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{{Short description|Military unit (1917–1921)}}
{{Other uses|Blue Army (disambiguation)}} {{Other uses|Blue Army (disambiguation)}}
The '''Blue Army''', or '''Haller's Army''', are informal names given to the ] units formed in France during the later stages of ]. The army was created in June 1917 as part of the Polish units allied to the ]. After the Great War ended, the units were transferred to Poland, where they took part in the ] and the ]. The nicknames come from the soldier's French blue uniforms and the name of the army's commander, General ].
] in front of the troops]]


{{EngvarB|date=July 2017}}
== History ==
{{Use dmy dates|date=July 2017}}
]
{{Infobox military unit
]
| unit_name = Blue Army<br /><small>Haller's Army</small>
The first units were formed after the signing of a 1917 alliance by French President ] and the Polish statesman ]. A majority of recruits were either Poles serving in the French army, or former ] from the German and Austro-Hungarian imperial armies (approximately 35,000 men). An additional 23,000 were ]s. Other Poles flocked to the army from all over the world as well — these units included recruits from the former ] and the Polish diaspora in ] (more than 300 men).
| native_name = {{lang|pl|Błękitna Armia}}<br />{{lang|fr|Armée bleue}}
| image = Jeneral Haller przysiega na wiernosc Sztandarowi. (81937553) (cropped).jpg
| image_size = 325px
| caption = General ] swearing for the Polish flag when he was nominated to command the Blue Army, c. 1918
| dates = 1917–1919
| country = {{flagicon|FRA}} ]<br />{{flagicon|POL}} ]
| allegiance =]<br>]
| branch = ]
| command_structure =
| size = 68,500
| battles = ]<br />]<br />]
| commander1 = ]
| commander1_label = General
| commander2 = ]
| commander2_label = General
}}
]
The '''Blue Army''' (]: ''Błękitna Armia''; ]: ''Armée bleue''), or '''Haller's Army''', was a Polish military contingent created in ] during the latter stages of ]. The name came from the French-issued ] worn by the soldiers. The symbolic term used to describe the troops was subsequently adopted by General ] to represent all newly organized ] fighting in western Europe.


The army was formed on 4 June 1917, and was made up of Polish volunteers serving alongside ] in France during ]. After fighting on the ], the army was transferred to ], where it joined other Polish military formations fighting for the return of Poland's independence. The Blue Army played a pivotal role in ensuring Polish victory in the ]. Later Haller's troops took part in Poland's defeat of the advancing ] forces in the ].
The army was initially under French political control and under the military command of General ]. However, on February 23, 1918, political sovereignty was granted to the ] and soon other Polish units were formed, most notably the ] and ] in ]. On September 28 Russia formally signed an agreement with the Entente that accepted the Polish units in France as ''the only, independent, allied and co-belligerent Polish army''. On October 4, 1918 the National Committee appointed General Józef Haller de Hallenburg as overall commander.


==History==
The first unit to enter combat on the ] was the 1st Rifle Regiment (''1 pułk strzelców''), fighting from July 1918 in ] and the ]. By October the entire ] joined the fight in the area of ] and ].
]


===Background===
The army continued to gather new recruits after the end of The Great War on November 11, 1918, many of them ethnic Poles who had been conscripted into the Austrian army and later taken prisoners by the Allies. By early 1919 it numbered 68,500 men, fully equipped by the French government. After being denied permission by the German government to enter Poland via the Baltic port city of Danzig (]), transport was arranged via train. Between April and June of that year the units were transported together intact to a reborn ] across Germany in sealed train cars. Weapons were secured in separate cars and kept under guard to appease German concerns about a foreign army traversing its territory. Immediately after its arrival the divisions were integrated into the overall Polish Army and transported to the fronts of the Polish-Ukrainian War, then being fought over control of eastern ].
====Canadian origins====
Beginning in 1914, the Polish community in North America began to organize in hopes of setting up a military organization with an end-goal of an independent Poland. In late 1914 a delegation was sent by the Polish-American group PCKR (Polski Centralny Komitet Ratunkowy / Polish Central Relief Committee) to ] in hopes of setting up a Polish unit made up of North Americans of Polish ancestry, but the Canadian government rebuffed them.<ref name="Skrzeszewski p. 3">{{harvnb|Skrzeszewski|2014|p=3}}</ref> As the war dragged on, they tried again and found a supporter in Quebec industrialist William Evan Price III. With his contacts, the Polish delegation met ], the Canadian ], and pitched a "Polish Legion of Canada" composed of three battalions.<ref name="Skrzeszewski p. 3"/> This time there was considerable interest, and the Canadians sought and were given permission by British high command to start setting up a Polish Army Camp in ].<ref name="Skrzeszewski p. 4">{{harvnb|Skrzeszewski|2014|p= 4}}</ref><ref name="Biskupski p. 339">{{harvnb|Biskupski|1999|p= 339}}</ref> With permission granted the Polish army-in-exile called its camp "] Camp," honouring a Polish patriot who led the 1794 ] aimed at freeing the country from ] and the ].<ref name="Hind p.">{{harvnb|Hind|2015|p= }}</ref> Over 20,000 men trained in Canada,<ref name="Ruskoski p.">{{harvnb|Ruskoski|2006|p= }}</ref> equipped and paid by France. Yet even though the camp was in Canada and supported financially by the French, the ] viewed it as a threat to their neutrality.<ref name="Hind p."/>


====America enters the war====
William Hagen states that after helping to capture ], the Blue Army forces, together with lawless civilians, enagaged in ] against the Jewish and Ukrainian inhabitants resulting in hundreds of civilian deaths .<ref>William W. Hagen. Murder in the East: German-Jewish Liberal Reactions to Anti-Jewish Violence in Poland and Other East European Lands, 1918–1920. ''Central European History'', Volume 34, Number 1, 2001 , pp. 1-30. Page 8.</ref> However, according to the Cambridge History of Poland, in 1918 the Army was still in France where it took part in final stages of military operations on the Western Front, and the first units of the Blue Army did not reach Poland until the spring of 1919.<ref>William Fiddian Reddaway, '''', pg. 477, Cambridge University Press, 1971.</ref> Likewise ''Kronika Polski'' gives April 14, 1919, more than four months after the pogrom took place, as the date that the first transports of Blue Army soldiers departed France for Poland.<ref>Andrzej Nowak, ''Kronika Polski'', Kluszczynski Publishers, 1998</ref> Kay Lundgreen-Nielsen states that the first units of the Blue Army did not leave France until April 15th, 1919, its departure having been delayed by opposition from Britain and United States.<ref>Kay Lundgreen-Nielsen, '''', pg. 225, Odense University Press, 1979</ref> Another source states that a special protocol had to be agreed to before the Blue Army could return to Poland, and that this did not happen until April of 1919, and thus the Blue Army was not in Poland during the first six months of Polish independence.<ref>Manfred F. Boemeke, Gerald D. Feldman, Elisabeth Gläser, '''', pg. 324, Cambridge University Press, 1998</ref> Wandycz gives April 4th, 1919, as the data on which this special protocol, named after Marshall Foch and the German diplomat ], was finally signed.<ref>Piotr Stefan Wandycz, ''''</ref> Nevertheless, after their arrrival Haller's troops engaged in looting, violence and atrocities against Jews. Haller's troops established a reputation as, in the words of scholar Pavel Korzec, "the worst torturers of Jews." <ref> Pavel Korzec. (1993). Polish-Jewish Relations During World War I. In Herbert Strauss, Ed. Walter de Gruyter: pp.1034-1035 </ref>


