Tajna Armia Polska, TAP (Secret Polish Army) was a Resistance movement founded in November 1939 in

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ger ...

-occupied

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populous ...

, which was active in the areas of the

Warsaw Warsaw ( pl, Warszawa, ), officially the Capital City of Warsaw,, abbreviation: ''m.st. Warszawa'' is the capital and largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the River Vistula in east-central Poland, and its population is officia ...

Podlasie Podlachia, or Podlasie, ( pl, Podlasie, , be, Падляшша, translit=Padliašša, uk, Підляшшя, translit=Pidliashshia) is a historical region in the north-eastern part of Poland. Between 1513 and 1795 it was a voivodeship with the c ...

Kielce Kielce (, yi, קעלץ, Keltz) is a city in southern Poland, and the capital of the Świętokrzyskie Voivodeship. In 2021, it had 192,468 inhabitants. The city is in the middle of the Świętokrzyskie Mountains (Holy Cross Mountains), on the bank ...

and

Lublin Lublin is the ninth-largest city in Poland and the second-largest city of historical Lesser Poland. It is the capital and the center of Lublin Voivodeship with a population of 336,339 (December 2021). Lublin is the largest Polish city east of t ...

Voivodship A voivodeship is the area administered by a voivode (Governor) in several countries of central and eastern Europe. Voivodeships have existed since medieval times and the area of extent of voivodeship resembles that of a duchy in western medieva ...

s. Founders were: * Lieutenant Colonel Jan Henryk Włodarkiewicz "Darwicz" – Chief of the Staff * Cavalry Captain

Witold Pilecki Witold Pilecki (13 May 190125 May 1948; ; codenames ''Roman Jezierski, Tomasz Serafiński, Druh, Witold'') was a Polish World War II cavalry officer, intelligence agent, and resistance leader. As a youth, Pilecki joined Polish underground sc ...

"Witold" * Lieutenant Colonel "Stefan" The organization had up to 19,000 members at its peak. In 1940 it joined the

Konfederacja Narodu Konfederacja Narodu (; ''Confederation of the Nation'') was one of the Polish resistance organizations in occupied Poland during World War II. KN was created in 1940 by the far-right National Radical Camp Falanga (ONR-Falanga) political party from ...

. In 1941 it became part of the

Armia Krajowa The Home Army ( pl, Armia Krajowa, abbreviated AK; ) was the dominant resistance movement in German-occupied Poland during World War II. The Home Army was formed in February 1942 from the earlier Związek Walki Zbrojnej (Armed Resistance) esta ...

(Home Army).

Bibliography

* Kazimierz Malinowski, ''Tajna Armia Polska. Znak. Konfederacja Zbrojna. Zarys genezy, organizacji i działalności'', Warszawa 1986. *

Adam Cyra Adam Cyra (born 1949) is a Polish historian. A specialist in World War II history of Central Europe, he graduated from Jagiellonian University. Since 1972 he is a staff member of the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum in Oświęcim. His doctoral th ...

, ''Ochotnik do Auschwitz - Witold Pilecki 1901-1948'', Oświęcim 2000. World War II resistance movements Military units and formations of Poland in World War II Polish underground organisations during World War II {{World-War-II-stub