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Kedyw (ˈkɛdɨf, partial acronym of Kierownictwo Dywersji ("Directorate of Diversion") was a Polish World War II Home Army unit that conducted active and passive sabotage, propaganda and armed operations against Nazi German forces and collaborators. Kedyw was created on January 22, 1943, from two pre-existing Armia Krajowa organisations: Związek Odwetu (Association of Retaliation), and Wachlarz. Initially, the units were small and town-based. Eventually, as more were formed, some moved into forested areas to begin partisan warfare. Kedyw organized weapon and munition factories, military schools, intelligence, counter-intelligence, field hospitals and a communication network. Most members of Kedyw were Boy Scouts from Związek Harcerstwa Polskiego and its wartime organisation, Szare Szeregi. Many of the officers were cichociemni, who were special agents trained in the United Kingdom and parachuted into occupied Poland. Selected Kedyw groups (patrole) carried out operations all over occupied Poland. Notable types of operations included: the sabotaging of railways, bridges and roads the burning of trains and fuel depots the destruction or damaging of weapon factories working for the Wehrmacht the liberation of hundreds of prisoners and hostages a famous such operation took place on March 26, 1943 and is known as "Akcja pod Arsenałem" executions of Nazi collaborators and traitors sentenced by an underground court one of them involved Igo Sym, a Polish actor who had been informing the Germans about Home Army operations executions of particularly-brutal individuals among the German occupation troops, Gestapo, SS and police known as Operation Heads those executed included SS and police General Franz Kutschera, killed on February 2, 1944, SS-Hauptscharfuhrer August Kretschmann, commandant of the Gęsiówka concentration camp, SS-Rottenführer Ewald Lange, SS-Obersturmführer Herbert Schultz, SS-Oberscharführer Franz Bürkl and many others (more than 2,000 people).

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Related concepts (7)

Polish Underground State

The Polish Underground State (Polskie Państwo Podziemne, also known as the Polish Secret State) was a single political and military entity formed by the union of resistance organizations in occupied Poland that were loyal to the Government of the Republic of Poland in exile in London. The first elements of the Underground State were established in the final days of the German and Soviet invasion of Poland, in late September 1939.

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Kotwica

The Kotwica (kot'fica; Polish for "Anchor") was a World War II emblem of the Polish Underground State and Armia Krajowa (Home Army, or AK). It was created in 1942 by members of the AK Wawer Minor sabotage unit, as an easily usable emblem for the Polish struggle to regain independence. The initial meaning of the initials PW was Pomścimy Wawer ("We shall avenge Wawer"). This was a reference to the Wawer massacre (26–27 December 1939), which was considered to be one of the first large scale massacres of Polish civilians by German troops in occupied Poland.