The emergence of the Blue Army was closely associated with the ] in April, 1917. A month earlier, ] submitted a proposal to ] to accept Polish-American volunteers for service on the Western Front in the name of Poland's independence. Some 24,000 Poles were taken in (out of 38,000 who applied)<ref name="E-E-S" /> and after a brief military training, they were sent to France to join General Haller,<ref name="Kochanski" /> including many women volunteers (PSK). Polish-Americans were eager to fight for freedom and the American-style democracy because they themselves escaped persecution by the empires who partitioned Poland a century earlier.<ref name="J-K">{{cite book |author=Anna D. Jaroszynska-Kirchmann |title=Polish American Press, 1902–1969 |publisher=Lexington Books |year=2013 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qpBlAgAAQBAJ&q=%22Blue+Army+%28Haller%E2%80%99s+Army%29%22 |pages=464– |isbn=9780739188736 }}</ref> When the war erupted, the American Polonia created the Polish Central Relief Committee to help with the war effort, although ethnically Polish volunteers arrived in France from all Polish diasporas at the same time numbering over 90,000 soldiers eventually.<ref name="E-E-S">{{cite book|editor1-first=Melvin|editor1-last=Ember|editor1-link=Melvin Ember|editor2-first=Carol R.|editor2-last=Ember|editor2-link=Carol R. Ember|editor3-first=Ian|editor3-last=Skoggard|title=Encyclopedia of Diasporas: Immigrant and Refugee Cultures Around the World. Volume I: Overviews and Topics; Volume II: Diaspora Communities|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7QEjPVyd9YMC&pg=PA260|year=2004|publisher=Springer Science & Business Media|isbn=978-0-306-48321-9|page=260|access-date=22 July 2017}}</ref> The ] responded in kind by recognizing the ] formed in France (led by Dmowski) as Poland's interim government, with Wilson's written promise (issued on 8 January 1918) to recreate a sovereign Polish state after their victory. Poland's long-term occupier, Tsarist Russia, got out of the war, overrun by the ] who signed a treaty in Brest-Litovsk on 3 March 1918, which was voided after Imperial Germany was overthrown in November 1918 and the successor revolutionary government surrendered in the 11 November 1918 armistice.<ref name="Kochanski" />
The perilous journey from France, through revolutionary Germany, into Poland, in the spring of 1919 has been documented by those who lived through it:
] (''Polish National Committee'') sanctioned by France and other ] as a provisional Polish government in Paris, 1918]]
]


The Blue Army was formally merged into the Polish Army after ] between the Allies and Germany.<ref name="E-E-S" /> Meanwhile, three interim Polish governments emerged independently of one another. A socialist government led by Daszyński was formed in Lublin. The National Committee emerged in Kraków. Daszyński (lacking support)<ref name="Reddaway1971">{{cite book|editor1-first=William Fiddian|editor1-last=Reddaway|editor2-first=J. H.|editor2-last=Penson|editor3-first=O.|editor3-last=Halecki|editor4-first=R.|editor4-last=Dyboski|title=The Cambridge History of Poland: From Augustus II to Pilsudski (1697–1935)|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=As43AAAAIAAJ&pg=PA477|year=1971|publisher=Cambridge University Press Archive|page=477|id=GGKEY:2G7C1LPZ3RN}}</ref> decided to join forces with ] who was just released by the Germans from Magdeburg. On 16 November 1918, Poland declared independence.<ref name="Kochanski" /> A decree defining the new republic was issued in Warsaw on 22 November 1918. A month later, Paderewski joined in from France. At about the same time, heavily armed Ukrainians from the ''Sitchovi Stril'ci'' (]) seized the city of ], and the battle for the control of the city erupted against Piłsudski's legionaries.<ref name="Reddaway1971" /> It was a high-stakes gamble with all sides attempting to establish a new regime ahead of the European peace conference in Versailles of January 1919. Similar Polish uprisings erupted in Poznań on 27 December 1918,<ref name="Reddaway1971" /> Upper Silesia in August 1919 then again in 1920 and May 1921 — separated by the ad-hoc (or outright illegitimate) plebiscites with trainloads of German agents acting as local inhabitants.<ref name="Kochanski" /> In the spring of 1919, the Blue Army (no longer needed in the West) was transported to Poland by train. The German forces were very slow to withdraw.<ref name="Reddaway1971" /> In all, some 2,100 soldiers of the Blue Army who enlisted in France from the Polish diasporas died in the fighting, including over 50 officers serving with Haller. Over 1,600 men were wounded.<ref name="E-E-S" /> Haller's army included 25,000 ethnic Poles drafted against their will by the German and Austrian armies, out of 50,000 conscripts from across partitioned Poland. They joined Haller from the POW camps in Italy in 1919.<ref name="Reddaway1971" /> The final borders of Poland were set only in October, 1921 by the ].<ref name="Kochanski">{{cite book|last=Kochanski|first=Halik|author-link=Halik Kochanski|title=The Eagle Unbowed: Poland and the Poles in the Second World War|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EJ5vIyDBpLcC&pg=PA5|access-date=23 July 2017|year=2012|publisher=Harvard University Press|isbn=978-0-674-06816-2|pages=5–9}}</ref>
Captain Stanislaw I. Nastal


===World War I===
''Preparations for the departure lasted for some time. The question of transit became a difficult and complicated problem. Finally after a long wait a decision was made and officially agreed upon between the Allies and Germany.''
====Western Front====
] in Siberia, c.1919]]


The first divisions were formed after the official signing of a 1917 alliance by French President ] and the Polish statesman ]. The majority of the recruits, approximately 35,000 of them, were either Poles serving in the ] or former captured Polish ], who were conscripted and forced to serve in the German ] and Austrian ] armies. Many other Poles also joined from all over the world—these units included recruits from the ] with an additional 23,000 ] volunteers and former troops of the ]. Members of the Polish diaspora community in ] joined the army, with more than 300 men volunteering as well.
''The first transports with the Blue Army set out in the first half of April 1919. Train after train tore along though Germany to the homeland, to Poland.<ref>The Blue Division, Stanislaw I. Nastal, Polish Army Veteran’s Association in America, Cleveland, Ohio 1922 </ref>


The Blue Army was initially placed under direct French military control and commanded by General ]. However, on 23 February 1918, political and military sovereignty was granted to the ], and soon after that, the army was directly commanded by independent Polish authorities. Also, more units were formed, most notably the ] and ] Rifle Divisions in ]. On 28 September 1919, Russian government officials formally signed an agreement with the ] that officially recognized the Polish military units in France as "the only independent, allied and co-belligerent Polish army." On 4 October 1918, the National Committee appointed General ] as chief commander of the Polish Legions in France. The first unit to enter combat on the ] was the 1st Rifle Regiment (''1 Pułk Strzelców Polskich'') fighting from July 1918 in ] and the ]. By October, the entire 1st Rifle Division had joined the campaign around the area of ] and ].


====Transfer to Poland====
Major Stefan Wyczolkowski
].]]


The army continued to gather recruits after the end of World War I. Many of these new volunteers were ethnic Poles who were conscripted into the German, Austrian and Russian armies, and later discharged following the signing of the ] on 11 November 1918. By early 1919, the Blue Army numbered 68,500 men and was fully equipped by the French government. After being denied permission by German officials to enter Poland via the ] port city of Danzig ('']''), transportation was arranged via rail.
''On 15 April 1919 the regiment began its trip to Poland from the Bayon railroad station in four transports, via Mainz, Erfurt, Leipzig, Kalisz, and Warsaw, and arrived in Poland, where it was quartered in individual battalions;, in Chelm 1st Battalion, supernumerary company and command of the regiment; 3rd Battalion in Kowel; and the 2nd Battalion in Wlodzimierz''.<ref>Outline of the Wartime History of the 43rd regiment of the Eastern Frontier Riflemen, Major Stefan Wyczolkowski, Warsaw 1928</ref>


Between April and June of that year, all the army units were moved to a ], across Germany in sealed train cars. Weapons were secured in separate compartments and kept under guard to appease German concerns about a foreign army traversing its territory. Immediately after its arrival, the divisions were integrated into the regular Polish Army and sent to the front lines to fight in the ], which was being contested in eastern ]. The perilous journey from France (through revolutionary Germany) to Poland in the spring of 1919 was documented by those who lived through it.


