Jan Karski about Polish Underground State

[…] My chief work was concerned with the creation of a special center in the Underground, the office of the ‘plenipotentiary of the government.’ The creation of this office was contingent upon the acceptance of two basic principles: first, that no matter what course the war might take, the Poles would never agree to collaborate in any way with the Germans. Quislings were to be eliminated at all costs.The second principle was that the Polish state was to be perpetuated by the underground administration which would be synchronized with the government-in-exile.

The so-called ‘stiff attitude toward the occupants’ simplified the problem of obtaining the consent of the people to the authority of the underground state. The German occupation was never recognized by the Polish people, and there could be no doubt on this score because, in Poland alone of all the occupied countries, there never appeared anything remotely resembling a legal or pseudo-legal body composed of Poles and collaborating with the Germans. Indeed, in all Poland, not a single political office in the German controlled administration was ever held by a Pole; not a single head of any province was Polish.

[...]When the Underground attained the peak of its development, the problem of collaboration was defined in precise terms as, in ordinary circumstances, a civil crime would be defined, and punishment was meted out in accordance with the ability of the Underground to carry out the sentences entailed.

According to the tradition handed down from the Polish insurrections against Tsarist Russia in 1830 and 1863, the place of the government should have been directly within the underground movement. It was realized, however, that such a government would have to be secret and anonymous. Consequently, Poland would have no contact with her Allies and no method of pursuing a foreign policy. If this government were liquidated, moreover, it would be impossible to appoint a new government. Chaos would result. The final factor that determined the decision that the government should remain in exile for the duration was the realization that the Underground required a method for maintaining the technical continuity of the organization.[...]

Steps had to be taken to reassure each party in the Underground that the administration created in the Underground would not be inimical to its interests and principles.[...]

Urgent stress was placed on the responsibility of these officers to all the political parties that were to constitute an underground parliament and control the personnel and budget of the administrative branch.

J. KARSKI, STORY OF A SECRET STATE, P. 144 -147

Decree of the President of the Republic of Poland of September 17th 1939 on the appointment of Władysław Raczkiewicz as successor to the President

MP, 1939, No. 214-217

Pursuant to Article 24 paragraph. 1 of the Constitution, I appoint Władysław Raczkiewicz, the former Speaker of the Senate, to succeed the President of the Republic of Poland in the event the office of President is vacated before the conclusion of peace. [...]

President of the Republic of Poland (-)
Ignacy Mościcki

source: Historia ustroju i prawa w Polsce 1918–1989. Wybór źródeł [History of the Political and Legal System in Poland, 1918–1989. Selected Sources], Warsaw 2006, p. 183.

Jan Karski About General Władysław Sikorski – The Prime Minister And Commander-in-Chief Of The Polish Armed Forces

I spent most of the next six days in Paris working on this report. After I was through, I called Sikorski’s secretary again for an appointment. Kulakowski requested me to come to our embassy to meet him. I went with considerable excitement. Sikorski was highly regarded in Poland. He was the kind of man whom Poles call a ‘European,’ a man of broad culture. He was a great general, a convinced liberal and democratic statesman who, during the Pilsudski regime, was strongly in opposition. After the catastrophic defeat of Poland, we put all our hopes in him.

In the anteroom of Sikorski’s office in the embassy, I was astounded to meet Jerzy Jur, my friend from Lwow. We greeted each other with delight. He told me about his escape and then we both became embarrassed as the conversation turned to what our present occupationswere. Neither one of us was allowed to discuss our status and so, amusingly enough, we had to fence with each other. Later, we realized that we were both going to Poland, but unfortunately we could not discuss it. We exchanged addresses, however, and I went in to see General Sikorski.

Sikorski was a man of about sixty, tall and upright in bearing. He appeared to be in excellent health. His manner was polished and his gestures had become slightly Gallicized. During the period of his opposition to Pilsudski, he had spent many years in France, becoming deeply attached to her. Since the First World War he had been particularly close to the French General Staff and many leading French military men held him in high esteem as a strategist. He permitted me only a very brief conversation in his office and told me to meet him in the Café Weber for lunch on the following day. We met in the restaurant lobby; a secluded table had been reserved for us. We sat down and I ordered a drink. Sikorski excused himself.

