In mid-August 1943 a Polish unit of the Uderzeniowe Bataliony Kadrowe (English: ''Striking Cadre Battalions'', ''UBK''), which was controlled by the resistance organization Konfederacja Narodu, organized armed attack on

East Prussia East Prussia ; german: Ostpreißen, label= Low Prussian; pl, Prusy Wschodnie; lt, Rytų Prūsija was a province of the Kingdom of Prussia from 1773 to 1829 and again from 1878 (with the Kingdom itself being part of the German Empire from 187 ...

n villages in the area of

Johannisburg Pisz (pronounced , previously also ''Jańsbork'', german: Johannisburg) is a historic town in the Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship in northern Poland, with a population of 19,466 (2016). It is the seat of Pisz County. Pisz is situated at the juncti ...

(now: Pisz). The attack, commanded by Colonel Stanislaw Karolkiewicz, was a revenge for German atrocities, committed in Bezirk Bialystok against Polish population. The targets of the attack included devoted Nazis, members of NSDAP and inhabitants engaging in brutality against Polish population. According to Polish sources, some 70 Germans were killed and 40 German farms were razed to the ground, while an eyewitness reports 13 killed people, including a woman and two children, and two people wounded. The revenge attack caused shock among Prussian Germans and caused them to rethink their genocidal tactics against Polish populationPolacy atakują Prusy - Akcja "Szczęsnego" SZOK W REICHU, Rzeczpospolita 12.06.04 Nr 136

Background

Under Soviet Occupation

Following Nazi and Soviet aggression on Poland in September 1939, the

Second Polish Republic The Second Polish Republic, at the time officially known as the Republic of Poland, was a country in Central and Eastern Europe that existed between 1918 and 1939. The state was established on 6 November 1918, before the end of the First World ...

was divided by the two allied powers under the terms of the Ribbentrop-Molotov pact. The area of

Białystok Białystok is the largest city in northeastern Poland and the capital of the Podlaskie Voivodeship. It is the tenth-largest city in Poland, second in terms of population density, and thirteenth in area. Białystok is located in the Białystok U ...

became part of the

Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic The Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic (BSSR, or Byelorussian SSR; be, Беларуская Савецкая Сацыялістычная Рэспубліка, Bielaruskaja Savieckaja Sacyjalistyčnaja Respublika; russian: Белор� ...

, and was annexed by the Soviet Union. Thousands ethnic Poles, and also

Belarusians , native_name_lang = be , pop = 9.5–10 million , image = , caption = , popplace = 7.99 million , region1 = , pop1 = 600,000–768,000 , region2 = , pop2 ...

and Jews, were forcibly deported to Siberia. Among the deported Poles were civil servants, judges, police officers, professional army officers, factory owners, landlords, political activists, leaders of cultural, educational and religious organisations, and others activists in the community. All of them were dubbed ''enemies of the people''. Polish resistance against the Soviets in the area of Białystok (especially along the swampy

Biebrza Biebrza ( lt, Bebras, '' be, Bobra'', ''german: Bober'') is a river in northeastern Poland, a tributary of the Narew river (near Wizna), with a length of and a basin area of 7,092 km2 (7,067 in Poland).Bezirk Bialystok. Skirmishes with 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. ...

were common, mostly around

Jedwabne Jedwabne (; yi, יעדוואבנע, ''Yedvabna'') is a town in northeast Poland, in Łomża County of Podlaskie Voivodeship, with 1,942 inhabitants (2002). It is notable for the Jedwabne pogrom of 10 July 1941, during the World War II German occ ...

, where the anti-Soviet feelings were the strongest.

Under Nazi Occupation

During the Nazi occupation, German terror in Bezirk Białystok worsened and most atrocities on civilian population were committed by German units and police from neighboring East Prussia. On July 17, 1943, the Germans killed all 257 inhabitants of the village of Krasowo-Czestki, near

Wysokie Mazowieckie Wysokie Mazowieckie is a town in north-eastern Poland, in Podlaskie Voivodeship. It is the capital of Wysokie Mazowieckie County. Population is 10,034 . In town there is one of the biggest dairy companies in this part of Europe - " Mlekovita ...

