From NSZ to ZBoWiD

myslpolska.info 1 year ago

The first edition of Piotr Kłościudzki's memoirs (1916-2008) was released almost 30 years ago, in 1997 in the NORTOM release. The book met with a large interest of readers and its circulation was long exhausted. Why did we decide to resume it?

First due to the fact that it is simply a surviving evidence to the destiny of the people of the national camp during and after the war. Secondly, in the context of the cult of the alleged cursed soldiers whose fates have become 1 of the foundations of the country's historical politics, the voice of Piotr Kłobudzko brings a somewhat different view of this issue. The author wrote them at a time erstwhile it had not yet been mentioned, in the late 1970s. Thus, they are not contaminated by the emphasis on the current explanation of history. They are bitter memories, but true, the author does not hide his discords and dilemmas before which he faced in 1945, erstwhile the war ended, he does not effort at all costs to make himself a hero, does not glorify the post-war conspiracy, asks even fundamental questions about its meaning.

Piotr Kościudzki was a young activist of the National organization in the tiny town of Dobra k. Turku before the war. In September 1939, he was a soldier of the Polish Army, fought under Warsaw and in Lublin. As most SN activists joined the conspiracy, he was a associate of the National Military Organization (NOW), an armed arm of the SN. His hometowns were within the borders of the Reich, where there were practically no conditions for guerrilla activity, and the SN conspiracy rapidly suffered massive losses. small wonder, therefore, that he and his brother Stefan had to flee to Warsaw first and then Podlasie, where he went to the National Armed Forces (NSZ).

Why to the NDZ? He was 1 of many NOW soldiers who were not in the National Army in 1942. The following districts of NOW: Radomski, Kielce, Częstochowa, Lublin, Podlasie and Łódź – refused to submit to the AK and entered into an agreement with the pre-war ONR-ABC Lizard Union formed in September 1942. Piotr Kłośudzki writes about the political aspects of this divided rather sparingly, considering that the divided was decided by “ambition” and “political rations”, but does not specify who is responsible. He only admits that in the field there were 2 organisations, the NSZ and the AK, “it was not always good”. This is simply a very average assessment, the author of the memoirs does not justify the decisions of those SN activists who rejected the merge. Either way, the Kosobudzka brothers were in the NSZ branch in Podlasie. In 1944, the part of the NSZ that came from NOW decided to merge with the AK. Technically, Piotr Kłomudzzki was almost a year, until January 1945, an AK soldier. This is besides crucial due to the fact that it distinguishes those NSZ soldiers from those who did not merge with the AK, who shortly formed the Świętokrzyska Brigade. There were 2 NSZ-ty during this war, 1 from the Lizard Union and 1 from NOW. Did it matter? It was due to the fact that radicalism of the erstwhile led to its isolation within the Polish Underground State, and in utmost form besides into fraternal murders, or collaboration with Germany in 1945.

It is crucial in Piotr Kłobudzko's memoirs that his attitude on the point of armed opposition after 1945 is important. It was clear that he and his associates were not supporters of the fresh order, his brother Stefan was likely killed by 1 of the MO chiefs in Podlasie. Despite this, contrary to the now promoted narrative, convincing that people coming out of the conspiracy had no another choice but to fight and that it was a glorious card of our history, and that right was on their side – reading the memoirs of Peter Klomudzski we would not have specified certainty as to the rightness of this opinion.

“We inactive believed blindly in the relationship and assistance of the Western Allies. A clear and complete betrayal and a strong kick in the ass for faithful service and bleeding out the Polish Army on the western front of the emigration government and the full Polish nation waited patiently for the Potsdam Conference (2 August 1945). Meanwhile, we inactive firmly believed in the triumph and fair treatment of Poland" - writes Kłościudzki. This initially gave hope that the conspiracy had meaning. But shortly those hopes broke. After the creation of the Provisional Government of National Unity and the Potsdam Conference, it became clear that the game was over. And Kościudzki, not a politician, a man of the people, without a higher education, concludes that armed conflict is madness. “We are alone, we fight without support and without any help,” says his commander “The Dawn.” Now after the post-Pomad conference, after designation by the Allies of the Lublin government and dissolution of the Polish emigration, who we are and who we can number on. We provoke the enemy and lose the best sons of the nation, don't we?”

