Dialogue and Universalism

Volume 14, Issue 5/6, 2004

Warsaw Uprising 1944: Part One

Jerzy Pelc
Pages 183-188

Soldiers of the Uprising

The author looks for ideological reasons for which the Poles joined the military organizations. On the basis of his own experience, he attempts to establish a relation between the political attitudes of the Poles and their decision to join respective (right wing or left wing) military units that fought during the war. He states that in many cases the main factor in the decision to defend the country was the heart and not the reason. Political preferences of the young and politically inexperienced soldiers were of little importance in the process of deciding under which banner to fight.