World War II memories return
Professor led Polish underground group
By BOB WOMACK
Kansas Staff Writer
The image of the political fanatic may seem alien and even sinister to many Americans, but to Professor Jaroslaw A. Piekalkiewicz of the University of Kansas political science department, it is a reality from his own past. For this is his description of himself and his comrades in the Polish underground during World War II.
Born in Poznan, Poland in 1926, Piekalkiewicz was 13 when the war broke out. At 15, he organized other students in his high school, and they formed their own underground organization, the purpose being to train militarily to fight the Germans, who had invaded their country in September of 1939. Eventually his group grew in strength to about 100 people of all ages.
Because of the size of the group, and because some groups had been organized by the Germans to infiltrate the official underground, the leaders of the official underground forced Piekalkiewicz to disband his organization and become part of the official underground.
OF THE GROUP which he created and led in secrecy, Piekalkiewicz said, "It's a funny comment on how secret an organization can operate. I was 15 years old and was the leader of the group; the oldest fellow was 35 years old. I was the youngest member, but also the leader. But since everything was done in secrecy, nobody knew who was the leader of the group and they didn't know their orders came from me."
Because he was so young, Piekalkiewicz was given the job of leading a group of five boys his age in delivering messages within the underground.
At the age of 16, he was transferred to the police force of the underground, which operated like a government in exile.
The police force was meant to show that the underground was the legal government of Poland; it also investigated thefts and murders and punished those who did not obey the laws of the underground government.
AT THIS TIME, Piekalkiewicz was still living in a small town outside of Warsaw, but because of arrests of members of his underground group, he had to flee to Warsaw in order to avoid being caught by the Germans.
Piekalkiewicz's entire family had become involved in the underground and the Germans had become aware that his uncle was an important leader of the underground. Before the war, Piekalkiewicz's uncle had been a leader of the Peasant Party, which was one of the important factions in the underground coalition. Eventually he rose to the top of the entire underground movement in Poland. Secrecy was so strict that Piekalkiewicz himself was unaware that his uncle held such an important position in the movement.
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HIS UNCLE'S activities were finally uncovered by the Germans, and he was arrested. Piekalkiewicz's brother was sent to a concentration camp which he miraculously survived. Piekalkiewicz's mother became head of the underground hospital. As the Germans stepped up their reign of terror in Poland, the hospital was attacked by German soldiers, and everyone, including his mother, was killed.
Such action was not unusual during the occupation. Often German soldiers would suddenly close off a section of a street, and everyone who happened to be in the closed off area was sent to the concentration camps.
"It was a very brutal occupation," Piekakiewicz said. "The Germans couldn't really get any support from the Poles."
AFTER ARRIVING in Warsaw, Pielkiewicz became an instructor in German weaponry for the underground and later undertook his most dangerous job, disarming German soldiers.
"We needed arms very badly and the only way we could get them, apart from those sent from the British in Italy, was to take them from our best source—the German army."
For three months in 1944, before the ill-fated Warsaw uprising, Piekalkiewicz was in charge of a squad of young men who walked the streets of Warsaw with concealed arms. "If we spotted a single German soldier, we took him into a doorway and relieved him of his gun," he said.
ONLY ONCE did Piekalkiewicz meet any resistance in disarming the Germans. "The German soldiers didn't expect a young fellow of 18 to march up to them with a gun demanding their weapon. It always surpriseed me," he said, "they didn't offer any resistance."
Veterans participate in job training program
A group of 5,400 veterans are participating in the Veteran's on-the-job-training programs for policemen and firemen, said George B. Lappin, Director of the VA Center in Wichita.
Donald E. Johnson, administrator of veterans affairs, said that last July only 4,300 veterans were in VA approved programs of this type.
Lappin said that of the 5,400 veterans enrolled nationally in the programs,11 policemen and 27 firemen are in training in Kansas.
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The arms which Ptiekalkiewicz helped to obtain went to the underground guerrilla units fighting all across the Polish nation. Transportation was disrupted by blowing up railway tracks, diverting trains and switching the destinations of trains so as to disrupt shipments of arms to the German invaders.
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The underground also helped to disseminate propaganda, not only among the Polish people, but also among the German soldiers.
"THE ORGANIZATION was very large. It was nearly impossible to destroy," Piekalkiewicz said. "I think we have the same problem today in Viet Nam. How do you tell foe from friend? Everybody looks alike."
exploits in the underground that he was very lucky. His cover during his service in the underground was membership in the Warsaw fire brigade. As a member, he was entitled to a uniform. For some reason the Germans respected his uniform, and it saved him in his closest brush with death.
Piekalkiewicz said of his own
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Returning home one night, armed, although Polish citizens were forbidden to have weapons, Piekalkiewicz turned a corner and found three German soldiers pointing a machine gun at his chest. One of them flashed a light at him, and they saw his fireman's uniform. Convinced by his uniform that he was harmless, they let him go, with his gun still tucked safely in his belt.
AFTER FIGHTING in the Warsaw uprising, which lasted from July through September of 1944, Piekalkiewicz was sent to German prisoner of war camps. He escaped several times, only to be caught and sent back. After being freed in 1945, he went on to fight with the British Army in Italy. After the war, he studied in Scotland and Ireland. He came to the United States in 1959 and received his Ph.D. from Indiana University. He came to KU in 1963.
In speaking of his years of daring and courageous service in the underground, Plekalkiewicz said, "We had no regard for our own safety. We didn't care if we died or not, but this is the way the fanatic is."
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