What happened when Jewish soldiers fighting Nazi Germany also had to confront anti-Semitism within the army they served?
The project explores this overlooked aspect of the history of the Polish Army-in-Exile through the experiences of Polish Jewish soldiers who often volunteered to fight alongside the Allies during the Second World War. Drawing on newly uncovered archival records and the soldiers' own testimonies, the project examines how they navigated military service while facing prejudice, exclusion, and unequal treatment within the Polish forces.
At the heart of the research is a remarkable episode that unfolded in the spring of 1944. More than 200 Jewish Polish soldiers left their bases in Scotland and travelled to London, determined to secure transfers into the British Army. With the support of Labour MP Tom Driberg and the National Council for Civil Liberties, they challenged the discrimination they had experienced and fought for the opportunity to continue serving the Allied cause under fairer conditions.
Their story offers a fresh perspective on the complex realities of wartime service. It reveals how questions of identity, citizenship, and belonging shaped the lives of minority soldiers, while also illuminating the relationships between Polish, Jewish, and British institutions during the war. These men were not only soldiers; many were also Holocaust survivors whose military experiences have rarely been examined from their own perspective.
By combining archival research with personal testimony, the project seeks to place these soldiers back into the history of the Second World War. In doing so, it contributes to a fuller understanding of the Polish Army-in-Exile, broadens our knowledge of the Allied war effort, and offers new insight into the experiences of minority communities whose stories challenge conventional narratives of wartime solidarity.
The project will culminate in a scholarly monograph that brings this important history to a wider audience.