Poland's President Lech Kacznyski was in Zakopane yesterday to honour a controversial WWII resistance fighter - Jozef Kuras, codenamed 'Ogien' (Fire). Kuras operated in the Highland region, from where he led a group that refused to lay down arms after 1945. Like many embittered patriots, Kuras could not reconcile himself to the new Stalinist reality, even though he did in fact try to do so in the immediate aftermath of the war.
In late March 1945 Kuras transferred the fight against the nazis to one against communist agents, reforming a unit and struggling on until 1947. He was eventually killed in an ambush in February 1947.
President Kaczynski, who has done much to promote the plight of Poland's Underground Army (AK), broke his holiday yesterday to unveil the statue in Zakopane.
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