Military Organization Lizard Union

The organisation was created in October 1939 by Group Szaniec,[1] itself originating from the far-right ONR-ABC, a faction of the National Radical Camp (Obóz Narodowo-Radykalny, ONR).

[1] Perhaps ironically, the OW ZJ and its nemesis, the communist NKVD-controlled Gwardia Ludowa/Armia Ludowa, were the two major factions of Polish resistance that did not recognise the mainstream ZWZ-AK.

[2] The Związek Jaszczurczy conducted intelligence and sabotage operations in the territory of Nazi occupied Poland as well as in and around Berlin, the Brandenburg area, München, Silesia, Bavaria, Westfalen, Ruhr Basin, Hamburg, Bremen, western and eastern Pomerania area including Königsberg, and Danzig.

The names of the ZJ agents of the Intelligence Unit "West" sentenced to death and executed by the Nazis by beheading at the Moabit prison in Berlin, are immortalised on a commemorative plaque at the St. Brigida's Basilica in Gdańsk, Poland.

Among many accomplishments of the ZJ Intelligence Unit "West", which played a significant role in the outcome of the war were obtaining information about Nazi aggression on Greece, obtaining a date of an attack by the Afrika Korps directed towards Alexandria, establishing the location of the Nazi battleship Tirpitz, establishing the locations of the ultrasecret Nazi V-2 rocket manufacturing facility in Peenemünde and establishing the location of the test site of German V rockets and their precise drawings and dimensions.

The ZJ also managed to infiltrate its agent, Edmund Konieczny, into the Deutsche Werke Kiel repair shipyard in Gdynia to ascertain the number and types of vessels being repaired there and the extent of their battle damage, which allowed it in turn to locate the German battleship Gneisenau.