Olimp (organization)

Olimp was a Polish anti-Nazi resistance organization active in Breslau (Wrocław) during World War II.

Olimp was formed in 1941 by members of the Polish minority in Germany located in Breslau and Poles from Upper Silesia. It later included Poles from Greater Poland (Wielkopolska) who were present in the city as forced laborers, as well as those who had escaped from nearby German camps. Some of the members had previously taken part in the September campaign, fighting against the Germans.

The organization was established for the purpose of gathering intelligence and information, carrying out sabotage actions and organizing aid for Polish slave workers. It was connected to the Katowice Inspectorate of the ZWZ (Polish: Związek Walki Zbrojnej, Union of Armed Struggle), a precursor organization to the Polish Home Army. In fact in some German sources of the time, Olimp itself is referred to as ZWZ.

About twenty members of the organizations were later sent to the Gross-Rosen concentration camp, forty to Auschwitz and ten to Mauthausen.

The main meeting place for the conspirators was at an apartment located on Jahnstrasse 19, at the crossing of the present day Zelwerowicz and Sokolnicza streets. Some of the members of the organization included Stanisław Grzesiewski, Rafał Twardzik, Wyderkowscy brothers Jan and Roman, Alojzy Marszałek, Edward Damczyk and Felicyta Podlakówna-Damczyk. The coming and going of so many people at the apartment was masked by the fact that it was located above a popular restaurant. The name of the organization in fact came from the locale - the apartment was located on the fifth floor of the building, and according to memoirs of Felicyta Damczyk, early on someone had commented that "it's far to this place like to Mount Olympus!". "Olimp" being Polish for Olympus, the name stuck.

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