The Activities of Youth Pro-independence Organizations in Upper Silesia and Zagłębie Dąbrowskie in the Years 1945-1956. (An Outline of the Issue)

Abstract

In the years 1945-1956 in the whole of Poland about one thousand youth pro-independence organizations were working. Their members waged a struggle against the Communist regime. There were a variety of methods of fighting. The first of them was a cautious recruitment of new people to the clandestine group. This resulted from the simple fact that in order to conduct any activity a pro-independence organization had to number at least a few members. Sometimes it happened that an organization did not manage to start work when it was liquidated by the security service, as one of its members was an informer. When the young people were able to recruit several colleagues or friends for the underground association the work began. It mainly consisted in distributing clandestine leaflets, writing anti-regime slogans on walls or fences, and in winning, in various ways, weapons. The efforts made to get weapons ranged from collecting and repairing old ones right after the war to capturing them from policemen. Another form of work was committing acts of sabotage, e.g. destroying Communist symbols or damaging telecommunications systems. A peculiar method of sabotage was robbing cooperatives or Communist Party premises. Having no financial means for buying a typewriter or a duplicating machine to publish propaganda periodicals the young people stole those “tools” that were necessary for their work. It is worth noting that private owners were not robbed, either of machines or money. Some organizations aimed at educating young people so that they could become Poles aware of their rights and duties. This form of activity expressed opposition to the Communists' struggle against religion and the Catholic Church, and to abolishing the Polish Scouts' Association.