Abstract
11 November has been celebrated in Warsaw since 1918. It was not only the day of armistice on the Western front, but also the day Poland regained independence. In 1926, it became an official holiday on Pilsudski’s orders.1 Patriotic symbols — the red and white flag and the Polish eagle — and anthems — especially the national anthem ‘Jeszcze Polska nie zginęla’ (Poland is not yet lost) and the anthem of the Polish Legion’s first brigade ‘My, pierwsza brygada’ (We are the First Brigade) — accompanied the celebrations.2 Even though it was celebrated as Independence Day, Swięto Niepodleglosci, 11 November was highly influenced by the ‘Western’ meaning of Armistice Day, without which independence could not have been reinstalled.3 Western European symbols and rituals were adapted: in 1925, Poland buried their own Unknown Soldier. Polish difficulties in dealing with the memory of the First World War were clearly expressed by the fact that only battlefields of the border wars had been considered, thus ruling out the risk of choosing an Unknown Soldier who had served with the armies of the partitioning powers, Germany, Austria and Russia.4 The ceremony included many references to the First World War, such as a one-minute silence, a ritual copied from the British ceremony5
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Notes
Christoph Mick, ‘Der Kult um den “Unbekannten Soldaten” im Polen der Zwischenkriegszeit’, in Martin Schulze-Wessel (ed.), Nationalisierung der Nation und Sakralisierung der Religion im östlichen Europa (Stuttgart: Steiner, 2006), pp. 181–200.
Hubert Aubert, ‘La FIDAC — The FIDAC’, in FIDAC — Revue Mensuelle des Problèmes d’après guerre/Monthly Review of Post-War Problems, V. Year, Vol. V (March 1929), 3, pp. 18–19.
Piotr Wandycz, ‘Se remobiliser pour renaitre: Les voies polonaises de la sortir de la guerre’, in Stéphane Audoin-Rouzeau and Christophe Prochasson (eds.), Sortir de la grande guerre. Le monde et l’après-1918 (Paris: Tallandier, 2008), pp. 307–328, esp. p. 314. Leslaw Dudek calculates the number at 2,250,000 men, deducting from the total number of inhabitants of the Polish territory of 1921 :
Leslaw Dudek, ‘Polish Military Formations in World War I’, in Béla K. Király and Nándor F. Dreisziger (eds.), East-Central European Society in World War I (New York: Columbia University Press, 1985), pp. 454–470, esp. p. 455. Kossewska and Rosen-Zawadzki speak of 3.5 million:
Elzbieta Kossewska, Zwiqzek Legionistów Polskich (1922–1939) (Warszawa: ASPRA-JR, 2003), p. 7. Jablonowski speaks of 3 million.
Marek Jablonowski, Sen o potędze Polski. Z dziejów ruchu bylych wojskowych w II Rzeczypospolitej 1918–1939 (Olsztyn: Osrodek Badan Nauk. im W. Kętrzynskiego, 1998), p. 5.
Alexander Watson, ‘Fighting for Another Fatherland: The Polish Minority in The German Army, 1914–1918’, in English Historical Review 2011; CXXVI, pp. 1137–1166.
See also Stanislaw Czerep, ‘Straty polskie podczas I wojny swiatowej’, in Daniel u. a. Grinberg (ed.), Lata Wielkiej Wojny. Dojrzewanie do niepodleglosci 1914–1918 (Bialystok: Wydawn. Uniwersytetu w Bialymstoku, 2007).
Jablonowski, Sen o potędze Polski. Piotr Wróbel, ‘Kombatanci kontra politycy. Narodziny i początki dzialania Związku Legionistów Polskich 1918–1925’, in Przegląd Historyczny 76 (1985), pp. 77–111.
Pawel Letko, ‘Dzialalnosc międzynarodowa polskich organizacji kombatanckich w okresie Międzywojennym’ (Unpublished Doctoral Dissertation, University of Warsaw, 2001).
Pawel Letko, ‘Stosunki wzajemne między polskimi i nie-mieckimi kombatantów w okresie międzywojennym’, in Echa przeszlosci V (2004), pp. 135–154.
Jablonowski, Sen o potędze Polski, pp. 20, 34 and 103. Niall Barr, The Lion and the Poppy: British Veterans, Politics, and Society, 1921–1939 (Westport, CT: Praeger, 2005), pp. 57–58 and 63. Barr considers the League official numbers of 560,000 members unlikely. Furthermore, membership rates were only about 2 per cent in the cities.
Antoine Prost, In the Wake of War and ‘Les anciens combattants’ and French Society, 1918–1939 (Oxford: Berg, 1992), p. 45.
For a more detailed discussion: Julia Eichenberg, Kämpfen für Frieden und Fürsorge. Polnische Veteranen des Ersten Weltkriegs und ihre Kontakte, 1918–1939 (Munich: Oldenbourg, 2011).
Aubert, La FIDAC — The FIDAC, pp. 18–19. Antoine Prost, Les anciens combattants et la société française, 1914–1939. 3 Vls. Paris: 1977. Vol. I, p. 75.
