Haller’s Army and Jews the Facts Trawinski

Odyseja Polskiej Armii Blekitnej, by Witold H. Trawinski. 1989

At Last. The Truth About General Haller’s Army and the Jews. No Black and White

THE ODYSSEY OF THE POLISH BLUE ARMY is the title of this Polish-language work. The author, Witold Hilary Trawinski (1894-1976) was one of the combatants, and later was a journalist in the USA.

INTRODUCTION

General Haller’s army has been subject to a century of Polonophobic narratives. It has been portrayed as an army of (what else?) horrible anti-Semites out to cut the beards of Jews, if not to kill them in pogroms. Ironic to this calumny, there were Jews openly serving in Haller’s Army. This is not to say that there was no hostility towards Jews in Haller’s Army. Jewish conduct has consequences, as candidly reported in this book, and now described.

JEWS AND HALLER’S ARMY: THE FACTS

While the Haller’s Army was in France, some French Jews joined it. (pp. 179-180). Trawinski (p. 184) stated that he had absolutely no objection to Polish-speaking Polish Jews in his unit, but that he objected to the abundance of French Jews (actually, onetime Polish Jews, some of whom retained some vestigial Polish habits: p. 177). These French Jews had no ties to Poland, created a non-Polish atmosphere, and bred discontent among the men. (p. 184). These French Jews had transferred from the French Army, and numerically dwarfed the Polish Jews in his unit. They tended to keep to themselves and to form a privileged caste. (p. 177). They openly bragged about their cleverness–how they had evaded frontline duty in the French Army by joining Haller’s Army, then still in the rear, and how they had assumed positions in the administration of the same. (pp. 177-178).

THE OTHER SIDE OF THE COIN: JEWS WHO VALUED POLAND

There certainly were Polish Jews who were Polish patriots, and who served in Haller’s Army. Trawinski was on especially friendly terms with one of them. (p. 208).

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GERMAN IMPERIALISTIC CHAUVINISM LONG PRECEDED THE NAZIS

This work features many biographical footnotes. For instance, one learns that the WWI German general, Ludendorff (1863-1937), later cooperated with Hitler up to 1925. (p. 196). One also learns that the infamous chauvinistic German song, DEUTSCHLAND UBER ALLES (Germany Above All), did not begin with the Nazis. Its use went back to at least 1922, based on 19th-century antecedents. (p. 88).

THE POLISH ORGANIZATIONAL DRIVE THAT CULMINATED IN HALLER’S BLUE ARMY

In the Introduction, Wlodzimierz Suleja (p. 6) credits the physical-education Sokol organization for essentially being the embryo of Haller’s eventual army. It functioned in all three Partitioned Polish sectors, though it was illegal in the Russian-ruled one. In 1887, the Polish Sokol transferred to the United States. In time, physical exercises were supplemented with military training. Trawinski (e. g, p. 63) recounted his experiences in Sokol.

Author Trawinski elaborates on his experiences with various recruitment centers and training camps in the USA and Canada. He mentions a major Polish manifestation before the statue of Kosciuszko in Chicago, following a Mass at St. Stanislaw Kostka Church. (p. 128).

The men in Haller’s Army were motivated by “To Arms!” slogans that invoked vengeance for the centuries-old German injustices against Poles and Poland. (p. 135). They also promoted the fact that there could be no Polish State without German-occupied territories such as Poznan, Gniezno, Gdansk, etc. (p. 139).

This memoir provides relatively little detail on combat operations by the Blue Army, and then in France, against the Germans. It stops just as the Army was about to be transferred into the newly-resurrected Polish state.

In the Introduction, Wlodzimierz Suleja estimates that there were nearly 11,000 men in the Blue Army, while in France, as of Spring 1918. According to Trawinski, by no later than the time to leave France for Poland, the Blue Army had expanded to 120,000 fully-armed men. (p. 295).