, (including 83 under seventeen years of age), ransacked their belongings and burned the village. In the following days several other massacres were committed: in the village of Sikory-Tomkowieta, German SS ''Kommando Mueller'' killed 49 people, in Zawada and Laskowce, 58 persons were killed, in Grzedy - 36, in Wnory-Wandy - 32. Altogether, in July 1943 alone, the Germans killed around 800 civilians in the western part of Bezirk Bialystok. Polish resistance fighters decided to take revenge on the Germans.

The attack

In July 1943 Colonel Stanisław Karolkiewicz (

nom de guerre A pseudonym (; ) or alias () is a fictitious name that a person or group assumes for a particular purpose, which differs from their original or true name ( orthonym). This also differs from a new name that entirely or legally replaces an individu ...

''Szczęsny'') organized a unit of the ''Striking Cadre Battalions'', which was part of the right-wing Konfederacja Narodu. Its members chose their noms de guerre from characters of

Pan Tadeusz ''Pan Tadeusz'' (full title: ''Mister Thaddeus, or the Last Foray in Lithuania: A Nobility's Tale of the Years 1811–1812, in Twelve Books of Verse'') is an epic poem by the Polish poet, writer, translator and philosopher Adam Mickiewicz. Th ...

, an epic poem by

Adam Mickiewicz Adam Bernard Mickiewicz (; 24 December 179826 November 1855) was a Polish poet, dramatist, essayist, publicist, translator and political activist. He is regarded as national poet in Poland, Lithuania and Belarus. A principal figure in Polish Ro ...

. Since the Striking Cadre Battalions headquarters permitted retaliatory attacks, the Poles decided to make a raid on East Prussia, in the area of Johannisburg. The choice was not accidental - many German soldiers and administration workers in Bezirk Bialystok came from that part of the Third Reich. There lived their families and there, the Germans felt safe. Colonel Stanislaw Karolkiewicz and his unit of 28 well-armed men, avoiding German troops, started off from the

Wysokie Mazowieckie County __NOTOC__ Wysokie Mazowieckie County ( pl, powiat wysokomazowiecki) is a unit of territorial administration and local government (powiat) in Podlaskie Voivodeship, north-eastern Poland. It came into being on January 1, 1999, as a result of the Poli ...

. They crossed the

Narew The Narew (; be, Нараў, translit=Naraŭ; or ; Sudovian: ''Naura''; Old German: ''Nare''; uk, Нарва, translit=Narva) is a 499-kilometre (310 mi) river primarily in north-eastern Poland, which is also a tributary of the river Vi ...

and the

National Armed Forces National Armed Forces (NSZ; ''Polish:'' Narodowe Siły Zbrojne) was a Polish right-wing underground military organization of the National Democracy operating from 1942. During World War II, NSZ troops fought against Nazi Germany and communist ...

, which was a dominant underground organization in this part of occupied Poland and whose members provided Karolkiewicz with vital information about the Prussian side of the border. Karolkiewicz decided that the Poles would attack the village of Mittenheide and the forestership of Krummenheide.Bernhard Chiari, Die polnische Heimatarmee, page 349
/ref> Mittenheide (until 1938 Turoscheln, today Turośl), located 3 km north of the pre-war border. According to Kazimierz Krajewski, in 1943 the village was an armed settlement (each house was armed and the men were organised in paramilitary formation of Landwache) of 1000 people and an unknown number of escapees from western German cities, who had fled from Allied bombing. According to official German statistics the village had 519 permanent inhabitants in 1939. A police station was also located in the village. Among the residents of Mittenheide, there was SA

Standartenführer __NOTOC__ ''Standartenführer'' (short: ''Staf'', , ) was a Nazi Party (NSDAP) paramilitary rank that was used in several NSDAP organizations, such as the SA, SS, NSKK and the NSFK. First founded as a title in 1925, in 1928 it became one of ...

