Zenon Jachymek

Early life

Zenon Jachymek was born in Komarów on 9 December 1912, in the Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria. Jachymek attended the junior high school in Tomaszów Lubelski, where in 1933 he obtained his secondary school leaving certificate. From 1933 to 1935, he studied veterinary medicine in Lviv.^{[citation needed]} In the years 1935–1936, he completed a one-year period of compulsory military service, during which he graduated from the Divisional Reserve Infantry Cadet Course of the 3rd Legions Infantry Division, organized at the 3rd Battalion of the 9th Legions Infantry Regiment in Tomaszów Lubelski. From 1936 to 1938, he continued his studies.^[1]

Second World War

In the summer of 1939, he was mobilized into the Polish Army and assigned to the 9th Legions Infantry Regiment, in whose ranks he took part in the September Campaign of 1939. Initially serving as a platoon commander and later in the 9th Company of the 3rd Battalion, he fought near Klimontów and Starachowice, and subsequently in the Lublin region.^{[citation needed]} After the end of the September Campaign, he avoided captivity and returned to his home village.^[1]

During the German occupation, he began underground activity as early as the autumn of 1939. He was a co-organizer of the Service for Poland's Victory and later the Union of Armed Struggle (ZWZ) structures in Komarów.^{[citation needed]} He initially served as deputy commander and later as commander of the ZWZ Komarów outpost. At the turn of 1940 and 1941, he was appointed commander of assault and combat sabotage units in the Tomaszów District of the Union of Armed Struggle.^[4][2]

He commanded numerous actions and battles against German forces and the Ukrainian Insurgent Army. In December 1942, he took part in attacks on settlements inhabited by German colonists in Moszczany, Komarów, and Wolica Śniatycka.^{[citation needed]} In March 1943, he was appointed commander of District VII of the Tomaszów Lubelski Home Army District, and on 11 November 1943 he was promoted to the rank of second lieutenant of the infantry reserve.^{[citation needed]} In the spring of 1944, he became the originator and commander of so-called anti-Ukrainian units, which concentrated the main forces of the region against UPA formations.^{[citation needed]} On 10 March 1944, he commanded Polish partisan units involved in the crime committed in Sahryń.^[5] On 2 June 1944, he led a major operation against the UPA near Dąbrowa, Ulhówek, and Rzeczyca.^[3]

After the entry of the Red Army into the region, he was sought by the NKVD and the Polish Security Service (UB).^{[citation needed]} He went into hiding at militia posts, whose personnel at the time consisted largely of former Home Army and Peasant Battalions soldiers.^[3]

Anti-communist resistance in Poland (1944–1946)

After the dissolution of the Home Army in January 1945, he remained active in the anti-communist underground, initially within the Home Army Resistance Movement. In May 1945, he was transferred to the Hrubieszów District of the Armed Forces Delegation for Poland (DSZ), later Freedom and Independence (WiN), where from June to December 1945 he served as deputy district commander.^{[citation needed]} By Order No. 319 of 1 June 1945, issued by the DSZ Delegate for Poland, he was promoted to the rank of reserve captain.^{[citation needed]}

In December 1945, he organized a transfer route to Sweden for compromised members of the underground. From late 1945, he resided in Sweden, returning to Poland in May 1946. He used a forged "legal" identity card issued in the name of "Zygmunt Nowosad", allegedly identifying him as an employee of the Ministry of Public Security in Sopot.^[1]