BY THE SAME AUTHOR
(a selection)
(If a different language not given, written in Polish)
BOOKS
Ideological and Political
“We, the New Generation”. Warsaw 1929. Later editions with Introductory letter by the Primate of Poland, Cardinal A. Hlond.
“About a Programme of Polish Politics in the Eastern Provinces”, Warsaw 1932.
‘To overcome the Crisis” (in English), London 1958.
Historical
“Tragic Fate of Poland”, Pelplin 1936.
“'Half a Century as a Factor of the History of Europe”, London
1947.
“The Politics of Primate Olszewski”, London 1953.
“John III Sobieski”, London 1953.
“The Religious Face of Varmia and Mazuria”, Rome 1958.
“At the Origins of Poland’s historical Catastrophe: Jan Amos Comenius”, London 1964.
“The Background of the January 1963 Rising”, Curitiba, Brazil, 1965.
“The Historical role of Dmowski”, vol. I, Chicago 1968.
"J6zef Pilsudski 1914-1919”, vol. I, London 1979.
Fiction
"In Poland between the Wars. (The Pasek Family)”, three volumes, London 1950.
“Baltic Tales”, London 1955. (Also in English translation, London 1955).
“A Matrimony through advertisement”. Short Stories. London 1965.
Travel and Reporting
“Beyond the Northern Frontier: Eastern Prussia”. Warsaw 1933.
“Heroic Spain”, Warsaw 1937.
Memoirs
“The Soldiers of the September Campaign”, London 1957.
“Europe in Captivity”, London 1959.
MORE IMPORTANT BROCHURES AND ESSAYS
“Memories of a Volunteer of 1920”, Paris 1958. “About Freemasonry and the Church. Open letter to His Eminence Cardinal Seper”. (In English), 1975. „A Petition to His Holiness Pope John II”, concerning Latin liturgy (in ypolish and French, 1979), „The Origin of Pilsudski’s Rule: remarks about the Kessler-Pilsudski Pact” (1971), ’’Pilsudski and England” (1971), ’’About the need of a new intellectual revolution” (1963), ’’The Ukrainian Movement and Freemasonry” (1980), "The Lithuanian Problem” (1938), ’’Has Poland to toe depopulated?” (1963), ’’Christian Nationalism” (1948, “The Problem of the recovered Territories from the Point of View of Ethics” (1948), ”A Jewish State in Central Poland?” (1980), and many others.
PUBLICATIONS
OF THE ROMAN DMOWSKI SOCIETY (Wydawnictwa Towarzystwa im. Romana Dmowskiego)
No 19
IN DEFENCE OF MY COUNTRY
by
Jędrzej Giertych
Motto.
“Yet the Poles remain an indestructible nation, in almost all of whom Polish national oonsciusness and Cathodic faith remain ineradicable. Their existence is a source of constant irritation to «modem- iizing» reductions of either the Leninist or the Western materialist-hedonist variety, tooth bound in different ways to the dogma that national consciousness and religion are minor epiphenomema which economic development will remove.”
'Hugh Seton-iWatson in the “Times Literary Supplement”, London March 20, 1981, page 317.
LONDON 1981
© Jedrzej Giertych, April 1981
Published toy the author 175 Carliogford Road, London N15 SET
Stock at Veritas Foundation Piulbilcation Centre, 4-12 Praed Mews, London W2 1QZ, England, and toy the author under the address as above.
Printed by Veritas Foundation Press, 5 Praed Mews, London W2
PREFACE BY THE AUTHOR
I conceived the idea of writing this book in December 1979. I was led to it by the fact of incessant anti-Polish propaganda conducted in the Western world, in the form of numerous books, articles, TV and Radio programmes and many other manifestations. The attitude of many Western circles towards Poland — and Communist circles too — is best described by a remark by Hugh Seton-Watson which i used as motto for this book: the fact of Poland’s existence is for these circles “a source of constant irritation”. They would be glad if Poland should disappear.
The recent events in Poland and around Poland — between August 1980 and April 1981 — confirm my conviction that this book is necessary.
It is obvious that a great part of the Western public opinion has been animated during these recent events not by good will towards Poland but by the hope that eventually Poland’s new misfortunes will bring some advantages to the Western world. “If Russia will be busy crushing Poland’s resistance we will be able to achieve without Russian interference our aims in Africa and in the Caribbean” — this was the idea discernible in many publicly expressed reasonings. Some press campaigns in the West clearly aimed at aggravating the crisis and not diminishing it.
In writing this book I have used a great amount of material stored for a long time in my private collection of documents and I have already used some of it in a number of my earlier publications in the Polish language.
But it was not only my own effort which produced this book. I was assisted in this by many friendly and helpful people. I would like to express my gratitude to them.
First of all I must thank my wife, Maria, for helping me in preparing this book. She acted as my secretary. In particular she has drawn all the original maps contained in this book, has edited the Index and has typed parts of the manuscript.
I must also thank my daughters, Aleksandra, Barbara and Danuta for having read a part of my manuscript each and improved my imperfect English. They have also typed parts of the manuscript and taken part in proof reading.
I have to thank also my grandson Janusz Zajgezkowski for some of the photographic reproductions of texts.
I have also to thank Mr. Stanislaw Gruca for having drawn for reproduction in red and green, copies of Spett’s map of nationalities and Mrs. Janina Chrzanowska for having designed the paper cover of the book.
But most of all I must thank the Polish “Veritas” printing house in London and its manager Mr. Wojciech Dluzewski for having printed the book with such dilligence and speed.
Some people in Poland, whose names I am not mentioning, have helped me to gather some information, and also some illustrations in libraries and other public collections in Poland. I have to express to them my particular gratitude.
I must also express my thanks to the British Library in London, the Library of the Polish Institute and General Sikorski Museum in London, the Library of Congress in Washington D.C., and the Library of the Austrian Parliament in Vienna from which I have obtained, directly, or through the intermediary of friends, important material for this book.
