Born In Prison

The communists inculcated a belief in her that her parents were criminals. - I considered them criminals until the end of the 1980’s. - recalls Magdalena Zarzycka-Redwan today, born in 1949 in an infamous communist prison at the Lublin castle. – Only after the collapse of communism I started looking for people who remembered my parents and began to uncover the history of my family - she adds.

Magdalena’s parents, who were Stefania and Wladyslaw Zarzyccy, lived in a Kolonia Luszczow village not far away from Lublin. They participated in an underground organization Freedom and Independence (pol. Wolnosc and Niezawislosc). WiN resisted communism in a desperate way. For such a long time, that the Polish secret police [pol. Urzad Bezpieczenstwa] caught and killed almost everybody. [...]

Today Magdalena believes that her parents are heroes. After the age of 40 she started making friends with them. She brings back their good name, she talks about them. The court granted her with her father’s acquittal. Last year she picked up a medal on behalf of her mother granted by the President [of Poland]. Read more here ...

New English-Language National Armed Forces Website

This website will contain investigative reports, research articles, operational reports, and profiles of individual soldiers and units of the National Armed Forces, NZS (pol. Narodowe Sily Zbrojne) - an anti-nazi, and anti-communist patriotic Polish underground organization operating on the Nazi and Soviet occupied territory of Poland during and after II World War.

Preface:

It is difficult to consider the tragedy of heroism and betrayal without telegraphing a strong point of view on the subject.

And so we come to NZS (Narodowe Sily Zbrojne; Eng: National Armed Forces), which tenaciously fought both the Nazi and Soviet Union forces during World War II in Poland. Both adversaries were more that eager to co-opt such people as they could find to support them, and the Soviet's found many to support the puppet regime they installed after the war. These people, many part of the nascent UB (Urzad Bezpieczenstwa; Eng. Public Security; Polish Communist: secret police), had no qualms about assassination and torture, much less deception, slander and libel in suppressing genuine patriots.

Torture Methods of Polish Secret Police

UB (pol. Urzad Bezpieczenstwa, Bezpieka ) and SB (pol. Sluzba Bezpieczenstwa) expended considerable efforts to "break" the men and women who fell into their hands. There are three main utilitarian motivations for subjecting people to torture: extract information, terrorize those still at large and resistant, and to break down the personality and rebuild it in more pliable ways.

Ryszard Mikolajczuk, nom de guerre "Szkot", NSZ (National Armed Forces) soldier.

I was arrested on July 3, 1948 in Sidlce. The initial investigation and the interrogations that followed took place at the MO [People’s Militia; pol. Milicja Obywatelska] headquarters in Sidelce. The interrogations lead by [Polish secret police] interrogator [named] Kowalczyk took place in a large room adjacent to his government-issued apartment. The front door to the room was guarded by armed [secret police] sentry.

Before the interrogations began, I had to strip naked. From beginning to the end of interrogations, I would hear more cursing and profanities in Russian than in Polish. Whether I answered any questions or not, I was beaten with a riding riding crop called “nahayka”. When the interrogator got tired of hitting me with the riding crop he would start over again, this time hitting me with an edge of a long ruler. Helped by another functionary, whom he would call to assist him, he would strike the most intimate parts of my body. These interrogations would last usually between 3 to 6 hours. In order to make this “play” more fun, they would also use various electrical devices. One of the functionaries would attach the end of a cable to my finger, and the other cranked the generator. The faster he cranked the more I was shocked; it felt as if my entire body was being torn to pieces from within.

Read more on our website ...

General Emil Fieldorf's Remains Located

The Institute of National Remembrance (IPN) located remains and burial place of General Emil Fieldorf, nom de guerre "Nile" who was murdered in 1953 by the communist henchmen form the UB (Polish secret police). General Fieldorf, "Nile" was the Deputy Commander-in-Chief of the Polish Home Army (pol. Armia Krajowa - abr. AK) during Second World War.

- I am 84 years old and I spent my entire life trying to locate remains of my father. I am afraid that I will not live long enough to find them - told "Poland" Maria Fieldorf-Czarska, the daughter of General "Nil".