‘Lieutenant Karski, permit me, please, not to join you in drinking,’ he said with an apologetic smile, ‘I am too often compelled to drink at diplomatic banquets and I am usually sick afterwards.’ He was extremely polite and affable, inquired a good deal about apparatus of a state must be created and maintained at all costs, no matter how crude it is.’ Furthermore, he pointed out that the army must be unified into a whole rather than exist as an aggregate of atomic bodies, and stressed that the military had to be integrated completely into the social and political structure. ‘It cannot be allowed to remain distant or isolated. The liaison must be complete and conditions of mutual responsibility must be made to prevail,’ he insisted, laying his finger unerringly on the weak spot. An image came to my mind of the scowling, beetle-browed countenance of the military leader in Lwow and my nod of agreement was unusually emphatic.

‘But the army,’ General Sikorski went on, ‘shall never be allowed to interfere in political life. We have had enough of that. It must be the armed force of the people, animated by the ideal to serve the people, and not to rule them, not to lead them.’ I brought up one of the thorniest questions the Underground had to face. ‘How literally should we interpret our principle of “non-collaboration”?’ I asked. ‘Sometimes it may be valuable for us to have our men infiltrate into the German organizations. Can we do that?’ Sikorski’s reply was wholly characteristic.

‘The Poles in Paris,’ he said with a touch of irony, ‘live very well. We eat good food, sleep in comfortable quarters, and have few personal worries. We can’t tell the suffering and starving people in Poland what to do. I would not dream of attempting to impose my will. It would be immoral. The function of the government in France is merely to take care of their interests abroad. If they want my suggestions on the matter, I would say that any collaboration is unfavorable to our international political status. They shall do whatever they judge necessary. As long as we are abroad, we cannot issue orders to the Polish people. Our task is to fight the Germans. But please tell them to remember our history and our traditions. Tell them that we here are sure they will choose the right way.’ On the subject of a delegate of the government who would be the chief of the underground administration and the link between the Underground as a whole and the government in France, Sikorski again stressed that what the Poles inside Poland wanted was of primary importance.

‘If any individual has the support of the people in Poland and they desire him as our delegate,’ he said, ‘then he shall have our support, no matter what his political convictions are.’

Karski About The Last Meeting With Władysław Sikorski

One day [in May 1943] I received a sudden call from General Sikorski. I went to his office and he gave me my orders. ‘You are going soon to the United States,’ he told me abruptly, ‘in the same capacity as here. You have no further instructions of any kind. Our Ambassador, Jan Ciechanowski, will put you in touch with prominent Americans. You will tell them what you have seen, what you have been through in Poland, what the Underground has ordered you to tell the United Nations. Remember one thing, under no circumstances are you to make your report dependent on the political situation or the type of people you address. You will tell them the truth and only the truth. Answer all questions that do not endanger your comrades and harm the Underground. Do you understand what I expect from you? Are you aware of how firm my faith is that you will speak impartially?’5 ‘Thank you, sir, yes,’ I replied, ‘I want to tell you how grateful I am for your confidence and for the way you have treated me.’ When I left this man I had no idea that I would never see him again. It was the greatest of all shocks when a few weeks later the news of his tragic end was flashed around the world. General Sikorski died as a soldier on duty, in an airplane crash near Gibraltar.6 We Poles had no luck in this war.

J. Karski, Story of a Secret State, , p. 417

Jan Karski about Polish Armed Forces In the West

It was through one of the political parties, the National Party, that I received my second mission. It was arranged for me to go to Lwow, perform a number of functions there, and afterwards make an attempt to reach France and contact the Polish Government in Paris and Angers. Orders had come from General Sikorski and the Polish Government for all young Poles to try to escape to France. These orders applied particularly to pilots, mechanics, sailors, and artillery men, the last category being the one to which I belonged. If I reached France, I would be performing a double task: obeying this order and carrying out an underground assignment.