Captain Stanisław I. Nastal: ''Preparations for the departure lasted for some time. The question of transit became a difficult and complicated problem. Finally after a long wait a decision was made and officially agreed upon between the Allies and Germany. The first transports with the Blue Army set out in the first half of April, 1919. Train after train tore along though Germany to the homeland, to Poland.<ref name="association">The Blue Division, Stanislaw I. Nastal, Polish Army Veteran's Association in America, Cleveland, Ohio 1922 {{page needed|date=November 2011}}</ref>''
Major Stanislaw Bobrowski


''On 13 April 1919 the regiment set out across Germany for Poland, to reinforce other units of the Polish army being created in the homeland amid battle, shielding with their youthful breasts the resurrected Poland''.<ref>Outline of the Wartime History of the 44th Regiment of Eastern Frontier Riflemen, Major Stanislaw Bobrowski, Warsaw 1929</ref> Major Stefan Wyczółkowski: ''On 15 April 1919 the regiment began its trip to Poland from the Bayon railroad station in four transports, via Mainz, Erfurt, Leipzig, Kalisz, and Warsaw, and arrived in Poland, where it was quartered in individual battalions; in Chełm 1st Battalion, supernumerary company and command of the regiment; 3rd Battalion in Kowel; and the 2nd Battalion in Wlodzimierz''.<ref name="wyczolkowski">Outline of the Wartime History of the 43rd regiment of the Eastern Frontier Riflemen, Major Stefan Wyczolkowski, Warsaw 1928 {{page needed|date=November 2011}}</ref>


Major Stanisław Bobrowski: ''On 13 April 1919 the regiment set out across Germany for Poland, to reinforce other units of the Polish army being created in the homeland amid battle, shielding with their youthful breasts the resurrected Poland''.<ref name="stanislaw">Outline of the Wartime History of the 44th Regiment of Eastern Frontier Riflemen, Major Stanislaw Bobrowski, Warsaw 1929 {{page needed|date=November 2011}}</ref>


Major Jerzy Dąbrowski: ''Finally on 18 April 1919 the regiment's first transport set out for Poland. On 23 April 1919 the leading divisions of the 3rd Regiment of Polish Riflemen set foot on Polish soil, now free thanks to their own efforts''.<ref name="dabrowski">Outline of the Wartime History of the 45th Regiment of Eastern Frontier Infantry Riflemen, Major Jerzy Dabrowski, Warsaw 1928 {{page needed|date=November 2011}}</ref>
Major Jerzy Dabrowski


Lt. Wincenty Skarzyński: ''Weeks passed. April 1919 arrived – then plans were changed: it was decided irrevocably to transport our army to Gdańsk instead by trains, through Germany. Many officers came from Poland, among them Major Gorecki, to coordinate technical details with General Haller.''<ref name="skarzynski">The Polish Army in France in Light of the Facts, Wincenty Skarzynski, Warsaw 1929 {{page needed|date=November 2011}}</ref>
''Finally on 18 April 1919 the regiment’s first transport set out for Poland. On 23 April 1919 the leading divisions of the 3rd Regiment of Polish Riflemen set foot on Polish soil, now free thanks to their own efforts''.<ref>Outline of the Wartime History of the 45th Regiment of Eastern Frontier Infantry Riflemen, Major Jerzy Dabrowski, Warsaw 1928</ref>


===Polish–Ukrainian War===
] tanks near the city of ] (''Lviv''); ], c.1919]]


Haller's troops changed the balance of power in ] and ]. Their arrival allowed the Poles to repel the Ukrainians and establish a demarcation line at the river ] on 14 May 1919. The Blue Army was equipped by the ], and supported by experienced French officers specifically ordered to fight against the ] in the ], but not the ]. Despite the diplomatic conditions, the Poles dispatched Haller's Army against the Ukrainians first, instead of the Bolsheviks. The tactical initiative was done in order to break the stalemate in eastern Galicia. In response, the allies sent several telegrams ordering the Polish government to halt its offensive, as using the allied-equipped army against the ] specifically contradicted the status of the French military advisors, but the demands were ignored.<ref name="Watt">{{cite book| author=Watt, R. | title=Bitter Glory: Poland and its fate 1918–1939| location= New York | publisher= Simon and Schuster | year = 1982|isbn=0671453793 }} {{page needed|date=November 2011}}</ref><ref name="Subtelny2000">{{cite book|last=Subtelny|first=Orest|author-link=Orest Subtelny|title=Ukraine: A History|url=https://archive.org/details/ukrainehistory00subt_0|url-access=registration|access-date=23 July 2017|year=2000|publisher=University of Toronto Press|isbn=978-0-8020-8390-6|page=}}</ref> The offensive by the Blue Army succeeded in breaking the stalemate and brought about a collapse of the West Ukrainian army. In July 1919, after securing victory on the Ukrainian front, the Blue Army was transferred to the border with Germany in ], where it prepared defensive positions against a possible German invasion of Poland from the west.
Lt. Wincenty Skarzynski


===Polish–Bolshevik War===
''Weeks passed. April 1919 arrived – then plans were changed: it was decided irrevocably to transport our army to Gdansk instead by trains, through Germany. Many officers came from Poland, among them Major Gorecki, to coordinate technical details with General Haller.'' <ref>The Polish Army in France in Light of the Facts, Wincenty Skarzynski, Warsaw 1929</ref>
During the ] several Blue Army formations were merged with the regular Polish army, and jointed together to form the ] and ]. Haller's well trained and highly motivated troops, as well as their British built ] reconnaissance planes, Italian made ] fighter planes and French ] tanks, also played a significant role in the war. The Polish-American first engaged the Bolshevik forces near the town of ] (''Równe'' in Polish) on 18 June 1919. After pushing the Bolsheviks east, the Blue Army advance halted and the troops engaged in small skirmishes until the end of the war. Haller's troops would try to entrap small units of Bolshevik soldiers as well as raid garrisons for food, ammunition and to spread panic amongst the enemy.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.hallersarmy.com/FranceBattles.php|title=The Polish Army in France, Haller Army, Blue Army - Battles in France|website=www.hallersarmy.com}}</ref>


===Post-war===
] district of ]]]
]
The Blue Army's 15th Infantry Rifle Regiment formed a basis for the ] (part of the ]) after the end of World War I.


During the ] crackdown in Poland after ], most of the history related to the ] and the Blue Army was ], distorted and repressed by the ].