However, Jacek Pawlowicz reassures that the exhumation will begin as early as September or November of this year. [...] - The remains of the General will be easy to identify - says Pawlowicz - because he was the only one from among those executed who was not killed with a shot to the head (a common execution method employed by the secret police and perfected during the Katyn masacre). In order to humiliate him, the murderers from the UB hang General "Nil" as if he was a common criminal.

A moving documentary dedicated to the Mrs. Fieldorf's nearly 50-years-long pursuit to bring to justice individuals responsible for the murder of her father will be republished on our website with English subtitles.

Operation "Avalanche" - Annihilation of the NSZ Democratic Underground Units

In order to capture and murder members of the largest concentration of anti-communist democratic underground units operating in the Slask Opolski and Podbeskidzie regions, in 1946, the UB (pol. Urzad Bezpieczenstwa - Polish secret police) employed an ingenious "operational play" (pol. "gra operacyjna"), code-named "Operation Avalanche" (pol. "Operacja Lawina"). It relied not only on the introduction of its own agents (pol. "agentura" - agents) into the ranks of the leadership and command structure of the democratic underground, but also on creating new, and completely fictitious organizations under its complete control. The destruction of the units lead by Captain Henryk Flame “Bartek” was only a side-effect of a far broader and sinister “operational play” conducted by the Ministry of Internal Affairs (pol. Ministerstwo Spraw Wewnetrzynych), conducted against the National Armed Forces (pol. NSZ – Narodowe Sily Zbrojne). This particular "play", became a proverbial Guinea pig for the UB, to gain experience for their future operations against the armed underground. We need to stress here, that it was not by the happenstance, that in this instance, the most valuable “Player”, an UB agent, Henryk Wendrowski, would also play a key role in the future overtaking of key positions within the structures of the Freedom And Independence (pol. WiN - Wolnosc i Niepdleglosc).

The conduct of such important, and tragic in consequences operation, evokes many questions related to the chronology of events, and identification of individuals responsible for issuing orders to commit the murders. Read the entire story here

The Execution of Polish Underground Soldiers "Inka" And "Zagonczyk" Related by Rev. Marian Prusak.

"[...] In the end I was lead through a narrow descent into what looked like a cellar. They were already there. I think they were handcuffed, or had their hands tied. I had a crucifix with me and gave it to them to kiss. They [the UB, Polish secret police] wanted to cover their eyes, but they refused. Near them waited a bunch of men so it was little crowded. There was a military procurator and many young UB men. They placed these two unfortunate ones against small stakes. In the corner was a small table where the procurator read decision for the sentence, and gave order to carry out the execution. There was, what looked like, a small recess, bare red bricks, there were stakes about half a man’s height. They stood them against them; I don’t remember if they were tied to them. Those who were there didn’t respect the seriousness of the moment. They were shouting obscenities towards the condemned while the procurator read the sentence and announced that the request for commutation was rejected. His last words were: “Into the traitors of the motherland, fire!” At this moment the condemned shouted, as if they had earlier agreed: “Long live Poland!” After that guns fired, they slumped to the ground. Two or three soldiers shot; I think with Pe-Pe-Sha [PPSh-41 - Soviet submachine gun], from a short distance of maybe 3-4 meters. I remember that the floor was red, made of what looked like tiles; in the middle was a small groove, I think to allow blod to drain out. They [“Inka” and “Zagonczyk”] collapsed. I couldn’t look at it, but I remember that both of them were still alive. Then, an officer approached and finished them off with a shot to the head. I don’t know who it was. I couldn’t bare it. I remember only that a name was mentioned; I think Suchocki, and that this man wore a uniform. I tend to think that it was the procurator who [earlier] red the sentence. I stood surrounded by a group of people around me, and my view was somewhat obstructed. I didn’t know that next to me stood a doctor. Later, I had to sign a statement about the execution. Right after that they lead me out. I don’t remember how I got to the car; I don’t know if I was riding with those who brought me there. No one spoke to me in the car". Click Here to read the entire story