Priests often worked around the clock to meet the needs of tens of thousands of inhabitants in many different camps. Since they did not receive any pay for their work from international organizations, their support depended on the generosity of the DP congregations. The statistics for the British zone for the year 1947, cited by Naród Polski (Polish Nation), illustrate the scope of the priests’ commitment: 126 Polish priests served 255 camps with a total population of nearly 140,000; they taught religion in 125 elementary schools, 13 high schools, 101 kindergartens, and 168 special classes; and they cared for patients in 78 hospitals.66
Among the most needed services were weddings and baptisms. The Nazis had not allowed prisoners or laborers to marry, and many people had to wait for the official recognition of their relationships. In the atmosphere of long-awaited freedom, some young people felt that they had to make up for lost time. Others, who had lost their families in the war, wanted to start new lives.67 The DP population in general showed a large increase in birth rates. According to a report from the Polish DP camp in Hohenfels, the camp parish registered 914 weddings and 890 baptisms during the first four years after liberation.68 A great majority of Polish DPs participated in Roman Catholic services, and many were active in numerous religious organizations, including church choirs and Caritas, a charitable group started by the Catholic clergy in Germany. The Hohenfels camp could boast of six different religious organizations, and Altenstadt had nine. Some camps had more than one chapel, and services were celebrated twice a day. Additional religious education for the DPs and their children was also available, and some priests succeeded in organization of pilgrimages to religious shrines in Germany and Italy.69 The responsibilities of priests increased even more as emigration began and refugees asked for “certificates of moral standing” that could attest to their piety, Christian values, and involvement in the church. They were also swamped with requests for birth, marriage, and death certificates—essential documents for emigration processing.
Polish priests also organized schools and taught religion to Polish children, prepared them for sacraments, and provided religious instruction and activities, such as scouting. Special publishing houses put out hundreds of thousand copies of Catechisms, prayer books, holy pictures, and hymnals. The religious press included at least eight different newspaper titles aimed at general readers as well as children and military personnel.70
The influence of the Polish clergy in the DP camps was considerable. Despite a certain degree of anticlericalism among some members of the intelligentsia, the peasant majority of the DP population followed the leadership of the priests. Through their own wartime suffering, Polish priests shared a bond with the people and a deep understanding of the problems faced by the DP population.71 The Polish clergy consciously participated in the strengthening of the exile mission by tying religious feelings and traditions to patriotic messages. Most of the national celebrations incorporated religious elements. Priests were invited to honorary committees, led invocations and prayers, gave speeches, and celebrated solemn masses included in the program. On the other hand, members of DP organizations, such as the Home Army Association or Scouting, prepared public declarations of appreciation, support, and loyalty to the Roman Catholic Church for its activities in exile as well as in Poland.72
Civic leadership in DP camps belonged to a number of organizations that strove to build and rebuild refugee community structures despite the difficulties of displacement and the hostility of some UNRRA officials. After years of horror and chaos, the DPs yearned for an internal organization that could provide them with the semblance of a normally functioning society. They also needed representation. The microcosm of the refugee world had to withstand the multiple pressures from complex levels of authority: the military in the occupation zones, international and charitable organizations, local German or Austrian officials, representatives of national governments and repatriation missions, and recruitment officers during the resettlement stage. The DPs protected themselves by establishing associations that could look after the interests of all or particular groups of DPs. Moreover, these organizations provided outlets for the pent-up energy and activism of a large leadership group. They offered companionship and camaraderie, and they reunited members of similar social and professional circles. Most of all, however, these DP organizations built a sense of the exile mission, explained it, and propagated it within the community; in this way, they politicized the masses and transformed them into conscious political refugees.
Zjednoczenie Polskie w Niemczech (Polish Union in Germany, PU) was the largest Polish organization in the three occupation zones in Germany. From mid-1945 on, Polish DPs had spontaneously created local organizations in individual camps for the purpose of self-help and representation of their interests to the occupation authorities. In the British zone, local and regional initiatives coalesced into a single organization, Główna Komisja Porozumiewawcza Środowisk Polskich (Main Commission for the Coordination of Polish Communities), formally established at a meeting of local representatives in Bardowik-bei-Lüneburg in October 1945. In August 1945 Zrzeszenie Ośrodków Polskich Bawarii Północnej (Union of Polish Centers in Northern Bavaria) became the first regional organization for Polish DPs in the American zone. Similar unions formed in southern Bavaria, Hessen, and other areas, and in December 1945 in Durzyń came together as Zjednoczenie Polskie w Amerykańskiej Strefie Okupacji Niemiec (Polish Union in the American Zone of Occupation in Germany). The French zone did not produce a separate organization but joined the activities of the American centers. As a result of cooperation between the British and American zone organizations, the Polish Union in Germany came into being in January 1946 and became the single representative of Polish DPs in all zones of Germany.73
The structure of the PU had five levels. The first level was that of the individual camp and its government; the second took in camps located within the same town or in the nearby area. The third coincided with the administrative and military divisions within an occupation zone; the fourth represented a zone in its entirety; and, finally, the fifth level included the all-zone Supreme Council of the PU with its executive commissions.74 This complicated and extensive organizational pyramid slowed down the process of decision making and engulfed it in bureaucratic red tape. On the other hand, because the structure of the PU reflected that of the administrative and military divisions within postwar Germany, the organization could better represent the interests of the Polish DP population at each level. Despite the constant process of closing camps and transferring people from place to place, this structure allowed some degree of continuity in organizations and activities. Last but not least, it created positions for all who were ready and willing to serve in the Polish Union’s ranks.
The membership of the PU included both individuals and organizations, and assumed that each Pole (without regard to citizenship) who lived in a DP camp was automatically a PU member. Those living outside the camps had to register with the PU authorities to obtain membership.75 At the beginning of the PU’s existence, its activities were financed mostly by donations from the Społeczny Komitet Pomocy Obywatelom Polskim w Niemczech (Social Committee to Aid Polish Citizens in Germany), an organization with its headquarters in Great Britain. The majority of its financial transactions were carried out in cigarettes, which were a form of currency at that time in Germany.76 A decrease in cigarette donations and the reform of the German mark in July 1948 threatened the economic basis of the PU. The PU executive committee issued a dramatic appeal to all members, explaining the difficult situation of the organization and pleading for membership dues, which were established at one German mark a month for an employed person and twenty pfennigs for an unemployed person.77 The following years brought further budget cuts resulting from dwindling membership and declining profits from subscriptions to the Orzeł Biały (White Eagle), a PU sponsored journal.78 The emigration of Polish DPs from the territory of Germany systematically deprived the PU of its members, and these changed conditions called for a redefinition of the organization’s goals and structure. In 1951, the PU transformed into the Zjednoczenie Polskich Uchodźców w Niemczech (Union of Polish Refugees in Germany), an organization based on individual membership and designed to unify all those who could not or did not want to emigrate from