Overview
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| Polish Underground State |
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| History of Poland 1939–1945 |
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Authorities
Government Administration Parliament Courts |
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Political organizations
Major parties Polish Socialist Party People's Party National Party Labour Party Minor parties Camp of National Unity Democratic Party Jewish Labour Bund Hashomer Hatzair Betar (Zionist youth) Opposition National Radical Camp Polish Workers' Party |
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Military organizations
Armia Krajowa (AK) Service for Poland's Victory (SZP) Armed Struggle (ZWZ) Szare Szeregi National Security Corps (PKB) Mostly integrated with ZWZ-AK Gwardia Ludowa WRN Bataliony Chłopskie Partially integrated with ZWZ-AK National Military Organization National Armed Forces Camp of Fighting Poland Pomeranian Griffin Konfederacja Narodu Non-integrated but recognizing authority of ZWZ-AK Jewish Combat Organization Jewish Military Union Opposition Military Lizard Union Armia Ludowa |
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Related topics
Cultural activities Education History of Poland during 1939-1945 |
Since its organization in 1916, scouts within the Polish Scouting and Guiding Association (Związek Harcerstwa Polskiego, ZHP) had taken active part in all the conflicts Poland was engaged in around this time: Great Poland Uprising, Polish-Bolshevik War, Silesian Uprisings, and the Polish–Ukrainian War. After the German Invasion of Poland in 1939, the Nazis recognized the ZHP as a threat. Polish Scouts and Guides were branded as criminals and banned.
Under the leadership of Florian Marciniak, the ZHP carried on as a clandestine organization. The wartime Scouts evolved into the paramilitary Szare Szeregi (Gray Ranks), reporting up through the Polish underground state and the Armia Krajowa resistance.
The codename Szare Szeregi was adopted in 1940. It was first used by underground scouting in Poznań. The name was coined after an early action of the Polish Scouting Association, in which boy scouts distributed propaganda leaflets among Germans from Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia who had settled in the homes of Poles expelled to the General Government. To create confusion, the leaflets had been signed SS — later expanded to Szare Szeregi, a name that came to be adopted by the entire organization.
Older Scouts carried out sabotage, armed resistance, and assassinations. The Girl Guides formed auxiliary units working as nurses, liaisons and munition carriers. Younger Scouts were involved in so-called minor sabotage under the auspice of the Wawer organization, which included dropping leaflets or painting the kotwica sign on the walls. During Operation Tempest, and especially during the Warsaw Uprising, the Scouts participated in the fighting, and several Szare Szeregi units were some of the most effective in combat. The Gray Ranks also included the White Couriers, who between late fall 1939 and mid-1940 helped smuggle many persons out of Soviet-occupied southeastern Poland into Hungary.
In 1940, the Soviet Union executed most of the Boy Scouts held at Ostashkov prison.
In 1945 the ZHP restored its former name and returned to public existence. However, the communist authorities of Poland pressured the organization to become a member of the Pioneer Movement and eventually it was banned in 1949. The only existing part of pre-war ZHP is ZHP pgK.
Read more about this topic: Gray Ranks