Z dziejów tajnego nauczania i wojskowej konspiracji na południowo-zachodnich obszarach Południowego Podlasia w latach 1939-1944

Abstract

The present paper provides an analysis of the available publications on the subject; it also draws information from the data obtained from the participants of the events described here, as well as the memories of the present author. First, the article discusses the events which in 1939 led to the German occupation in the district of Siedlce, concentrating on the situation in the area of Skórzec located in the south-western part of the region. lt describes the military activities that took place in the west borderland of the region in September 1939; then it concentrates on the system of German occupation as well as the military and police forces that the German authoritics had at their disposal in the region of Siedlce. The paper discusses also some issues connected with underground education in Skórzec, which was organized by Feliksa Wąsikowa, who had been a lower secondary school ("Gimnazjum") teacher in Ostrów Wielkopolski before the Second World War. Another person actively involved in underground education in the area was Jan Seferyński, prior of the locał Marian convent. However, the main focus of the paper is issues connected with the resistance movement, in particular, armed fighting. On the basis of the collected reports and personal memories, the activities of the Polish underground army "Armia Krajowa" in the area of Skórzec have been described (the unit in Żeliszew was called Kret "Mole", known also as "Żelbeton" , and later "Ogródek" . That section of the article includes names of AK soldiers as well as their pseudonyms, the most important of them being Second Lieutenant Wacław Domagała ("Piątek"), a reserve officer; Lieutenant Jan Kazimierz Krupa, a reserve officer; Second Lieutenant Ludwik Ossowski ("Doktor"); his brother corporal Henryk Ossowski "Osa" , and Karol Bareja "Bechacz". The article ends with the analysis of thc events that took place in Skórzec in the last decade of July 1944, after the German army had left the area.