Józef Kuraś (23 October 1915 – 22 February 1947), noms-de-guerre "Orzeł" (Eagle) and from June 1943 "Ogień" (Fire), was born in Waksmund near Nowy Targ.

A controversial historical figure, he has been accused of antisemitism and committing war crimes by multiple groups and organisations, including those representing Jewish and Slovak communities in Poland and the Slovakian National Memory Institute,[2][3] and by scholars like Jan T.

[1] Kuraś's reputation is extremely controversial due to evidence implicating him in war crimes against Slovak and Jewish refugees, and letters showing that he advocated for the ethnic cleansing of Jews.

Eventually, he made his way back to his home village where already in November 1939 he joined the anti-Nazi resistance organization Union of Armed Struggle (ZWZ) with a nom de guerre "Orzeł" (Eagle).

In 1941 "Orzeł" became the leader of a local partisan unit "Konfederacja Tatrzańska" (Tatra Confederation, KT), associated with the pre-war agrarian People's Party (SL).

However, as a result of this incident, Kuraś left the AK and with a group of close friends joined Bataliony Chłopskie, the underground military arm of SL-Roch.

At the end of 1944, with full knowledge of SL leadership, Kuraś established contacts and began cooperating with a newly arrived unit of Armia Ludowa (AL) "For A Free Homeland" led by Lt. Isaac Gutman ("Zygfryd") and Soviet partisans.

Once the Podhale region came under Soviet control, Ogień came out of the mountains and led his men into Nowy Targ where, with approval from Gutman, he transformed his partisans into units of the Citizen's Militia (MO) (roughly, a police force).

However, it soon became apparent that the SL plan aimed at keeping local control through supporters (like Kuraś) was going to fail, particularly as the Communist authorities began sending their own people from outside the region and putting them in top command posts.

An alternative version of the story reports that Kuraś himself opened the letters he was charged with delivering to the Kraków WUBP among which he found his own arrest warrant.

As a result, after a three-month period as a nominal director of the regional UB, on 11 April 1945, Józef Kuraś once again went "to the mountains" and together with some of his old soldiers created the partisan unit "Błyskawica" (Lightning bolt) to fight against the growing influence of the Soviet authorities.

During this time Kuraś refused to come under the authority of any other major underground anti-communist political or military organization (such as Freedom and Independence) and operated completely on his own.

By 1946, units loyal to Kuraś were active in an area covering most of south central Poland, from the border with Slovakia to the region around Kraków, up to Miechów County.

There is a considerable amount of contradictory evidence presented by historians[5][8][4] suggesting that Kuraś was personally guilty of a number of war crimes against Slovak refugees and advocated ethnic cleansing of Jews.

[5][10] Most of the controversy [citation needed] around Kuraś centers around material found in his supposed diaries, including the most publicized one which was released by the Communist authorities he was actively fighting against.