J. Karski Story of a Secret State, p. 93

Jan Karski about General Kazimierz Sosnkowski

The next day I ran into Kot in the Café de la Paix. I gathered that he frequented the place with his customary regularity. In Cracow, he had visited a certain café with such mechanical regularity that his students had nicknamed it the Café Kot. We discussed my conversation with General Sikorski.

Kot was in complete agreement with the proposals. He ventured the opinion, however, that Poland would be occupied for a long time and that the Underground must prepare for a long struggle. He then suggested that I get in touch with General Sosnkowski, the chief of the Military Underground, for a conference.I called Sosnkowski’s adjutant, who arranged a meeting in a modest bistro. Sosnkowski is a tall, tough, military type of a man, about sixty-five years of age. He has unusually piercing blue eyes beneath bushy eyebrows. He was Pilsudski’s chief of staff when Pilsudski organized the underground forces against our oppressors before the First World War. His old training had never deserted him and he still had conspiracy in the very marrow of his bones. The first thing he did was to snap out a reprimand for calling his adjutant so freely. Didn’t I know that telephones could be tapped?

I accepted the rebuff without answering. He asked me about generalconditions in Poland and offered little or no suggestion while I recited the social and civil problems. His métier was military affairs. His opinion was also that Poland would be occupied for a long time. He told me that it was highly important for the Polish people to realize that this was not an ordinary war and that when it was over, all life would be changed and modified.

J. Karski, Story of a Secret State, p. 134-135

Jan Karski about Political Representation

The third branch was called the Political Representation and constituted the parliament of the Underground.

Each of the four major political parties conducted, on their own initiative, many of their activities within the framework of the Underground. They had the right to engage in autonomous propaganda, political and social activity, and resistance to the occupant. But the representatives of these four parties constituted one official body, and to it were responsible both the Chief Delegate and the Commander-in-Chief of the Army.

J. Karski, Story of a Secret State, p. 256.

Jan Karski about the Chief Delegate of the Government and Polish underground administracy

The administrative branch was composed of the Chief Delegate of the Government and the Regional Delegates. Under their supervision twelve departments functioned, each one of which had a director who was the counterpart of a Minister of the Polish government-inexile, now in London, such as the Director of the Interior, Treasury, Education, etc.

The primary duty of this branch was to organize and maintain the autonomous and secret deputy administration of the country. The attitude of ‘not noticing the occupant’ had prevailed. The Poles had refused any part in the political administration of the German General Government and the edict had been issued that not a single law or decree of this agency was to be obeyed. The result would have been a condition of chaos, and the authority of the Secret Deputy Administration was established to bring control over the country. This administration exercised compulsion on the populace to a much greater degree than the Nazis could with all their brutal measures. In each county, city, and community, there was an official who, invested by the full authority of the state, issued decrees, and contacted the people. These persons were also designated to be ready the instant the country was cleared of the invader, to take over as a complete, democratically chosen administration, fully capable of managing the affairs of the country.

J. Karski, Story of a Secret State, p. 254-255

Jan Karski About the Underground Army

The military branch was organized as a domestic army. The Commander-in-Chief of this army and his regional commanders had all the rights and prerogatives of army commanders with regard to the population of a war zone. They could issue military edicts to guide the behavior of the population, and requisition men for necessary war work. Each soldier in the army had all the rights and duties of a front-line combatant, even including the traditional one that all time spent on the front lines counted double toward all benefits such as veteran’s pensions, priority rights, and civil service.

The Commander-in-Chief, although this was not known to the public, was allocated a special power by a decree of the President. He was authorized to call a partial or total mobilization of all Poles the moment the Polish Government, acting in concert with the other Allied governments, gave the order for an open, universal uprising against the German occupants. The work of the Home Army was divided into two parts: Command included propaganda, political diversions against the occupant, organization for the general uprising, and tasks undertaken in cooperationwith the political and administrative branches; the other was devoted to the daily struggle and included sabotage (activity against the German civil and industrial war machine), diversion (direct activity against the German Army, its communications, supplies and transport), military training, etc. In addition, it collaborated with the units that operated in the areas that had been incorporated by force into the Reich and Soviet Union.

