Publication date: 09.05.2023

Before the Second World War, he joined the army and graduated from the Non-Commissioned Officer School at the Gendarmerie Training Centre in Grudziądz. During the defensive war in September 1939,  he fought against Soviet troops.  During the German occupation, he was a soldier of the Union of Armed Struggle - Home Army.  He was also a teacher in an underground non-commissioned officer school. He used a pseudonym "Laluś", inter alia.

After the entrance of the Red Army in 1944,  he joined the ranks of the Polish Second Army of  the People's Army of Poland. Fearing arrest due to his earlier membership of the Union of Armed Struggle - Home Army, Franczak deserted from the communist army and began fighting in the anti-communist underground.  

In 1947,  he became one of the commanders in a unit of kpt. Zdzisław  Broński "Uskok".  His men patrolled the area on the border of the Lublin and Krasnystaw counties, collected information on arrests and operations carried out by the repression apparatus, as well as on the confidants of the Security Office (UB) and the most zealous officers of UB and Citizens' Militia (MO).

For many years, he managed to stay active in the underground and hide away from officers of the repressive apparatus who were trying to tracking him down, despite the strenuous efforts of the security service (Bezpieka), which wanted to catch "Laluś" at any cost. 

Józef Franczak was killed on 21 October 1963 in the roundup by the Security Service and Motorized Reserves of the Citizens' Militia in the village of Majdan Kozic Górnych in the region of Lublin.

Only 20 years later, his sisters were able to place his body (decapitated by the communists) in the family tomb. After many years of searching, in January 2015, investigators from the Institute of National Remembrance found the skull of Józef Franczak "Laluś" in the collection of the Medical University of Lublin.  In 2015, the last Soldier of Independent Poland had his due burial organised.