===Anti-Jewish violence===
Haller's Army changed the balance of power in ] and in ], and its arrival allowed the Poles to repel the Ukrainians and establish a demarcation line at the river ].
Throughout the fighting on the Ukrainian front, soldiers from the Blue Army assaulted local Jews, believing that some of them were cooperating with Poland's enemies.<ref name="encycj">{{cite encyclopedia|last=Landau|first=Moshe|author-link=Moshe Landau|url=https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/judaica/ejud_0002_0008_0_08257.html|title=Haller's Army|encyclopedia=Encyclopedia Judaica|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110717075923/http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/judaica/ejud_0002_0008_0_08257.html|archive-date=17 July 2011|quote=Haller's army ("Blue Army"), force of Polish volunteers organized in France during the last year of World War I, responsible for the murder of Jews and anti-Jewish pogroms in Galicia and the Ukraine... Attacks on individual Jews on the streets and highways, murderous pogroms on Jewish settlements, and deliberate provocative acts became commonplace.|access-date=5 October 2015|df=dmy}}</ref><ref name="auto">] (2002), '''' Central European University Press; pg. 215, via Google Books. Notes not included.</ref><ref name="international">Carole Fink (2006), '''' Cambridge University Press; pg. 227, via Google Books.</ref> In ] this included fighting a Jewish battalion of the ] under the leadership of Solomon Leinberg.<ref>Alexander Victor Prusin (2005). Nationalizing a Borderland: War, Ethnicity, and Anti-Jewish Violence in East Galicia, 1914–1920. Tuscaloosa, AL: University of Alabama</ref><ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4llpAAAAMAAJ&q=solomon+leinberg|title=The Ukrainian Quarterly|date=1987|publisher=Ukrainian Congress Committee of America|language=en}}</ref>
]]].
In July 1919 the Army was transferred to the border with Germany, where it prepared defences against any possible German invasion.


On 27 May 1919 a soldier by the name of Stanisław Dziadecki who served in one of the Blue Army's rifle divisions in ], was shot and wounded while on patrol. A Jewish tailor was suspected of the shooting, and was promptly executed by Haller's soldiers and accompanying civilians, who proceeded to loot Jewish homes and businesses, killing 5-10 Jews and injuring several dozen more.<ref name="Carole Finke 2006 pg. 230">Carole Finke. (2006). Defending the Rights of Others The Great Powers, the Jews, and International Minority Protection, 1878–1938. Cambridge: ], pg. 230</ref><ref name="Wakounig2012">{{cite book|author=Marija Wakounig|title=From Collective Memories to Intercultural Exchanges|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5e5w8T1DNWwC&pg=PA196|date=28 November 2012|publisher=LIT Verlag Münster|isbn=978-3-643-90287-0|page=196}}</ref> Pavel Korzec wrote that as the army traveled further east, some of Haller's soldiers, as a way to exact retribution, continued to loot Jewish properties and engage in violence.<ref name="Strauss p. 1034–1035">{{harvnb|Strauss|1993|pp=1034–1035 footnote 20}}</ref> Willian Hagen described Haller's troops together with civilian mobs as assaulting Jewish policemen, beating worshipers and destroying Jewish prayer books in synagogues in eastern ]. Polish police and regular army soldiers were occasionally able to restrain Haller's troops.<ref>William W. Hagen. (2018). Anti-Jewish Violence in Poland, 1914–1920. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp.316-322</ref>
Haller's well trained and highly motivated troops, as well as their ]s and excellent ] tanks, formed part of the core of the Polish forces during the ensuing ].


According to ], in the year and a half prior to the Blue Army's arrival, the total number of Jewish casualties in the region was between 400 and 500; Haller's troops' violence caused this number to double.<ref>Howard M. Sachar. (2007). ''Dreamland: Europeans and Jews in the Aftermath of the Great War'', Random House LLC: page 25.</ref> The Morgenthau Report estimated that the total number of Jews killed as a result of actions made by the Polish military (including the Blue Army) did not exceed 200–300.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://archive.org/details/cu31924028644783|title=The Jews in Poland: official reports of the American and British Investigating Missions|date=8 October 2018|publisher=Chicago : National Polish Committee of America|via=Internet Archive}}</ref> As a result of the Blue Army's activities, General Haller's visit to the United States was met with protests from American Jewish and Ukrainian communities.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.jta.org/1923/11/27/archive/general-hallers-visit-to-boston-curtailed|title=General Haller's Visit to Boston Curtailed|publisher=]|date=27 November 1923|access-date=22 July 2017}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.jta.org/1923/11/13/archive/bnai-brith-of-boston-decry-reception-to-haller|title=Bnai Brith of Boston Decry Reception to Haller|publisher=]|date=13 November 1923|access-date=22 July 2017}}</ref> ] wrote that in most cases it's impossible to disentangle gratuitous antisemitism from commonplace looting and soldier brutality. He claims that the term "pogrom" in the accepted sense of the deliberate killing of Jewish civilians could not be applied to the great majority of the incidents in which the Blue Army was involved.<ref>Tadeusz Piotrowski. (1998). ''Poland's Holocaust: Ethnic Strife, Collaboration with Occupying Forces and Genocide in the Second Republic, 1918–1947'', McFarland: page 43.</ref>
As with most of the history related to the Polish-Soviet War, information on the Blue Army was ]ed, distorted and repressed by the ] during its ] oppression of the 1945-1989 ].


====Causes====
The 15th Infantry Rifle Regiment of the Blue Army was the basis for the ] of the ]
According to ] there were a number of causes for the anti-semitic acts of the Polish forces. Socioeconomic tensions regarding land reforms and conflation of Jews with the landed class led to the feelings of hostility. Also, the lack of appropriate government compensation to the Polish soldiers led to soldiers viewing the looting of Jews as partial re-compensation for their service. For soldiers from Western Poland who remembered how many Jews have previously collaborated with Germany during a recent Polish-German conflict in 1919, this allowed framing of anti-semitic attacks as retribution on enemies of the Polish nation. Further, for many Poles Jews were associated with Bolshevism, and the ] in particular promoted the stereotype of ].<ref name="Prusin 2005 pg. 103">{{cite book |author=Alexander Victor Prusin |title=Nationalizing a Borderland: War, Ethnicity, and Anti-Jewish Violence in East Galicia, 1914–1920 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jb5tAAAAMAAJ&q=Haller |year=2005 |location=Tuscaloosa, AL |publisher=] |isbn=0817314598 |page=103}} ''Note:'' the exact phrase 'Blue Army' is inside this book. It refers to it as Haller's Army</ref> Likewise, according to ], some perpetrators of anti-Jewish violence legitimized their actions in the name of national self defense. Officers and soldiers in the Blue Army expressed these tendencies, and often treated all Jews as communists, despite the traditional religious character and political diversity of Jewish communities.<ref name="threatening"></ref> Some of the more significant incidents of abuse were inflicted by the Polish-American volunteers. It is likely that the cultural shock of finding themselves confronted by a multitude of unfamiliar ethnic, political and religious groups that inhabited Western Ukraine led to a feeling of vulnerability, that in turn provoked the violent outbursts. Encyclopaedia Judaica writes that because of its French ties the Blue Army enjoyed independence from the main Polish command, and some of its soldiers exploited this when engaging in undisciplined action against Jewish communities in Galicia.<ref>Moshe Landau (2007). Encyclopaedia Judaica. Macmillan Reference Detroit, USA. Volume 8.</ref>

==Personnel==
===Veteran status of Polish-American volunteers===
After the war, the ] volunteers who served within Haller's Army were not recognized as veterans by either the American or Polish governments. This led to friction between the Polish community in the United States and the Polish government, and resulted in the subsequent refusal by Polish-Americans to again help the Polish cause militarily.<ref name="communities">Martin Conway, José Gotovitch. (2001). ''Europe in exile: European exile communities in Britain, 1940–1945.'' ] pg. 191</ref>
<gallery>

File:Uczestnicy Zjazdu SWAP w Cleveland.jpg|Polish Veterans Association Convention Cleveland Ohio 1921
File:Weterani z Placowki 57 SWAP w Elizabeth NJ.jpg|Polish Veterans Association Elizabeth City New Jersey 1928
File:Polish American vets of World War I.jpg|] who fought in the Blue Army. Image taken in ] (1955) and featured in ]
</gallery>