J. Karski, Story of a Secret State, p. 255-256

Jan Karski About the Underground Army

The military branch was organized as a domestic army. The Commander-in-Chief of this army and his regional commanders had all the rights and prerogatives of army commanders with regard to the population of a war zone. They could issue military edicts to guide the behavior of the population, and requisition men for necessary war work. Each soldier in the army had all the rights and duties of a front-line combatant, even including the traditional one that all time spent on the front lines counted double toward all benefits such as veteran’s pensions, priority rights, and civil service.

The Commander-in-Chief, although this was not known to the public, was allocated a special power by a decree of the President. He was authorized to call a partial or total mobilization of all Poles the moment the Polish Government, acting in concert with the other Allied governments, gave the order for an open, universal uprising against the German occupants. The work of the Home Army was divided into two parts: Command included propaganda, political diversions against the occupant, organization for the general uprising, and tasks undertaken in cooperationwith the political and administrative branches; the other was devoted to the daily struggle and included sabotage (activity against the German civil and industrial war machine), diversion (direct activity against the German Army, its communications, supplies and transport), military training, etc. In addition, it collaborated with the units that operated in the areas that had been incorporated by force into the Reich and Soviet Union.

J. Karski, Story of a Secret State, p. 255-256

Proclamation of the Government Delegate for Poland and the Commander of the Armed Forces in Poland to Establish the Directorate of Underground Resistance, London July 7th 1943

CITIZENS OF THE REPUBLIC

For four years now, the Polish nation has been fighting the cruelest invader it has ever faced. It has mobilized all available forces in this fight. [...]

For four years now, the barbarian invader has been using the most barbaric methods to purposely and ruthlessly exterminate Poles merely for being Poles. [...]

In order to fight this, WE MUST GIVE OUR ALL AND CHANNEL OUR EFFORTS IN WELL-ORGANIZED AND WELL-DIRECTED ACTIONS. The Polish people must strike back with redoubled blows in response to the increase in terror and oppression by the occupation forces. To this end, THE FIGHT AGAINST THE GERMAN OCCUPATION in Poland by means of underground resistance WILL BECOME THE RESPONSIBILITY OF THE DIRECTORATE OF UNDERGROUND RESISTANCE, CREATED BY THE GOVERNMENT’S REPRESENTATIVE IN POLAND AND THE COMMANDER OF THE ARMED FORCES IN POLAND.

WE CALL ON all citizens of Poland to UNCONDITIONALLY FOLLOW THE ORDERS AND COOPERATE IN THE ACTIONS OF THE DIRECTORATE OF UNDERGROUND RESISTANCE, TO SUPPORT IT AND PROVIDE IT WITH ALL POSSIBLE ASSISTANCE – as it is the sole institution possessing the authority of the nation’s legitimate government.

The Directorate of Underground Resistance will be responsible for directing resistance operations and maintaining the Polish people’s hostile attitude towards the occupation forces, for direct day-to-day combat operations against the occupiers, for responding to terror with terror directed back at the Germans, and for retaliation – in response to acts of brutality by the Gestapo.

Well-deserved and severe punishment will also be meted out to those Poles who betray their nation and serve the enemy.

THE SOLE COMPETENT AUTHORITY to adjudicate crimes committed by Polish citizens against the State and its People are SPECIAL COURTS established by the Government Representative in Poland and the Commander of the Armed Forces in Poland. [...]

The Special Courts will rigorously prosecute blackmail and extortion under the cover of “efforts” to free imprisoned or interned Poles, and the blackmail of Jews in hiding. [...]

In our fight against the enemy, an indispensible prerequisite for victory is the need to follow, under threat of penalty, the orders of the Government, the Commander-In-Chief, and their Representatives in Poland.

