Ladies and gentlemen, Housemen, Soldiers of the Republic,
14 February 2026 marks the 84th anniversary of the formation of the Home Army – a formation that permanently enrolled in the past of Poland as the largest and best organized underground army operating in occupied Europe. Since 2025, this day has been celebrated as the National Day of Memory of National Army Soldiers. In this way, we pay due tribute to those who, in times of severe trial, were able to stand up for their homeland, risking everything they had most precious. The National Army was not just 1 of many conspiracy organizations fighting the occupier. It was an armed arm of the Polish Underground State, an extended and disciplined structure.
In the area of the Second Republic, the AK conducted military, political, administrative and judicial activities, and maintained the continuity of the Polish state. She was the salt in the occupier's eye. A combat motor, a symbol of discord to enslavement, and a force that mobilized all society to universal resistance. She united the nation on a common origin to fight for independence.
Appointed on 14 February 1942 by the command of the Chief Leader General Władysław Sikorski, National Army became an underground Polish Army. He continues the tradition of the Polish triumph Service and the Armed Forces Union. The decision of Gen. Sikorski was, among others, an effort to democratize the Armed Combat Union and open the anticipation to merge from the AK Peasants Battalions into 1 army of the Polish Underground State. Without the support of the village, without the food base, the guerrilla would not have a unchangeable backrest and would be doomed to failure. Commanded successively by Generals Stefan Rowecki "Grota", Tadeusz Komorowski „Bora” and Leopold Okulicki „The Bear” was a volunteer formation based on faithfulness, discipline and deep sense of work for the destiny of the state. The head of the 1st KG AK Staff in 1944 was Gen. Franciszek Kamiński – Chief Commandant of BCh. After the war, he took care of the inclusion of AK soldiers in social life.
Sub-chief course of the Zamość AK Circuit, June 1944.
During its highest period of operation, the National Army counted more than 350 1000 sworn soldiers, officers, enlisted officers and Privates, including 50,000 BCh soldiers. The scale and diversity of its activities – from intelligence and diversion to secret military education and publishing, to open armed conflict – did not have an equivalent in any another country of occupied Europe. The top and most dramatic evidence of this fight was Warsaw Uprisingwhich became a symbol of the unbreakable will of the Polish people. The second largest military organization of the Polish Underground State was the Peasants Battalions, which came out in September 1945. The spirit of the Home Army most full expresses the words of the soldier's oath: “(...) I curse to be faithful to my homeland, the Republic of Poland. Stand firm to defender her honor, to deliver her from slavery to fight with all her strength, until the sacrifice of my life." For hundreds of thousands of soldiers, this was not an empty declaration, but a commitment that they made through regular service to the highest sacrifice.
Today, in the free and sovereign Republic, we owe the soldiers of the Home Army, many of whom had peasant pedigree, grateful memory, deepest respect and care for historical truth. As Minister of National Defence, I pay tribute to their courage, self-sacrifice and purest love for the Homeland, ensuring that the modern Polish Army draws strength, sense of service and moral foundation from their heritage.
Hello and glory to the National Army Heroes. May their heritage proceed in our hearts, memory and deeds.