Państwowy Korpus Bezpieczeństwa ( Polish for "National Security Corps", abbreviated ''PKB''; sometimes also called ''Kadra Bezpieczeństwa'', abbreviated ''KB'') was a Polish underground

police The police are Law enforcement organization, a constituted body of Law enforcement officer, people empowered by a State (polity), state with the aim of Law enforcement, enforcing the law and protecting the Public order policing, public order ...

force organized under

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...

occupation during

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

by the Polish

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 ...

and

Government Delegation for Poland The Government Delegation for Poland () was an agency of the Polish Government in Exile during World War II. It was the highest authority of the Polish Secret State in occupied Poland and was headed by the Government Delegate for Poland, a ''d ...

. It was trained as the core of a future police force for a planned Polish all-national uprising, and for after Poland's liberation. The Corps' first commander was Lt. Col. Marian Kozielewski. He was later replaced by Stanisław Tabisz. In October 1943 the ''PKB'' had 8,400 officers; by early 1944 the number had grown to almost 12,000. The PKB was created by the Department of the Internal Affairs of the Delegate's Office in 1940, mostly from members of the pre-war Polish police and volunteers. PKB carried out investigation and

criminal intelligence Criminal intelligence is information compiled, analyzed, and/or disseminated in an effort to anticipate, prevent, or monitor criminal activity. The United States Army Military Police Corps defines criminal intelligence as information gathered or ...

duties as well as gathered reports of 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 ...

and

Kripo ''Kriminalpolizei'' (, "criminal police") is the standard term for the criminal investigation agency within the police forces of Germany, Austria, and the German-speaking cantons of Switzerland. In Nazi Germany, the Kripo was the criminal polic ...

in the

General Government The General Government (, ; ; ), formally the General Governorate for the Occupied Polish Region (), was a German zone of occupation established after the invasion of Poland by Nazi Germany, Slovak Republic (1939–1945), Slovakia and the Soviet ...

. It enforced the verdicts prepared by the Directorate of Civil Resistance and Directorate of Underground Resistance and passed by the

Underground court The underground courts (') were World War II secret courts in occupied Poland, organized by the Polish government-in-exile. The courts determined punishments for citizens of Poland who were subject to Polish law before the war. History After t ...

. A unit of PKB commanded by Henryk Iwański purportedly distinguished itself during the

Warsaw Ghetto Uprising The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising was the 1943 act of Jewish resistance in the Warsaw Ghetto in German-occupied Poland during World War II to oppose Nazi Germany's final effort to transport the remaining ghetto population to the gas chambers of the ...

in 1943. However, according to the work of a Polish-Israeli research team (Dr. Dariusz Libionka and Dr. Laurence Weinbaum), much of what Henryk Iwański wrote should be relegated to the realm of confabulation or manipulation of the Communist secret police.Dariusz Libionka & Laurence Weinbaum - Bohaterowie, hochsztaplerzy, opisywacze Wokół Żydowskiego Związku Wojskowego (Warsaw: Stowarzyszenie Centrum Badań nad Zagładą Żydów, 2011). See also: Dariusz Libionka & Laurence Weinbaum: "A Legendary Commander" Haaretz, June 22, 2007. http://www.haaretz.com/weekend/magazine/a-legendary-commander-1.223769

External links

Polish Police during World War II
(Polish)

References

{{Armia Krajowa Poland in World War II Defunct law enforcement agencies of Poland Units and formations of the Home Army