Tajne Wojskowe Zakłady Wydawnicze (translated as the Secret Military Printing Works or the Secret Military Publishing House) was the secret

printing Printing is a process for mass reproducing text and images using a master form or template. The earliest non-paper products involving printing include cylinder seals and objects such as the Cyrus Cylinder and the Cylinders of Nabonidus. The ea ...

and

publishing house Publishing is the activity of making information, literature, music, software and other content available to the public for sale or for free. Traditionally, the term refers to the creation and distribution of printed works, such as books, newsp ...

of the

Polish Underground State The Polish Underground State ( pl, Polskie Państwo Podziemne, also known as the Polish Secret State) was a single political and military entity formed by the union of resistance organizations in occupied Poland that were loyal to the Gover ...

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 ...

Nazi Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in ...

occupied Poland ' (Norwegian: ') is a Norwegian political thriller TV series that premiered on TV2 on 5 October 2015. Based on an original idea by Jo Nesbø, the series is co-created with Karianne Lund and Erik Skjoldbjærg. Season 2 premiered on 10 October 2 ...

. It was run, from its creation in late 1940 to disbandment in early 1945, by Jerzy Rutkowski of

Bureau of Information and Propaganda The Bureau of Information and Propaganda of the Headquarters of Związek Walki Zbrojnej, later of Armia Krajowa ( pl, Biuro Informacji i Propagandy (Komendy Głównej Związku Walki Zbrojnej - Armii Krajowej) - in short: ''BIP''), a conspiracy dep ...

of the Polish resistance (

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 ...

).Salmonowicz, p.187Tajne Wojskowe Zakłady Wydawnicze
in WIEM Encyklopedia. Retrieved on June 15, 2008. TWZW was likely the largest underground publisher in the world.

Rzeczpospolita () is the official name of Poland and a traditional name for some of its predecessor states. It is a compound of "thing, matter" and "common", a calque of Latin ''rés pública'' ( "thing" + "public, common"), i.e. ''republic'', in Engli ...

, 12.06.04 Nr 136 Janina Kulesza-Kurowska
(Tajne) Wojskowe ZakΠady Wydawnicze 1940–1945
KOMBATANT nr 7-8/2008, p.12

History

First underground press of TWZW started operating in

in autumn 1940. Before that period, underground presses had to rely on small, amateurish printing presses. TWZW revolutionized the underground printing scene in occupied Poland, by building new underground presses, and organizing the entire network. By early 1944 TWZW had twelve underground centers, including eight

printing press A printing press is a mechanical device for applying pressure to an inked surface resting upon a printing, print medium (such as paper or cloth), thereby transferring the ink. It marked a dramatic improvement on earlier printing methods in wh ...

es, as well as a

bookbinding Bookbinding is the process of physically assembling a book of codex format from an ordered stack of ''signatures'', sheets of paper folded together into sections that are bound, along one edge, with a thick needle and strong thread. Cheaper, b ...

center, an

offset printing Offset printing is a common printing technique in which the inked image is transferred (or "offset") from a plate to a rubber blanket and then to the printing surface. When used in combination with the lithographic process, which is based on t ...

center, a foreign-language publication center, and a chemigraphy (

zincography Zincography was a planographic printing process that used zinc plates. Alois Senefelder first mentioned zinc's lithographic use as a substitute for Bavarian limestone in his 1801 English patent specifications. In 1834, Federico Lacelli patented a ...

) center. Most of its operations were located in Warsaw. In summer 1944 several centers of TWZW were discovered by the German occupiers. During the

Warsaw Uprising The Warsaw Uprising ( pl, powstanie warszawskie; german: Warschauer Aufstand) was a major World War II operation by the Polish resistance movement in World War II, Polish underground resistance to liberate Warsaw from German occupation. It occ ...

in late summer of 1944, remaining TWZW operations in Warsaw went public as ''Wojskowe Zakłady Wydawnicze'' (Military Publishing House). Early on during the uprising personnel of TWZW attacked and took control of several large, official printing presses in Warsaw. The last publication of Warsaw TWZW was the 102nd issue of

Biuletyn Informacyjny ''Biuletyn Informacyjny'' ("Information Bulletin") was a Polish underground weekly published covertly in General Government territory of occupied Poland during World War II. The magazine was edited by Aleksander Kamiński and distributed as the ...

, printed on the night of 3 to 4 October, a day after the insurgents surrendered. TWZW was officially disbanded in January 1945 along with the entire Armia Krajowa. TWZW were mentioned by general

Stefan Rowecki Stefan Paweł Rowecki (pseudonym: ''Grot'', "Spearhead", hence the alternate name, Stefan Grot-Rowecki; 25 December 1895 – 2 August 1944) was a Polish general, journalist and the leader of the Armia Krajowa. He was murdered by the Gestapo in ...

''Grot'' in his order 104/43, thanking them for their work.

