He was said to be "madman" and "fascist". He was insulted. When he predicted the events of September 1939 with shocking precision, care was taken to prevent his prophecy from seeing the light of day. All because he dared to criticize the Polish government - and called for an alliance with Hitler.
The attack of Germany on Poland and the rapid defeat of our army in the clash with the Wehrmacht, the inaction of France and Great Britain, a blow in the back by the Soviet Union - Władysław Studnicki described all these events in detail in his greatest work. And it wouldn't be surprising if it wasn't for the fact that it was released… in summer 1939.
A leading Polish Germanophile
Born on November 15, 1867 in Daugavpils, in the Russian Empire, Studnicki sucked out his aversion to the eastern power with his mother's milk. Polish patriotism reigned in his family home - his father was an agent of the National Government during the January Uprising, and his mother was associated with the PPS.
The seven-year exile to Siberia for socialist activity and the founding of the Polish Social and Revolutionary Party "Proletariat" only confirmed his belief that Russia is Poland's main enemy and prevents its revival. Hence the idea to rebuild the motherland under the Austro-Hungarian protectorate ; However, it burst like a soap bubble with the outbreak of World War I and subsequent defeats of the imperial troops.
The text is based on the latest book by Piotr Zychowicz Germanofil. Władysław Studnicki - a Pole who wanted an alliance with the Third Reich , which has just been released by the Rebis publishing house.
So Studnicki decided to bet on another player. When a real chance for independence began to loom on the horizon, he straightforwardly stated: "We consider the German civilization influences to be healthy, and the Russian influences harmful" . He tried at all costs to win over his western neighbor to the concept of rebuilding the Republic of Poland. As Piotr Zychowicz writes in his latest book Germanofil. Władysław Studnicki - a Pole who wanted an alliance with the Third Reich :
For Studnicki, Russia was Asia, and Germany was Europe. Poland's place was in Europe, not in Asia. In the West, not in the East. (…) The alliance with Germany designed by Studnicki was therefore not only a geopolitical necessity, but also an opportunity to raise the country in terms of civilization. Studnicki remained faithful to this idea until the end of his life.
He has repeatedly argued about the superiority of his western neighbor. He was not even discouraged by the defeat of Germany in the Great War (similarly to the later Nazi occupation in Poland) - openly called for a Polish-German alliance.
This alone was not to the liking of the Poles and made him many enemies, and in addition, Studnicki without pardon criticized the actions of the then authorities of the Republic of Poland (including concluding an alliance with Great Britain, which he considered suicide).
Censored Prophecy
Taking all this into account, it is hardly surprising that when in 1939 - on the eve of another global conflict - he published the book Facing the Coming Second World War , met with an immediate and very sharp reaction. Sanacja authorities immediately confiscated it, because a controversial politician argued in it that - contrary to propaganda - Poles are not "strong, close-knit and ready" and he proclaimed (as it turned out - rightly) that Great Britain and France would not meet their allied obligations, and that Poland, left to the hands of the Third Reich, would disappear from the world map again.
Council of State of the Kingdom of Poland 1918
The prophetic publication, which appeared in May and June 1939, was not supposed to see the light of day. Well, the Sanacja authorities did not want the Poles to read about the inevitable betrayal of the Allies and the defeat in the fast approaching conflict . Politics was decided to silence at all costs. Piotr Zychowicz in his book Germanofil reports:
»In view of the coming World War II« printed by Studnicki in the Warsaw Printing Works St. Michalski and Cz. Ociepko at 28 Nowogrodzka Street. However, the book was not given the chance to find its way into the hands of its readers. The paint had not yet dried on it when - on June 21, 1939 - the police stormed the printing house and confiscated the entire print run. Only a few copies, which Studnicki had taken home earlier, survived. The confiscation initiative came from the government, namely the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
The requests and threats of Studnicki, who demanded intervention from Józef Beck himself, were useless. The confiscation decision was not withdrawn on the grounds that it contained false and disturbing news. Nobody found out about the gloomy prophecy of the leading Polish Germanophile. And it came true to the letter.
Pact with the devil
He failed to convince the authorities of the Republic of Poland to change its policy in the summer of 1939. How should it look like in his opinion? Studnicki believed that Poland, for its own good, must agree to an alliance with Hitler, agree to incorporate the Free City of Gdańsk into the Reich and to run an extraterritorial motorway through Pomerania. The next step was to be a joint invasion of the Soviet Union with the Wehrmacht. As argued in his forbidden book:
Poland and Germany must be neighbors with each other. This is an imperative of geography and history. This simple, elementary thing was uttered by Hitler in his time, outlining it as an elementary truth in the mind of Germany. Poland, as a large neutral state with benevolent neutrality towards Germany, is of great importance to Germany. She is strong enough to be able to defend her neutrality; not so strong as to threaten the German Reich.
Władysław Studnicki - a leading Polish Germanophile
Even when the Second World War, the defeat of Poles and the Nazi occupation became a fact, Studnicki did not abandon the idea of the Polish-German pact - even though this view was then (to say the least) extremely unpopular. What was causing him? Piotr Zychowicz in the book Germanofil translates:
After the collapse of the state, Władysław Studnicki decided that the nation should be saved. To this end, he made efforts to reach an agreement with the victorious Germany. The creation of a government that, like the government of Marshal Pétain later in France, would allow society to avoid the terror of German occupation and the suffering associated with it.
He was even ready to sacrifice himself and become the head of this new cabinet. However, even he did not seem to believe that the plan would be successful. Besides, not only Poles were skeptical about him, but also Germans, who realized that Studnicki did not have any social support from his countrymen.
The nation knows what's good for it?
However, Studnicki's actions did not end with a vision of a potential pact with Hitler. He literally bombed the Germans with memorials in which he demanded, inter alia, changes in the occupation policy in the territory of the Second Polish Republic, closing concentration camps and prisons, stopping round-ups and executions ... He has also successfully intervened many times in the case of arrested Poles.
The article is an excerpt from the book Germanophile. Władysław Studnicki - a Pole who wanted an alliance with the Third Reich Piotr Zychowicz, which was recently released on the market by Rebis
He risked a lot - the Gestapo stopped him several times. These arrests invariably ended in severe beatings. In 1940 he was interned in Germany, and a year later he was imprisoned in Pawiak prison for 14 months. And yet the politician was already 74 years old at the time! As Piotr Zychowicz sums up in his latest book Germanofil :
His fate may serve as an illustration of the madness that seized Germany during World War II. Their best friend in Poland under the German occupation was in a German prison. It is hard to find a more eloquent symbol.
Until his death in exile in London on January 10, 1953, Studnicki tirelessly preached the idea of a Polish-German alliance. It was by no means the result of his "love" for Hitler and his actions. He was just trying to realistically assess the opportunities and threats to his homeland, disregarding the voice of the majority.
The journalist Julian Babinski was undoubtedly right when he wrote in 1936: "The most significant feature is a rather strange fact:he always went against the general opinion of the general public, and always in line with the interests of the nation" . The problem is that the nation didn't even get a chance to find out about it…
Bibliography:
- The text is based on the latest book by Piotr Zychowicz Germanofil. Władysław Studnicki - a Pole who wanted an alliance with the Third Reich , which has just been released by Rebis.