| People's Guard | |
|---|---|
| Gwardia Ludowa | |
 Eagle of GL | |
| Active | 6 January 1942 – 1 January 1944 (transformed intoPeople's Army) |
| Country | Poland |
| Allegiance | Polish Workers' Party |
| Role | Armed forces of thePolish Workers' Party |
| March | Marsz Gwardii Ludowej |
| Engagements | World War II Zamość Uprising Warsaw Ghetto Uprising |
| Commanders | |
| Notable commanders | Bolesław Mołojec Marian Spychalski Franciszek Jóźwiak |
| Insignia | |
| Identification symbol |  |
ThePeople's Guard (GL;Polish:Gwardia Ludowa;Polish pronunciation:[ˈɡvardjaluˈdɔva]) was acommunistpartisan force of thePolish Workers' Party (PPR) active inOccupied Poland duringWorld War II from 1942 to 1944.
TheGwardia Ludowa was established with sponsorship from theSoviet Union to support theRed Army and Polish communists againstNazi Germany. It became the largest partisan force in Poland which refused to join the structures of thePolish Underground State loyal to theLondon-basedPolish government-in-exile. TheGwardia Ludowa was incorporated into the largerArmia Ludowa in January 1944.[1]
TheGwardia Ludowa was created on 6 January 1942 with military aid from theRed Army, with the availability offirearms led to it swiftly reaching a strength of 3,000 fighters.[2] It was connected to theNKVD, theintelligence services of theSoviet Union, to the point that some of its military actions were commanded by NKVDcolonels.[3] It was tasked with fighting againstNazi Germany by means ofpartisan warfare, sabotage, and reprisal actions. The full size partisan detachments were formed in May 1942 although foray groups were organized earlier. They operated nearPiotrków andRadom. By the end of the year, the organisation was divided onto seven administrative districts includingWarsaw,Lublin,Radom-Kielce,Kraków,Łódź,Silesia andLwów.
First major operations of GL consisted of disassembling train tracks. Until December 1942 some 50 railway lines were damaged resulting in 30 German supply trains being disabled.[4] Some 30 insurgents were caught and hanged,[5] but the number of units grew to over 30 in the same time.[6] The most prominent sabotage action took place on 16 November 1942 along the railway lineRadom –Łuków –Terespol, where five trains and a bridge were destroyed with the use of Soviet explosives.[7] Another five trains were derailed aroundOświęcim on 25 February 1943. Throughout the year, trains were damaged around Warsaw in Olszynka Grochowska, Elsnerów,Legionowo,Żyrardów and Żywczyn.[8] In total, Gwardia Ludowa caused damage to 169 trains in 1943, as well as 113 train stations, resulting in 55 temporary line shut-downs.[9]
GL retaliation actions included throwing grenades into buildings frequented by the Germans. TheApollo movie theatre inRadom was attacked on 22 November 1942; theDeutsches Haus in April 1943. InKraków andKielce theNur für Deutsche coffee houses were bombed in December 1942 and February 1943 respectively.[10] The German administration building inRzeszów was bombed also in February. Most of GL operations resulted in great number of Polish and Jewish hostages being shot by the Germans in reprisal.[11]
GL was divided into partisan units and garrison units assembled for quick ambushes, after which the garrison members returned to their homes. By the end of 1942 GL had approximately 5,000 men, including, at least nominally, every member of thePolish Workers' Party. By late 1943 the number rose to about 10,000. Among them approximately 1,700 were partisans, and the rest were part-time combatants. For the most part, the GL carried out acts of sabotage, including the sabotage of German rail transport.
GL took part in theZamość uprising - a series of partisan actions against theforced Expulsion of Poles by Nazi Germany from theZamość region.[citation needed]
Since the formation of GL, its soldiers worked together withJewish partisans.[12] In Warsaw, Polish communists likeJózef Lewartowski were ones of the first organizers of theJewish resistance inWarsaw Ghetto.[13] During theWarsaw Ghetto Uprising People's Guard attacked German units near the Ghetto walls[14][15] and attempted to smuggle weapons, ammunition, supplies, and instructions into the Ghetto.[16][17][18] After the uprising was over, GL helped Jews to escape Ghetto[19] and some Jewish militants joined the units of GL.[20]
The leader of theWarsaw Ghetto Uprising,Yitzhak Zuckerman, wrote in his memoirs: "During the Holocaust [...] those who won our loyalty and helped us with their slim forces were the Polish Communists [...] They hated the Poland of the fascisticSanacja and sought someone to lean on. [...] They were first of all Polish patriots who wanted to see a new Poland; and they were the only force we could rely on because of their attitude toward us, toward our Jewish group".[21] Polish-Israeli historiansIsrael Gutman andShmuel Krakowski report that in many regions of Poland, the People's Guard was the only allied force theJewish partisans could rely on, and list ten Jewish partisan units that joined the People's Guard, alongside thirteen ethnically mixed partisan units of the People's Guard.[22] According toDariusz Libionka, "the fundamental difference between the AK [Armia Krajowa] and GL-AL [Gwardia Ludowa-Armia Ludowa] with regard to their attitude towards Jews was that Jews could function in GL while retaining their identity, while in the AK they could not".[23]
According to Shmuel Krakowski, the People's Guard's attitude towards the Jewish families hiding in the forests was not uniform. In the northern part of theLublin region, local People's Guard units helpedJewish partisans to protect a large camp of Jewish families in theParczew forests. In the southern part of this region, however, Jews hiding in the forests were killed by a People's Guard unit.[24]
On 1 January 1944, by a decree of theKrajowa Rada Narodowa, the communist government installed byStalin, the Gwardia Ludowa became a part of the newly formedArmia Ludowa.
The prominent commanders and GL chiefs of staff wereMarian Spychalski,Franciszek Jóźwiak, Franciszek Zubrzycki, andMieczysław Moczar who played a prominent role in the history of thePolish People's Republic after the war's end and was known for his ultra-nationalist and antisemitic attitude.[citation needed]
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