The 1946 pacification of villages by PAS NZW was the killing of 79 Polish nationals of Belarusian ethnicity in Bielsk County, north-eastern Poland, by partisans, members of the Polish Extraordinary Special Actions unit of the National Military Union ( (PAS NZW)). The murders took place in the aftermath of World War II.
In January and February 1946, units of the PAS Special Forces burned down the villages of Zaleszany, Wólka Wygonowska, Zanie, Szpaki, and Końcowizna. They also executed 30 coachmen on 30 January 1945 near Puchały Stare, and a similar number of armed resistors in Zanie on 2 February 1946.
Since 1995, the mass killing of civilians was the subject of official investigation by the government-affiliated Institute of National Remembrance. The inquiry resulted in the publication of a final report in June 2005, summarizing the case. The Commission interviewed a total of 169 persons, and analysed all documents and testimonies dating back to the 1949 show trial of Polish cursed soldiers: Captain Romuald Rajs of the PAS Special Forces, and his co-conspirator and deputy, Lieutenant Kazimierz Chmielowski from NZW.
Among the individuals questioned by IPN were families of victims, as well as former soldiers of the 3rd Brigade of NZW. The IPN closed its official investigation without additional charges filed. Sentences from the Stalinist period had already been carried out. In addition, there had been extrajudicial killings of partisans by governmental authorities during the Polish anti-Communist insurrection. No living perpetrators of the atrocities committed in early 1946 have been identified. The postwar atrocities have continued to receive considerable press coverage by the media.
Background
In November 1944, the National Military Union (Narodowe Zjednoczenie Wojskowe, NZW) was formed out of the National Armed Forces (NSZ) and a portion of the National Military Organization (NOW) which left the largest Polish anti-Nazi organization, the Home Army. The Home Army was disbanded entirely by the order of Gen. Leopold Okulicki on 18 January 1945, due to the Soviet takeover of Poland. Thousands of partisans and underground soldiers were arrested by the NKVD and sent to Soviet Gulag camps. Okulicki was murdered in Moscow.
The annexation of eastern half of the Second Polish Republic by Joseph Stalin was ratified by the new communist authorities in postwar Poland on 16 August 1945, which was followed by mass expulsions of Poles and Belarusians across the new borders.
Mayor Zygmunt Szendzielarz refused to surrender; and recreated the already disassembled Polish 5th Wilno Brigade of Home Army in order to oppose the Soviet occupation of Podlachia (Podlasie) and the Białystok region. Equipped with machine guns and machine pistols, his brigade fought a successful battle with the advancing Red Army and the pro-Soviet Polish People's Army around Miodusy-Dworaki village in Siemiatycze County on 18 August 1945.
Captain Rajs ("Bury") was active in the area of Wilno during the German occupation of Poland. Since 1943, he led the 1st Company of the 3rd Wilno Brigade of Home Army with the rank of Second Lieutenant. After the dissolution of the 5th Brigade, Rajs made contact with Commandant of the National Military Union Okręg III Białystok, Major Jan Szklarek, and moved his LWP platoon under his command. He was promoted to the rank of Captain and became leader of the PAS Special Forces (Pogotowie Akcji Specjalnej) within NZW Białystok. The process of unification of smaller underground units in the area of Wysokie Mazowieckie County, commanded by Kazimierz Chmielowski ("Rekin"; meaning "Shark", in Polish) until December 1945, resulted in the gathering of the largest anti-Soviet partisan group in the region.
Assaults of January and February 1946
By the end of 1945, the NZW III Białystok consolidated most of the local anti-communist underground by absorbing into its own command scattered units of NSZ and NOW. Many former members of resistance left the forest to begin a new life, although for some the return to civilian life was not possible. Both MO and the NKVD had compiled hit lists of anti-communist conspirators from local sources.
By early 1946, the NZW was the only underground organization still capable of active resistance. Their assaults included destruction of MO outposts and Communist Party bureaus, ambushes on special units of UBP, KBW, WP and NKWD; as well as various retaliatory actions. A few local towns were taken over by PAS NZW temporarily. Some police stations were destroyed repeatedly.