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History of Poland
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Narodowe Si?y Zbrojne (English National Armed Forces, NSZ) was a Polish, anti-Soviet and anti-Nazi paramilitary organization[1] which was part of the Polish resistance movement in World War II, fighting the Nazi German occupation of Poland in the General Government, and later the Soviet puppet state known as the Polish People's Republic.
Contents
1 History
2 Political stance
3 Military operations
4 Post-war persecution and later rehabilitation
5 See also
6 Notes
7 Further reading
8 External links
History NSZ cross
The NSZ was created on September 20, 1942, as a result of the merger of the Military Organization Lizard Union (Organizacja Wojskowa Zwi?zek Jaszczurczy) and part of the National Military Organization (Narodowa Organizacja Wojskowa). At its maximum strength it reached approximately between 70,000 and 75,000 members, making it the third largest organization of the Polish resistance (after the Armia Krajowa and the Bataliony Chlopskie). NSZ units participated in the Warsaw Uprising.
In March 1944, the NSZ split with the more moderate faction coming under the command of the Armia Krajowa. The other part of the organization became known as the NSZ-ZJ (after "Zwi?zek Jaszczurczy" or the "Salamander Union"). This branch of the NSZ conducted operations against Polish and Jewish members of the Polish communist secret police, the Soviet NKVD, SMERSH, and their own former leaders that claimed dozens of victims.[2]
While an article in the Encyclopedia of the Holocaust asserts that hundreds of Polish Jews who had sought asylum amongst the Polish population after having escaped from the ghettos were murdered by the NSZ,[3] many NSZ soldiers and their families are credited with saving lives of countless Jews including personalities such as Maria Bernstein, Leon Goldman, Jonte Goldman, Dr. Turski, and others. The NSZ had many Jews in its ranks including Calel Perechodnik, Wiktor Natanson, Captain Roman Born-Bornstein (chief physician of the Chrobry II unit), Jerzy Zmidygier-Konopka, Feliks Pisarewski-Parry, Eljahu (Aleksander) Szandcer (nom de guerre "Dzik"), Dr. Kaminski, a physician who served in the NSZ unit led by Capt. Wladyslaw Kolacinski (nom de guerre Zbik), and numerous others. Similarly, a number of prominent members of the National Armed Forces made personal efforts to aid and hide Jews.[4]
