Jędrusie (literally ''Little Andrews'') was a Polish underground guerrilla group during World War II, created in 1941.

History

Its origins go back to October 1939 in

Tarnobrzeg Tarnobrzeg is a city in south-eastern Poland (historic Lesser Poland), on the east bank of the river Vistula, with 49,419 inhabitants, as of 31 December 2009. Situated in the Subcarpathian Voivodeship (Polish: ''Województwo podkarpackie'') sinc ...

, when a group of Polish Boy Scouts and gymnasium students joined the Polish resistance. Initially a small sub-group of

Szare Szeregi "Gray Ranks" ( pl, Szare Szeregi) was a codename for the underground paramilitary Polish Scouting Association (') during World War II. The wartime organisation was created on 27 September 1939, actively resisted and fought German occupation i ...

, since 1940 it was named ''Odwet'' (''Vengeance''). In 1941 the unit was reformed by and named after Lt. Władysław Jasiński, whose nom de guerre was ''Jędruś'', after his 4-year-old son Andrzej (''Jędruś'' is a Polish diminutive of that name). Jasiński, a reserve lieutenant of the

Polish Army The Land Forces () are the land forces of the Polish Armed Forces. They currently contain some 62,000 active personnel and form many components of the European Union and NATO deployments around the world. Poland's recorded military history stre ...

, was also their school teacher and the leader of their scouting troop. The Jędrusie were active in

Kraków Kraków (), or Cracow, is the second-largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River in Lesser Poland Voivodeship, the city dates back to the seventh century. Kraków was the official capital of Poland until 1596 ...

Sandomierz Sandomierz (pronounced: ; la, Sandomiria) is a historic town in south-eastern Poland with 23,863 inhabitants (as of 2017), situated on the Vistula River in the Sandomierz Basin. It has been part of Świętokrzyskie Voivodeship (Holy Cross Prov ...

Opatów Opatów (; yi, אַפּטאַ, אַפּט) is a town in southeastern Poland, within Opatów County in the Świętokrzyskie Voivodeship (Holy Cross Province). Historically, it was part of a greater region called Lesser Poland. In 2012 the populati ...

Rzeszów Rzeszów ( , ; la, Resovia; yi, ריישא ''Raisha'')) is the largest city in southeastern Poland. It is located on both sides of the Wisłok River in the heartland of the Sandomierz Basin. Rzeszów has been the capital of the Subcarpathian ...

Mielec Mielec ( yi, מעליץ-Melitz) is the largest city and seat of Mielec County. Mielec is located in south-eastern Poland (Lesser Poland), in the Subcarpathian Voivodeship (Województwo Podkarpackie). The population of Mielec in December 2021 wa ...

and other areas of Central Poland and carried over a variety of tasks related to sabotage and diversion. Initially engaged mostly in training, reconnaissance, intelligence and distribution of underground press, since 1941 the group also started to organize armed resistance. The reason for that was the dire need to hide a number of members from the Germans and hide them in the countryside to avoid their arrest and execution. Among the notable actions of the early period were attacks on German-confiscated factories and farms. Jasiński was killed in action on January 9, 1943, and his place was taken by J. Wiącek ''Sowa''. Jędrusie also organized material help for the families of

resistance fighters Resistance movements during World War II occurred in every occupied country by a variety of means, ranging from non-cooperation to propaganda, hiding crashed pilots and even to outright warfare and the recapturing of towns. In many countries, r ...

, prisoners of war and

concentration camp Internment is the imprisonment of people, commonly in large groups, without charges or intent to file charges. The term is especially used for the confinement "of enemy citizens in wartime or of terrorism suspects". Thus, while it can simpl ...

inmates, collected food for the prisoners held in

POW camps A prisoner-of-war camp (often abbreviated as POW camp) is a site for the containment of enemy fighters captured by a belligerent power in time of war. There are significant differences among POW camps, internment camps, and military prisons. ...

, served as a criminal police in the areas of its operation and organized underground education, with secret schools preparing for a secret ''

matura or its translated terms (''Mature'', ''Matur'', , , , , , ) is a Latin name for the secondary school exit exam or "maturity diploma" in various European countries, including Albania, Austria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, C ...

'' and underground NCO schools for military training. On March 12, 1943, the Jędrusie assaulted the German

Gestapo The (), abbreviated Gestapo (; ), was the official secret police of Nazi Germany and in German-occupied Europe. The force was created by Hermann Göring in 1933 by combining the various political police agencies of Prussia into one orga ...

prison in Opatów and liberated more than 55 people held there. On March 29 of the same year a similar action was carried out in

, where the unit collaborated with a local Armia Krajowa unit in liberating 180 people from a local prison. Since then the unit was unified with the

Home Army 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) est ...

and entered its ranks as the 4th company of the 2nd Home Army Infantry Regiment of the ''Land'' of Sandomierz. After the start of the

Operation Tempest file:Akcja_burza_1944.png, 210px, right Operation Tempest ( pl, akcja „Burza”, sometimes referred to in English as "Operation Storm") was a series of uprisings conducted during World War II against occupying German forces by the Polish Home ...

in 1944, the unit fought together with the rest of the regiment against the German forces defending the bridgehead near Baranów and Sandomierz against the

Red Army The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army ( Russian: Рабо́че-крестья́нская Кра́сная армия),) often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic and, afte ...

. It also liberated a number of towns in the area. At that time the unit numbered some 250 fully equipped soldiers in the first line. Apart from the Polish boys, it included also a number of Jews hiding from the Germans, as well as French and Russian POW camp escapees and even a number of deserters from the

Wehrmacht The ''Wehrmacht'' (, ) were the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1945. It consisted of the ''Heer'' (army), the '' Kriegsmarine'' (navy) and the ''Luftwaffe'' (air force). The designation "''Wehrmacht''" replaced the previo ...

After World War II

After the war many of the former ''Jędrusie'' members were persecuted by the

NKVD The People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs (russian: Наро́дный комиссариа́т вну́тренних дел, Naródnyy komissariát vnútrennikh del, ), abbreviated NKVD ( ), was the interior ministry of the Soviet Union. ...

and the communist authorities of Poland. Most of the fallen soldiers were exhumed in the 1950s and interred together with the first commander of the unit.

Bibliography

* Jerzy Ślaski, ''Polska walcząca 1939–1945'', Warszawa 1985 * Eugeniusz Dąbrowski, ''Gdy bój się już skończy ...: upamiętnione miejsca działalności tajnej organizacji "Odwet-Jędrusie" 1939-1945'', Warszawa 1989 * Eugeniusz Dąbrowski, ''Szlakiem "Jędrusiów"'', Kraków 1992 * Aleksandra Janas, Adam Wójcik prac. ''Odwet – Jędrusie: legenda Ziemi Tarnobrzeskiej'', Tarnobrzeg 1993. * Włodzimierz Gruszczyński, ''Odwet – Jędrusie: próba monografii'', Staszów 1995 * Mieczysław Korczak, ''Życie na Włosku'', Staszów 1997 * Wojciech Źródlak, Adam Molenda, ''Kronikarz podłych lat. Czesław Molenda (1911–1982)''. :„Biblioteka roniki m. Łodzi tom 2, Łódź 2007, ss. 46 – 65 z. Molenda, członek oddz. "Jędrusie" oraz współredaktor "Odwetu" {{DEFAULTSORT:Jedrusie World War II resistance movements Military units and formations of Poland in World War II Units and formations of Polish resistance during World War II Scouting and Guiding in Poland History of Tarnobrzeg Military units and formations established in 1941 Military units and formations disestablished in 1945