Organizacja Wojskowa Związek Jaszczurczy (''Military Organization Lizard Union'', short form: ''Związek Jaszczurczy'', abbreviated ''OW ZJ'') was an organization of Polish resistance in World War II. Created in 1939 and transformed into
National Armed Forces
National Armed Forces (; NSZ) was a Polish right-wing underground military organization of the National Democracy (Poland), National Democracy operating from 1942. During World War II, NSZ troops fought against Nazi Germany and Gwardia Ludowa, c ...
(''Narodowe Siły Zbrojne, NSZ'') in 1942, it represented the
far right
Far-right politics, often termed right-wing extremism, encompasses a range of ideologies that are marked by ultraconservatism, authoritarianism, ultranationalism, and Nativism (politics), nativism. This political spectrum situates itself on ...
of the Polish political spectrum (related to the
National Radical Camp
The National Radical Camp () was an ultranationalist and antisemitic political movement which existed in the pre-World War II Second Polish Republic, and an illegal Polish anti-communist, Polish Government-in-exile, although there was some uneasy tactical cooperation for practical reasons. It and descendants also refused to recognise the Soviet-aligned
Polish Committee of National Liberation
The Polish Committee of National Liberation ( Polish: ''Polski Komitet Wyzwolenia Narodowego'', ''PKWN''), also known as the Lublin Committee, was an executive governing authority established by the Soviet-backed communists in Poland at the la ...
and continued to resist the new Polish communist regime and the
USSR
The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...
far-right
Far-right politics, often termed right-wing extremism, encompasses a range of ideologies that are marked by ultraconservatism, authoritarianism, ultranationalism, and nativism. This political spectrum situates itself on the far end of the ...
National Radical Camp
The National Radical Camp () was an ultranationalist and antisemitic political movement which existed in the pre-World War II Second Polish Republic, and an illegal Polish anti-communist,Organizacja Polska, a military department of ONR.
ONR-ABC did not support the mainstream
Polish Underground State
The Polish Underground State (, 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 Government of the Republic of Poland ...
, related to 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 of Poland formed in the aftermath of the Invasion of Poland of September 1939, and the subsequent Occupation ...
and thus OW ZJ became an alternate Polish military, a counterweight to the ZWZ- AK of the Underground State. Perhaps ironically, the OW ZJ and its nemesis, the communist
NKVD
The People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs (, ), abbreviated as NKVD (; ), was the interior ministry and secret police of the Soviet Union from 1934 to 1946. The agency was formed to succeed the Joint State Political Directorate (OGPU) se ...
Armia Ludowa
The People's Army (AL; ; ) was a communist partisan force of the Polish Workers' Party (PPR) active in Occupied Poland during World War II from January to July 1944. It was created on the order of the Soviet-backed State National Council to figh ...
, were the two major factions of Polish resistance that did not recognise the mainstream ZWZ-AK.Gwardia Ludowa, Armia Ludowa on the pages of the Polish Institute of National Remembrance
The Związek Jaszczurczy conducted intelligence and sabotage operations in the territory of Nazi occupied Poland as well as in and around Berlin, the Brandenburg area, München, Silesia, Bavaria, Westfalen, Ruhr Basin, Hamburg, Bremen, western and eastern Pomerania area including Königsberg, and Danzig. The eradication of the Związek Jaszczurczy became of such importance to the Nazis that by the end of 1940, the
Gestapo
The (, ), Syllabic abbreviation, 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 F ...
had created a dedicated unit, known as the ''SS-Sonderkommando ZJ'' ("Special Unit ZJ") to stop its sabotage and intelligence activities. In December 1941 the first wave of arrests of agents NSZ/ZJ began. At the end of 1943 alone, 80 individuals were arrested. The Military Tribunal of Nazi Germany more rigorously expanded German military laws, which dealt with those arrested mercilessly. From among dozens of arrested, only 3 individuals (among them one German national) were found not guilty. The others were sentenced to lengthy imprisonment, and half of them were sentenced to death. The names of the ZJ agents of the Intelligence Unit "West" sentenced to death and executed by the Nazis by
beheading
Decapitation is the total separation of the head from the body. Such an injury is invariably fatal to humans and all vertebrate animals, since it deprives the brain of oxygenated blood by way of severing through the jugular vein and common ...
Gdańsk
Gdańsk is a city on the Baltic Sea, Baltic coast of northern Poland, and the capital of the Pomeranian Voivodeship. With a population of 486,492, Data for territorial unit 2261000. it is Poland's sixth-largest city and principal seaport. Gdań ...
, Poland.
In September 1942, OW ZJ merged with part of National Military Organization (''Narodowa Organizacja Wojskowa'', the rest of which merged with ZWZ-AK) and formed the
National Armed Forces
National Armed Forces (; NSZ) was a Polish right-wing underground military organization of the National Democracy (Poland), National Democracy operating from 1942. During World War II, NSZ troops fought against Nazi Germany and Gwardia Ludowa, c ...
