Anders Army

Anders Army (the Polish Armed Forces in the Soviet Union, Polish Army in the East) – polish army created by the Polish-Soviet agreement of July 30, 1941, and the military agreement of 14 August 1941. This agreement announced the creation in the Soviet Union of an army consisting of 30 thousand Polish citizens, operationally subordinate to the command of the Soviet Union, whereas organizationally and personally – to the Polish Supreme Command of the Armed Forces. The Army’s armament and supplies were to be provided by the Soviet authorities. General Wladyslaw Anders became its Commander. The command headquarters was located in Buzuluk in the region of Orenburg; in the beginning of 1942 it was moved to Yanghi Jul near Tashkent. In the first period 25 thousand war prisoners were drafted into the army. Subsequently, the enlisting of volunteers was organized. There were many. Under the amnesty of 12 August 1941 from prisons, camps and places of exile in the Soviet Union released approximately 300,000 Polish citizens. They have reported en masse to the Polish army. In December 1941, Sikorski received Stalin's agreement to enlarge the army to 96 thousand. Under the agreements of the Polish-Soviet-British Army was evacuated in two campaigns in March-April and August-September 1942 to Iran in order to strengthen the Allied forces in the Middle East. With the Soviet Union left it about 40 thousand civilians. Evacuated troops joined with the Polish Army in the Middle East, creating a Polish Army in the East under the leadership of Anders, and then the 2nd Polish Corps of the Armed Forces, who in 1944 fought in Italy at Monte Cassino.

The term was created within the framework of the project Zapisywanie świata żydowskiego w Polsce [recording the Jewish environment in Poland], whose author is Anka Grupińska, a well-known Polish journalist and writer, specializing in the modern history of the Polish Jews. The project, initiated in 2006 by the Museum of the History of Polish Jews, consists in recording interviews with Polish Jews from all generations.
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