Operation Góral () was an action carried out by the Polish anti-Nazi resistance organization

Home Army The Home Army (, ; 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) established in the ...

(''Armia Krajowa'', or "AK"), which involved a heist of over a million US dollars' worth of currency being transported by Nazi German authorities on 12 August 1943. It was carried out in the center of

Warsaw Warsaw, officially the Capital City of Warsaw, is the capital and List of cities and towns in Poland, largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the Vistula, River Vistula in east-central Poland. Its population is officially estimated at ...

by a unit of Kedyw, "Motor", which seized a transport car carrying the money. It was one of the best organized actions of the Polish underground during the German occupation, and it took only two minutes. The name of the action comes from the "Góral", the popular name for the 500 zloty note (which were also known as "''

Młynarki Młynarki was the popular name for the currency notes of the General Government (Nazi occupation of Poland, part of German-occupied Poland) during World War II that were issued by the German-controlled Bank of Issue in Poland. They were named afte ...

''"). Polish historian

Tomasz Strzembosz Tomasz Strzembosz (11 September 1930 – 16 October 2004) was a Polish people, Polish historian and writer who specialized in the World War II History of Poland (1939–1945), history of Poland. He was a professor at the Polish Academy of Scienc ...

called this operation one of the most successful resistance operations in occupied Europe.

History

Following the German invasion and

occupation of Poland Occupation commonly refers to: *Occupation (human activity), or job, one's role in society, often a regular activity performed for payment *Occupation (protest), political demonstration by holding public or symbolic spaces *Military occupation, th ...

in 1939, a large resistance network was formed. That resistance required funds to operate, and the resources of the

Polish government in exile The Polish government-in-exile, officially known as the Government of the Republic of Poland in exile (), was the government in exile A government-in-exile (GiE) is a political group that claims to be the legitimate government of a sovere ...

, delivered through the

cichociemni The Silent Unseen ( Polish: ''Cichociemni'', ) were elite special-operations paratroopers of the Polish Army in exile, created in Great Britain during World War II to operate in occupied Poland (''Cichociemni Spadochroniarze Armii Krajowej''). K ...

commando-couriers, were limited. In 1942 the resistance began planning to acquire money from the occupiers by carrying out large-scale robberies. Having learned that a large quantity of money would be moved by the occupiers to the German-established

Bank of Issue in Poland The Bank of Issue in Poland (, ), also variously translated into English as the ''Bank of Issue'', ''Issue Bank'', ''Issuing Bank'' or ''Emitting Bank in Poland'', was a bank of issue created in 1940 by Nazi Germany in the General Government withi ...

, the resistance recruited a number of sympathizers within the bank. Preparations lasted about 14 months. A cell, codenamed "Motor 30" from the Kedyw formation, led by operative "Pol", was assigned to the operation. The plan was to block the road at a specified location, shoot the German personnel attempting to clear it, and carry away the money. The action was initially planned for August 5, but a miscommunication resulted in the operation not being carried out. Fortunately for the insurgents, a new delivery was planned for the following week. The plan was carried out successfully, with the truck redirected into a small alley, all German personnel, including an escorting vehicle, quickly eliminated (according to one report, the Germans suffered nine fatalities and seven wounded; according to another, six killed and six wounded; only one of the Polish insurgents was wounded;), and the truck captured. Approximately 50 Polish insurgents took part in the operation, which lasted only about two minutes. The Polish insurgents obtained about 105–106 million zlotys and a smaller amount of German currency, estimated to be worth about one million 1943 US dollars (approximately twenty million of 2010's US dollars). German investigation efforts, despite a large bounty for informants, failed to produce results, and the Germans were even not sure who had carried out the operations – the insurgents or regular criminals, which led to no reprisals against the civilian population (an otherwise-common tactic used by the Germans to discourage resistance operations). AK carried out similar operations on other occasions, for example on 1 June 1943 in Siedlce, though they obtained less money.

References

External links

* Marta Tychmanowic
Akcja żołnierzy AK na 100 milionów
wp.pl, 2010

History

See also

References

External links

Further reading