The Roman Catholic Church in the History of the Polish Exiled Community in Great Britain jtiZEF GULA School of Slavonic and East European Studies University of London 1993 The Roman Catholic Church in the History of the Polish Exiled Community in Great Britain JOZEF GULA School of Slavonic and East European Studies University of London 1993 THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH IN THE HISTORY OF THE EXILED POLISH COMMUNITY IN GREAT BRITAIN Jozef Gula The Roman Catholic Church in the Hisiory of the Exiled Polish Community in Great Britain © School of Slavonic and East European Studies 1993 ISBN: 0 903425 30 0 Printed in Great Britain by Henry Ling Limited The Dorset Press Dorchester DTI 1HD DEDICATION to the Polish Catholic Mission in London on its approach to the one hundredth anniversary (1994) of its existence, in recognition of its work in times of peace and war and to the late Mgr W\adys\aw Staniszewski, its longest serving rector and a man of great faith. Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2019 with funding from UCL School of Slavonic and East European Studies (SSEES) https://archive.org/details/SSEES0006 TABLE OF CONTENTS Foreword vii Acknowledgements viii List of Maps ix Introduction xi CHAPTER ONE: Polish Exiles in Nineteenth-Century Britain 1 The Polish Catholic Mission in London (1894-1939) 15 The Problem of National Identity 36 CHAPTER TWO: In Pursuit of Freedom. Religious Life during Attempts to Form a Polish Army Abroad (1939-40) 47 CHAPTER THREE: The Polish Naval and Air Forces and the Build-up of the Polish Army in Great Britain 61 CHAPTER FOUR: The Formation of the Polish Army in the Soviet Union (1941-45) 75 CHAPTER FIVE: ‘En Route for Poland’: the Polish Forces in the Middle East, Africa and Italy (1942-45) 109 CHAPTER SIX: A Victorious Army Loses the War. Resettlement Camps (1945-47) 137 CHAPTER SEVEN: The Polish Catholic Mission in England and Wales: Scotland Follows the Lead 153 CHAPTER EIGHT: The Start of a New Life and the Problem of Preserving Old Values (1945-50) 159 Bibliography 169 Index 111 Maps 183 V FOREWORD The creation of a Polish community in Great Britain resulted from wartime experiences which few people in the West could have imagined — occupation by both Nazis and Soviets, genocide, deportations, ethnic cleansing, slave labour, the exotic odyssies of homeless and stateless refugees. It was, above all, a moral triumph, a victory of faith and determination over adversities of an extreme kind. The role of the Catholic Church was crucial, not only in the close cultural link between Polishness and Catholicism, but also in the self- denying devotion of priests and chaplains, who accompanied their flock in all stages of their ordeal. Dr Gula’s study, therefore, raises the discussion of migration and exile above the more familiar political, social and economic concerns. It explores the sources of a community’s indentity and of its will to survive. In this, it renders a valuable service both to Polish history and to the history of migrants and refugees in general. Norman Davies, FRHistS, Professor 17 April 1993 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Among the many theses and books concerning Polish questions which have appeared in the West recently, there are none which have attempted to analyse the religious life of Poles abroad. This fact has been one of the main reasons for writing this book. The other is the approach of the one hundredth anniversary of the Polish Catholic Mission in London, which formed a focal point in the religious life of Polish exiles. My view that such a work was needed has been met with encouragement, for which I am sincerely grateful. I wish to offer my thanks to Professor Jerzy Zubrzycki in Canberra and Dr Keith Sword (London). I would like to express my particular gratitude to Professor Norman Davies, under whose supervision the thesis which became this book was written. His deep knowledge of Polish problems, including the problems of Poles in exile, together with his eye for detail and his guidance, were invaluable in enabling me to finish this work. My special thanks go to Andrzej Pomian for his kind words of encouragement and to Maria Pomian for the long hours spent patiently correcting the text and for her occasional advice on expressing my thoughts in English, which is not my native language. The M.B. Grabowski Fund, whose purpose is to assist in spreading the appreciation of Polish culture in Great Britain, must be thanked for its financial support in the final preparation and editing of this text. viii LIST OF MAPS 1. Deportations of Polish citizens. 2. Main routes to the West. 3. Distribution of Polish units in the British Isles, 1940-41. 