Jędrzej Giertych
London, 11th April 1981
CONTENTS
Pages
Preface ... 5
Introduction ...................................................................... 9
The case of Poland ... 17
The settlement of Versailles .......................... ... 33
The Polish Corridor ...................................................... 51
Gdansk - Danzig .......................................................... 73
Upper Silesia .................................................................. Ill
The Curzon Line: Former Austrian Poland ........ 119
The Curzon Line: Former Russian Poland ........ 115
Wilno .......................................................................... 177
Interpolation ... ......................................... 212
The Jews of Poland ........................................ .... 243
The experience of the ibetween-the-wars period and
of the Second World War ......................................... 317
The Territorial Settlement of Potsdam.................... 479
The Great (Compensation ........................................ 491
The Expulsion of Populations .................................. 521
The Historical Rights....................................... ... 579
Wroclaw (Breslau) and Lower Silesia ... 585
Opole (Oppeln) and Upper Silesia ........... 616
Western Pomerania ................................... 627
The Land of Lutousz .................................. 631
The Western part of former Prussian Poland 633
Varmia, Elblqg, Mallbork ........................... 633
Mazuria ......................................................... 636
What do the Germans and their friends want now ? 639
Supplement
Remarks about three books ..................................... 649
“Nemesis of Potsdam. The Anglo-Americans and the Expulsion of the Germans. Background, Exe- ' cation, Consequences". By Alfred de Zayas.
London 1977 ............................................................... 651
“Bitter Glory. Poland and its Fate 1918-1939". By
Richard M. Watt. New York 1979............................. 666
“La guerre polono-sovietique de 1919-1920": Colloque organise par le Laboratoire de Slav- istique (Laboratoire assosie au C.N.R.C.), Paris
— 4 Mai 1973. Paris 1975......................................... 712
INDEX ........................................................................ 729
MAPS
Pages
Map of nationalities in Prussian Poland and Prussian
Silesia and Mazuria in 1910................................................. 48-49
The Elections to the German Parliament in Prussian
Poland and Prussian Silesia in 11907 55, 56-57 and 59
The Elections to the Austrian Parliament in Austrian
Poland and Austrian Silesia in 1931 .................................... 127
The Elections to the Russian Parliament in Russian
Poland in 1906 .................................................... 157
Polish population in Wilno-land in 1959 ... 192 and 193
Poles in Poland in 1931 .............................................................. 433
Catholics of Latin Rite in Poland in 1931 ............ 437
Catholics of all Rites in Poland in 1931 ............ 441
Germans in Poland in 1931 .......................................... 445
Jews in Poland in 1931 .................................................... 449
Lithuanians in Poland in 1931 and geography of
vojevodships and districts................................................................ 453
Geography of towns in Poland in 1931 ............ 457
Geography of towns in Poland in 1931 457E
Europe in times of Charlemagne ........................................... 473
Europe in the 16th century ............................................................. 475
Europe around 1740 ............................................................................ 476
Poland in 1914 477
Poland after 1945 and comparison with her old
frontiers ................................................................................................... 478
Linguistic divisions of Silesia in 1790 and 1890 595, 594
In the Supplement:
The Battle of Warsaw in 1920 ......................................................... 678
The results of the plebiscite in Upper Silesia in 1921 706
INTRODUCTION
This is an undeniable fact: in the mass media otf the Western world a systematic propaganda is being conducted, aiming at the denigration of Poland. And not only in the mass media. Also in fields of intellectual deliberation of numerically limited tout influential elites of a more sophisticated character and on the other hand as well in the domain of propagation of crude catchwords which give birth to prejudices and simplified notions of uneducated people.
One can detect the presence of this propaganda in encyclopaedias and learned historical, political and sociological works in the same way as in cartoons in the popular press, or in the jokes of the more vulgar elements of the populace. This propaganda is usually not being noticed by those influenced by it: they mostly think that the particular views presented to them in connection with Poland are simply true and they accept them just as truth; they do not realize that they are either gross distortions or quite flippantly the very reverse of truth. And slowly, they are being brainwashed into a view that Poland is a sort of a nuisance in the modern world and that it would be beneficial for that world if she would cease to exist or 'at least become reduced to insignificance.
One can quite clearly notice this evolution of opinions about Poland in most of the Western countries in the last few years and even last few decades. This evolution is not spontaneous. It is the result of a systematic, very unscrupulous and very clever propaganda — which is quite Obviously of Germanic origin, tout which finds ready acceptance and support in a number of circles of several non-Germanic nations.
It is certainly not an exaggeration to say that the aim of that propaganda is the (preparation of world opinion for the possibility of a complete annihilation of Poland. There are forces in the world which would like to see Poland destroyed again.
One should not forget that in the years 1795-1918 Poland did not exist at all as an independent state, (din the years 1807-1815 a minuscule Polish state existed under the name off the Duchy of Warsaw. And after the partition of that Duchy by the Congress of Vienna, another, even smaller such state, called by the Poles “Congress Kingdom”, which was given, insultingly, the official name of a “Kingdom off Poland”, existed in personal union with Russia in the years 1815-1830. The German and Austrian war administrations tried to resuscitate it in the years 1916-1918). There was a sufficient confluence of international forces to be able to annihilate Poland in the three partitions of 1772, 1798 and 1795 and to find an international confirmation of these partitions in the acts of the Congress of Vienna of 1815 and finally to keep Poland annihilated for 123 years from 1795 to 1918.
This was the only case in the history of Christian Europe during nearly 2000 years of its existence of such a great European nation being destroyed by foreign, conquest. (The only comparable event being the conquest and annihilation of the Byzantine empire by the Turks in 1458. The conquests of Bohemia by Austria in 1620, or of Ireland by England were events on a much smaller scale).
And when Poland regained its freedom after the First World War, there was a tentative attempt at a second annihilation of it undertaken in the form of the Hitler- Stalin for. Rilbbentrop-Molotov) pact of 23rd August 1939 about the partition of Poland and the actual partition of it in consequence of the German invasion of Poland by Germany on 1st September 1939, followed by a Soviet- Russian invasion on 17th September.
