During the war Polish Americans were keenly aware of the plight of Polish refugees scattered around the globe and carried out successful charitable actions through a variety of organizations. They were one of the first ethnic groups that heralded the cause of European displaced persons and lobbied tirelessly for a change in the immigration laws, which would allow their admission to the United States. After the 1948 Displaced Persons Act had been passed, American Polonia mobilized itself for an unprecedented resettlement effort. Throughout the war and the early postwar years, Polish Americans revived their long tradition of activism on behalf of Poland. Decrying Poland’s loss of independence at Yalta and responding to international Cold War pressures, the majority of Polonia displayed vivid anticommunist sentiments. As U.S. citizens, they aspired to leadership in the struggle for Poland, and the DP cause became one of the important points of their mission.
The arrival of political refugees, instead of providing anticipated fresh reinforcements for Polonia, brought tension and conflict between the two groups. The refugees based their exile identity on the common experience of life in independent Poland before the war and on their wartime suffering and struggle. Neither of these experiences had been shared by American Polonia. Tensions heightened also for other reasons, some linked to the finer points of the exile mission and others connected to the social characteristics of the two populations. Lack of adequate knowledge about the history of each group, competition for political and cultural leadership, level of assimilation, class differences, social mobility, and the issue of loyalty to the Polish government in exile and to the rest of the diaspora were all factors that contributed to the friction.
Most significantly, the new arrivals did not consider themselves simply new immigrants, but rather a special category of immigrants: political refugees. This distinction had been adopted during the war and especially during the DP period of increased politicization of the refugee masses. The refugees counterposed the concept of political exile and that of the earlier economic “emigration for bread.” Tapping the Polish Romantic tradition, they considered their political motivation a nobler and more legitimate reason for emigration. In their own eyes, it gave them a respectable identity, one easily compatible with the inspiring legacy of historical struggle for Poland’s independence. Armed with claims to European and Polish high culture—supposedly superior to the plebeian roots of American civilization—the refugees used the exile mission to ensure the survival of their Polish identity. For example, the First Convention of the New Emigration, which took place in New Bedford, Massachusetts, in September 1950, adopted a resolution explicitly stating its character: “The new emigrants regard themselves as a political emigration and strongly denounce tendencies to define them as stateless or economic emigrants.”40 Stanisław Kwaśniewski, the author of the 1948 poem “Polscy Kombatanci,” put the matter even more succinctly. “They are coming for freedom, not dollars,” he wrote about the postwar arrivals, sharply distinguishing them from the turn-of-the-century peasant economic immigrants.41
For these political refugees the exile mission provided justification for their refusal to return to Poland and called for action on behalf of the homeland, which had been subdued by the communist oppressor. Poland’s independence was central to both political and social thinking, and one’s work for Poland defined the measure of one’s patriotism.42 Political action focused on lobbying Western governments and public opinion through constant reminders of the Polish nation’s historical significance and its contribution to victory in World War II. The West was to be warned against the dangers of communism and informed of the hardships of life in Poland under the communist regime, for which those who had condoned Yalta were held responsible. Émigré Poles believed that they had the right to represent Polish interests in the West and that the communists’ claim to power should be officially delegitimized. Some of their more detailed demands included the repudiation of Yalta, the return of Western recognition to the Polish government in exile, international guarantees for Poland’s border with Germany, the return of Poland’s eastern territories lost to the Soviet Union, an investigation of the Katyń massacre, and the release of political prisoners.43 The responsibility of this work for Poland fell on all exiles. While the exile leaders conducted direct political lobbying, the rank-and-file refugees attempted to inform and influence Western public opinion. In order to increase the effectiveness of their political action, the exiles recognized the need to cooperate with older immigrant waves and strove to preserve ties to the entire postwar diaspora, both through organizational and personal means.
This focus on the issues of the homeland and the diaspora had added expediency in the first decade after the war, because of the unstable political situation. Many exiles believed that their sojourn in foreign countries would be temporary and that when another war ended the communist occupation of Poland, they would return to a free homeland.44 The myth of impending return prompted efforts to build strong exile communities, which could facilitate necessary political action as well as preserve Polish culture. The exiles formed separate organizations to fulfill those goals as well as to meet more pragmatic needs, such as securing housing, jobs, schools for children, language classes, and loans to buy furniture and other necessities, or finding churches and ethnic support groups.
The exile mission strongly emphasized both preservation and development of Polish culture in exile. The importance of this task for the spiritual survival of the nation had been clear since the partitions of Poland in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The exiles felt particularly responsible for the protection and nurture of Polish high culture: the literary language, artistic expression, as well as intellectual thought and scientific achievement. The wartime extermination of Poland’s intelligentsia, the Sovietization of political and economic life, and the suppression of Polish culture gave this goal a renewed sense of urgency. The patriotic upbringing of the next generation became another significant element of the exile mission. The youth had to be prepared to return to Poland or to continue the mission in exile. Children and young people were expected to know the Polish language; to be familiar with Polish history, traditions, and customs; and to adopt patriotic attitudes toward the homeland of their parents.
A sense of history and historical memory has always been vital to the Polish experience. The memory of past glories helped the nation endure the partitions. After World War II, the exile mission recognized the momentousness of history and ranked it high on the agenda. The war effort and the refugee experience yielded themselves to placement within the larger history of the Polish nation’s sacrifice and survival. Attention to history and the lessons learned from it permeated much of the exile discourse, providing examples, comparisons, and sometimes predictions for the future.
The mission’s strength rested within family and community, since individuals could carry out its particular components on both the local and the personal levels. The leaders were usually members of the intelligentsia, prewar activists, and politicians, but the vast majority of rank-and-file refugees also interpreted their refusal to return to communist Poland as a political decision. In the context of Polish history and the Cold War, exile politicized the diaspora and particular communities within it.45
Differences between the refugees and Polish Americans intensified in the conflict-prone environment of the resettlement program. The bipolar image of the new arrivals as victims and as sturdy immigrant material, and the specific needs of the refugees proved difficult for Polish Americans to absorb, while the resettlement program stretched thin their resources and put enormous pressure on the community. Without fully grasping the significance of the wartime experiences of the refugees and the intensity of their commitment to the exile mission, Polish Americans too often acted in dismissive and patronizing ways. The refugees, on the other hand, retaliated with accusations of political inactivity, cultural backwardness, and advanced Americanization.
While the exiles’ presence both energized and challenged the community, the majority of Polish Americans represented by the Polish American Congress revitalized the main elements of the exile mission derived from their earlier Polonia tradition. For example, Polish Americans’ vision of the struggle for Poland did not include the myth of return nor did it rely on close