Związek Organizacji Wojskowej

Związek Organizacji Wojskowej (abbr. ZOW, translated as Union of Military Organization) was an underground resistance organization formed by Witold Pilecki at Auschwitz concentration camp in 1940.

Beginning

Auschwitz concentration camp photos of Witold Pilecki, ZOW founder

In 1940, Witold Pilecki, member of Polish resistance Tajna Armia Polska (Secret Polish Army, later transformed into a better known Armia Krajowa, the Home Army), presented to his superiors a plan to enter Germany's Auschwitz concentration camp, gather intelligence on the camp from the inside, and organize inmate resistance. Home Army approved this plan and provided him a false identity card in the name of "Tomasz Serafiński". On 19 September 1940, he deliberately went out during a street roundup in Warsaw - łapanka, and was caught by the Germans along with other civilians and sent to Auschwitz. He was the only person ever to volunteer to be imprisoned in Auschwitz.

Forming ZOW in Auschwitz

In the camp Pilecki as Tomasz Serafiński; in fact number 4859, organized the Związek Organizacji Wojskowej - ZOW. ZOW would become the Auschwitz representation of Armia Krajowa. Tasks of organization were to improve inmate morale, provide news from outside, distribute extra food and clothing to members, and set up intelligence networks.

ZOW was organized in system of "fives". Each five didn't know anything about other fives. The First five was formed from Pilecki's TAP members, soldiers of Polish army sending to Auschwitz, and contained: dr. Władysław Dering - number 1723, lieutenant-colonel Władysław Surmacki - number 2795, Jerzy Hlebowicz - false name of capitan Jerzy de Virion - number 3507, Eugeniusz Obojski - number 194 and Roman Zagner - number unknown. This five was named as "high five" of ZOW. Superior was lieutenant-colonel Władysław Surmacki.

By 1941, ZOW had grown substantially. The "High five" created more "fives". Despite being an arm of the Polish resistance, membership was not limited to Poles, but Jewish members had a much lower life expectancy as the Germans prioritized exterminating Jews over the Poles. Notable members of ZOW included the famous Polish sculptor Xawery Dunikowski and ski champion Bronisław Czech. ZOW members worked in the camp's SS administration office (Mrs. Rachwalowa, Capt. Rodziewicz, Mr. Olszowka, Mr. Jakubski, Mr. Miciukiewicz), the storage magazines (Mr. Czardybun) and the Sonderkommando, which burned human corpses (Mr. Szloma Dragon and Mr. Henryk Mendelbaum). The organization had its own underground court and supply lines to the outside. Thanks to civilians living nearby, the organization regularly received medical supplies. The inmates even constructed a radio receiver and hid it in the camp hospital.

Many smaller underground organizations at Auschwitz eventually merged with ZOW. In the autumn of 1941, Colonel Jan Karcz was transferred to the newly-created Birkenau death camp, where he proceeded to organize ZOW structures. By spring of 1942, the organization had over 1,000 members, including women and people of other nationalities, at most of the sub-camps.

Meanwhile the Gestapo redoubled its efforts to ferret out ZOW members, from late 1942 succeeding in killing many of them.

Intelligence

From October 1940, ZOW sent numerous reports about camp and genocide to Polish resistance Home Army Headquarters in Warsaw through the resistance network organized in Auschwitz. ZOW's first report reached the Polish resistance in November 1940. A shortwave transmitter hidden in Block 11 sent information directly to the Polish government-in-exile in London. Beginning with March 1941, Pilecki's reports were being forwarded via the Polish resistance to the government in exile and through it, to the British government in London and other Allied governments. These reports were the first relation about Holocaust and principal source of intelligence on Auschwitz for the Western Allies. Nonetheless, those reports were for a long time discarded as "too extreme" by the Allies.

Unrealized plans for an uprising

At the beginning Pilecki planned for the liberation of the camp and hoped that either the Allies would drop arms or troops into the Auschwitz, or the Home Army would organize an assault on it from outside. Pilecki's people trained detachments to take over the camp in the event of a relief attack by the Home Army, arms airdrops, or an airborne landing by the Polish 1st Independent Parachute Brigade, based in Britain.

By 1943 Pilecki realized that no such plans existed outside the camp. Pilecki decided to break out of the camp, with the hope of personally convincing Home Army leaders that a rescue attempt was a valid option. When he was assigned to a night shift at a camp bakery outside the fence, he and two comrades overpowered a guard, cut the phone line and escaped on the night of 26–27 April 1943, taking along documents stolen from the Germans. In the event of capture, they were prepared to swallow cyanide. After several days, with the help of local civilians, they contacted Home Army units. Pilecki submitted another detailed report on conditions at Auschwitz. Next a detailed report was sent to London, but the British authorities refused the Home Army air support for an operation to help the inmates escape. An air raid was considered too risky, and Home Army reports on Nazi atrocities at Auschwitz were deemed to be gross exaggerations. In turn, the Home Army decided that it didn't have enough force to storm the camp by itself.

In October 1944 ZOW aided the Jewish Sonderkommando revolt, providing the explosives for their actions.

Lost memory

After the war, Witold Pilecki was jailed by the communists, who executed him in 1948.^{[citation needed]} Until 1989, information on his exploits and fate was suppressed by the Polish communist regime.^{[citation needed]}

Bibliography

• E. Ciesielski, Wspomnienia Oświęcimskie [Auschwitz Memoirs], Kraków, 1968.
• Jozef Garlinski, Fighting Auschwitz: the Resistance Movement in the Concentration Camp, Fawcett, 1975, ISBN 0-449-22599-2, reprinted by Time Life Education, 1993. ISBN 0-8094-8925-2
• W. Gawron, Ochotnik do Oświęcimia [Volunteer for Auschwitz], Calvarianum, Auschwitz Museum, 1992.
• Jon E. Lewis, The Mammoth Book of True War Stories, Carroll & Graf Publishers, 1999, ISBN 0786706295, Google Print, p.389+
• Konstanty Piekarski, Escaping Hell: the Story of a Polish Underground Officer in Auschwitz and Buchenwald, Dundurn Press Ltd., 1990. ISBN 1-55002-071-4.
• Wiesław Jan Wysocki, Rotmistrz Pilecki, Pomost, 1994. ISBN 83-85209-42-5.
• Adam Cyra, Wiesław Jan Wysocki, Rotmistrz Witold Pilecki, Oficyna Wydawnicza VOLUMEN, 1997. ISBN 83-86857-27-7.
• Adam Cyra, Ochotnik do Auschwitz - Witold Pilecki 1901-1948 [Volunteer for Auschwitz], Oświęcim 2000. ISBN 83-912000-3-5
• Adam Cyra, Spadochroniarz Urban [Paratrooper Urban], Oświęcim 2005.