Michael Geyer, ‘Ein Vorbote des Wohlfahrtstaates. Die Kriegsopferversorgung in Frankreich, Deutschland und Großbritannien nach dem Ersten Weltkrieg’, in Geschichte und Gesellschaft, 9 (1983), pp. 230–277, esp. p. 236.
Boleslaw Kikiewicz, ‘Inwalidzi polscy a inwalidzi Polacy’, in Inwalida, 8 (10.8.1919), p. 1–2.
Gosta Esping Andersen, The Three Worlds of Welfare Capitalism (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1990).
Wolfram Wette, ‘Einleitung: Probleme des Pazifismus in der Zwischenkriegszeit’, in Holl and Wette (1981), pp. 9–25, esp. pp. 13 and 15.
T. M. Nittmann, ‘Inwalidzi a Rozbrojenie’, in Inwalida 40 (1929), p. 2.
Anon. ‘CIAMAC wobec niebezpieczenstwa wojny’, in Ociemnialy Zolnierz (OZ) 5, 1936, p. 5–6.
Opening speech at the FIDAC congress in Bialogród. Anon., ‘Zjazd zolnierzy wielkej wojny’, in Inwalida 36 (1929) p. 3–4.
Jay Winter and Antoine Prost, The Great War in History: Debates and Controversies, 1914 to the Present (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005), p 174, ed. seq.
M. L., ‘Podejrzani Pacyfisci’, in Federacja 2, 1929, p. 3–5.
Anon., ‘Moral jest jasny’, in Inwalida Nr. 17, 1928, p. 1–2.
T. M. Nittmann, ‘Inwalidzi a Rozbrojenne’, in Inwalida 40, 1929, p. 2.
Gabryel Paradis, ‘Jak zapewnic pokój swiatowy’, in OZ, 7, 1931, p. 4–6.
Junoszyc, ‘Akcja Międzynarodowa Związku Inwalidów F.I.D.A.C. — C.I.A.M. A.C — Luksemburg’, in Inwalida 47, 1928, p. 1.
Anon., ‘CIAMAC w Obliczu Wojny Wlosko-Abisynskiej’, in OZ, 2, 1936, p. 7.
Lukasinski, ‘Krok naprzód’, in Inwalida, 36, 1928, p. 1.
This is true even for the French catholic peace movement around Marc Sangnier. Gearóid Barry, ‘Marc Sangnier’s War, 1914–1919: Portrait of a Soldier, Catholic and Social Activist’, in Pierre Purseigle (Hg.), Warfare and Belligerence. Perspectives in First World War Studies (Brill: Leiden, 2005), pp. 163–188, esp. p. 183–184.
The European approach to pacifism is a pragmatic one: David Cortright, Peace. A History of Movements and Ideas (CUP: Cambridge, 2008), pp. 10, 31 and 48ff.
A rare exception: Peter Brock, ‘Conscientious Objectors in Interwar Poland’, in Ibid., (2006), pp. 365–377.
Sandi E. Cooper, Patriotic Pacifism. Waging War on War in Europe 1815–1914. (New York: Oxford University Press, 1991).
Sch. L., Rozbrojenie, in Inwalida Zydowski 1, (June 1st 1928), pp. 2–3.
John Horne (Hg.), ‘Demobilisations culturelles apres la Grande Guerre’, in Dossier de la revue 14–18 Aujourd’hui, no. 5 (2002), pp. 43–53.
W. Berkelhammer, ‘Propaganda Pokoju’, in Inwalida Zydowski 3 (August 1st 1928), p. 1.
Norman Davies, God’s Playground. A History of Poland. Bd. II: 1795 to the Present (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1981), p. 422.
Heidi Hein, Der Pilsudski-Kult und seine Bedeutung für den polnischen Staat 1926–1939 (Marburg: Herder, 2002).
Anon., ‘Jestesmy gotowi!’, in Inwalida 10 (1938), p. 2.
Anon., ‘Zwyciestwo-naszym celem!’, in Inwalida 1, (1939) p. 1.
Thomas Mergel, Parlamentarische Kultur in der Weimarer Republik (Düsseldorf: Droste, 2002), p. 242. Ziemann speaks of a ‘process of communicative and symbolic exchange’ about the fundamental problems of society, Ziemann, Konstruktion des Kriegsveteranen, p. 103.
Jay Winter, ‘Veterans, Human Rights, and the Transformation of European Democracy’, in Elizabeth Kier and Ronald R. Krebs (eds.), In War’s Wake. International Conflict and the Fate of Liberal Democracy (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010), pp. 122 ff.
Antoine Prost, In the Wake of War. ‘Les anciens combattants’ and French Society, 1918–1939 (Oxford: Berg, 1992), p. 75.
Antoine Prost and Jay Winter, René Cassin and Human Rights: From the Great War to the Universal Declaration (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2013).
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Eichenberg, J. (2013). Polish Eagles and Peace Doves: Polish Veterans between Nationalism and Internationalism. In: Eichenberg, J., Newman, J.P. (eds) The Great War and Veterans’ Internationalism. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137281623_5
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