It is also a fact that in all the years between 1919 and 1)930 there was a permanent undercurrent of efforts in European politics aiming at the destruction of Poland. Soviet Russia undertook a military invasion of Poland in the summer of 1020, aiming at the total conquest of Poland and incorporating it into the Communist Empire, or at least at a Russo-German act of a new partition
(like later in 1930), but this undertaking was thwarted by the heroic Polish resistance and the military victory in the Battle of the Vistula, or otf Warsaw, of which the culminating moment was Assumption Day of 15th August 1920. But of even greater importance than the Soviet-Russian invasion of 10120 were the efforts — seemingly peaceful and diplomatically amicable — aiming at a “revision” olf the peace settlement which gave Poland independence. These “revisionist” efforts, which were undertaken by Germany, but which were connived also by Britain and found powerful support even in the opportunist activities of such French politicians as Aristide Briand (who was, with the German statesman Stresemann, the author olf the ominous Locarno Pact of 1025) and even in misguided activities of some naive Polish politicians, lacking necessary political experience in consequence of the 123-year long interruption of Polish political tradition and inclined to follow imprudently the dangerous British, or even German suggestions — gave to those 20 years between 1910 and 1039 the mark of striking instability and brought as a consequence the outbreak of the Second World War. This is an undeniable fact — that that war was a consequence of the desire of the German nation, and also Of many non-German forces in the world, to see Poland destroyed! 'Incidentally, this desire and intent remained unaccomplished — as Poland remained undestroyed by that war in spite of all the misfortunes which she suffered during it and in consequence of it.
It is not only the war which was unable to destroy Poland. Also the British and American intrigue, manifested in the sell-out of Poland to Soviet Russia at Tehran in 1943 and at Yalta in 1945, remained to a great extent unsuccessful because Poland was strong enough to survive and to preserve its identity even after having suffered her “defeat in victory”. (Of the two authors of the Tehran and Yalta betrayal Roosevelt was an undisguised enemy of Poland and Churchill, in spite Of being attracted to Poland by an irrational and romantic sympathy, was in fact permanently inclined to abandon Polish interests — with regret. This was the traditional British attitude towards Poland in the 18th, 10ith and 20th century: to cooperate in its destruction, but to do it “with regret”. Only rarely have British politicians — such as Lloyd
George — shown their hostility to Poland in an undisguised way. Even such open acts of hostility towards Poland as the thwarting of the restitution of Danzig to Poland by the treaty of Versailles and the introduction into the domain of international policies of such a British concept as the so-called Curzon Line were accompanied by a seemingly friendly phraseology).
All these facts prove that Poland has a great number of enemies in the world. All these enemies would be delighted to see Poland destroyed again[1]). And apart from Poland’s enemies there are in the world great numbers of people sufficiently ignorant of Polish problems to be unable to see any harm in bringing new disasters upon Poland’s head.
The idea of bringing Poland to a new ruin recurs in the years from 1919 till today incessantly and in many forms in world politics and in international propaganda — and one can easily realize that Poland’s enemies do consider it to be a feasible idea.
[1] I shall quote here two interesting remarks concerning Poland, made by G..K. Chesterton and Hilaire Belloc, two very gTeat and real, English friends of Poland.
Chesterton said: “I can certainly claim to have been from the first a partisan of the Polish ideal, even when my sympathy was mainly an instinct. The Instinct (...) was not one-sided: for I heard next to nothing on the Polish side. It was not founded on praises of Poland; for, as Professor Sarolea points out, praises of Poland in this country are unnaturally rare. It was almost entirely founded on the denunciations of Poland, which were by no means rare. I judged the Poles by their enemies. And I found it was an almost unfailing truth that their enemies were the enemies of magnanimity and manhood. If a man loved slavery, if he loved usury, if he loved terrorism and all the trampled mire of materialistic politics, I have always found that he added to these affections the passion of a hatred of Poland. She could be judged in the light of that hatred; and the judgment proved to be right”. (Chesterton’s “Introduction” to “Letters on Polish affairs” by Charles Sarolea, Edinburgh, 1922, Oliver and Boyd, pp 7-8).
And Belloc said: “The Catholic body in England is slightly less hostile to the Polish cause than the run of Englishmen are, but you cannot say that they know much about Poland, or that one in a hundred of them has any marked sympathy with Polish resistance to Prussia”. (Belloc “Survivals and New Arrivals”, London 1929, third edition 1939, Sheed and Ward, page 406).
I shall mention here two alleged or seeming possibilities of Poland being destroyed, discussed in most recent times. A few years ago a possibility was put forward by quite responsible political and military, Western circles, and found an echo in the press of some of the Western countries, that in the case of a new war in Europe, an “atomic barrier on the Vistula” could be created by atomic bombardment, which would cut off the Russian armies in Germany from their Russian motherland. Even rockets with atomic warheads have been built with a range long enough to hit Poland, but short enough to be unable to hit Russia. Of course, the results of such a bombardment of the Vistula river basin would not only be military, but also political: the Polish nation would be annihilated, or at least catastrophically decimated.
And quite recently encouragements have been made to the Polish nation by the Western mass-media — this was particularly acutely visible during Pope John Paul’s U visit to Poland in 1070 — to rise against Communist oppression, and as a consequence to bring about a Polish- Russian war. This war would certainly cause many troubles to Russia and would turn Russia away from other possible fields of aggression, but Poland, aided by nobody, would be defeated in it and in consequence, would be decimated and ruined and at the end either annexed by the Soviet Empire, or partitioned between Russia and Germany.
Similar encouragements by the Western mass media to the Polish nation were made during the Polish internal crisis of 1980.
It is obvious that the enemies of Poland — and among them first of all the German nation — are counting on the possibility that a moment may come when a return would be possible to the situation of the years of 1795-11018 when Poland as a state was non-existent (or, like in the years 1807-18311, would exist only in the form of some pitiable fragment, called the Duchy Of Warsaw or the Congress Kingdom and embracing only a small part of Polish territory and of the Polish population). It ds also obvious that they are making preparatory steps, aiming at the exploitation of such a possibility.
Of these steps the most important seems to be the preparation off world public opinion to the eventuality of Poland being destroyed. This opinion, they apparently
on the testimony of preferably German, and if not, of other non-Polish, or olf generally neutral sources.
