Poland’s wartime Home Army remembered
A series of events marking the 75th anniversary of the establishment of Poland’s World War II-era Home Army (AK) were held in Warsaw on Tuesday.
Among other ceremonies, scouts lit symbolic lights in memory of the Home Army’s soldiers on 150 sites around the Polish capital selected by veterans who fought in this underground resistance movement, which was one of the largest and best organised resistance movements in Europe, with the total number of fighters put at anywhere from 200,000 to 600,000.
Jan Jozef Kasprzyk, acting head of the Office for War Veterans and Victims of Oppression said that "these lights are an expression of our gratitude and remembrance of the Home Army generation, of all those who died during World War II while fighting against both the Germans and the Soviets."
Along with various combat activities, the AK was also widely involved in rescuing Jews, among others, by means of the famous 1942-founded Council to Aid Jews (Rada Pomocy Zydom) codenamed 'Zegota' - the only organisation in Europe and a unique one on a global scale established to defend and provide help to Jews in ghettos and elsewhere.
In his book 'God's Playground. A History of Poland', historian Norman Davies said that "the Home Army could fairly claim to be the largest of European resistance [organisations]".
Vetterans Office head Jan Jozef Kasprzyk also reminded that after the war many Home Army soldiers endured oppression at the hands of Poland’s communist authorities (hence their name "enduring soldiers" - PAP). (PAP)
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