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Józef Kuraś „Ogień”
Józef Kuraś (“Ogień”, “Orzeł”) was born on 23 October
1915 in Waksmund near Nowy Targ. In 1934, he
became a member of the People’s Party (Stronnictwo
Ludowe), a peasant party in Poland. Drafted into
the army in 1936, he served in Sanok and Słobodka
near Vilnius.
During the September campaign of 1939, he fought
in the ranks of the 1st Podhale Rifle Regiment,
a mountain infantry unit. After an unsuccessful
attempt to get through to France, he returned to
Waksmund. In November 1939, he became involved
in underground activities. He was a soldier of the
Tatra Confederation (Konfederacja Tatrzańska)
and the Home Army (Armia Krajowa), he also
commanded the People’s Security Guard (Ludowa
Straż Bezpieczeństwa) units and the execution squad
of the county branch of the Government Delegation
for Poland (the highest authority of the Polish
underground state and an agency of the Polish
Government in Exile) in Nowy Targ.
In June 1943, in retaliation for the execution carried out by
Kuraś’s unit on two policemen who were Gestapo agents,
the Germans murdered his wife, two-and-a-half-year-old son
and father. The bodies of the murdered and Kuraś’s family
house were burned. It was then that Józef Kuraś adopted
the pseudonym “Ogień”, which means “Fire” in Polish.
At the beginning of 1945, Kuraś participated in the creation
of the structures of the police (the so-called Citizens’
Militia) and the secret police (Urząd Bezpieczeństwa,
UB) in Nowy Targ, implementing the recommendations
of the opposition party, i.e. the People’s Party led by
Stanisław Mikołajczyk, for its sympathizers to take over
from within the control of the state power structures
established on the territories liberated by the Soviets.
When this vision turned out to be unrealistic and the
communists’ grip on power proved firm, Kuraś formed
the “Błyskawica” partisan unit.
On 13 April 1945, he held a briefing in the mountains
for his former subordinates, announcing an open fight
against the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and against
the communists.
He carried it out in
the Podhale region and in other parts
of the Kraków province until 1947, in many places
becoming a real local military power and even
a political power to contend with due to the initial
weakness and porousness of the communist rule.
The units led by “Ogień” also organised actions against
the Slovaks, who were in favour of the annexation of
the Polish parts of Spisz and Orawa by the Slovak state.
The “Błyskawica” group had an excellent intelligence
service and enjoyed wide popular support.
On 21 February 1947, major “Ogień” was finally
surrounded by units of the UB and the Internal
Security Corps in the village of Ostrowsko near Nowy
Targ and attempted to commit suicide. The next day
he died from his wounds in a hospital in Nowy Targ.
To this day, his burial place is unknown.
Tadeusz Płużański