The author is not prepared to make a list of books, articles, speeches etc., in which, in the German, or English, or other languages, accusations against Poland or the Polish nation have been made: such a list would be too long and almost impossible to assemble in an exhaustive and complete way. His intention is to limit himself rather to enumerating the problems about which accusations are being made — and to giving answers to the accusations. He will only exceptionally quote particular books or statements in which the accusations have been made.
He will however make great use of one particular act of anti-Polish propaganda which has been made quite recently, namely of a sort of an open letter to Pope John Paul H, published on November 13th, 1978, by a Prof. Austin J. App, Ph.D., Honorary President of the Federation of Americans of German Descent (who is a Roman Catholic) in the Lutheran periodical “Christian News” in New Haven, Mo., USA, and reprinted in the form of a four-page leaflet for mass circulation on December 20, 1978, by the Boniface Press at Takoma Park, Maryland, USA. The author of the present publication intends to quote Professor App amply not because he considers his publication to be of particular importance or authority, but because in it the German anti-CPolish accusations have been enumerated in a particularly handy way, as a more or less complete list. And besides, Professor App’s manifesto contains one element which can only rarely be found in the German statements, containing attacks against the Polish nation: an appeal to ethics. He says: “The Holy Father is the most authoritative moral voice for truth and justice in the world. Will he risk the resentment (...) of his chauvinistic fellow Poles by declaring that repentance and restitution for the horrendous crime of the expulsion of Germans must be made?” He says also: “Is a Polish pope in a good position to press for international justice?”
Professor App speaks of repentance. He also speaks of justice.
This brings the problems in question on the moral level. It is quite rarely that one meets appeals to morality in German statements, concerning Poland. Usually, it is only the Polish side which appeals to it. The Germans, when
speaking about Poland, prefer to use only such words as force, or at the best: expediency.
I take up Professor App at his word: let us consider the problems in question under the moral aspect. And I would like to remind him — and all the other German propagandists — that one should repent not only for great crimes but also for such sins as lie, slander, calumny and defamation.
THE CASE OF POLAND
I shall begin my refutation of German attacks against Poland by making one statement of a general character: that the Polish nation has, mildly speaking, a case. Its case is quite simple: it is that the Poles have a right to exist as an independent nation.
They have been deprived of that right during the 123 years between 1795 and 19118 and in fact also between the years 1939-1945. And it should be stated quite frankly: all the professors Apps of Germany and of many other countries of the world do not aim at anything else as at the depriving of the Polish nation of that right once again and perhaps for ever. No such fate has ever befallen any other major European nation, if we do not count such passing moments as the occupation of France by the Germans for 4 years during the Second World War in 1940-1944, or the occupation of Germany by allied forces in 1945 and the few years after.
The Poles are one of the major European nations. The present Polish state has a population of 35 million people, almost exclusively Poles, which equals the population of Spain. The Poles are a nation as large as Spain —-and also as large, as the combined strength of Portugal, Belgium, Sweden, Denmark and Norway, taken together. The figure of 35 million Poles in present day Poland does not include the 976.000 Poles counted in the last (1970) Soviet census on formerly Polish soil in the Soviet Union (in Lithuania, Byelorussia, Ukraine and Latvia — in fact more than 1.500.000, — and the 100.000 Poles on formerly Polish soil in Czechoslovakia, and also not the at least 10 million Polish immigrants in the Americas, in Austral-
17
2 — In Defence
ia, in Russia proper, in Germany, in Prance, in Britain, or elsewhere.
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The importance of the Polish nation is not only numerical. The Poles are a Christian nation with more than 1000 years off history. They have created a civilization of their own, of great originality, which contributed greatly to the general development of the civilization off Europe as a whole and off the Christian West. They created a great literature in their own language — and in the Middle Ages also a Polish literature in the Latin language — which merits to be better known in other countries; these other countries could benefit greatly by acquainting themselves better with that literature. They also created an original music (known to the other countries mainly through the works of Chopin), an original architecture, painting, sculpture[2]) and theatre. They influenced greatly the European learning; the Polish astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus (147841543) was the real father of modern science, the science based on observation and study of facts[3]). They were an important nation also in other
[2] The greatest sculptor in Poland was Wit Stwosz, or Veit Stoss (1447-1533), unquestionably a German by origin, but established permanently in Poland and belonging to Poland’s culture in the same way as Ell Greco, a Greek educated in Venice, belongs to the culture of Spain, or as some European immigrants belong to the culture of America. He left in Cracow a son, having the Polish name of Stanislaw.
[3] German propaganda pretends that he was a German. Also Professor App does not abstain from mentioning his name in his letter as one of the “great German scientists”.
In fact, he was a “Polish scientist”. First of all, he was a product of Polish culture. He attended the Polish secondary school at Wloclawek and the Polish university of Cracow, where one of his masters was the Polish astronomer Wojciech of Brudzewo (1446- 1495). He also studied — but not astronomy — at the universities of Bologna, Padua and Ferrara in Italy. He never studied, or lived, or sojourned for a longer time in Germany, or Austria. He made his discoveries and wrote his works (not only astronomical, but also economical and other) in Poland. He wrote in Latin, the vehicle of Polish literature of that time. He was an active Polish patriot.
fields of learning: the oldest Polish university, that of Cracow, founded in 1364, was older than any university on the territory of Germany or Austria and the second oldest (after Prague) among all the universities North of the Alps and East of the Rhine. (The other two old Polish universities, of Wiilno and Lwow, were founded in 1578 and 1661 respectively). The Cracow university was of importance not only in the field of science, (but also in the field of law, historical studies and others.
He was born in Poland. Ethnically, he was the son of a Polish father and a German mother. But his German mother was a daughter of a politically pro-Polish family. Her brother, the uncle of Copernicus, bishop Lucas Watzemrode (1447-1512), was a prominent Polish statesman, a faithful subject of the Polish king and, a vehement opponent of the powerful German political force of the Teutonic Order. Her father, Copernicus’ maternal grandfather, was one of the leaders of the Eastern Pomeranian rising against the rule of the Teutonic Order and one of the authors of the act of submission of Eastern Pomerania to the Polish king and its incorporation into Poland. He fought in the Polish-Teutonic war of 1454-1466 on the Polish side.