===Jewish volunteers===
] enlisted and fought alongside ethnic Poles within the Blue Army, serving as soldiers,<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iMBtAAAAMAAJ&q=%C5%BCydzi+w+armii+hallera|title=Żydzi bojownicy o niepodległość Polski: 1918-1939: reprint|last1=Getter|first1=Norbert|last2=Schall|first2=Jakub|last3=Schipper|first3=Zygmunt|date=1939|publisher=Rada Ochrony Pamięci Walk i Męczeństwa|isbn=9788391666333|language=pl|trans-title=Jewish fighters for the independence of Poland}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xvVDAQAAIAAJ&q=Brachman+Nuchem|title=SŁOWNIK BIOGRAFICZNY Żydów z Podkarpackiego|last=Potocki|first=Andrzej|date=2010|publisher=CARPATHIA|isbn=9788362076246|pages=74|trans-title=A BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY OF THE JEWS}}</ref> doctors and nurses.<ref name="Goldstein">Goldstein, Edward. The Galitzianer, the quarterly journal of Gesher Galicia, May 2002.</ref><ref name="Strauss p. 1034–1035" /><ref name="HeikoHaumann">Heiko Haumann. (2002). ''A history of East European Jews '' Central European University Press, pg. 215</ref> According to Edward Goldstein writing in ''The Galitzianer'', on examining a list of 1,381 casualty names compiled by Paul Valasek, he identified 62 (or approximately 5%) Jewish sounding names in the list.<ref name="Goldstein" />

===Notable persons===
] the paternal grandfather of the German chancellor ], in Blue Army uniform, 1919]]

* ], the paternal grandfather of the German chancellor ],<ref>, Die Welt</ref> and an ethnic Pole born in ], ] served in the Blue Army. During World War I, he was drafted into the German Army in 1915 and fought on the western front. After being taken as a prisoner of war in France, he joined the Blue Army, and subsequently fought in the Polish-Ukrainian and Polish-Soviet wars. After ending his service Kaźmierczak emigrated back to Germany.<ref>, Der Spiegel</ref><ref>, The Local</ref>
* ], Commander of the II Batallon of the 1st Tank Regiment.


== Order of battle == == Order of battle ==
The ] shows the hierarchical organization of an armed force participating in a military operation or campaign. The Blue Army order of battle was as follows:
* ]
* '''I Polish Corps'''
** ]
** ] ** 1st Rifle Division
** 2nd Rifle Division
** 1st Heavy Artillery Regiment ** 1st Heavy Artillery Regiment
* ] - formed in Russia * '''II Polish Corps'''
** ] ** ]
** ] ** ]
* ] * '''III Polish Corps'''
** ] ** 3rd Rifle Division
** 6th Rifle Division
** ]
** 3rd Heavy Artillery Regiment ** 3rd Heavy Artillery Regiment
* Independent Units * '''Independent Units'''
** ] ** 7th Rifle Division
** ''Training Division'' - cadre
** 1st Tank Regiment ** 1st Tank Regiment
** ''Training Division'' – cadre

]
]
]


== See also == == See also ==
* ] * ]
* ]


==Bibliography== ==Bibliography==
'''Notes'''
*Paul Valasek, ''Haller's Polish Army in France'', Chicago, 2006
{{Reflist}}
'''References'''


*{{cite journal |last=Biskupski|first= M. B.|date= 1999|title=Canada and the Creation of a Polish Army, 1914–1918|journal= ]|volume= 44|issue= 3 |pages=339–380|lccn=57034642|jstor=25779141|oclc =260158745|issn=2330-0841}}
==References==
*{{cite journal |last=Hapak|first= Joseph T. |date= 1991|title=Selective service and Polish Army recruitment during World War I|journal= Journal of American Ethnic History|volume= 10|issue= 4 |pages=38–60|jstor=27500870|publisher=University of Illinois Press on behalf of the Immigration & Ethnic History Society|issn=0278-5927}}
{{reflist}}
*{{cite web |last=Hind|first=Andrew |date=January 27, 2015|url = http://today-magazine.com/polish-patriots-in-niagara-on-the-lake-1917-1918/|title =Polish Patriots: in Niagara-on-the-Lake 1917-1918|publisher = Today Magazine| access-date = November 30, 2017 }}
<!-- P -->
*{{cite journal |last=Pliska|first= Stanley R. |date= 1965|title=The 'Polish-American Army' 1917–1921|journal= ]|volume= 10|issue= 3 |pages=46–59|jstor=25776612|lccn=57034642|oclc =260158745|issn=2330-0841}}
*{{cite thesis |last=Ruskoski|first=David Thomas |degree=PhD |date=July 28, 2006|title=The Polish Army in France: Immigrants in America, World War I Volunteers in France, Defenders of the Recreated State in Poland|publisher=]|url=https://scholarworks.gsu.edu/history_diss/1/|access-date=November 30, 2017}}
*{{cite book |last=Skrzeszewski|first=Stan | title = The Daily Life of Polish Soldiers Niagara Camp, 1917-1919 The Newspaper Columns of Elizabeth Ascher, St. Catharines Standard, 1917-1919|year=2014| publisher = Niagara Historical Museum| url= http://www.niagarahistorical.museum/media/Standard1917-1919Draft2-StanSkrzeszewski.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181010011410/http://www.niagarahistorical.museum/media/Standard1917-1919Draft2-StanSkrzeszewski.pdf |archive-date=10 October 2018 }} <small>- Total pages: 100</small>
*{{cite book |last=Strauss|first=Herbert A. | title = Current Research on Anti-Semitism: Hostages of Modernization, Volumes 2-3|year=1993| publisher = ]| isbn= 9783110137156 }} <small>- Total pages: 1427 </small>
*{{cite book |last=Valasek|first=Paul S. | title = Haller's Polish Army in France|year=2006| publisher = Whitehall Printing| isbn=9780977975709 }} <small>- Total pages: 432 </small>


==External links== ==External links==
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* {{official|http://www.hallersarmy.com/ }}
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Latest revision as of 19:58, 16 October 2024

Military unit (1917–1921) For other uses, see Blue Army (disambiguation).

Blue Army
Haller's Army
Błękitna Armia
Armée bleue
General Józef Haller swearing for the Polish flag when he was nominated to command the Blue Army, c. 1918
Active1917–1919
CountryFrance France
Poland Poland
AllegianceEntente Powers
Whites (anti-Bolsheviks)
BranchPolish Legions
Size68,500
EngagementsWorld War I
Polish–Ukrainian War
Polish–Soviet War
Commanders
GeneralJózef Haller von Hallenburg
GeneralLouis Archinard
Military unit

The Blue Army (Polish: Błękitna Armia; French: Armée bleue), or Haller's Army, was a Polish military contingent created in France during the latter stages of World War I. The name came from the French-issued blue military uniforms worn by the soldiers. The symbolic term used to describe the troops was subsequently adopted by General Józef Haller von Hallenburg to represent all newly organized Polish Legions fighting in western Europe.

The army was formed on 4 June 1917, and was made up of Polish volunteers serving alongside allied forces in France during World War I. After fighting on the Western Front, the army was transferred to Poland, where it joined other Polish military formations fighting for the return of Poland's independence. The Blue Army played a pivotal role in ensuring Polish victory in the Polish–Ukrainian War. Later Haller's troops took part in Poland's defeat of the advancing Bolshevik forces in the Polish–Soviet War.

