Today marks the eighty-fourth anniversary of the dissolution of the Volunteer Workers’ Brigade for the Defence of Warsaw, which from the first days of September 1939 resisted German soldiers, defending the capital until its capitulation.

In the face of the Third Reich’s aggression against Poland, as early as 6 September 1939, the Polish Socialist Party set up a civilian, voluntary workers’ formation to act as an auxiliary to the Polish Army during the defence of Warsaw. The main organiser of the action was Zygmunt Zaremba, who supervised the enlistment of volunteers taking place at the Workers’ Welfare Committee and the editorial office of the daily newspaper Robotnik.

Initially, four companies were formed with a total of one thousand volunteers, but after just a few days the formation reached a figure of around six thousand. As a result, General Walerian Czuma decided to set up the Volunteer Workers’ Brigade for the Defence of Warsaw, entrusting the command to a socialist, Capt. Marian Kenig. The brigade’s main task was to establish fortifications, secure the communications network and perform diversionary, intelligence and sapper tasks. As a result of the prolonged siege of the capital, many members of the brigade joined the ranks of the Polish Army, fighting in arms against the occupying forces, often on the front line (e.g. in Żoliborz).

After the capitulation of Warsaw, the brigade was dismantled on 27 September 1939. The decision to end defensive operations provoked violent opposition from the workers, who accused the command of the capital’s defence of betrayal and attempted to commit a lynch. The tense situation was brought under control only by Captain Kenig, after whose intervention the brigade’s members formed a march on Wilson Square, and leading officers as hostages, made their way to the Citadel to see if other military units were also laying down their arms.