The father of Copernicus was a member of a family, established for 100 years in Cracow, the capital of Poland of that time. The ancestor of that family came to Cracow from Silesia, a country with a predominmantly Polish and partly German population. There is no reason to suspect that he was of Silesian-German origin: the surname Kopemdik is clearly Polish (its German counterpart would be: Kupfermanm, or Kupfermacher, or Kuipferh&ndler). Copernicus’ father left Cracow and settled in Torun in East-Pomerania in 1454, the year of the East-Pomeranian pro-Polish rising, of the arrival of k:ng Casimir of Poland to Torufi and hi® obtaining there the oath of allegiance from East-Pomerania and also the beginning of the Polish-Teutonic 13-years war. Copernicus-senior married then the daughter of the leader of the pro-Polish burghers of Torun, one of the leaders of the whole pro-Polish, East-Pomeraniam rising. Obviously, he came to Torun in connection with the political events of rising, war and kang’s arrival, i.e. as a representative and member of the Polish political establishment.
Nicolas Copernicus was bom in a politically active, patriotically Polish family (even if partly, on the mother’s side, of German ethnical origin) and has proven by several own acts, such as a participation in the defence of Olsztyn castle in 1520/21 against a Teutonic siege, or as writing a treatise consecrated to the reform of Polish currency, his loyalty to Poland and his Polish patriotism.
The Poles were particularly influential in one field of intellectual debate: in the great, medieval controversy, concerning the ethics of conversion. Poland represented throughout the ages the view that a pagan, having as a human being a free will, cannot be converted to Christianity by compulsion and cannot be punished for the obstinacy of clinging to his religious views. She was opposed in this to the German view that pagans, if not willing to become Christians, should be punished, eventually by death, and their lands should be confiscated for Christian, i.e. German settlers. This Polish-German controversy came to a pitch at the Council of Constance (1414-1418) where the Polish view was represented by the Polish thinker, lawyer and diplomat Paulus Vladimiri (Pawel Wlod- kowic, about 1370-1435) and the German by the representative o(f the Teutonic Order, the German Dominican, Johannes Falkeniberg. The council and the pope accepted the Polish view and condemned the German one. These two views found practical application in the controversy concerning the attitude towards the last pagan country of Europe: the empire of Lithuania, which became voluntarily converted in 1386 by entering into union with Poland and whose last territory, Samogitia, became Christian around 1411. (The problem of the kinsmen of Lithuania, the pagan Prussians, or Borussians, was solved by the Teutonic Order by massacre, confiscation of their lands and German settlement). This controversy later found an echo in the colonial policies of Spain and other nations, when at the end of the 115th century the maritime discoveries opened before Europe a new world of pagan populations; the question arose then: should the pagans be converted in a Polish manner? or exterminated in the German manner?
In Poland, the Polish respect for free-will created the system of religious tolerance not only for pagans, but also for other non-believers: Poland was the “country without stakes”, a haven for victims of religious persecution in other countries. The principle of religious tolerance was an element introduced by Poland into European ideology.' In spite of the difficulty of solving borderline cases, it was Poland and not her opponents, who was in this matter in conformity with the doctrine of the Catholic Church.
Another domain in which Polish ideas partly influenced some countries of the Western Christian world was the domain Of constitutional development. Poland was a country in which the idea was iborn very early that the state should serve the nation and that the government should be controlled by the great mass of memlbers of that nation. Polish parliamentarism was iborn around 1493. In the years 1573-1796 Poland was a “royal republic”, in which the king also has been elected Iby the people. He needed not to be a member of a royal family and could just be a Polish citizen, eventually even of a relatively humble origin. The Polish kings were elected by popular assemblies in which sometimes up to 100.000 citizens took part in person. It is true that only the “noble” Poles had in principle the right of citizenship, but they formed about 10 p.c. of the population, which means, that the electoral franchise in Poland in the 16th, or 17th, or 18th century was larger than in England at the beginning of the 19th century. Many “noble” Poles were in an economic sense not different from peasants. (Some towns also had the right to participate in Polish parliaments. The Polish constitution of 3rd May 179ll enlarged the privileges of townfolk and made the first steps towards bringing about an integration of the peasants into the life of the rest of the Polish nation. The Jews had in Poland their own, autonomous “parliament” — called waad — which had the right to impose separate taxes).
The Polish law of “Nihil novi” of 1505 was a sort of a constitution of the Polish parliamentary republic. The royal privilege of “Neminem captivaJbimus” of 1425, applicable, it is true, only to the “noble” Poles, was a Polish — much older — equivalent of the English “Habeas corpus” act of 1679.
» Poland’s democratical political system functioned efficiently and brilliantly in the 16th and :17th centuries When Poland was a great power (by the way, territorially the largest European country apart from Russia) but degenerated somewhat in the 18th century when Poland became weakened and disorganized by nearly 70 years of almost incessant war 1164:8-1717) and played temporarily the r61e of the “sick man of Europe”. The Polish political system became reformed by the new constitution of 1791.
The author of this book is inclined to believe that the Polish constitutional experience must have influenced the constitutional development of America: the American president is like a Polish king, but elected not for life but for a limited space of time; and the American Congress resemibles in its competences and structure much more a Polish “Seym” than an English Parliament. The matter merits being investigated in a more detailed way by historical research, but it seems likely that the American lawmakers, looking for sources of constitutional experience in the republics existing at that time (Poland, Venice, Switzerland etc.) might have been attracted to the model of the unwritten Polish constitution more than to the others.
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One important role of Poland in the history of Europe should not be forgotten: the r61e of the defender from non-European invasions. Europe could live and develop her civilization in peace because she was protected from the Mongol and Turkish danger by Poland. Poland was throughout many centuries a “bulwark of Christianity”, a wall, which allowed the rest of Europe to prosper in security. Only Spain — in a slightly earlier epoch — played a similar role, defending the rest of Europe from the pressure coming from the Arabs, and to some extent also from Turkey (battle of Lepanto, 11571).