History

Color portraits on front cover of a magazine
The leaders of the Polish armies

Background

Canadian origins

Beginning in 1914, the Polish community in North America began to organize in hopes of setting up a military organization with an end-goal of an independent Poland. In late 1914 a delegation was sent by the Polish-American group PCKR (Polski Centralny Komitet Ratunkowy / Polish Central Relief Committee) to Canada in hopes of setting up a Polish unit made up of North Americans of Polish ancestry, but the Canadian government rebuffed them. As the war dragged on, they tried again and found a supporter in Quebec industrialist William Evan Price III. With his contacts, the Polish delegation met Sam Hughes, the Canadian Minister of Militia and Defence, and pitched a "Polish Legion of Canada" composed of three battalions. This time there was considerable interest, and the Canadians sought and were given permission by British high command to start setting up a Polish Army Camp in Niagara-on-the-Lake. With permission granted the Polish army-in-exile called its camp "Tadeusz Kościuszko Camp," honouring a Polish patriot who led the 1794 Kościuszko Uprising aimed at freeing the country from Imperial Russia and the Kingdom of Prussia. Over 20,000 men trained in Canada, equipped and paid by France. Yet even though the camp was in Canada and supported financially by the French, the Americans viewed it as a threat to their neutrality.

America enters the war

The emergence of the Blue Army was closely associated with the American entry into World War I in April, 1917. A month earlier, Ignacy Jan Paderewski submitted a proposal to U.S. House of Representatives to accept Polish-American volunteers for service on the Western Front in the name of Poland's independence. Some 24,000 Poles were taken in (out of 38,000 who applied) and after a brief military training, they were sent to France to join General Haller, including many women volunteers (PSK). Polish-Americans were eager to fight for freedom and the American-style democracy because they themselves escaped persecution by the empires who partitioned Poland a century earlier. When the war erupted, the American Polonia created the Polish Central Relief Committee to help with the war effort, although ethnically Polish volunteers arrived in France from all Polish diasporas at the same time numbering over 90,000 soldiers eventually. The Entente responded in kind by recognizing the Polish National Committee formed in France (led by Dmowski) as Poland's interim government, with Wilson's written promise (issued on 8 January 1918) to recreate a sovereign Polish state after their victory. Poland's long-term occupier, Tsarist Russia, got out of the war, overrun by the Bolsheviks who signed a treaty in Brest-Litovsk on 3 March 1918, which was voided after Imperial Germany was overthrown in November 1918 and the successor revolutionary government surrendered in the 11 November 1918 armistice.

Komitet Narodowy Polski (Polish National Committee) sanctioned by France and other Western Allies as a provisional Polish government in Paris, 1918
Flag offered to the Polish Army in France from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

The Blue Army was formally merged into the Polish Army after the Armistice between the Allies and Germany. Meanwhile, three interim Polish governments emerged independently of one another. A socialist government led by Daszyński was formed in Lublin. The National Committee emerged in Kraków. Daszyński (lacking support) decided to join forces with Piłsudski who was just released by the Germans from Magdeburg. On 16 November 1918, Poland declared independence. A decree defining the new republic was issued in Warsaw on 22 November 1918. A month later, Paderewski joined in from France. At about the same time, heavily armed Ukrainians from the Sitchovi Stril'ci (Sich Riflemen) seized the city of Lemberg, and the battle for the control of the city erupted against Piłsudski's legionaries. It was a high-stakes gamble with all sides attempting to establish a new regime ahead of the European peace conference in Versailles of January 1919. Similar Polish uprisings erupted in Poznań on 27 December 1918, Upper Silesia in August 1919 then again in 1920 and May 1921 — separated by the ad-hoc (or outright illegitimate) plebiscites with trainloads of German agents acting as local inhabitants. In the spring of 1919, the Blue Army (no longer needed in the West) was transported to Poland by train. The German forces were very slow to withdraw. In all, some 2,100 soldiers of the Blue Army who enlisted in France from the Polish diasporas died in the fighting, including over 50 officers serving with Haller. Over 1,600 men were wounded. Haller's army included 25,000 ethnic Poles drafted against their will by the German and Austrian armies, out of 50,000 conscripts from across partitioned Poland. They joined Haller from the POW camps in Italy in 1919. The final borders of Poland were set only in October, 1921 by the League of Nations.

World War I

Western Front

Soldiers of the 5th Rifle Division in Siberia, c.1919

The first divisions were formed after the official signing of a 1917 alliance by French President Raymond Poincaré and the Polish statesman Ignacy Jan Paderewski. The majority of the recruits, approximately 35,000 of them, were either Poles serving in the French Army or former captured Polish prisoners of war, who were conscripted and forced to serve in the German Heer and Austrian Imperial-Royal Landwehr armies. Many other Poles also joined from all over the world—these units included recruits from the United States with an additional 23,000 Polish-American volunteers and former troops of the Russian Expeditionary Force in France. Members of the Polish diaspora community in Brazil joined the army, with more than 300 men volunteering as well.

The Blue Army was initially placed under direct French military control and commanded by General Louis Archinard. However, on 23 February 1918, political and military sovereignty was granted to the Polish National Committee, and soon after that, the army was directly commanded by independent Polish authorities. Also, more units were formed, most notably the 4th and 5th Rifle Divisions in Russia. On 28 September 1919, Russian government officials formally signed an agreement with the Entente that officially recognized the Polish military units in France as "the only independent, allied and co-belligerent Polish army." On 4 October 1918, the National Committee appointed General Józef Haller von Hallenburg as chief commander of the Polish Legions in France. The first unit to enter combat on the Western Front was the 1st Rifle Regiment (1 Pułk Strzelców Polskich) fighting from July 1918 in Champagne and the Vosges mountains. By October, the entire 1st Rifle Division had joined the campaign around the area of Rambervillers and Raon-l'Étape.

Transfer to Poland

American recruitment poster for the Polish Army in France by W.T. Benda.

The army continued to gather recruits after the end of World War I. Many of these new volunteers were ethnic Poles who were conscripted into the German, Austrian and Russian armies, and later discharged following the signing of the armistice agreement on 11 November 1918. By early 1919, the Blue Army numbered 68,500 men and was fully equipped by the French government. After being denied permission by German officials to enter Poland via the Baltic port city of Danzig (Gdańsk), transportation was arranged via rail.

Between April and June of that year, all the army units were moved to a newly independent Poland, across Germany in sealed train cars. Weapons were secured in separate compartments and kept under guard to appease German concerns about a foreign army traversing its territory. Immediately after its arrival, the divisions were integrated into the regular Polish Army and sent to the front lines to fight in the Polish–Ukrainian War, which was being contested in eastern Galicia. The perilous journey from France (through revolutionary Germany) to Poland in the spring of 1919 was documented by those who lived through it.

Captain Stanisław I. Nastal: Preparations for the departure lasted for some time. The question of transit became a difficult and complicated problem. Finally after a long wait a decision was made and officially agreed upon between the Allies and Germany. The first transports with the Blue Army set out in the first half of April, 1919. Train after train tore along though Germany to the homeland, to Poland.

Major Stefan Wyczółkowski: On 15 April 1919 the regiment began its trip to Poland from the Bayon railroad station in four transports, via Mainz, Erfurt, Leipzig, Kalisz, and Warsaw, and arrived in Poland, where it was quartered in individual battalions; in Chełm 1st Battalion, supernumerary company and command of the regiment; 3rd Battalion in Kowel; and the 2nd Battalion in Wlodzimierz.

Major Stanisław Bobrowski: On 13 April 1919 the regiment set out across Germany for Poland, to reinforce other units of the Polish army being created in the homeland amid battle, shielding with their youthful breasts the resurrected Poland.

Major Jerzy Dąbrowski: Finally on 18 April 1919 the regiment's first transport set out for Poland. On 23 April 1919 the leading divisions of the 3rd Regiment of Polish Riflemen set foot on Polish soil, now free thanks to their own efforts.