“Republic of Poland”, No. 11 (62), 1943, in: D. Baliszewski, A. K. Kunert, Prawdziwa historia Polaków. t. II [The True Story of the Poles, Vol. 2], , Warsaw 1999, pp. 1206-1207.

Jan Karski About Political and Social Service

In the ‘fifth branch’ were the loose organizational centers. This branch was an effort to curtail the waste involved in satisfying a desire to give vent to a sense of individuality. An effort was made to co-ordinate the activities of all the political, economic, educational, and religious groups which were active outside the other four branches. Some of them developed aspects which became very important, such as the programs for the continuing clandestine education of primary- and high-school students, as well as instruction at university level. Most of them helped keep up morale, although they lacked the proper technical and financial means to be import ant factors in resistance. These groups constituted what was called ‘the outskirts of the Underground.

J. Karski, Story of a Secret State, p. 257

Jan Karski Remembers Clandestine Schooling

The Education Department of the Underground had reached in 1942, the year when Zosia was to be graduated, an incredible peak of efficiency.2 In the Warsaw district alone more than eighty-five thousand children were receiving tutelage through its offices. More than seventeen hundred youths had been graduated from the high schools. The pupils met secretly in their homes in groups of three or six, for different ostensible reasons, to play chess, for a social visit, to learn a trade. Any common purpose would serve as a pretext. The teacher who came to them underwent a fearful risk. Children are obstinately curious and could scarcely be repressed in their desire to learn the true identity of the teacher, in what school he had taught before the war, where he lived, and other details that it was dangerous to let adults know, let alone children. The safety of these overworked educators depended on the uncertain vagaries of youthful prudence. The unwitting word of a parent or pupil could and sometimes did mean death and bestial torture for these men, a number of whom were caught by the Gestapo in the performance of this invaluable service.

The greatest difficulty that confronted the education authorities was the problem of obtaining a sufficient number of textbooks. After much indecision, it was finally decided to print facsimiles of prewar textbooks so that if they were discovered, they would appear to the Germans as dating before the occupation.

Zosia was due to be graduated in September 1942.[…] To receive a graduation diploma, the applicant had to pass final tests in five subjects, covering the material of a twelve-year course in each. In three of the subjects both oral and written examinations were stipulated. In the remaining two, the kind of examination was elective.[…]

Zosia had done excellently in all her examinations. The diploma she received was merely a calling-card bearing the pseudonym of the chairman of the commission. On the reverse side appeared a few innocent sentences: Thank you for your charming visit on September 29, 1942. I was most satisfied. You told me such interesting things. Bravo.[…].

When Poland is reconstituted after the war, thousands of these cards will be exchanged for official diplomas.

J. Karski, Story of a Secret State, p. 331-335.

Jan Karski About the Underground Justice

The fourth branch was called the Directorate of Civilian Resistance and its main function was to bolster up the policy of ‘the stiff attitude toward the occupant.’ Its members were outstanding scientists, jurists, priests, and social workers. They were to keep Poland clear of traitors and collaborationists, to try those accused of collaboration, sentence them, and see that the sentence was carried out. It had regional branches which functioned like people’s tribunals of the type that frequently arise in times of revolution or national upheaval.

It was authorized to pass sentences of either ‘infamy’ or death. A Pole was sentenced to ‘infamy’ who did not follow the prescribed ‘stiff attitude toward the occupant’ and was unable to justify his conduct when asked to do so by us. It meant social ostracism, and was also the basis for criminal proceedings to be held after the war. Sentences of death were passed on anyone who attempted active aid to the enemy and could be proved to have harmed the activities or personnel of the Underground. The tribunals also had the power to pass sentences of death on exceptionally vicious German officeholders. There was no appeal against the sentences of the tribunals and they were invariably carried out.

