Obóz Narodowo-Radykalny
Encyclopedia
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
extreme right anti-semitic, anti-communist, and nationalist
Nationalism
Nationalism is a political ideology that involves a strong identification of a group of individuals with a political entity defined in national terms, i.e. a nation. In the 'modernist' image of the nation, it is nationalism that creates national identity. There are various definitions for what...
political party, formed on 14 April 1934 mostly by the youth radicals who left the National Party
National Party (Poland)
Stronnictwo Narodowe was a Polish political party formed on 7 October 1928 after the transformation of National Populist Union. It gathered together most of the political forces of Poland's National Democracy right-wing political camp. SN was one of the main opponents of the Sanacja regime...
of the National Democracy movement.
The party was created on the insistence of former members of the Camp of Great Poland (Obóz Wielkiej Polski), most notably Jan Mosdorf
Jan Mosdorf
Jan Mosdorf , was a Polish right-wing politician, director of the nationalist organization All-Polish Youth and member of the far-right political party National Radical Camp . He also worked as a publicist, using the pseudonym Andrzej Witkowski...
, Tadeusz Gluziński and Henryk Rossman
Henryk Rossman
Henryk Rossman was a Polish lawyer and political activist of the nationalist movement, co-founder of the National Radical Camp and later splinter faction ONR-ABC. He was one of the inmates of Detention Camp Bereza Kartuska....
. The organisation proclaimed changes in the government based on the nationalist
Nationalism
Nationalism is a political ideology that involves a strong identification of a group of individuals with a political entity defined in national terms, i.e. a nation. In the 'modernist' image of the nation, it is nationalism that creates national identity. There are various definitions for what...
ideology. It supported class solidarity, nationalisation of foreign and Jewish-owned companies and introduction of anti-semitic
Anti-Semitism
Antisemitism is suspicion of, hatred toward, or discrimination against Jews for reasons connected to their Jewish heritage. According to a 2005 U.S...
laws. At the same time it supported defence of private property and a centralised state. The leading members of ONR-ABC included Henryk Rossman
Henryk Rossman
Henryk Rossman was a Polish lawyer and political activist of the nationalist movement, co-founder of the National Radical Camp and later splinter faction ONR-ABC. He was one of the inmates of Detention Camp Bereza Kartuska....
, Tadeusz Gluziński, Stanisław Piasecki, Jan Jodzewicz, Wojciech Zaleski, Tadeusz Todtleben and Jan Korolec. The leading members of ONR-Falanga included Bolesław Piasecki, Wojciech Wasiutyński, Wojciech Kwasieborski and Marian Reutt.
The ONR was popular mostly among the students and other groups of urban youth. ONR openly encouraged anti-Jewish pogroms
Pogrom
A pogrom is a form of violent riot, a mob attack directed against a minority group, and characterized by killings and destruction of their homes and properties, businesses, and religious centres...
, and became main force in the organization of anti-Jewish violence Because of its involvement in boycott
Boycott
A boycott is an act of voluntarily abstaining from using, buying, or dealing with a person, organization, or country as an expression of protest, usually for political reasons...
of Jewish-owned stores, as well as numerous attacks on left-wing worker demonstrations, the ONR was delegalised after three months of existence, in July 1934. Several leaders were interned in the Bereza Kartuska Detention Camp, where the organisation split into two separate factions: the ONR-Falanga (Ruch Narodowo-Radykalny) led by Bolesław Piasecki and the ONR-ABC (Obóz Narodowo-Radykalny) formed around the ABC journal and led by Henryk Rossman
Henryk Rossman
Henryk Rossman was a Polish lawyer and political activist of the nationalist movement, co-founder of the National Radical Camp and later splinter faction ONR-ABC. He was one of the inmates of Detention Camp Bereza Kartuska....
. Both organizations were officially illegal.
During World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
both organisations created underground resistance organizations: ONR-ABC was transformed into Grupa Szańca (Rampart Group) whose military arm became the Związek Jaszczurczy (Lizard Union), while the ONR-Falanga created the Konfederacja Narodu
Konfederacja Narodu
Konfederacja Narodu was one of the Polish resistance organizations in occupied Poland during World War II. KN was created in 1940 by far-right National Radical Camp political party from several smaller underground organizations, including the Secret Polish Army...
(Confederation of the Nation). They were not supportive of the mainstream Polish Secret State
Polish Secret State
The Polish Underground State is a collective term for the World War II underground resistance organizations in Poland, both military and civilian, that remained loyal to the Polish Government in Exile in London. The first elements of the Underground State were put in place in the final days of the...
related to the Polish government in exile
Polish government in Exile
The Polish government-in-exile, formally 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 of Poland by Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union, which...
. During Nazi occupation of Poland, many of the former ONR activists belonged to National Armed Forces resistance groups. Some, on the other hand, actively helped Nazis, seeing Jews, not Nazis as the main threat to Poland. After World War II, the forced exile of many ONRs was made permanent by the communist regime, which branded them enemies of the state.