This Day In History Background…

Viewed as a melting pot of decadence, a hotbed of dissent, a cradle of European Jewry and a symbol of Polish independence, no other city aroused as much disdain from the Nazis as Warsaw. Denied the most basic rights, the Poles responded by forming Europe’s largest underground movement. Commonly believed to number around 400,000 members across the country, the Home Army (AK) was the largest of these illicit organizations. However, it was not the only one.

Among the others were the Gray Ranks (Szare Szeregi), a paramilitary scouting group with close affiliations to the AK. Adopting their name in 1940, they were responsible for a string of subversive actions that ranged from the publication of propaganda leaflets to the assassination of collaborators and high-ranking Nazi figures.

Fighting under the nom de guerre of Rudy (Ginger), scoutmaster Jan Bytnar was especially prominent in the Gray Ranks – when he was arrested in 1943, a plan was hatched to free him. Given the codename Mexico II, though more widely celebrated as Akcja pod Arsenałem, the daring operation would enter Polish folklore.