In mid-August of 1943 a Polish unit of the Striking Cadre Battalions (Uderzeniowe Bataliony Kadrowe, UBK), which was controlled by the right-wing organization Konfederacja Narodu, organized armed attack on East Prussian villages in the area of Johannisburg (now: Pisz). According to Polish sources, some 70 Germans were killed and 40 German farms were razed to the ground. The attack, commanded by Colonel Stanislaw Karolkiewicz, was a revenge for German atrocities, commited in Bezirk Bialystok.

Background

Under Soviet Occupation

Following Nazi and Soviet aggresion on Poland in September of 1939, Second Polish Republic was divided by the two allied powers under the terms of the Ribbentrop-Molotov pact. The area of Bialystok became part of Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic, and was annexed by the Soviet Union. Thousands ethnic Poles, but also Belarusians and Jews, were forcibly deported to Siberia. Among the deported Poles were civil servants, judges, police officers, professional army officers, factory owners, landlords, political activists, leaders of cultural, educational and religious organisations, and others activists in the community. All of them were dubbed enemies of the people^[1].

Polish resistance against the Soviets in the area of Bialystok (especially along the swampy Biebrza river) began immediately after the September Campaign and in mid-1940 there were conspirational organizations in 161 towns and villages in future area of Bezirk Bialystok^[2]. Skirmishes with the NKVD were common, mostly around Jedwabne, where the anti-Soviet feelings were the strongest.

Under Nazi Occupation

On June 22, 1941, Nazi Germany invaded Soviet Union. The area of Bialystok was attached to East Prussia and Soviet terror was replaced with Nazi terror. Both Nazis and Communists referred to the Polish insurgents and their relatives as bandits and bandit families, and treated them with similar barbarity ^[3]. As the years went by, German terror in Bezirk Bialystok worsened and most atrocities on civilian population were commited by German units and police from neighboring East Prussia ^[4].

The most striking example of German brutality was fate of the village Krasowo-Czestki, near Wysokie Mazowieckie. On July 17, 1943, the Germans murdered all 257 inhabitants of the village (including 83 under seventeen years of age), and after the massacre, Krasowo-Czestki was burned. Possessions of the murdered Poles was seized by the Germans from East Prussia^[5]. In the following days several other massacres were commited: in the village Sikory-Tomkowieta, German SS Kommando Mueller killed 49 people, in Zawada and Laskowce, 58 persons were killed, in Grzedy - 36, in Wnory-Wandy - 32. Altogether, only in July of 1943 the Germans killed around 800 civilians in western part of Bezirk Bialystok ^[6]. Under the circumstances, members of the Polish resistance decided to take revenge on the Germans.

The attack

In July of 1943 Colonel Stanislaw Karolkiewicz (nom de guerre Szczesny) organized a unit of the Striking Cadre Battalions, which was part of the right-wing Konfederacja Narodu. Its members chose their noms de guerre from characters of Pan Tadeusz, an epic poem by Adam Mickiewicz. Since the Striking Cadre Battalions headquarters allowed to carry out retaliatory attacks, the Poles decided to make a raid on East Prussia, on the area of Johannisburg. The choice was not accidental - many German soldiers and administration workers in Bezirk Bialystok came from that part of Third Reich^[7]. There lived their families and there, the Germans felt safe.

Colonel Stanislaw Karolkiewicz and his unit of well-armed 28 men, avoiding German troops, started off from the Wysokie Mazowieckie County. They crossed the Narew and the Biebrza, reaching northern part of the Lomza County. Near the village of Turosl it reached Prussian border. It must be noted that Karolkiewicz and his men were closely cooperating with local structures of the National Armed Forces, which was a dominant underground organization in this part of occupied Poland and whose members provided Karolkiewicz with vital information about Prussian side of the borderline.

Karolkiewicz decided that the Poles would attack the village of Mittenheide and the forestership of Krummenheide ^[8]. Mittenheide, located 25 km from field headquarters of Hermann Göring and 80 kilometers from Wolfschanze, was a large village, with around 1000 permanent inhabitants, and unknown number of escapees from western Germany cities, who fled from Allied bombs. There was a police station, almost all men were members of the Landwache and in most houses there were weapons. Among residents of Mittenheide, there was Oberst Herman Upitz, a special envoy of Heinrich Himmler, whose task was to spread terror among Poles and who was among the most hated Nazi functionaries in Bezirk Bialystok.

The objectives of the attack were:

• to destroy the police station,
• to destroy households of Nazi party members and those Germans who participated in massacres of Poles,
• to kill Herman Upitz.

Karolkiewicz and his men, supported by a patrol of the National Armed Forces under Antoni Zdunczyk “Olowek” (seven soldiers) crossed the border on August 14, 1943, at 22:00. The date of the attack - August 15, was chosen deliberately, as this is the official day of the Polish Army, to commemorate the Miracle at the Vistula.

After reaching Mittenheide, the Poles divided themselves into five groups and cut off telephone lines. The attack began before midnight with liquidation of Oberst Upitz. Then the Poles entered the village, facing tough resistance from the Germans. Within around two hours, some 40 German households were destroyed, 69 civilians and 3 policemen were killed, as well as Upitz^[9]. Around 60 Germans were wounded. Some of the victims were killed by the OST-Arbeiters, who used the raid to take their revenge ^[10] It must be noted that the Poles deliberately spared the house of Hildegarde von Krauss, a widow, whose husband, officer of the Wehrmacht, died on the Eastern Front. She was known for her humane attitude towards the Poles and Karolkiewicz himself talked to her that night, explaining reasons for the attack ^[11]. The raid ended at 2 a.m., after Karolkiewicz fired a green flare. The Poles escaped to the nearby Pisz Wilderness, together with their booty - a machine gun, 30 carbines, 14 pistols, large quantity of ammunition as well as uniforms and boots. Parts of the equipment was later handed to the local units of the Home Army and the National Armed Forces. Also, together with Karolkiewicz’s men, five OST-Arbeiters fled - four Poles and one Lithuanian. Polish losses were minimal, with only a few men wounded.

The aftermath

Raid on East Prussia was a shock to the local community. Its echos reached Berlin and Heinrich Himmler himself was vividly interested in the investigation, carried out by the police authorities from Allenstein. However, nobody was caught and the unit, after hiding for three days in the forest, left East Prussia, heading towards Nowogrodek.

References

See also

• Polish contribution to WWII