(''Narodowe Siły Zbrojne''). The OW ZJ faction opposed to the NSZ deciding to co-operate with AK in 1944, and the so-called NZS-ZJ faction would break off the main NSZ and refuse most co-operation with AK. Members of the OW ZJ, and later, NSZ, were strongly opposed to the
Soviet Union
The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...
throughout the war as an enemy of the Polish people just like
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany, officially known as the German Reich and later the Greater German Reich, was the German Reich, German state between 1933 and 1945, when Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party controlled the country, transforming it into a Totalit ...
, and thus were militantly opposed to the Soviet-installed regime, which became established in Poland after World War II. The communist regime branded them enemies of the state, and the communist propaganda apparatus consistently referred to them as fascists and Nazis (see cursed soldiers).
Contributions to Allied victory
OW ZJ did not carry out many combat operations (in any case, they were uncommon until 1942–1944) but instead had a well-developed intelligence network. It also engaged in
psychological warfare
Psychological warfare (PSYWAR), or the basic aspects of modern psychological operations (PsyOp), has been known by many other names or terms, including Military Information Support Operations ( MISO), Psy Ops, political warfare, "Hearts and Mi ...
and carried out various
propaganda
Propaganda is communication that is primarily used to influence or persuade an audience to further an agenda, which may not be objective and may be selectively presenting facts to encourage a particular synthesis or perception, or using loaded l ...
operations.
Among many accomplishments of the ZJ Intelligence Unit "West", which played a significant role in the outcome of the war were obtaining information about Nazi aggression on Greece, obtaining a date of an attack by the
Afrika Korps
The German Africa Corps (, ; DAK), commonly known as Afrika Korps, was the German expeditionary force in Africa during the North African campaign of World War II. First sent as a holding force to shore up the Italian defense of its Africa ...
Tirpitz Tirpitz may refer to:
People
* Alfred von Tirpitz (1849–1930), German admiral
** Tirpitz Plan, a plan for Germany to achieve world power status through naval power
Ships
* German battleship ''Tirpitz'', a World War II-era Bismarck-class ...
'', establishing the locations of the ultrasecret Nazi
V-2
The V2 (), with the technical name '' Aggregat-4'' (A4), was the world's first long-range guided ballistic missile. The missile, powered by a liquid-propellant rocket engine, was developed during the Second World War in Nazi Germany as a " ven ...
rocket manufacturing facility in
Peenemünde
Peenemünde (, ) is a municipality on the Baltic Sea island of Usedom in the Vorpommern-Greifswald district in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern in north-eastern Germany. It is part of the ''Amt (country subdivision), Amt'' (collective municipality) of Used ...
and establishing the location of the test site of German V rockets and their precise drawings and dimensions.
The ZJ also managed to infiltrate its agent Edmund Konieczny into the '' Deutsche Werke Kiel'' repair shipyard in
Gdynia
Gdynia is a city in northern Poland and a seaport on the Baltic Sea coast. With an estimated population of 257,000, it is the List of cities in Poland, 12th-largest city in Poland and the second-largest in the Pomeranian Voivodeship after Gdańsk ...
to ascertain the number and types of vessels being repaired there and the extent of their battle damage, which allowed it in turn to locate the
German battleship Gneisenau
''Gneisenau'' () was a German capital ship, alternatively described as a battleship and battlecruiser, in Nazi Germany's ''Kriegsmarine''. She was the second vessel of Scharnhorst-class battleship, her class, which included her sister ship, . T ...
. It had escaped the
British Navy
The Royal Navy (RN) is the naval warfare force of the United Kingdom. It is a component of His Majesty's Naval Service, and its officers hold their commissions from the King of the United Kingdom, King. Although warships were used by Kingdom ...
fjord
In physical geography, a fjord (also spelled fiord in New Zealand English; ) is a long, narrow sea inlet with steep sides or cliffs, created by a glacier. Fjords exist on the coasts of Antarctica, the Arctic, and surrounding landmasses of the n ...
s .
ZJ is credited with the destruction of a German experimental submarine in Gdańsk.
Structure and membership
The OW ZJ commander for most of its existence was
Władysław Marcinkowski
Władysław Marcinkowski (June 16, 1858 in Mieszków, Greater Poland VoivodeshipDecember 10, 1947 in Poznań
Poznań ( ) is a city on the Warta, River Warta in west Poland, within the Greater Poland region. The city is an important cultur ...
"Jaxa".
In 1942 OW ZJ had most likely about 10,000 members, but some Polish historians give a higher estimates, even up to 70,000.
OW ZJ had most influence in
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 ...
,
Kielce
Kielce (; ) is a city in south-central 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 banks of the Silnic ...
,
Radom
Radom is a city in east-central Poland, located approximately south of the capital, Warsaw. It is situated on the Mleczna River in the Masovian Voivodeship. Radom is the fifteenth-largest city in Poland and the second-largest in its province w ...
and
Łódź
Łódź is a city in central Poland and a former industrial centre. It is the capital of Łódź Voivodeship, and is located south-west of Warsaw. Łódź has a population of 655,279, making it the country's List of cities and towns in Polan ...
.
See also
*
Lizard Union (medieval)
The Lizard Union or Lizard League (; ) was an organization of Prussian nobles and knights established in Culmerland (Chełmno Land) in 1397. Its declared goal was to combat lawlessness, although it discreetly sought the transfer of Culmerland fro ...