Lt. Wincenty Skarzyński: Weeks passed. April 1919 arrived – then plans were changed: it was decided irrevocably to transport our army to Gdańsk instead by trains, through Germany. Many officers came from Poland, among them Major Gorecki, to coordinate technical details with General Haller.

Polish–Ukrainian War

Blue Army's FT-17 tanks near the city of Lwów (Lviv); Polish–Ukrainian War, c.1919

Haller's troops changed the balance of power in Galicia and Volhynia. Their arrival allowed the Poles to repel the Ukrainians and establish a demarcation line at the river Zbruch on 14 May 1919. The Blue Army was equipped by the Western Allies, and supported by experienced French officers specifically ordered to fight against the Bolsheviks in the Polish–Soviet War, but not the forces of the Western Ukrainian People's Republic. Despite the diplomatic conditions, the Poles dispatched Haller's Army against the Ukrainians first, instead of the Bolsheviks. The tactical initiative was done in order to break the stalemate in eastern Galicia. In response, the allies sent several telegrams ordering the Polish government to halt its offensive, as using the allied-equipped army against the Western Ukrainian People's Republic specifically contradicted the status of the French military advisors, but the demands were ignored. The offensive by the Blue Army succeeded in breaking the stalemate and brought about a collapse of the West Ukrainian army. In July 1919, after securing victory on the Ukrainian front, the Blue Army was transferred to the border with Germany in Silesia, where it prepared defensive positions against a possible German invasion of Poland from the west.

Polish–Bolshevik War

During the Polish-Bolshevik War several Blue Army formations were merged with the regular Polish army, and jointed together to form the 49th Hutsul Rifle Regiment and 18th Infantry Division. Haller's well trained and highly motivated troops, as well as their British built Bristol F.2 reconnaissance planes, Italian made Ansaldo A.1 Balilla fighter planes and French FT-17 tanks, also played a significant role in the war. The Polish-American first engaged the Bolshevik forces near the town of Rivne (Równe in Polish) on 18 June 1919. After pushing the Bolsheviks east, the Blue Army advance halted and the troops engaged in small skirmishes until the end of the war. Haller's troops would try to entrap small units of Bolshevik soldiers as well as raid garrisons for food, ammunition and to spread panic amongst the enemy.

Post-war

Blue Army's monument in the Żoliborz district of Warsaw
Uniform of a Blue Army officer (right)

The Blue Army's 15th Infantry Rifle Regiment formed a basis for the 49th Hutsul Rifle Regiment (part of the 11th Carpathian Infantry Division) after the end of World War I.

During the Communist crackdown in Poland after World War II, most of the history related to the Polish-Soviet War and the Blue Army was censored, distorted and repressed by the Soviet authorities.

Anti-Jewish violence

Throughout the fighting on the Ukrainian front, soldiers from the Blue Army assaulted local Jews, believing that some of them were cooperating with Poland's enemies. In eastern Galicia this included fighting a Jewish battalion of the Ukrainian Galician Army under the leadership of Solomon Leinberg.

On 27 May 1919 a soldier by the name of Stanisław Dziadecki who served in one of the Blue Army's rifle divisions in Częstochowa, was shot and wounded while on patrol. A Jewish tailor was suspected of the shooting, and was promptly executed by Haller's soldiers and accompanying civilians, who proceeded to loot Jewish homes and businesses, killing 5-10 Jews and injuring several dozen more. Pavel Korzec wrote that as the army traveled further east, some of Haller's soldiers, as a way to exact retribution, continued to loot Jewish properties and engage in violence. Willian Hagen described Haller's troops together with civilian mobs as assaulting Jewish policemen, beating worshipers and destroying Jewish prayer books in synagogues in eastern Chełm. Polish police and regular army soldiers were occasionally able to restrain Haller's troops.

According to Howard Sachar, in the year and a half prior to the Blue Army's arrival, the total number of Jewish casualties in the region was between 400 and 500; Haller's troops' violence caused this number to double. The Morgenthau Report estimated that the total number of Jews killed as a result of actions made by the Polish military (including the Blue Army) did not exceed 200–300. As a result of the Blue Army's activities, General Haller's visit to the United States was met with protests from American Jewish and Ukrainian communities. Tadeusz Piotrowski wrote that in most cases it's impossible to disentangle gratuitous antisemitism from commonplace looting and soldier brutality. He claims that the term "pogrom" in the accepted sense of the deliberate killing of Jewish civilians could not be applied to the great majority of the incidents in which the Blue Army was involved.

Causes

According to Alexander Prusin there were a number of causes for the anti-semitic acts of the Polish forces. Socioeconomic tensions regarding land reforms and conflation of Jews with the landed class led to the feelings of hostility. Also, the lack of appropriate government compensation to the Polish soldiers led to soldiers viewing the looting of Jews as partial re-compensation for their service. For soldiers from Western Poland who remembered how many Jews have previously collaborated with Germany during a recent Polish-German conflict in 1919, this allowed framing of anti-semitic attacks as retribution on enemies of the Polish nation. Further, for many Poles Jews were associated with Bolshevism, and the Endeks in particular promoted the stereotype of Jewish Bolshevism. Likewise, according to Joanna Michlic, some perpetrators of anti-Jewish violence legitimized their actions in the name of national self defense. Officers and soldiers in the Blue Army expressed these tendencies, and often treated all Jews as communists, despite the traditional religious character and political diversity of Jewish communities. Some of the more significant incidents of abuse were inflicted by the Polish-American volunteers. It is likely that the cultural shock of finding themselves confronted by a multitude of unfamiliar ethnic, political and religious groups that inhabited Western Ukraine led to a feeling of vulnerability, that in turn provoked the violent outbursts. Encyclopaedia Judaica writes that because of its French ties the Blue Army enjoyed independence from the main Polish command, and some of its soldiers exploited this when engaging in undisciplined action against Jewish communities in Galicia.

Personnel

Veteran status of Polish-American volunteers

After the war, the Polish-American volunteers who served within Haller's Army were not recognized as veterans by either the American or Polish governments. This led to friction between the Polish community in the United States and the Polish government, and resulted in the subsequent refusal by Polish-Americans to again help the Polish cause militarily.

  • Polish Veterans Association Convention Cleveland Ohio 1921 Polish Veterans Association Convention Cleveland Ohio 1921
  • Polish Veterans Association Elizabeth City New Jersey 1928 Polish Veterans Association Elizabeth City New Jersey 1928
  • Polish-Americans who fought in the Blue Army. Image taken in Detroit, Michigan (1955) and featured in Life Magazine Polish-Americans who fought in the Blue Army. Image taken in Detroit, Michigan (1955) and featured in Life Magazine

Jewish volunteers

Polish Jews enlisted and fought alongside ethnic Poles within the Blue Army, serving as soldiers, doctors and nurses. According to Edward Goldstein writing in The Galitzianer, on examining a list of 1,381 casualty names compiled by Paul Valasek, he identified 62 (or approximately 5%) Jewish sounding names in the list.

Notable persons

Ludwik Marian Kaźmierczak the paternal grandfather of the German chancellor Angela Merkel, in Blue Army uniform, 1919
  • Ludwik Marian Kaźmierczak, the paternal grandfather of the German chancellor Angela Merkel, and an ethnic Pole born in Posen (Poznań), German Empire served in the Blue Army. During World War I, he was drafted into the German Army in 1915 and fought on the western front. After being taken as a prisoner of war in France, he joined the Blue Army, and subsequently fought in the Polish-Ukrainian and Polish-Soviet wars. After ending his service Kaźmierczak emigrated back to Germany.
  • Stanislaw Jackowski, Commander of the II Batallon of the 1st Tank Regiment.

