search for another lost on the way, was sponsored by her sister and arrived in Minneapolis, Minnesota, in 1950. After a prolonged sojourn in India, Olga Tubielewicz’s son was brought to the United States by the Polish National Alliance and placed with a group of other boys in Polish schools in Orchard Lake, Michigan. Olga and her daughter Roma arrived in Minnesota in 1947, sponsored by a family member who had resided in the United States since before World War I. It took another four years for her to reunite with her husband, who, having survived Soviet captivity, had joined the Anders Army. Stefan Remiarz’s father decided to return to Poland, but his older brothers settled in Great Britain, and Stefan and his mother joined them there. After a few years, disappointed with poor economic opportunities, the family gradually immigrated to the United States.43
The new Polish army was initially formed on the territory of the Soviet Union and consisted of deportees and prisoners freed under the Sikorski-Maiski agreement of 1941. Polish General Władysław Anders took command. After leaving the Soviet Union, the army was eventually incorporated into the British forces in the Middle East and later reorganized as the Second Polish Corps. It also included the Carpathian Brigade, which already had distinguished itself in battle at Tobruk and other places in North Africa.44 The Second Corps participated in the Italian campaign, earning fame at the battles of Monte Cassino, Bologna, Ancona, Anzio, and the Gothic Line. After the defeat of Italy, the corps performed a year of occupation duties there, and in the late summer and early autumn of 1946, was brought to England in its entirety.45
The composition and character of the Second Corps were notable for several reasons. A majority of its members was from the eastern territories of Poland that were annexed by the Soviet Union at the end of war. They had shared the experiences of the deportation period and felt a common hatred of Russia and communism. Heavy fighting in Italy further cemented the brotherhood of arms among the soldiers, who were fully devoted to their commanding officers and especially to General Anders. The Second Corps, “never in close touch with G.H.Q. in London, . . . evolved on its own, with its own schools, theater, newspapers and tradition.”46 The vibrant cultural life of the Second Corps put its stamp on Polish refugee communities at every stage of their exile. While still stationed in the Middle East, a large group of Polish journalists within the Second Corps began the publication of several journals directed toward both civilian and military audiences, and toward children as well. These publishing activities resulted in the appearance of both new and reprinted Polish-language books that were especially welcomed by the mushrooming Polish schools and libraries. The Second Corps also sponsored an active film group and three theater groups that offered entertainment for troops and civilians alike.47
During their Italian sojourn, the ranks of the Second Corps swelled with new volunteers. Tadeusz G. arrived from Sandbostel, an Oflag in which he and many other Warsaw Uprising soldiers had been imprisoned until the liberation of Germany. “I was young, ready for adventure and some sightseeing. DP Germany seemed stagnant, while the legendary Second Corps seemed to offer exciting opportunities,” he recalled.48 Some of these opportunities were, for example, high-school-level education for the soldiers in the Polish gymnasiums in Alessano, Mottola, Rome, and Porto San Giorgio, or enrollment in Italian universities, sponsored and financed by the education department of the Second Corps. Another was work for the new Polish publishing house (Instytut Literacki, or “Casa Editrice Letters,” 1946–47), whose editorial staff, led by Jerzy Giedroyć, put out twenty-eight books and the first issues of Kultura (Culture), the most important émigré journal in the West, later published in Paris.49 Resettled in Britain together with other Polish military units, the Second Corps became the backbone of the Polish community and Polish veteran organizations.50 A substantial number of these veterans immigrated to the United States in the early 1950s, after the amendments to the Displaced Persons Act were passed. On the basis of that law, Zygmunt Tubielewicz left Great Britain and joined his family in Saint Paul, Minnesota, in 1951.
The Second Corps also included units of the Pomocnicza Służba Kobiet (PSK or Pestki, Women’s Auxiliary Service), later the Pomocnicza Służba Wojskowa Kobiet (PSWK, Women’s Auxiliary Military Service). The first attempts at organizing women in the Polish military were made in France in the winter of 1940, but the fall of France and evacuation to Great Britain prevented full execution of the plan. The agreement with the Soviet government for the formation of a Polish army on the territory of the USSR did not provide specifically for women’s service; the Polish command, however, interpreted the phrase “Polish citizens” eligible for service as including women. One of the motivations behind the decision to organize women into military units in September 1941, was the need to protect the largest possible group of Polish deportees. Between 1941 and 1945, about sixty-seven hundred women served in different branches of the Polish military in the West, both in the Second Corps and in other Polish military formations in France and Great Britain. Polish women completed basic military training and were employed in transportation as truck drivers and transport plane pilots, in the signal corps, in administration and billeting, as well as in kitchens and provisioning. They also staffed canteens, common rooms, and moving libraries, and organized cultural events and leisure activities. Perhaps the largest area of military activity for Polish women was health care, in which they served as doctors, dentists, and nurses. In addition to those duties, Polish servicewomen took up responsibilities for the care of mothers and children as well as for large groups of orphaned children and youth. They ran kindergartens, schools, and day-care centers and organized scouting groups and sports teams.51 Women who served in the Home Army or other underground organizations and fought in the Warsaw Uprising also had combat experience and often were decorated officers of the Polish army.
Poland’s ordeal and sacrifice in World War II reveal enormous personal suffering and tragedy. The war was a calamity of extraordinary proportions, in which human lives were lost or changed forever. But just as wars bring out the worst in some people, they also highlight the best in others. In the face of disaster, the Polish people demonstrated exceptional resilience and strength. Prisoners, slave laborers, deportees, civilian refugees, resistance fighters, soldiers, women, men, and children responded to the trials of their exile with determination and resourcefulness. Even accidental and temporary Polish refugee communities all over the world strove not only to survive but also to continue the cultural and political life of the nation. One aim was to care for the younger generations and their education. As a standard, Polish refugees established kindergartens and schools and pooled resources to provide for their children and youth. A second common element was the establishment of a press and publishing institutions, which flourished in all refugee communities.52 The exiles also established political and cultural institutions, which, even if short lived, provided them with space to exchange ideas and to rebuild the disrupted connection to Polish culture and tradition; they also were symbols of hope in a time of loss and despair. Some Poles survived unimaginable tragedy in concentration camps or as slave laborers in Germany; others traveled the world as deportees, soldiers, or refugees in pursuit of safety. Their experiences during the war shaped their views and personalities and became absolutely central to the concept of the exile mission for the postwar Polish diaspora.
The U.S. Polish Exile Community during the War
The war years witnessed the creation of a new community of refugees and exiles from Poland in the United States. Statistics from the INS indicate that a total of 14,956 persons born in Poland arrived in the United States as quota immigrants between 1939 and 1945. Between June 30, 1945, and mid-1946 (when the influx of refugees admitted under the so-called Truman Directive began) a total of 4,806 immigrants born in Poland arrived in the United States.53 They came largely through private channels, sponsored by friends and relatives or, in some cases, by American employers. No formal resettlement program had been organized. Initially, these immigrants remained largely invisible, as developments in occupied Poland attracted public attention. Soon, however, the refugees, who had been admitted mostly on temporary tourist visas, began creating small groups and social circles based on common experiences, intellectual affinity, as well as professional and political interests. They formed new organizations with political or cultural agendas and initiated new publications. For the most part, they remained
