Cursed soldiers
| The cursed soldiers | |
|---|---|
| Żołnierze wyklęci | |
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'Cursed soldiers' of the anti-communist underground. Left to right (June 1947):
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| Active | 1944 – 1963 |
| Country | Poland |
| Allegiance | Polish Government-in-Exile |
| Role | Armed forces of the Polish Underground State and the Polish Government-in-Exile |
| Size | 53,000 |
The "cursed soldiers" (also known as "doomed soldiers", "accursed soldiers" or "damned soldiers"; Polish: Żołnierze wyklęci) is a term applied to a variety of anti-communist Polish resistance movements formed in the later stages of World War II and its aftermath by some members of the Polish Underground State. These clandestine organisations continued their armed struggle against the Stalinist government of Poland well into the 1950s. The guerrilla warfare included an array of military attacks launched against the communist regime's prisons and state security offices, detention facilities for political prisoners and concentration camps that were set up across the country. Most of the Polish anti-communist groups ceased to exist in the late 1940s or 1950s, hunted down by agents of the Ministry of Public Security and Soviet NKVD assassination squads. However, the last known 'cursed soldier', Józef Franczak, was killed in an ambush as late as 1963, almost 20 years after the Soviet take-over of Poland.
The best-known Polish anti-communist resistance organisations operating in Stalinist Poland included Freedom and Independence (Wolność i Niezawisłość, WIN), National Armed Forces (Narodowe Siły Zbrojne, NSZ), National Military Union (Narodowe Zjednoczenie Wojskowe, NZW), Konspiracyjne Wojsko Polskie (Underground Polish Army, KWP), Ruch Oporu Armii Krajowej (Home Army Resistance, ROAK), Armia Krajowa Obywatelska (Citizens' Home Army, AKO), NIE (NO, short for Niepodległość), Armed Forces Delegation for Poland (Delegatura Sił Zbrojnych na Kraj), and Wolność i Sprawiedliwość (Freedom and Justice, WiS).
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