Operations

The twelve centers of TZWZ were named W-1 to W-12 (W for ''warsztat'', Polish for ''workshop''). *TZWZ, subordinate to

, was headed by Jerzy Rutkowski pseudonym "Michał Kmita" **Secretary – Maria Rutkowska-Mierzejewska pseudonym "Janka" **Section of Administration – headed by Igor Telechun pseudonym "Łukasz" **Section of Supplies – headed by Aleksander Wąsowski pseudonym "Józef" **Section of Technical Matters – headed by Stefan Berent pseudonym "Steb" **Cell of Drawings – headed by Stanisław Kunstetter pseudonym "Krzysztof" **Printing house W 1 – headed by Czesław Korwin-Piotrowski pseudonym "Karol". Hidden in private villa. Major printing center of high-quality German language disinformation texts for Action N. Operated from autumn 1940. Discovered by Germans in March 1944. **Printing house W 2 – headed by Jerzy Paszyc pseudonym "Stefan". Hidden in a fruit shop and cafe. Printed brochures and books. **Printing house W 3 – headed by Władysław Pomorski pseudonym "Jerzy". Hidden in a carpenter's workshop. **Printing house W 4 – headed by Michał Wojewódzki pseudonym"Andrzej". Hidden in a basement of a former gliders factory. One of the largest printing presses, capable of printing over 40,000 of a newspaper issue. Discovered by Germans in June 1944. **Printing house W 5 – headed by Czesław Mierzejewski pseudonym"Marek". Hidden in a family home, it was the major chemigraphy center, where many fake documents of Polish resistance were created. **Printing house W 6 – headed by

Jerzy Mierzejewski Jerzy Mierzejewski (13 July 1917 – 14 June 2012) was a Polish painter, pedagogue and long-term dean of Cinematography and Directing at the National Film School in Łódź, Łódź fim school. He was the son of Jacek Mierzejewski, and brother ...

pseudonym "Jacek". Operated shortly before forced to evacuate. **Printing house W 7 – headed by Michał Wojewódzki pseudonym "Andrzej". Hidden in a toy workshop. Printed many foreign-language publications. Discovered by Germans. **Printing house W 8 – headed by Jerzy Paszyc pseudonym "Stefan". Hidden in a woodmill shack, was discovered before it started operations. **Printing house W 9 – headed by Marian Jędrzejczyk pseudonym"Kazimierz". Bookbinding center. **Printing house W 10 – headed by Stanisław Stopczyk pseudonym "Antoni". Never finished before the Warsaw Uprising begun. **Printing house W 11 – small reserve printing press. Discovered in April 1944 by the Germans. **Printing house W 13 - planned as the largest underground printing press ever, with equipment purchased abroad, never finished before the Warsaw Uprising begun. By late 1943 and early 1944, when TWZW was in its peak strength, monthly production of TWZW included about 250,000 newspapers and magazines, 65,500 brochures and 120,000 leaflets.Grzegorz Mazur
The ZWZ-AK Bureau of Information and Propaganda
2003, London Branch of the Polish Home Army Ex-Servicemen Association It is estimated that during its operation, TWZW produced 10-20 million newspaper and magazine issues, and about a million each of brochures, leaflets and other prints (such as posters). Its publications were distributed throughout occupied Poland, and in some instances, even abroad. TWZW employed about 50 people full-time (many of them women), many more volunteers (particularly to distribute its publications), and consumed monthly about 5 tons of paper (bought on the

black market A black market, underground economy, or shadow economy is a clandestine market or series of transactions that has some aspect of illegality or is characterized by noncompliance with an institutional set of rules. If the rule defines the se ...

). TWZW was likely the largest underground publisher in the world. Over the years many people involved with TWZW were arrested by the Germans, some were imprisoned, others, executed. TWZW had its own logo: a

szabla (; plural: ) is the Polish word for sabre. The sabre was in widespread use in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth during the Early Modern period, especially by light cavalry in the 17th century. The sabre became widespread in Europe follo ...

(Polish saber) on an open book. Notable publications of TWZW: * underground newspapers:

, Wiadomości Polskie * books: ''Kamienie na szaniec'' of

Aleksander Kamiński Aleksander Kamiński, assumed name: ''Aleksander Kędzierski''. Also known under aliases such as ''Dąbrowski'', ''J. Dąbrowski, Fabrykant, Faktor, Juliusz Górecki, Hubert, Kamyk, Kaźmierczak, Bambaju'' (born 28 January 1903 in Warsaw, died 15 ...

(first edition), ''Dywizjon 303'' of

Arkady Fiedler Arkady Fiedler (28 November 1894 in Poznań – 7 March 1985 in Puszczykowo) was a Polish writer, journalist and adventurer. Life He studied philosophy and natural science at the Jagiellonian University in Kraków and later in Poznań and the ...

(first edition in Poland)

References

* Stanisław Salmonowicz, ''Polskie Państwo Podziemne'', Wydawnictwa Szkolne i Pedagogiczne, Warszawa, 1994, .

External links

KOBIETY W TAJNYCH WOJSKOWYCH ZAKŁADACH WYDAWNICZYCH

History

Operations

See also

References

External links

Further reading