J. Karski, Story of a Secret State, p. 256-257

Karski about Secret Press

The secret press in which I participated did not deal exclusively with internal affairs and party matters. Every paper – daily, weekly, bi-weekly – brings first of all news to its readers. The news of the world was supplied by a large and well-organized chain of secret radio listeners. Risking their lives constantly, young and old, men and women, listened to foreign broadcasts in soundproof cellars, in small huts set up in forests, in attics with faked double roofs. The London BBC, Boston’s WRUL, and Columbia’s WCBX (New York) were the major sources of information. Every paper had several listening stations, for one could never be sure whether the American and British broadcasts would be heard, or whether one would be able to listen to one at the necessary time. Young boys took the messages to the ‘city desk’ in the basement or hut in the woods, where the one man serving as editor and printer worked on his hand press or mimeograph. He wrote the editorials; he received messages from ‘correspondents’ and ‘reporters’ spread all over the country who transmitted to him by messengers news about what was going on in the country itself.

Special press agencies had been organized by the Government Delegate, the military organization and the staffs of the large political parties. Through these, Poland received truthful reports of the latest news from the outside world, the battlefronts and the most important occurrences in the occupied countries. These press serviceshad regular correspondents in neutral and Allied countries.[…]

The newspapers themselves were numerous and heterogeneous in character. Every political group had at least one secret organ and many had several. The influence and circulation of these papers were as diverse as the conflux of political and social opinions of which they were the expressions. The Information Bulletin, the semiofficial organ of the Underground Army, had a circulation of at least thirty thousand copies and was even greater when one considers the known fact that each copy had a plurality of readers. The circulation numbers of the others were less significant, ranking from one hundred and fifty to fifteen thousand. […]

Publishing a successful underground newspaper required men who were thoroughly trained and competent, not merely to produce effective journalism but to make sure that nothing of importance was revealed to the enemy.[…] The Government Delegate had his own official organ, Rzeczpospolita Polska (The Polish Republic), chich expressed the official point of view of the government-in-exile and the underground authorities. […]

Wiadomosci Polskie (Polish News) was the official organ of the Commander of the Home Army. It contained articles devoted to social and military problems.[…]

The military command also issued Zolnierz Polski (The Polish Soldier), a large part of which was devoted to reminiscences and analysis of the military defeat. It published, too, news of the activities of the Polish Army at home and abroad.[…]

Besides periodicals, the secret press published books and pamphlets of all kinds. The pamphlets were mostly ideological. The books were chiefly reprints of works the Germans had forbidden – Polish classics, texts for underground education, military works, and prayer books.[…]

The secret press was the means by which the underground state kept in direct contact with the large mass of the population. Through it, the people were constantly kept aware of what was being done so that their morale and hope were kept at a high pitch. For their work to be successful, the underground organizations required the knowledge, too, that the people had faith in them and supported their authority. Testimony to this effect was received in many ways.

J. Karski, Story of a Secret State, Warszawa 2004, p. 287-298.

Jan Karski About Wire-tapping

The work I did here was quite different from any I had done before. Because I knew languages and something of international affairs, besides having a well-developed memory, I received a new assignment. My duty was to listen to radio reports and to take them to the highest authorities in the Cracow civilian and Military Underground. I was not supposed to listen to Polish broadcasts from London nor to English propaganda, but to those from neutral countries like Turkey, Russia (before Russia, herself, was at war), Sweden and, if possible, America. My superiors were anxious to have a true and realistic picture of the total military and political situation. In order to provide this, it was essential not to rely solely on broadcasts in English, French or Polish that came from the Allies’ radio stations, whose content, far too like ‘propaganda,’ needed to be reviewed by using the news and analysis from military and political commentators in neutral countries. If pessimistic or discouraging, my reports were treated as secret material and were used only by our leaders. More often, however, the reports

I handed in were used as the basis of foreign news articles in the Cracow underground press.

