Józef Franczak

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Józef Franczak (17 March 1918 – 21 October 1963) was a Polish soldier who fought in World War II and later became a leader in Poland’s anti-communist resistance. He is best known as the last of the cursed soldiers, a name given to fighters who continued to oppose the communist government after the war. He used several codenames, with Lalek being the most famous.

Franczak was born in Kozice Górne, near Lublin. He trained with a gendarmerie school in Grudziądz and served in the Polish Army in Równe. He was captured when the Soviets invaded Poland but escaped and joined the early Polish resistance, first the Związek Walki Zbrojnej and later the Armia Krajowa (Home Army).

Details of his wartime activities are not all well documented, but he fought with partisans and was involved in various actions around 1943–1944. In August 1944, he was pressed into service with the Polish Second Army. In 1945, after witnessing executions of Home Army members by the new communist government, he defected and went into hiding, using the alias Józef Baginski. He eventually returned to the Lublin region and joined the anti-communist resistance known as the cursed soldiers. His first unit was led by Hieronim Dekutowski, known as Zapora.

Franczak was captured by security forces in June 1946, managed to kill several guards and escape. In 1947, he took part in actions against the authorities and joined a unit led by Zdzisław Broński, nicknamed Uskok. In 1949 he personally killed a former resistance member who had betrayed Broński and later led a group that hunted traitors and informers. He chose not to surrender to the authorities, partly because of concerns that amnesty would not cover the crimes he had committed.

After an unsuccessful bank robbery in 1948, his group was broken up and he began operating alone. He remained one of the most wanted men in the People's Republic of Poland, living in hiding in areas around Piaski, Krasnystaw, Chełm, and the Lublin region. Around 200 people helped him, despite the risk of punishment.

The Polish secret police launched a long pursuit known as Operation Pożar (Fire) around 1951, using informants and bugging houses in the countryside. In 1963, Franczak was betrayed by a relative of his lover. On 21 October 1963, ZOMO (a riot police unit) surrounded a barn in Majdan Kozic Górnych. Franczak surrendered his true identity and then opened fire, dying from gunshot wounds in the ensuing shootout.

His body was buried in an unmarked grave, and his head was sent to a medical school. About twenty years later his remains were recovered and moved to a cemetery in Piaski Wielkie; his skull was recovered and reburied in 2014.

Today, Franczak is seen in Poland as a hero of the anti-communist resistance. Commemorations and films have highlighted his story, and in 2020 the Polish prime minister called him a hero.