Pomeranian Griffin - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

The Pomeranian Griffin secret military organization was a Polish anti-Nazi resistance group

Polish resistance movement in World War II

The Polish resistance movement in World War II, with the Home Army at its forefront, was the largest underground resistance in all of Nazi-occupied Europe, covering both German and Soviet zones of occupation. The Polish defence against the Nazi occupation was an important part of the European...

active in Pomerania

Pomerania

Pomerania is a historical region on the south shore of the Baltic Sea. Divided between Germany and Poland, it stretches roughly from the Recknitz River near Stralsund in the West, via the Oder River delta near Szczecin, to the mouth of the Vistula River near Gdańsk in the East...

and East Prussia

East Prussia

East Prussia is the main part of the region of Prussia along the southeastern Baltic Coast from the 13th century to the end of World War II in May 1945. From 1772–1829 and 1878–1945, the Province of East Prussia was part of the German state of Prussia. The capital city was Königsberg.East Prussia...

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...

. A major Polish resistance organization in the Pomerania region, at its height in 1943 it might have had as many as 20,000 members, although only about 500 were active partisans in the forests (leśni

Leśni

Leśni is one of the informal names applied to the anti-German partisan groups operating in occupied Poland during World War II. The groups were formed mostly by people who for various reasons could not operate from settlements they lived in and had to retreat to the forests...

).

The name of the organization referred to the traditional coat of arms

Coat of arms

A coat of arms is a unique heraldic design on a shield or escutcheon or on a surcoat or tabard used to cover and protect armour and to identify the wearer. Thus the term is often stated as "coat-armour", because it was anciently displayed on the front of a coat of cloth...

of Pomerania, which consists of either the black (for Gdansk Pomerania

Gdańsk Pomerania

For the medieval duchy, see Pomeranian duchies and dukesGdańsk Pomerania or Eastern Pomerania is a geographical region in northern Poland covering eastern part of Pomeranian Voivodeship...

) or the red (for Western Pomerania

House of Pomerania

The House of Griffins or House of Pomerania, , also known as House of Greifen; House of Gryf, was a dynasty of Royal dukes that ruled the Duchy of Pomerania from the 12th century until 1637, after their power was temporarily derivated to Prussian Royal House...

) griffin

Griffin

The griffin, griffon, or gryphon is a legendary creature with the body of a lion and the head and wings of an eagle...

Formation

After the German invasion of Poland, Polish Pomeranian territories were annexed into the German (Reichsgau Danzig-West Prussia

Reichsgau Danzig-West Prussia

The Reichsgau Danzig-West Prussia was a Nazi German province created on 8 October 1939 from the territory of the annexed Free City of Danzig, the annexed Polish province Greater Pomeranian Voivodship , and the Nazi German Regierungsbezirk West Prussia of Gau East Prussia. Before 2 November 1939,...

). As elsewhere in Poland, resistance organizations soon appeared. The Pomeranian Griffin organization was created on July 7, 1941 in Bytów

Bytów

Bytów is a town in the Middle Pomerania region of northern Poland in the Bytów Lakeland with 16,888 inhabitants . Previously in Słupsk Voivodeship , it is the capital of Bytów County in Pomeranian Voivodeship .-History:...

, out of three smaller predecessor organizations: the Kashubian Griffin
Kashubian Griffin
The Kashubian Griffin, full name Secret Military Organization "Kashubian Griffin", was a Polish anti-Nazi organization during World War II in Gdansk Pomerania. It was active between December 1939 and the summer of 1941, when it became part of the more general Pomeranian Griffin organization....

secret military organization (Tajna Organizacjia Wojskowa "Gryf Kaszubski"), the Military Organization for Independence (Wojskowa Organizacja Niepodległościowa), and a partisan unit codenamed "Zawisza" (after Zawisza the Black). According to Polish historian Tomasz Strzembosz

Tomasz Strzembosz

Tomasz Strzembosz was a Polish historian and writer who specialized in the history of Poland during World War II. He was a professor at the Polish Academy of Sciences' Institute of Political Studies in Warsaw; and, at the John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin...

, the groundwork for the organization might have been laid down before the war by Colonel Ludwik Muzyczki.

