Provisional State Board as a center for legalizing the stay of soldiers of the independence underground from the Rzeszów Sub-District of the Home Army in Upper Silesia (1945–1947)

Abstract

The article is an attempt to show how and with the participation of which people the smuggling operation to the areas of Upper Silesia was carried out in 1945. Its main organizer was Łukasz Ciepliński, and the persons responsible for its smooth running in Rzeszów, Adam Lazarowicz, and in Katowice Józef Rzepka. The legalization of the stay of the Home Army soldiers escaping from the NKVD and UB would not have been possible without the participation of two graduates of the Faculty of the Jan Kazimierz University in Lviv and, at the same time, officers of the Rzeszów Home Army intelligence, Józef Kokoszka and Władysław Pałka, who, as heads of the provincial branch of the Provisional State Board (“TZP”) in Katowice, were able to find in field offices of the TZP employing practically all those in need, at least several dozen people.