Poland (and also Hungary) was ravaged in 1240/41 by the invasion of the armies of the Mongol empire, created by Genghis-Khan; she became a heap of ruins and ashes in consequence of this invasion; her last stand at the battle of Legnica (1241) was an unmitigated defeat, in which the ruler of Poland, Prince Henry the Pious, was killed and the whole Polish army practically annihilated. But the Mongols did not proceed further and after that battle withdrew from a depopulated and ruined Poland completely. Other countries, including Germany, were not touched by that invasion. Poland came in the battle of Worskla in 1399 into contact also with another Mongol empire, that of Tamerlane. In the 13th, 14th, 15th, 16th, 17th and 18th centuries Poland suffered 93 Mongol and Tartar invasions, which she had to repel sometimes at great cost. Since the 15th century she became also a Christian bulwark against
the progress of Turkish expansion into Europe. In 1444 Poland tried to come to the rescue of the Byzantine empire, by organizing, together with Hungary, an anti-Turkish crusade, but in the battle of Varna in Bulgaria (144s4) the Polish (and Hungarian) king Ladislas HU (and with him the papal legate, Cardinal Cesarini) fell and the Polish and Hungarian army was destroyed. In consequence, Constantinople, left to its own fate, was conquered 9 years later (in 14S3) by the Turks and transformed into Istanbul. Poland later conducted many strenuous wars against the Turkish invaders. The great Polish victory in the battle of Chocim (1678) put a,n end once and for all to the Turkish expansion towards the North. The battle of Vienna (1683) in which king John UK Sobieski of Poland was the Christian commander-in-chief and in which the Polish army, rapidly concentrated and brought to the spot, was the largest and most decisive element of the Christian combat forces, put an end once and for all to the Turkish expansion towards the North-West.
This role of Poland as a Christian bulwark was curiously repeated in 19(20, when Poland repelled the invasion of Soviet Russia by beating the Soviet army in the battle of the Vistula. The Communist propaganda at that moment proclaimed the slogan of world revolution, which will be brought by the victorious Soviet army, marching across “the corpse of Poland” into Germany and Western Europe. In a way, the Polish victory at the gates of Warsaw gave Europe almost 20 subsequent years of peace. It is only Hitler’s attack against Poland which destroyed the Polish bulwark. The consequence of this was at the last instance the extending of Soviet influence and power into Central Europe.
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What happened to Poland? What’s the matter with her? What was the cause of her ruin, of that terrible catastrophe which destroyed this once powerful and always important, civilized, European state in the three partitions of 1772, 1798 and 179(5 and found a confirmation in the deeds of the Congress of Vienna of 1815?
It is true that in the 18th century Poland was extremely weak, even if beginning to recover her strength just towards the end of the century. But which country of Europe
and the world has never passed through a period of decline or weakness ? A temporary weakness of a country is not a reason why that country should be dismembered. Nobody thinks of dismembering Switzerland, or the Netherlands, or Denmark, because they are weak countries in a strategically isolated position, also nobody tried to dismember Spain during the period Of her weakness at the time of her civil war of 1936-CL98&. The common moral consent of international public opinion considers destroying an existing country to toe an immoral act in the same way as robbing by passers-by of a person who fainted in the street would be considered immoral and criminal. Why were such considerations not applied to Poland’s partitions? In fact, these partitions did indeed shock the world and were seen as something monstrous; the Austrian empress Maria Teresa wept in helpless indignation when signing the act of partition in which against her better judgment she took part; and even empress Catherine of Russia occasionally showed some disgust at what she had done. But these manifestations of moral disapproval did not influence the course of events.
What was the reason for Poland having been destroyed ? And why are there still people — or political circles — in the world, who would welcome some new disasters falling upon Poland’s head?
To give an answer to this question one has to point one’s attention to two real causes.
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Poland was — and is — one of the most fervently Catholic countries of the world and is animated by a traditionalist Catholic spirit. She is therefore hated by the anti-Catholic anti-traditionalist camp of Europe and the world. The 18th century, the century of the “philosophy of Enlightenment”, was perhaps the most anti-Catholic and anti-traditionalist century in the history of the Christian West. Poland at that time was geographically deeply isolated : she was encircled by Protestant Prussia, by Orthodox Russia (which was ruled by an Empress who was in fact a German and ex-Protestant princess and which was administered by an elite looking towards Protestant Germany for political enlightment), by Muslim Turkey and by
an Austria, which was a Catholic country but whose attitude was in fact clearly antiJPolish. After the 7-yeans war (1757-1763) the Protestant powers of Prussia and England started to rule the world. Poland was condemned to extinction by the forces which hated her Catholicism and her “old fashioned” traditionalism. Only weak political powers — the Pope with his Papal States and far-away Spain — sympathized at that time with Poland but were unable to come to her rescue. England, Sweden and the other Protestant powers were against her. Also the “philosophic”, “enlightened” public opinion of France did not favour Poland. Iln her isolation, Poland was dismembered with impunity, lit is curious that only Turkey, the old foe Of Poland, made uneasy by the fate of her old neighbour, made steps of some practical importance in favour of Poland and later never recognized her partitions, manifesting afterwards year after year till 1918 inclusively, in an annually repeated diplomatic ceremony the fact that legally and morally Poland still existed.
The second cause of the destruction of Poland was the fact that she stood and stands in the way of German expansion.
If one would like to summarize the history of Europe in the last 1000 years, i.e. since the end of the epoch of the great migrations and since the crystallization of that Europe as something larger than only the former Roman Empire or the Mediterranean world and embracing also the great land mass to the North of the Alps and the Danube and to the East of the Rhine — one could say that that history consisted mainly of the struggle between the German nation trying to dominate Europe and to transform it into a German empire — and the other European nations wanting to preserve their freedom and their identity. The political struggle was accompanied by a difference of ideology. The non-German nations were faithful to the Church of Rome and tried to preserve the traditions of Roman antiquity. Germany — even if permeated by Latin influences and essentially Christian — was instinctively full of hate against Rome and inclined to look rather towards the Byzantine Empire (preserving Hellenistic and in fact, also many Oriental traditions) for models of state-
hood and civilization. The ideal of a Germanized Europe would have been an empire on the Byzantine pattern, in which the Church would have been subjected to the State, or even totally suppressed — and in which German bureaucracy would rule ruthlessly and without any considerations of moral character over a mass of populations deprived of any liberties, not knowing the freedom o!f an individual human being or the freedom of an individual nation. The real symbol of the German style of life, statehood and culture was the reign of the German emperor Frederick II (11194-1250) who established his imperial seat at Palermo in Sicily, who was in fact an atheist, an enemy of Christianity, and in many respects a man of the Orient, and who organized Sicily as a model bureaucratic state. His political cultural and administrative achievements found a particularly striking continuation in some way in Germany proper, but first of all in the state of the anti-Papal Teutonic Order, which was organized, beginning from 1226, as a German colony mainly on the conquered lands of the massacred heathen Prussians, under the direction of the Teutonic Grand-Master Hermann von Salza (about 1170- 1239), the resident of Palermo and the friend and adviser of the above mentioned emperor Frederick II. The sicil- ianized state of the Teutonic Order in Prussia became in 1525 the first Protestant state of the world. This state gave a powerful political support to the German religious revolution of Luther. The continuation of that political institution became the kingdom of Prussia and finally the modern German Empire created in 18711 by Bismarck.