J. Karski, Story of a Secret State, p. 251.

Jan Karski Describes Operation “N”

I had got somewhat more than I bargained for when I asked Lucien for propaganda work. I had not yet fully recovered from my illness and the simple projects I had embarked upon had mushroomed into ambitious efforts that required a considerable expenditure of energy. The nucleus of the program had been simply to contribute some spadework toward sustaining the morale of the Polish population and bringing retribution on the heads of pusillanimous or treacherous collaborators. But each idea seemed to sprout new ones that could not be neglected without a vital injury to the entire growth. I found myself,with the consent and aid of the Underground, involved in a largescale production of letters, leaflets, and, finally, of periodicals and newspapers. I had the responsibility of preparing the texts for a wide variety of propagandistic forays. It was at once a delicate and exciting venture into literary and political realms. The lines of each text had to be traced out with minute precision, for nearly all our documents were displayed as the products of secret German organizations, Liberal, Socialist, Catholic, Communist, and even Nazi. It was a cardinal principle of our propaganda technique to issue all our exhortations, proclamations and even news reports under the aegis of a fictional body which espoused the Catholic ethos, the traditions of German parliamentarianism, international labor solidarity, or individual liberty. Each piece had to be written In scrupulous conformity with the tenets of its purported sponsors.

After a while, I began to feel like an overworked actor in a povertystricken variety company. I was constantly on tenterhooks for a single slip could easily give away the whole thing.

The policy of issuing propaganda under German auspices was attended by increasing success, greater daring and, as a consequence, more ambitious projects that were constantly enlarged in scope. The Underground ultimately established two newspapers that circulated not only in the ranks of the German Army in Poland, but quite widely in the Reich itself. One was a presumptive organ of the German Socialists, the other an ardently nationalist sheet.

J. Karski, Story of a Secret State, p. 235-236

Karski About The Wawer organisation

‘The Little Wolves’ was an organization of young boys formed under the leadership of some ‘Experts’ for the purpose of harassing the Nazis directly, annoying the occupants, poking fun at them, working more sharply on their nerves by diverse stratagems. The members of this organization were the authors of a large share of the millions of inscriptions that became the most common flower of Warsaw, and bloomed afresh each morning. They painted signs like ‘Poland fights on’, or ‘The punishment for Oswiecim is near’ or ‘Hitler Kaputt’ with indelible paint on German trucks and automobiles, on German residences, and quite frequently on the backs of the Germans themselves. An epidemic of flat tires on German vehicles resulted from the Little Wolves’ thorough and systematic sprinkling of the streets with broken glass, bits of barbed wire, and any other pointed objects on which they could lay their hands. They festooned the city with caricatures and posters which were constant sources of amusement to the population of Warsaw. The mischievous and diabolically efficient little pack did much to sustain the psychological atmosphere of contempt for the Germans and fostered the spirit of resistance. In the fall of 1942, when the Germans requisitioned all of Poland’s furs and wools for the Eastern front, the Little Wolves got up a brilliantly executed series of posters on the topic of the day. A gaunt, gloomy German soldier was depicted swathed in a very feminine mink coat with a silver-fox muff protecting his hands. Underneath were captions on the order of ‘Now that I am so warm, dying for our Führer will be a pleasure.’[…] The Germans had destroyed all the monuments that commemorated Polish heroes or patriotic events. By common consent all Poles made conspicuous detours around the spots where these monuments had been located. Prayers would even be offered up at these spots, to the outrage of the German officials. The Little Wolves used flowers as a symbolic message. They were found in profusion where the monuments had been. They scattered them wherever a member of the Underground had been executed or even arrested, in locations where some particularly heinous German crime had been committed. Nothing could stop the Little Wolves and their exploits were innumerable, sharp thorns in the sides of the occupants.

J. Karski, Story of a Secret State, p. 327-328

Jan Karski About Secret Polish Administration

In accordance with the principle that the underground movement was the means through which the Polish state operated inside Poland, the central organization had now been divided into five branches. The administrative branch was composed of the Chief Delegate of the Government and the Regional Delegates. Under their supervision twelve departments functioned, each one of which had a director who was the counterpart of a Minister of the Polish government-inexile, now in London, such as the Director of the Interior, Treasury, Education, etc.