I'll admit honestly that this fragment of memory has taken me most. There is no tromtadration, no martyrdom, no cult of noncontinence against all that is now considered a valid patriotism modelHim. What resulted from the realism of a simple NSZ soldier? From the alleged peasant reason, or possibly from the correct reading of the ideas of the national camp, which was always opposed to the losing uprisings and not taking into account the realities. I think both these motivations may have happened here. Even more so, erstwhile reading fragments of memoirs devoted to the guerrilla conflict during the German occupation, the author sometimes manifests a motive for saving the blood of soldiers, avoiding unnecessary and risky actions, he even writes explicitly that it was a maneuver of "standing up with a weapon" to avoid provoking a retaliation of the occupier.

Kościudzki did not avoid repression, however, due to the fact that he was persuaded to participate in the conspiracy of the NSZ in the Łódź Voivodeship and this in addition in the structure of the peculiar Action Ambulance (PAS), which was fatally dangerous, due to the fact that it exposed the highest punishment in case of accidents and arrests. What caused him to agree, despite his doubts, to operate in PAS? force from arms associates, including Major Jan Morawiec “Remisha”? Or a fear of refusal? Anyway, he says it was a carelessness. Fortunately – and this is simply a paradox – he rapidly fell and failed to fulfill the tasks for which he was meant. He was to execute judgments on the people of the apparatus of power, which PAS would consider traitors. If this had happened, his destiny could have been different, and the conviction he made in 1946 would not have sentenced him to 2 years in prison, but to death. He writes about it straight – if he had accepted Morawiec's proposal to the end, he would have earned “a tie”, that is, the death penalty. He was right due to the fact that Morawiec ended up like this – he was sentenced to death in 1948. They were both equal-year-olds – Morawiec was 31 in 1946, and Kościudzki was 30.

Klokudski was in the Wronki. On 7 March 1947, convoyed by UB officers, he escaped under Krosławice from a train going to Łódź, knocking out a window, despite his handcuffed. This dramatic episode is rather a sensational film. The fact of this daring escape, as if individual suspected that the author was confabulating, was confirmed in archival material (reports of officers who were convoying it). It was published by Dr. hab. Andrzej Szymanski from the University of Opole in an article Proceedings of the Łódź safety Office towards Piotr Kłobudzko, a soldier of the National Armed Forces and the Emergency Service of peculiar Action in the periodical “Study on the past of the State and the Law of Poland” (No XXII/2019).

After fleeing the train until 1950, Klocudski was arrested again, but the authorities handled it comparatively gently. The memory of Klomudzko ends with a brief description of his activity already in People's Poland. For many it will most likely be a large surprise published by him emotionally and passionately the speech he gave at the firehouse rally in Dobra on December 4, 1956. It is simply a pean in honor of Władysław Gomulko, ending with a shout: “New, free and reborn Poland – live! Leader of the Nation Władysław Gomulka – long live!’. The scene is simply a bit surreal. This is the erstwhile NSZ guerrilla, sentenced in 1946 for "trying to remove the force of the established authorities of the Polish people and seize their power, and change the strategy of the Polish State" – he says about free and reborn Poland. But specified were the moods and hopes of many people.

