Many roads to the Polish Army: who were the Jewish soldiers of the Polish Army? 

"I had always regarded military service as my duty and would never break my oath of loyalty to the State."

When Leon Strasburg wrote these words in 1944, he had already survived experiences that would have broken many people. Arrested after the Soviet occupation of eastern Poland, he endured imprisonment before travelling more than 3,000 miles across the Soviet Union in search of the newly formed Polish Army. His journey took him through Kazakhstan, Persia and Palestine before he finally reached Britain. For Leon, joining the Polish Army was never simply about wearing a uniform - it was about serving the country to which he believed he belonged.

His story raises a question at the heart of our research: who were the Jewish men who served in the Polish Armed Forces during the Second World War?

The answer is far more diverse than many people imagine.

Before the war, Poland was home to the largest Jewish community in Europe. Around 3.3 million Jews lived in the country. They were doctors and lawyers, teachers and factory workers, students, artists, merchants and craftsmen. They spoke Polish, Yiddish, Hebrew and many other languages. Like millions of other Polish citizens, they were subject to military service and answered the call to defend Poland when Germany invaded on 1 September 1939.

The defeat of Poland scattered these men across continents.

Yet no two journeys were alike.

The first arrivals came from France. After Poland's defeat in 1939, thousands of Polish soldiers regrouped there to continue the fight. Some already fought in the September Campaign of 1939.
Among them were also Jewish volunteers who had escaped occupied Poland, but also men who had already been living, studying or working in France and Belgium before the war. When France fell in 1940, many were evacuated to Britain, forming the first significant group of Jewish soldiers in the Polish Army in Exile. Around 300 Jewish servicemen reached Britain by this route 

The second and largest wave came from aforementioned General Władysław Anders' Army. Released from Soviet prisons, labour camps and remote settlements following the Sikorski–Mayski Agreement in 1941, thousands of Polish citizens travelled south to enlist. Jewish soldiers made up an estimated 10 to 15 per cent of Anders' Army. Their escape from the Soviet Union took them through Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, across Persia (Iran), Iraq and Palestine before a smaller contingent was transferred to Britain in 1942 and 1943. For many, military service represented not only a chance to fight Nazi Germany but also their first opportunity to leave the Soviet Union alive. 

Majer Nogacz volunteered immediately after being released from a Soviet labour camp. Soviet doctors declared him fit for military service, but the Polish military commission initially rejected him. Only after Soviet intervention was he accepted into the ranks. He later recalled that even before leaving the Soviet Union he was told there would be "no Jews in Poland after the war." Despite this, he continued with the Polish Army because he believed that serving Poland remained his duty.

Dawid Freiwald remembered arriving at a recruitment camp in Kazakhstan with hundreds of other Polish citizens. Jewish recruits were separated into their own section and assigned different work. After reaching Persia, they were again told they would have to leave the Polish military camp because they were Jewish. Only after intervention from sympathetic officers were they issued uniforms and formally accepted into the army. His long journey eventually brought him to Britain, but it also revealed how complicated military service could become for Jewish soldiers long before they reached Scotland.

A third group reached Britain by an even more perilous route. Escaping occupied Europe, they crossed the Pyrenees into Spain, where many were interned in the notorious Miranda de Ebro camp before eventually being released and allowed to continue through Portugal to Britain in 1943 and 1944. By the time they arrived in Scotland, these men had already survived occupation, clandestine border crossings and internment.

Others travelled even further. Jewish volunteers arrived from Britain, Ireland, Canada, the United States, South Africa and Latin America, many of them the sons of Polish emigrants or men who had left Poland before the war. Although some had hoped to enlist directly in the British Army, they were instead assigned to Polish units because of their Polish citizenship or origins. Their journeys remind us that the Polish Army in Britain was not simply an army in exile - it was a global force, drawing together people whose lives had already spanned continents

Seweryn Pomeranc volunteered in London in January 1941 after several unsuccessful attempts to enlist because he was considered too young. A journalist and writer, he hoped to serve Poland not only as a soldier but also through his publications supporting the Allied cause. His testimony reflects a deep commitment to Poland that remained remarkably resilient despite the obstacles he later encountered.

The Polish forces in Britain represented a microcosm of the inter-war republic. 

By 1943, the Polish Army in Britain had become a microcosm of the pre-war Polish Republic. Men who had reached Britain through France, the Soviet Union, Spain, Portugal, North America and South America found themselves serving side by side. They brought with them different languages, professions, political beliefs and wartime experiences, yet all had joined the same army for the same reason: to fight Nazi Germany and liberate Poland. Understanding these diverse journeys is essential to understanding what happened next. The protests of 1944 did not involve anonymous deserters or reluctant soldiers. They involved men who had travelled thousands of miles, survived imprisonment and displacement, and repeatedly chosen to serve Poland. Their commitment to the Allied war effort was never in question. It was precisely because they cared so deeply about what the Polish Army represented that the discrimination many later encountered proved so painful, and why their decision to seek transfer to the British Army became such a significant moment in the history of the Polish Armed Forces

Reading these testimonies, one quickly realises that there was no "typical" Jewish soldier. Some had crossed half the world to reach the Polish Army. Others enlisted in Britain or volunteered from communities in North and South America. Some had defended Poland in 1939; others first put on a uniform after surviving Soviet imprisonment. They came from every imaginable background, yet all arrived believing they were contributing to the liberation of their homeland.

These personal journeys also remind us that military records tell only part of the story. Behind every service file is a life already shaped by war: families separated by invasion, years spent in exile, dangerous journeys across continents and difficult choices made under extraordinary circumstances. The archives reveal not simply soldiers, but individuals whose lives had already been transformed long before they reached Britain.