As a symbol Of the centuries-old struggle between the German empire and the rest of Europe, of which the pope was the leader, could be considered the capitulation and humiliation of emperor Henry IV before pope Gregory VM at Canossa at 1077, to which also the policies of king Boleslaw the Bold of Poland greatly contributed — and the imperial retaliation in 1084, when Henry IV occupied Rome and installed there an anti-Pope, and when Gregory VH was besieged in his castle of the Angel. In fact, in this struggle the popes fought not only for the liberty of the Church, but also for the liberty of Europe — and the emperors — for the conquest of that Europe.
The German mediaeval efforts aiming at the subjugation of Rome and of Europe were frustrated by the success-
ful opposition — not only religious, but also political and military — of the popes, but also by the resistance of some continental nations. As examples of that resistance one could mention the battle of Bouvines (1214) when Germany was beaten by France and the successful defensive wars (1002-10(18) of the king of Poland, Boleslaw the Great, as well as some off the wars of Boleslaw the Bold around the time of Canossa and of Boleslaw the Wrymouth (battle Of the Dogs’ Field, 1109). When emperor Frederick Barbarossa undertook his military expeditions into Italy in 1157 and 1174, he preceded them by expeditions against Poland in 1157 and 1173 to secure his rear. Already about 900, by the act called “Dagome iudex” Poland placed herself in the position of a close ally and even a vassal Of the Papacy. In consequence, Germany had later to fight on two fronts. The particularly characteristic' situation when Germany had to fight on two fronts was the situation preceding Canossa. The German emperor tried to dethrone the pope and was excommunicated by him in 1076. But in 1077 he came to Canossa to ask, barefooted and in penitential dress, for the pope’s forgiveness. It is difficult not to see that the fact that the pro-papal king of Poland had helped in 1077 the pro-papal and half Polish Saint Ladislas to become king of Hungary and in the same year of 1077 the same Polish king had placed with the help of a military expedition the pro-papal prince Izaslav on the throne of Kievan Russia, created — already before 1077 — a powerful pro-papal political block under Polish leadership at the rear of Germany. All this must have influenced the thinking Of the German emperor when he made his decision to capitulate before the pope.
An event of historical consequences lasting in fact till today was the battle of Tannenberg or Grunwald of 1410 in which Poland beat the Teutonic Order which was packed by the whole power off the German Empire. This battle solved for good the problem df the future of the whole of Central and Eastern Europe. If the Teutonic Order had been victorious at that battle, Poland (together with the Lithuanian empire which was in union with her, having the same ruler, king Wladyslaw Jagiello) would have been conquered by the Germans and no doubt, immediately afterwards also the Russian empire and city state of Novgorod would have fallen into German hands.
Germany would have attained at one stroke the shores of the Black and White seas, would have crossed the northernmost ranges of the Ural Mountains towards Siberia and would have reached the neighbourhood of Moscow. In the long run, the consequence of this would have been also a conquest of Muscovy by the Germans and as a result, it would be the Germans and not the Russians who would be the conquerors and settlers oif Northern Asia. Vladivostok would probably have become a German port and Kamchatka a German possession. Of course, the Germans would have become the largest nation of the white race in the world.
Similar possibilities have in fact been frustrated also by the three Boleslaws’, and in particular by Boleslaw the Great’s anti-German resistance four centuries earlier, at a time, when Russia — behind Poland — was only a narrow North-South ribbon of river settlements.
It is not difficult to imagine what would be the fate of the rest of Europe, if Germany were an empire reaching from the Rhine to the Pacific Ocean. France, Italy and the rest of Western Europe would have been crushed by the sheer weight of the German power in their neighbourhood. This German empire would probably not have been Christian. There is a great possibility that attitudes similar to those of Frederick U would have prevailed in it.
There is no exaggeration in saying that it was Poland who frustrated such German ambitions: Poland blocked by her resistance the gates to German expansion towards the East and in consequence prevented Germany from becoming the greatest white nation in the world and probably from becoming the ruler of mankind. At the same time — Poland saved her own liberty and the liberty of Western Europe[4]).
[4]) “The battle of Tannenberg (Grunwald) of 1410 was such an odd battle which changed the course of history for 500 years and transformed the face of Europe” — these were the words which general Bede, the chief of staff of the German army of that time said in September 1938 to an excursion of military attaches from Berlin during the manoeuvres of the German army in Eastern Prussia. The author of this book has this information, in form of a written statement, from major Wladyslaw Stebliik, the Polish deputy military attach^ in Berlin, who took part in that excursion and heard these word® from the mouth of General Beck.
No wonder that the Germans as a whole (not without important, laudaible exceptions) instinctively hate Poland, considering her as a nuisance in the way of their great national achievements.
In fact, Poland also frustrated the world-wide impact of the German religious revolution: the Reformation of Luther. Her opposition to that revolution and her participation in the Counter-Reformation did put hounds to its expansion.
