Jan Rydel
Studia Środkowoeuropejskie i Bałkanistyczne, Tom XXX, 2021, s. 53-64
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543733XSSB.21.005.13798General Reinhard Gehlen and his report on the Polish underground
The article presents the brilliant military career of Wehrmacht officer Reinhard Gehlen, who led the intelligence of the German land forces on the eastern front from 1942 to 1945. He developed this intelligence and became Germany’s best expert in the Soviet Army, which made it easier for him to establish close cooperation with the CIA after the war and become head of West German Intelligence (BND ). During the war, General Gehlen’s intelligence was, among other things, involved in the development of the Polish resistance movement. For this reason, when in the last weeks of the war, the German leadership considered the creation of a major Nazi resistance movement after the Third Reich’s capitulation, Gehlen presented an extensive one in April 1945, The final report under the title Militärische und nachrichtendienstliche Kräfte im Gesamtrahmen der Polnischen Widerstandsbewegung [Military and Intelligence Forces within the overall framework of the Polish Resistance], because he considered the Polish underground to be the best resistance movement in Europe. The report contains, among others, positive opinions about the will to survive and the resistance of the Polish society, high professional evaluations of the Polish underground army and even words of admiration for the activities of Polish military intelligence