Operations

The organization's charter stressed its Catholic

Catholic

The word catholic comes from the Greek phrase , meaning "on the whole," "according to the whole" or "in general", and is a combination of the Greek words meaning "about" and meaning "whole"...

nature and declared its purpose as self-defense, aid to the Polish population of Pomerania in the face of German terror

Nazi crimes against ethnic Poles

In addition to about 2.9 million Polish Jews , about 2.8 million non-Jewish Polish citizens perished during the course of the war...

, and preparation for an eventual uprising against Nazi Germany. In addition to sabotage operations carried out by its forest partisan units, the organization was active in spreading anti-Nazi propaganda

Propaganda

Propaganda is a form of communication that is aimed at influencing the attitude of a community toward some cause or position so as to benefit oneself or one's group....

and in intelligence activities (notably, the Pomeranian Griffin was involved in the intelligence gathering on the V-1 and V-2 rockets).

The organization declared itself subordinate 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...

in London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

, and cooperated with the military structures of the Polish Underground State (Armia Krajowa

Armia Krajowa

The Armia Krajowa , or Home Army, was the dominant Polish resistance movement in World War II German-occupied Poland. It was formed in February 1942 from the Związek Walki Zbrojnej . Over the next two years, it absorbed most other Polish underground forces...

, the "Home Army") but stressed its regional autonomy. In 1943 internal ideological conflicts escalated during negotiations over the subordination of the organization to the main Polish anti-Nazi resistance movement, the Home Army. Polish resistance structures in Pomerania had suffered more than their fair share of arrests, and Griffin leaders were wary of opening themselves up to a larger structure. Furthermore, whereas the Home Army and the government in exile were run by a coalition of several parties, Griffin, while officially apolitical, was mostly influenced by the National Democrats

Endecja

National Democracy was a Polish right-wing nationalist political movement active from the latter 19th century to the end of the Second Polish Republic in 1939. A founder and principal ideologue was Roman Dmowski...

. A portion of the Griffin split to join the Miecz i Plug (Sword and Plow) nationalist movement. However, Miecz i Plug had been infiltrated by the Gestapo

Gestapo

The Gestapo was the official secret police of Nazi Germany. Beginning on 20 April 1934, it was under the administration of the SS leader Heinrich Himmler in his position as Chief of German Police...

(or had initially been set up by the Gestapo) and as a result, many of the conspirators of the Griffin were compromised, arrested, and sent to concentration camps.
The remnants of the group survived until 1945, when the final order of its last commander instructed the soldiers to participate in the disarming of local German police forces and to provide logistic aid to the approaching Red Army

Red Army

The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army started out as the Soviet Union's revolutionary communist combat groups during the Russian Civil War of 1918-1922. It grew into the national army of the Soviet Union. By the 1930s the Red Army was among the largest armies in history.The "Red Army" name refers to...

. However, once Pomerania came under Soviet control, members of the group were persecuted and arrested by the Soviet authorities because of the organization's pro-Catholic and nationalistic character. Many of the group's members who were arrested during this time ended up being sent to the gulag

Gulag

The Gulag was the government agency that administered the main Soviet forced labor camp systems. While the camps housed a wide range of convicts, from petty criminals to political prisoners, large numbers were convicted by simplified procedures, such as NKVD troikas and other instruments of...

by the Soviets, alongside the same German soldiers and Gestapo

Gestapo

The Gestapo was the official secret police of Nazi Germany. Beginning on 20 April 1934, it was under the administration of the SS leader Heinrich Himmler in his position as Chief of German Police...

agents against whom they fought during the war; others were executed. Some historians argue that Griffin soldiers were treated much more harshly than even the Armia Krajowa

Armia Krajowa

and the cursed soldiers

Cursed soldiers

The cursed soldiers is a name applied to a variety of Polish resistance movements formed in the later stages of World War II and afterwards. Created by some members of the Polish Secret State, these clandestine organizations continued their armed struggle against the Stalinist government of Poland...

members. In arresting the group's members the Soviet authorities often relied on information provided by former Gestapo agents who had infiltrated the group during the war and who had switched sides once Soviet victory was imminent.

Members

Two of the Pomeranian Griffin's most notable members were Lieutenant Józef Dambek, Griffin's leader, and Colonel-Chaplain Józef Wrycza, a widely respected Roman Catholic priest. After Lieutenant Dambek was killed by the Germans in 1944, he was succeeded by Lieutenant Augustyn Westphal.

Formation

Operations

Members

Further reading