National Democracy (Poland)

[5] Created with the intention of promoting the fight for Poland's sovereignty against the repressive imperial regimes, the movement acquired its right-wing nationalist character following the return to independence.

During the interbellum Second Republic, the ND was a strong proponent for the Polonization of the country's German minority and of other non-Polish (Belarusian, Lithuanian and Ukrainian) populations in Poland's eastern border regions (the Kresy).

With the end of World War II, the occupation of the country by the Soviet Union, and the establishment of the Polish People's Republic, the National Democracy movement effectively ceased to exist.

And because of their support abroad ND politicians such as Dmowski and Ignacy Paderewski were able to gain backing for their demands at the Paris Peace Conference of 1919 and in the Treaty of Versailles.

The tightening of Sanacja's controls on opposition parties and its general authoritarian drift led to the gradual radicalization of the ND movement.

In December 1926, the Camp of Great Poland (Obóz Wielkiej Polski) was created as an extra-parliamentary organization in opposition to the Sanacja government.

Simultaneously, the ND emphasized its antisemitic stance, intending to exclude Jews from Polish social and economic life and ultimately to push them to emigration out of Poland.

It was closely linked with the National Armed Forces (Narodowe Siły Zbrojne), an underground organization that became part of the Polish resistance movement.

Both occupying forces regarded members of the movement as their mortal enemy, and its leaders were hunted down and killed in mass executions, in concentration camps, and in the Katyń massacre.

Since the fall of communism, with Poland once again a democratically governed country, several political parties have sought to re-establish some ND traditions; their adherents prefer to call themselves the "National Movement" (Ruch Narodowy).