THE UNDERGROUND SYSTEM OF JUSTICE IN THE HOME ARMY'S RZESZÓW SUB-REGION

The Home Army's Rzeszów Sub-Region comprising the area confined within three rivers: San, Vistula and Wisłoka, and the Slovakian border in the south was spun off from the Home Army’s Kraków Region in April 1943. The four Eastern Inspectorates were incorporated into the newly created Sub-Region, namely: Rzeszów, Przemyśl, Jasło and Mielec, and in each of them were created on the basis of pre-war communes.

On the basis of the statutes approved by the Commander-in-Chief, the Military Special Courts (WSS) were started to be established in 1941 within the military division, and the Civil Special Courts (CSS) within the civil division were created a year later. The first sentences concerning the Rzeszów area were passed in that court as early as in 1941.

Actions involving the execution of death penalties continue to raise a host of emotions and controversies. special squads (the so-called hit squads) were appointed as execution bodies of WSS by relevant commands of ZWZ/AK to be used to carry out execution sentences. As regards execution sentences, CSS hit squads were established by the Government Delegation for Poland (Delegatura Rządu na Kraj).

It is worth noting that in the period from January 1941 to June 1944, the Home Army soldiers carried out executions of the total of 5,733 officers of the German Police, Military Police, and the SS. Such campaigns against the occupiers did not require court sentences. Based on the estimated calculations made by historians, it seems that special courts in Kraków and Rzeszów pronounced about one hundred death sentences.

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