Piotr Klomudzki (right) with Brother Stefan and “Black Janka”

In 1971, Kościudzki joins the Union of Freedom and Democracy Fighters (ZBOWiD). Is that shocking? No, after 1956, about 60,000 erstwhile soldiers of the AK, BCh, Armed Forces in the West joined this organization. Formally b. NSZ soldiers could not enter, but already in 1957 Mieczysław Moczar, on the question asked him during the gathering of the General Board of the ZBOWiD, he said that 1 should behave flexibly, due to the fact that there were many "honest people" in this organization (meaning in the NSZ), and any troops were subordinate to the AK. The practice was specified – the NSZ soldiers claimed to be an ark and were admitted to the ZBOWID. In the case of Kłodudzko specified a “masking” did not should be done due to the fact that it was in the AK from 1944 to 1945. The question is, why didn't he decide to join the ZBOWiD before, but not until 1971? I think the origin may have been an aversion to Mieczysław Moczara, which pierces repeatedly on memory cards. Kościudzki refuses Moczar the name of a Pole, finds him a executioner and a torturer. The reason is 1 – Moczar was the head of the Provincial safety Office in Łódź until 1948, so the author dealt with his subordinates. These experiences made it even after 1956, erstwhile Moczar was successful by gaining a large condition of b. conspiracy soldiers, including crucial ones like Colonel. Jan Mazurkiewicz "Radosław", Or even known for his anti-communism Col. Władysław Liniarski "Mścisława“Klomuzki did not join the ZBOWID. He only joined erstwhile Moczar's career, after the fall Władysław Gomulka, She broke down. Nevertheless, this is interesting, due to the fact that Moczar could have been close to Kłodudzko at that time, after 1956, even because, like him, he considered the top evil in post-war Poland to be the activity of “Jewish associations”.

Aversion to Moczar may have come from something else. The author writes that in 1950, erstwhile he was arrested for the second time, Moczar interviewed him in Łódź. He was delighted with the bravado escape from the train and offered him nothing more than to join the UB. The problem is that in 1950 Moczar was no longer the head of the WUBP in Łódź, at that time he finished his work as the Olsztyn Voivodeship and moved to Białystok. So Klocudzki could not talk to Moczar in 1950. Could he have had contact with him, for example, in 1946, during the investigation? possibly then, but not in 1950. At this point, the memory failed Klomudzko, or the incorrect dates. Attempts to encourage our hero to cooperate with UB do not exclude the mentioned Dr Andrzej Szymański, but excludes that it should happen.

In the 1970s and 1980s, Piotr Klomudzko accepted respective awards from the authorities of the Polish People's Republic, possibly not significant, but nevertheless. In 1973, Badge of Grunwaldzka, and in 1983, the Medal “For participation in the 1939 Defence War” awarded by the Council of State of Poland. He met with colleagues from the NSZ for many years, collecting papers and relations. After 1989, he became active with the reactivated National organization (so-called elder Party), and joined the National Armed Forces Soldiers' Union (in 1991).

The second published memoirs of Piotr Kłobudzko are based on a 1979 typescript. The author wrote them himself. In the early 1990s, he added any passages to them. We keep the spelling of the original, we do not include the text in footnotes, although it may contain any inaccuracies in names, aliases, names or dates. specified work would take time and would be useful for a narrow group of historians. In our opinion, however, the value of these memories lies in the colourful, devoid of pathos showing the destiny of a national camp activist who had to make dramatic choices in a reality he did not anticipate and did not initially accept. The memories of Peter Klomudzko contradict the black-and-white imagination of past now presented by most historians, who deliberately do not compose about the destiny of specified people as our hero at a time erstwhile they were no longer persecuted, that is, after 1956. A national hero in the period of the Polish People's Republic may be either dead or vegetative in the margins. Peter's life is simply a denial of this imagination of history.

Finally, we give our sincere thanks Col. Wiesław Kościudzki, who agreed to print his Father's memories in our publication and made available the priceless iconographic material we put in a separate photograph cartridge. In relation to the first edition, we decided to modify the book’s title to: “Memoirs of the partisan NSZ. Through wires, bars and shackles’.

Jan Engelgard

Piotr Klomuzki, “Memoirs of the guerrilla NSZ. Through wires, bars and shackles”, Publishing home Think Poland, Warsaw 2024, pp. 358 plus 16 p. illustration. Promotion price 50 PLN (shipping costs included)

Procurement== sync, corrected by elderman == @elder_man

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