Herman Upitz (or Herbert OpitzIrma Bartlick, Pochodze ze wsi Turosl ( I’m from Turosl), in "Znad Pisy", No. 7(1998), p. 79 – 83), a special envoy of

Heinrich Himmler Heinrich Luitpold Himmler (; 7 October 1900 – 23 May 1945) was of the (Protection Squadron; SS), and a leading member of the Nazi Party of Germany. Himmler was one of the most powerful men in Nazi Germany and a main architect of th ...

delegated to fight against Polish existence in the area, known for his hostile attitude towards Polish and Russian slave workers. Other targets included houses of devoted Nazis, members of the Nazi party and inhabitants that engaged in brutality against Polish population The objectives of the attack were: * to destroy the police station, * to destroy households of Nazi party members and those Germans who participated in massacres of Poles, * to kill Herman Upitz. Karolkiewicz and his men, supported by a patrol of the National Armed Forces under Antoni Zdunczyk “Olowek” (seven soldiers) crossed the border on August 14, 1943, at 22:00 hours. The date of the attack - August 15, was chosen deliberately, as this is the official day 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 ...

, to commemorate the Miracle at the Vistula. After reaching Mittenheide, the Poles split into five groups and cut off telephone lines. The attack began before midnight on the solitary Forester's house of Herbert Opitz. Opitz, the Forester of Mittenheide, his wife, 6-year-old daughter and 2-year-old son were killed. The Partisans captured several weapons inside the Forester's Office, a car and a motorcycle. Then they entered the village to attack the Police station, facing tough resistance from the Germans. Within around two hours, some 40 German households were destroyed, 69 civilians and 3 policemen, as well as Upitz, were killed. In contradiction to these numbers, an eyewitness, Irma Bartlick, reports that apart from the Opitz family, 7 additional persons were immediately killed and 4 wounded, of which 2 died later on. In total 13 people lost their lives. Some of the victims were killed by the OST-Arbeiters, who used the raid to take their revenge. The Poles deliberately spared the house of Hildegard Cramer von Laue, a widow, whose husband, an officer of 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 ...

, died on the Eastern Front. She was known for her humane attitude towards the Poles and Karolkiewicz himself talked to her that night, explaining the reasons for the attack. The raid ended at 2 a.m., after Karolkiewicz fired a green flare. The Poles escaped to the nearby Pisz Wilderness, together with their booty - a submachine gun, 30 carbines, 14 pistols, a large quantity of ammunition as well as uniforms and boots. Parts of the equipment was later handed to the local units of 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) es ...

and the

. Also, together with Karolkiewicz's men, five OST-Arbeiters fled - four Poles and one Lithuanian. Polish losses were minimal.

The aftermath

This raid was a shock to the local community. Its echoes reached

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitu ...

and

himself was vividly interested in the investigation, which was carried out by the police authorities from

Allenstein Olsztyn ( , ; german: Allenstein ; Old Prussian: ''Alnāsteini'' * Latin: ''Allenstenium'', ''Holstin'') is a city on the Łyna River in northern Poland. It is the capital of the Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship, and is a city with county rights. ...

. However, nobody was caught and the unit, after hiding for three days in the forest, left East Prussia, heading towards Nowogrodek. On May 3, 2006 Stanislaw Karolkiewicz was promoted to Brigade General, by President

Lech Kaczyński Lech Aleksander Kaczyński (; 18 June 194910 April 2010) was a Polish politician who served as the city mayor of Warsaw from 2002 until 2005, and as President of Poland from 2005 until his death in 2010. Before his tenure as president, he pre ...

.Ministry of Defence, news brief, May 3, 2006
/ref>

Background

Under Soviet Occupation

Under Nazi Occupation

The attack

The aftermath

References

See also