Published : 2023-12-29 — Updated on 2024-04-09

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Activities of the Association of Polish Refugees in West Germany in the materials of the security organs of the PRL in the years 1945-1985 - supplement

Łukasz Wolak



Abstract

The aim of this article is an attempt to present the characteristics of the activities of the activists of the Union of Polish Refugees in Germany from the perspective of the materials collected by the civil and military security organs of the Polish People’s Republic. The Union of Polish Refugees was in the orbit of interest not only of civilian structures subordinate to the Ministry of Internal Affairs, but also of military structures subordinate to the Ministry of National Defence. The beginning of this interest should be considered to be, with some exceptions, the intelligence activity of the National Party on the territory of the Federal Republic of Germany, more widely known as the so-called ‘’Berg affair’’. The presented article also points to different groups of refugees who were worked on by the security organs of the People’s Republic of Poland. The first of these consisted of members involved in the post-war activities of the Polish Armed Forces and intelligence expositories of the National Party. The second – activists involved in cooperation with intelligence institutions in West Germany and organisations financed by the Americans, the British and the Germans. The third – reunification activists who joined the organisation after successive waves of escapes from the People’s Republic of Poland. In this group, quite different from the first two, the interest of the security organs was due to the contacts they entered into in the refugee camps with representatives of intelligence institutions. Although this division appears somewhat fluid and uneven, it reflects the main directions of interest of intelligence and counterintelligence. The examples presented in the article of the interest of PRL military institutions in ZPU activists show not only the scale with which the military organs were interested in that milieu, but the very fact that they were also intensively looking for ways to establish operational contacts with various Polish milieus in the territory of Germany. In the orbit of interest of the services was, of course, Radio Free Europe in Munich. This text points to parallel operational activities targeting ‘’Munich radio’’ by units subordinate to the Ministry of Defence. Finally, the links with intelligence institutions of this community in West Germany are hinted at, indicating the scale of the conspiratorial activities of Polish refugees. For a long time, ZPU activists were at the centre of political events between the two warring blocs, often succumbing to their influence and inspiration. Finally, the slow collapse and generational replacement had a direct impact on the decline of interest in the activists on the part of the civil and military intelligence institutions of the PRL. In the same period of time, interest in Polish refugees living in refugee camps was pursued almost in parallel – at a constant level.

Keywords:

Union of Polish Refugees, Federal Republic of Germany, Polish People’s Republic, intelligence, counterintelligence, special services



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Wolak, Ł. (2024). Activities of the Association of Polish Refugees in West Germany in the materials of the security organs of the PRL in the years 1945-1985 - supplement. Polonia Inter Gentes, (4), 15–140. https://doi.org/10.56583/pig.2475 (Original work published December 29, 2023)

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