hostages.On 26 March 1943 scouts of the Grey Ranks Assault Groups freed Jan Bytnar “Rudy” and 20 other prisoners from the Gestapo in Warsaw.
  2. 0830 June 1943Event6 minArrest of General RoweckiThe Gestapo seizes the Home Army’s commander; his successor, General Komorowski, will later order Operation Tempest and the fight for Warsaw.On 30 June 1943 the Gestapo arrested Home Army commander Gen. Stefan Rowecki “Grot” at 14 Spiska Street in Warsaw. Gen. Komorowski took over.
  3. 0928 July 1943Event7 minJan Karski meets RooseveltThe courier of the Government Delegation brings the West word of the occupation, the underground state and the destruction of the Jews, but wins no promise of help at the White House.On 28 July 1943 Jan Karski, courier of the Polish Underground State, told President Roosevelt at the White House about the occupation and the Holocaust.

1944

  1. 1015 January – 26 October 1944BattleKey moment13 minOperation TempestThe Home Army’s largest operation and its biggest political gamble: largely successful militarily, a political failure, as the NKVD disarmed units after each joint fight.From January to October 1944 the Home Army struck the retreating Germans and greeted the Red Army as hosts. The Soviets disarmed its units.
  2. 111 February 1944Event6 minAssassination of Franz KutscheraThe underground answers the street terror in the capital: Kedyw carries out the sentence on Kutschera, and Warsaw pays with bloody reprisals.On 1 February 1944 soldiers of the Home Army's Kedyw unit "Pegaz" shot Franz Kutschera, the SS and Police Leader of the Warsaw District, in Aleje Ujazdowskie.
  3. 127 July 1944Event9 minOperation Ostra BramaTempest in practice: the Home Army tries to take Vilnius on its own, but the Red Army captures the city and the partisans fight as its auxiliaries.On 7 July 1944 Home Army units attacked Wilno to take it before the Red Army. The same day the spearheads of the 3rd Belorussian Front reached the city.
  4. 1325 July 1944Event6 minOperation Most IIIHome Army intelligence, which had watched the Blizna range, hands the British V-2 parts and a report; Arciszewski and Retinger fly out on the same plane.On 25-26 July 1944 a British Dakota landed near Tarnów and flew out V-2 rocket parts captured by the Home Army, along with Polish politicians.
  5. 141 August 1944EventKey moment13 minThe Warsaw Uprising beginsThe Home Army command, with the Government Delegate’s consent, begins the fight for the capital to receive the Red Army as host on behalf of the government in London.At 5 p.m. on 1 August 1944 Home Army units attacked the Germans in Warsaw to liberate the capital before the Red Army entered it.
  6. 152 October 1944EventKey moment10 minThe surrender of the Warsaw UprisingThe agreement with the Germans gives the Home Army combatant rights; the Underground State’s structures survive the fall of the capital, though they lose their main base there.On 2 October 1944 an agreement ending the Warsaw Uprising was signed at Ożarów. The Home Army received combatant rights; the city's people were expelled.

1945

  1. 1619 January 1945EventKey moment6 minDissolution of the Home ArmyThe formal end of the Home Army: General Okulicki releases the soldiers from their oath, but a secret order has small staffs and the radio network kept in being.On 19 January 1945 Gen. Okulicki dissolved the Home Army and released its soldiers from their oath. A secret order kept staffs, arms and radio links for "NIE".
  2. 1718 June 1945Event11 minThe Trial of the SixteenThe series’ epilogue: leaders of the Underground State, lured by deceit, stand before a court in Moscow, and the trial breaks up its leadership.On 18–21 June 1945 a Soviet military court in Moscow tried the leaders of the Polish Underground State, seized by deceit, including Okulicki and Jankowski.