Order of battle

The order of battle shows the hierarchical organization of an armed force participating in a military operation or campaign. The Blue Army order of battle was as follows:

  • I Polish Corps
    • 1st Rifle Division
    • 2nd Rifle Division
    • 1st Heavy Artillery Regiment
  • II Polish Corps
  • III Polish Corps
    • 3rd Rifle Division
    • 6th Rifle Division
    • 3rd Heavy Artillery Regiment
  • Independent Units
    • 7th Rifle Division
    • 1st Tank Regiment
    • Training Division – cadre
Panoramic picture of men standing to attention
1st Depot Battalion Polish Contingent, Niagara Camp in Ontario Canada, 16 November 1917
Panoramic picture of men standing to attention
'E' Company, 1st Depot Battalion Polish Contingent, Niagara Camp in Ontario Canada, 16 November 1917
Black and white people of people standing in snow
Jan 11, 1918, Polish Blue Army 2nd Depot Battalion Polish Contingent at the Canadian Niagara Camp

See also

Bibliography

Notes

  1. ^ Skrzeszewski 2014, p. 3
  2. Skrzeszewski 2014, p. 4
  3. Biskupski 1999, p. 339
  4. ^ Hind 2015
  5. Ruskoski 2006
  6. ^ Ember, Melvin; Ember, Carol R.; Skoggard, Ian, eds. (2004). Encyclopedia of Diasporas: Immigrant and Refugee Cultures Around the World. Volume I: Overviews and Topics; Volume II: Diaspora Communities. Springer Science & Business Media. p. 260. ISBN 978-0-306-48321-9. Retrieved 22 July 2017.
  7. ^ Kochanski, Halik (2012). The Eagle Unbowed: Poland and the Poles in the Second World War. Harvard University Press. pp. 5–9. ISBN 978-0-674-06816-2. Retrieved 23 July 2017.
  8. Anna D. Jaroszynska-Kirchmann (2013). Polish American Press, 1902–1969. Lexington Books. pp. 464–. ISBN 9780739188736.
  9. ^ Reddaway, William Fiddian; Penson, J. H.; Halecki, O.; Dyboski, R., eds. (1971). The Cambridge History of Poland: From Augustus II to Pilsudski (1697–1935). Cambridge University Press Archive. p. 477. GGKEY:2G7C1LPZ3RN.
  10. The Blue Division, Stanislaw I. Nastal, Polish Army Veteran's Association in America, Cleveland, Ohio 1922
  11. Outline of the Wartime History of the 43rd regiment of the Eastern Frontier Riflemen, Major Stefan Wyczolkowski, Warsaw 1928
  12. Outline of the Wartime History of the 44th Regiment of Eastern Frontier Riflemen, Major Stanislaw Bobrowski, Warsaw 1929
  13. Outline of the Wartime History of the 45th Regiment of Eastern Frontier Infantry Riflemen, Major Jerzy Dabrowski, Warsaw 1928
  14. The Polish Army in France in Light of the Facts, Wincenty Skarzynski, Warsaw 1929
  15. Watt, R. (1982). Bitter Glory: Poland and its fate 1918–1939. New York: Simon and Schuster. ISBN 0671453793.
  16. Subtelny, Orest (2000). Ukraine: A History. University of Toronto Press. p. 370. ISBN 978-0-8020-8390-6. Retrieved 23 July 2017.
  17. "The Polish Army in France, Haller Army, Blue Army - Battles in France". www.hallersarmy.com.
  18. Landau, Moshe. "Haller's Army". Encyclopedia Judaica. Archived from the original on 17 July 2011. Retrieved 5 October 2015. Haller's army ("Blue Army"), force of Polish volunteers organized in France during the last year of World War I, responsible for the murder of Jews and anti-Jewish pogroms in Galicia and the Ukraine... Attacks on individual Jews on the streets and highways, murderous pogroms on Jewish settlements, and deliberate provocative acts became commonplace.
  19. Heiko Haumann (2002), A History of East European Jews. Central European University Press; pg. 215, via Google Books. Notes not included.
  20. Carole Fink (2006), Defending the Rights of Others: The Great Powers, the Jews, and International Minority Protection, 1878–1938. Cambridge University Press; pg. 227, via Google Books.
  21. Alexander Victor Prusin (2005). Nationalizing a Borderland: War, Ethnicity, and Anti-Jewish Violence in East Galicia, 1914–1920. Tuscaloosa, AL: University of Alabama
  22. The Ukrainian Quarterly. Ukrainian Congress Committee of America. 1987.
  23. Carole Finke. (2006). Defending the Rights of Others The Great Powers, the Jews, and International Minority Protection, 1878–1938. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pg. 230
  24. Marija Wakounig (28 November 2012). From Collective Memories to Intercultural Exchanges. LIT Verlag Münster. p. 196. ISBN 978-3-643-90287-0.
  25. ^ Strauss 1993, pp. 1034–1035 footnote 20
  26. William W. Hagen. (2018). Anti-Jewish Violence in Poland, 1914–1920. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp.316-322
  27. Howard M. Sachar. (2007). Dreamland: Europeans and Jews in the Aftermath of the Great War, Random House LLC: page 25.
  28. "The Jews in Poland: official reports of the American and British Investigating Missions". Chicago : National Polish Committee of America. 8 October 2018 – via Internet Archive.
  29. "General Haller's Visit to Boston Curtailed". Jewish Telegraphic Agency. 27 November 1923. Retrieved 22 July 2017.
  30. "Bnai Brith of Boston Decry Reception to Haller". Jewish Telegraphic Agency. 13 November 1923. Retrieved 22 July 2017.
  31. Tadeusz Piotrowski. (1998). Poland's Holocaust: Ethnic Strife, Collaboration with Occupying Forces and Genocide in the Second Republic, 1918–1947, McFarland: page 43.
  32. Alexander Victor Prusin (2005). Nationalizing a Borderland: War, Ethnicity, and Anti-Jewish Violence in East Galicia, 1914–1920. Tuscaloosa, AL: University of Alabama Press. p. 103. ISBN 0817314598. Note: the exact phrase 'Blue Army' is not being used inside this book. It refers to it as Haller's Army
  33. Joanna B. Michlic. (2006). Poland's threatening other: the image of the Jew from 1880 to the present . University of Nebraska Press, pg. 117
  34. Moshe Landau (2007). Encyclopaedia Judaica. Macmillan Reference Detroit, USA. Volume 8.
  35. Martin Conway, José Gotovitch. (2001). Europe in exile: European exile communities in Britain, 1940–1945. Berghahn Books pg. 191
  36. Getter, Norbert; Schall, Jakub; Schipper, Zygmunt (1939). Żydzi bojownicy o niepodległość Polski: 1918-1939: reprint [Jewish fighters for the independence of Poland] (in Polish). Rada Ochrony Pamięci Walk i Męczeństwa. ISBN 9788391666333.
  37. Potocki, Andrzej (2010). SŁOWNIK BIOGRAFICZNY Żydów z Podkarpackiego [A BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY OF THE JEWS]. CARPATHIA. p. 74. ISBN 9788362076246.
  38. ^ Goldstein, Edward. Jews in Haller's Army. The Galitzianer, the quarterly journal of Gesher Galicia, May 2002.
  39. Heiko Haumann. (2002). A history of East European Jews Central European University Press, pg. 215
  40. Kanzlerin Angela Merkel ist zu einem Viertel Polin, Die Welt
  41. All in the Family: Chancellor Merkel's Heritage Pleases Poles, Der Spiegel
  42. Merkel's Polish roots emerge in new book, The Local

References

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