4. The Polish Army in the USSR and in the Middle East, 1941-43. 5. Places of Polish children’s deportation. 6. Polish refugee camps in Africa, 1942-50. 7. Main land battles in which Polish troops in the West were involved, 1940-45. 8. Main locations of the Polish Second Corps in 1946. 9. Number of Poles in Britain in 1951. 10. Location of Polish priests in Britain, in 1950. IX INTRODUCTION The subject of this study is the role of religion in the history of the exiled Polish community, which made its way to Britain in the years 1939 to 1950. The role of religion in the life of man has been stressed by sociologists as well as by theologians and religious leaders. Religion ‘is not a sort of luxury which a man could go along without, but a condition of his very existence. He could not be a man, if he had not acquired it.’1 This volume will give an account of the role and influence of the Roman Catholic faith in the life of the Polish exiles and their communities in the decade following the outbreak of the Second World War. It will trace their lives during the war and immediately after, in various European countries, though mainly in Britain, as also in the Soviet Union and the Middle East. All these countries were, for a certain time, places of short-term residence for the Poles, whose war ally and the last refuge after the war became Great Britain. A substantial chapter has been added, outlining the history of Poles in Britain before 1939, and the general question of their national identity. It would be useful to note that the exiled Poles, wherever they were, saw themselves as the Polish nation abroad. The reason, perhaps, was that the communities included persons of all ages, sexes, classes and professions who were thus able to form and develop their own cultural, religious and political life. Religion helped the Poles to transcend their painful history and see clearly the meaning of human existence and their place in the universe and on earth. One term still demands some explanation, namely the use of the word ‘exile’. By this one understands: Polish political or ideological emigrants, the majority of whom were soldiers and refugees from Nazi and Soviet terror. The word ‘exile’ has a very deep biblical meaning. Emigrants of the nineteenth century from an annihilated country used this expression as an honourable indication of their origin. The Poles who settled in Great Britain after the long fight ‘For our freedom and yours’2 definitely deserve the same title. NOTE The reader of this study may be surprised to find that a number of different figures are offered for the number of Polish soldiers imprisoned by the Soviets after 17 September 1939. These are: -180,000 (according to J. Coutouvidis & J.Reynolds, Poland 1939-1947, p. 60). -200,000 (as stated by J. Garlinski, Poland in the Second World War, p. 25; A. Liebich, Na obcej ziemi, p. 58 — Woroshylow’s report). -230,000 (according to Z. S. Siemaszko, W Sowieckim osaczeniu, p. 54). E. Durkheim, ‘The Social Foundation of Religion’, Sociology of Religion, Harmondsworth, 1984, p. 53. 2 J. Zubrzycki, Polish Immigrants in Britain, The Hague, 1956, p. 120. -46,000 (handed over to Germans or released home. Ibid., p. 54). - 210,000 (pressed into service in the Red Army — Liebich, p. 58). - 500,000 (Gen. W. Anders’ report — J. Siedlecki, Losy Polakow w ZSRR w latach 1939- 1986, p. 40). The discrepancies in the sources referred to above may be explained as follows: -180,000 soldiers does not include those who escaped to Lithuania or Latvia, to be interned there. -200,000, which is extended to 230,000 includes those in Lithuania, Latvia and escapees. -300,000 includes the 46,000 soldiers handed over to the Germans or released home. -500,000 — Gen. W. Anders includes in this number those pressed into service in the Red Army. TO SUMMARIZE: 180,000 (East Poland) + 50000 (Lithuania, Latvia and escapees) + 46,000 (handed to Germans or released) + 210,000 pressed into the Soviet Army = about 500,000 (Gen.Anders’s estimate). CHAPTER ONE Polish Exiles in Nineteenth-Century Britain Sent by a Storm More than one hundred years before the Second World War and the arrival of the first units of the Polish Armed Forces in Britain (September 1939), a severe storm brought two ships from Prussia to the British ports of Portsmouth and Harwich. The ships had been on their way to America, loaded with passengers of Polish origin. The Prussian Government had decided to deport to America men who had crossed the Prussian border, while escaping after the defeat of the 1830 Polish Insurrection against tsarist rule. Before embarking on the Union and the Marianne they spent some time in Pmssian prisons, condemned to hard labour.