On a recent education course in Poland, I became friends with a teacher who offered me the opportunity of a lifetime. He asked if I would like to meet Włodzimierz Cieszkowski, the last survivor in Poland of the Polish 2nd Rifle Division that fought in France in 1940. Of course! It was an impromptu visit that I will never forget.
A Polish army in France and internment in Switzerland
September 1939 marked the end of a chapter in European history and the beginning of a new one. The peace that existed in Western Europe since the end of the First World War was broken by Nazi Germany’s invasion of Poland on September 1. For five weeks the Polish army waged a noble yet futile defensive campaign. Poland’s situation worsened after its invasion by the Soviet Union on September 17. Unable to repel two armies from its soil, the Polish government evacuated the country while never officially surrendering.
France welcomed the Polish government-in-exile along with its soldiers. As war loomed on the horizon in early 1939, Poland entered into two separate military alliances with France and Great Britain. Each alliance promised mutual military assistance if either country came under German attack. Both allies declared war on Germany on September 3 and soon after, Polish troops began to arrive in France. Eventually the Polish Army in France grew to 84,000 personnel, composed of four infantry divisions, one motorized brigade, and one mountain infantry brigade.
For nine months after the war began, Germany prepared for its invasion of Western Europe. They finally struck the Lowland Countries and France in May 1940. French and other allied forces fought hard but as was the case in Poland, Germany’s Blitzkrieg was too overwhelming. The Battle of France would end on June 25 but not before hundreds of thousands of allied soldiers evacuated from the country. But not all allied units had the fortune to retreat to Dunkirk.
Left: wartime commemorative badge issued to members of the 2nd Rifle Division, Polish Army in France. From Wikimedia Commons. Right: Lance Corporal of the Polish Army showing his Berthier Fusil Mle 1907/1915 rifle to a French boy at Comblessac, 16 March 1940. HU 109731. Imperial War Museum.
One unit nearly surrounded by the Germans was the 2nd Rifle Division of the Polish Army. Tasked with defending the area of Belfort, the division managed to break out from its encirclement and with prior arrangement, some 12,000 of its soldiers crossed the border into neutral Switzerland. The Poles then faced internment for the remainder of the war.
Overall, the experience of the Polish internees in Switzerland was overwhelmingly positive. They were first placed in large camps but then scattered in Spring 1941. Put to work, the Poles contributed towards the Swiss economy in agriculture, manufacturing, mining, forestry, road construction, and other industries.1 Those that wanted could even continue their educations at all levels, including university.
The internment officially ended in late 1945. With the war now over, the Swiss government presented the Polish soldiers with three options: repatriation to either Soviet occupied Poland or to France, or remain in Switzerland. Not all of the original internees, however, remained by that time. There were successful individual escape attempts and beginning in August 1944, the 2nd Rifle Division organized secret evacuations. Smuggled into France, volunteers joined the French resistance or other allied units.
Only a fraction of the Polish internees chose to return to Poland. They numbered some 2,000 men. Gradually time took its toll and by July 2023, only one veteran of the 2nd Rifle Division remained in Poland. I met this veteran just two weeks shy of his 100th birthday during a recent trip in Poland, eager to share his memories.
Meeting Col. Cieszkowski
During this past July, I attended a history course in Poland sponsored by the Institute of National Remembrance. Along with an international group of teachers, from the Americas, Europe, and Australia, I had the chance to explore the history and culture of the region of Silesia. On this trip I befriended a teacher from Poland also passionate about Second World War history, Grzegorz Nowak. He asked me one day, as we sat across from each other on our tour bus, if I would like to meet a decorated Polish veteran of the war- an acquaintance of his. How could I refuse?
Włodzimierz Cieszkowski was sixteen years old when Germany invaded his country in September 1939. After listening to an appeal on the radio for children up to the age of eighteen to travel east, to safety, Włodzimierz embarked on his wartime adventure. He boarded a train and left Warsaw on September 5.
It was in Krasnystaw, 200 kilometers southeast of Warsaw, that Włodzimierz became entangled with the army. The railroad tracks further on destroyed, Włodzimierz’s train came to a stop and its passengers disembarked. Immediately the army sought out civilian vehicles to transport medical personnel to field hospitals in Lwów. The army requisitioned three vehicles from an aristocrat but was missing one driver. Włodzimierz had a driver’s license and dressed in a military training uniform, he applied for the vacancy and was accepted. He then headed off into the unknown.
A few days later, Włodzimierz’s convoy arrived to Lwów. He was provided a van and began to transport wounded soldiers further south. His next destination was War Hospital No. 101 in Zaleszczyki on the border with Romania. When Soviet forces invaded Poland, Włodzimierz and his unit crossed into Romania, bringing the wounded with them. Włodzimierz managed to avoid internment by securing student travel documents to France from the Polish embassy in Bucharest. He served in the 2nd Rifle Division and endured internment in Switzerland until 1944, when he escaped and fought with the resistance in France. Eventually he joined the 1st Polish Armored Division as a driver.2
Ultimately the soldier chose to return to his native Poland in 1946. He studied medicine at university in Lublin for three years but did not graduate, instead moving to Warsaw and working there until his retirement. It was in a Warsaw nursing home that my friend Gregorz Nowak and I met Włodzimierz on July 11, 2023.
Our meeting with the 99-year-old went well. Still sharp as ever, but hard of hearing, Włodzimierz told the story of how he joined the Polish army and of his time in Switzerland. He had nothing but good things to say about the Swiss. In fact, Włodzimierz returned to Switzerland on several occasions to attend veterans’ functions and ceremonies.3 Ultimately, he has outlived his peers and now holds a unique distinction, as the last veteran of the 2nd Rifle Division living in Poland.
The talk then turned to the subject of veterans’ organizations. Włodzimierz spoke about the National Union of Former Soldiers of the Polish Armed Forces in the West, of which he is currently the president. Formerly the organization was strong with many members but now very few remain. Still, Włodzimierz is full of many ideas and expressed interest in finding a younger volunteer, to whom he could dictate notes and letters. As part of his duties as president, he attends military ceremonies and anniversaries, as well as speaks on issues regarding Polish veterans of the Second World War. He received a promotion to the rank of honorary colonel in recognition of his work.
Before we parted ways, Włodzimierz graciously allowed me to pick a book from his collection to take home. I chose a history of the 2nd Rifle Division during its time in internment. He then brought out rubber stamps for me to examine and stamp into my book. Amongst the stamps was the one-of-a-kind official seal of the 2nd Rifle Division’s medical section, carried all throughout the war. It was an honor to handle some of Włodzimierz’s prized possessions.
Sources
- For a description of the work carried out by Polish internees on one road construction project, see Dominik Landwehr, ‘Safien Valley’s roads: built by Polish soldiers’, Swiss National Museum, 11 July 2023, link: https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/en/2023/07/safien-valleys-roads-built-by-polish-soldiers/ (accessed 11 August 2023).
- Włodzimierz described his military service in an interview with Polish journalist Bogna Janke. See, ‘Włodzimierz Cieszkowski – polski weteran walk o Francję’, Salon24, 20 June 2019, link: https://www.salon24.pl/u/bognajanke/964625,wlodzimierz-cieszkowski-polski-weteran-walk-o-francje (accessed 11 August 2023).
- An exhibit dedicated to the Polish soldiers who were interned in Switzerland during the war is housed as the Polish Museum in Rapperswil. The museum also has a collection of wartime artifacts and papers from Polish internees.