J\u00f3zef Franczak was born on 17 March 1918 in Kozice G\u00f3rne, near Piaski. His parents owned a farm of several hectares. He finished primary school in Piaski and volunteered for the army. He was sent to the gendarmerie school in Grudzi\u0105dz and after finishing it he was in a detachment in R\u00f3wne (today’s Rivne, Ukraine). In September 1939, he took part in the war and was taken prisoner by the Soviets, from whom he managed to escape. He returned to his hometown, where he became involved in underground activity in the ranks of the Home Army (AK).<\/p>\n
After the Soviet army entered the Lublin region, he was conscripted into the communist-subordinate 2nd Polish Army. He witnessed the murder of soldiers of the independence underground in K\u0105kolewnica. The atrocities caused Franczak to decide to desert from the army in the spring of 1945. After arriving in the area of Piaski, he renewed contacts with his colleagues from the underground.<\/p>\n
In June 1946, he was captured by security officers, but managed to escape successfully. He organised a unit of several members, which was subordinated to Captain Zdzis\u0142aw Bronski a.k.a. “Uskok”. He carried out armed actions against the representatives of the communist authorities. After the death of his commander in May 1949, he acted together with Stanis\u0142aw Kuchciewicz a.k.a. “Wiktor”. From February 1953. “Lalu\u015b” started to hide alone. Around 200 people were helping him. The communist security officers tried unsuccessfully to capture him for many years. It was only in 1963 that they managed to recruit an agent who led them to Franczak, As a result of a manhunt involving dozens of officers, on 21 October 1963 “Lalu\u015b” was killed.<\/p>\n
After his death, the communists took revenge by decapitating his body. The family did not obtain any information on where Franczak was buried. His sisters were pointed out to his grave in the Lublin cemetery by a local gravedigger. In the 1980s they managed to obtain permission to move the remains of “Lalus” to the family tomb in Piaski. Franczak’s skull was found after many years in 2014 by employees of the Institute of National Remembrance in the collection of the Medical University in Lublin.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
60 years ago, on 21 October 1963, near Piaski (approx. 25 km east of Lublin), sergeant J\u00f3zef Franczak, pseudonym “Lalu\u015b”, was killed in a battle with officers of the communist…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":48841,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-48870","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-history"],"yoast_head":"\n