The Poles in Britain, 1940-2000: From Betrayal to Assimilation

by Stachura,Peter D.

• ISBN13: 9780714684444
• ISBN10: 0714684449
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Nonspecific Binding
• Copyright: 2004-03-04
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

This book provides an important, original analysis of the Polish community in the United Kingdom, adding up to a provocative interpretation of the Pole's position in British society. The chapters add to our understanding of the significant Polish military effort alongside the Allies in defeating Nazi Germany, while the appalling price the Poles paid at the end of the war at the Yalta Conference is accentuated. This crass and wholly unjustified betrayal of the cause of a Free Poland by the Allies resulted directly in the formation of a large Polish community in Britain.

Table of Contents

Foreword by Stanislaw Komorowski	ix
Acknowledgements	xi
Notes on Contributors	xiii
List of Plates	xv
Abbreviations	xvii
1 Introduction	1	(5)
Peter D. Stachura
2 Towards and Beyond Yalta	6	(15)
Peter D. Stachura
3 The Establishment of the Polish Section of the SOE	21	(12)
Jeffrey Bines
4 The Government of the Republic of Poland in Exile, 1945-92	33	(15)
Wojciech Rojek
5 The Poles in Scotland, 1940-50	48	(11)
Peter D. Stachura
6 General Stanislaw Maczek and Post-war Britain	59	(10)
Evan McGilvray
7 Homeland Memories and the Polish Community in Leicester	69	(16)
Kathy Burrell
8 Oral History and Polish Émigrés in Britain	85	(13)
Michelle Winslow
9 The Polish Institute and Sikorski Museum and its Archival Holdings	98	(11)
Andrzej Suchcitz
Index	109