The primary duty of this branch was to organize and maintain the autonomous and secret deputy administration of the country. The attitude of ‘not noticing the occupant’ had prevailed. The Poles had refused any part in the political administration of the German General Government and the edict had been issued that not a single law or decree of this agency was to be obeyed.3 The result would have been a condition of chaos, and the authority of the Secret Deputy Administration was established to bring control over the country. This administration exercised compulsion on the populace to a much greater degree than the Nazis could with all their brutal measures. In each county, city, and community, there was an official who, invested by the full authority of the state, issued decrees, and contacted the people. These persons were also designated to be ready the instant the country was cleared of the invader, to take over as a complete, democratically chosen administration, fully capable of managing the affairs of the country.

J. Karski Story of a Secret State, p. 254 -255

DIVERSIONARY ACTIVITIES

The work of the Home Army was divided into two parts: Command included propaganda, political diversions against the occupant, organization for the general uprising, and tasks undertaken in cooperationwith the political and administrative branches; the other was devoted to the daily struggle and included sabotage (activity against the German civil and industrial war machine), diversion (direct activity against the German Army, its communications, supplies and transport), military training, etc. In addition, it collaborated with the units that operated in the areas that had been incorporated by force into the Reich and Soviet Union.

J. Karski, Story of a Secret State, p. 255-256

ORGANIZED MILITARY SABOTAGE

The work of the Home Army was divided into two parts: Command included propaganda, political diversions against the occupant, organization for the general uprising, and tasks undertaken in cooperationwith the political and administrative branches; the other was devoted to the daily struggle and included sabotage (activity against the German civil and industrial war machine), diversion (direct activity against the German Army, its communications, supplies and transport), military training, etc. In addition, it collaborated with the units that operated in the areas that had been incorporated by force into the Reich and Soviet Union.

J. Karski, Story of a Secret State, p. 255-256

The military branch was organized as a domestic army. The Commander-in-Chief of this army and his regional commanders had all the rights and prerogatives of army commanders with regard to the population of a war zone. They could issue military edicts to guide the behavior of the population, and requisition men for necessary war work. Each soldier in the army had all the rights and duties of a front-line combatant, even including the traditional one that all time spent on the front lines counted double toward all benefits such as veteran’s pensions, priority rights, and civil service.

The Commander-in-Chief, although this was not known to the public, was allocated a special power by a decree of the President. He was authorized to call a partial or total mobilization of all Poles the moment the Polish Government, acting in concert with the other Allied governments, gave the order for an open, universal uprising against the German occupants. The work of the Home Army was divided into two parts: Command included propaganda, political diversions against the occupant, organization for the general uprising, and tasks undertaken in cooperationwith the political and administrative branches; the other was devoted to the daily struggle and included sabotage (activity against the German civil and industrial war machine), diversion (direct activity against the German Army, its communications, supplies and transport), military training, etc. In addition, it collaborated with the units that operated in the areas that had been incorporated by force into the Reich and Soviet Union.

J. Karski, Story of a Secret State, p. 255-256

Decree of the President of the Republic of Poland of December 9th 1939 on the Establishment of the National Council. (Excerpts)
DZURP, 1939, No. 104, Item 1008

Pursuant to Article 79 paragraph. 2 of the Constitution, I proclaim the following:

Article 1. For the duration of exceptional circumstances resulting from war, I appoint a National Council to act as an advisory body to the President of the Republic of Poland and the Government.

Article 2. The President of the Republic of Poland shall convene, open and close sessions of the National Council.

Art. 3.1. The National Council shall issue opinions on all matters submitted by the government during its sessions.

Art. 3.2. The Government shall in particular submit the state budget during a session of the National Council. The National Council can also express its opinion in the form of suggestions concerning the need to issue certain decrees and regulations.

Article 4. The National Council may also, both at the request of the government and on its own initiative, consider issues concerning the future political system, in particular, the law on elections to Legislative Bodies. [...]

Article 9. National Council resolutions are to be passed by a simple majority vote in which at least two-thirds of the council’s members participate. [...]