The Reformation of Luther divided the German nation. The struggle between German Protestantism and Catholicism, North and South, Prussia and Austria was for several centuries a permanent feature of European history. A series of wars, of which the 30-years was (1018-164:8) and the 7 years war (1756-1763) should first of al;l be mentioned, were in fact parts of a great, lasting three or four centuries German civil war. The consequence of this was a cessation Of progress of the German nation towards the domination of Europe. In fact, the struggle between Germany and the rest of Europe was not really a feature of European history of that time. A different political factor determined the political order in Europe in those times: the principle of the balance of power, presided and regulated by England, (between France and the leading German power, which was Austria. ( Poland, situated on the periphery Of Europe, was somewhat outside of the rivalries connected with that balance).
Rut slowly, the German civil war expired. There was a last manifestation of it as late as in the short Prusso- -Austrian war of 1866, but in fact that long struggle was terminated already by the Prussian victory over Austria in the 7-years war in 1763. One half of the German nation won over the second half. The Protestant North took precedence over the Catholic South. First potentially, and then actually Prussia became the master of all Germany. The Napoleonic turmoil retarded that process, but already the 7-years war established the domination Of Prussia in Germany — and the partitions OP Poland and the decisions of the Congress of Vienna consolidated the Prussian hegemony and power. Bismarck was able to exploit the progress of Prussian political ascendancy iby creating a German Empire under Prussian hegemony, by ejecting Austrian influence from the Germanic world and by transform-
ing the Hapsburg empire — with great help from the friends of Prussia, the Hungarians — into a German satellite state. The moment of creation of the “second” German empire in 1871 was at the same time the end of the period of the ‘'balance of power” in Europe and a return to the situation, when Europe was the field of a struggle between Germany, wanting to transform Europe into a sphere of German domination — and the bulk of other European nations, trying to preserve their freedom.
The First World War was a belated but inevitable consequence not only of the establishment of the Bismarck- ian empire, tout also of the Prussian victory in the 7-years war, of the partitions of Poland and of the Prussian territorial expansion brought about by the Congress of Vienna. The Second World War was a continuation of the First one: Germany was beaten in 1914-1918, tout not beaten sufficiently and tried to repeat — as Hitler’s “third” empire — the “grip” (Griff) for world power once again.
Germany, in spite of her present political divisions, remains also today the main European power. German political amlbitions did not disappear. Many Germans consider the plans for a United or Federal Europe as a continuation of similar plans of Central Europe (Mitteleuropa) which have been put forward in 1914 and immediately later as a programme, animated toy the experience of Bismarck: the creation of a political organization whieh would formally toe a federation, tout in which one country (Prussia in the Bismarckian empire, Germany in federated Europe) would wield the real power.
Poland was destroyed because she stood in the way of Prussian and German expansion. She was strong enough to put up successful resistance to German pressure in 1018 or in 1410, tout she was sufficiently weak in the 18th century to succumb helplessly to the aggression of a coalition of Prussia, Russia and Austria.
There is a widespread opinion among Western historians that the partitions of Poland were organized and inspired toy Russia. This is not true. They were the work of Prussia, — of the Prussian king Frederick the Great and, after his death, of his successors, Prussian rulers and statesmen. Prussia, at that time already the potential leader of the German nation, wanted Poland to be
annihilated completely — and achieved this by organizing the anti-Polish coalition. Achieved the destruction of Poland for a period of 123 years.
Poland rose from the dead in consequence of the German defeat of 19118. She was destroyed again in consequence of the resurrection of the German power in the form of the Hitlerite “third Reich’’. The coalition of the European nations which have been attacked during the Second World War was not able to defeat Hitler’s Germany. The contribution of the effort of non-European powers, the United States and Russia, was necessary for this end.
There are serious reasons to believe that important and influential sections of the German nation and of the German political establishment dream also today about destroying Poland again and opening by this again the gates to possible, future great German expansion.
The anti-Polish propaganda campaign, conducted at present in many countries, is probably one Of the elements of preparatory action aiming at the destruction of Poland.
Poland, defending herself against that propaganda, not only defends her good name and her honour, or simply: defends truth and justice, but defends also the main principle of her case: her right to exist[5] ).
[5] It is worth mentioning' that Poland is almost unique among European nations in one respect: that she is almost the only major European state which was not created by Germanic — or any other — conquest, but by self-defence against conquest; also — that she is not herself of Germanic origin.
Conquests by Germanic tribes have had a decisive part in the formation of most of the European states: enough to mention the role of the Franks an<j Burgundians in France, Anglosaxons, Normans and Danes in England, Visigoths in Spain, Goths and Longobards in continental Italy, Normans in Sicily, Varegs in Russia. Also Hungary was.a product of conquest, — not Germanic but Asiatic, But Poland ’was a product of a coalition and of self-defence of native Polish tribes.
(Germany and Scandinavia are themselves Germanic. And they were the homelands of the conquerors who invaded the above mentioned countries. By the way: this is not true that Poland was originally inhabited by Germanic tribes. Poland, as well as a great part of what is now Eastern Germany was originally a Slavonic territory. Archaeological excavations prove that there was continuity for long centuries between the oldest Inhabitants of these lands
and the Slavic populations which emerged there as the native population at the beginning of written history. The evidence of existence at some moments on these territories in prehistoric times of some Germanic, especially Gothic political organizations means simply that the Goths, and perhaps Vandals and other have passed through Polish territories in their migrations towards Italy, or Spain, or present time Rumania, or the Crimea, but they were no less alien invaders there as in these other countries).
It was a principle of Polish national ideology throughout the ages that it is not morally permissible to cond/uct wars of conquest. This would be an exaggeration to say that no wars of conquest were ever conducted by Poland: human nature being as it is, some transgressions of the above mentioned principle did indeed take place in Polish history, usually disguised as self-defence, or as acting with the intention of helping others and on their request. But it is a fact that Polish wars of conquest were extremely rare and they were in fact borderline cases between conquest and self- defence.
The great Polish expansion towards the East was not created by Polish conquest. It was the great expansion of pagan Lithuania which created the Lithuanian empire: the conquest of Kiev by the Lithuanian conqueror Gedyminas (1275-1341) took place in 1330, of Poiook in 1320, of Minsk in 1326, other places earlier. Poland did not conquer these territories, but inherited them peacefully two generations later by the act of Polish-Lithuanian union of 1386, strengthened in 1413 and later.
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