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The Association of Polish Refugees (ZPU)

The history of the organisation began immediately after the Second World War when many Poles were still in the western occupation zones of Germany. They were particularly made up of former concentration camp inmates, forced labourers and prisoners of war, colloquially known as DPs (Displaced Persons). Once they had regained their freedom they began to structure their social, institutional and political life. Since there was a vital need for a central organisation to represent all Polish interests, in 1946 it was decided to set up an association entitled Zjednoczenie Polskich Uchodźców w Niemczech (ZPU). The new organisation arose from a merger of smaller associations and was a kind of institutional representation, a Polish parliament in Germany. At the same time, however, its further work was influenced by various parties and groups, and this was marked by contentiousness, internal disputes and many crises. Ultimately, the association was unable to cope with the many conflicts of interest and consequently disintegrated. This condition prevailed until the beginning of the fifties.

The former headquarters of the ZPU in Velbert and the office of the central ZPU board of management. This is where Kazimierz Odrobny and Witold Szwabowicz lived. It was also the headquarters of the League of Ukrainian Refugees.

Łukasz Wolak, 2016

The idea behind the founding of the ZPU was to unite and integrate all the activities of Polish refugees under one roof. With this in mind, during the first few years the ZPU's Board of Directors was involved in coordinating, amongst others, educational matters, war reparations and social welfare measures. The activities in these areas were incorporated into board departments as association structures. Educational work was taken over by the Education Committee of the ZPU (Komisja Oświatowa ZPU). It managed the network of Polish schools, which was taken over by the Central Committee for School and Education (Centralny Komitet dla Spraw Szkolnych i Oświatowych), with a particular focus on the national character of education, which was intended to maintain links with the Polish language and Polish culture. Priority educational tasks included the creation of Polskie Szkoły Przedmiotów Ojczystych (Polish schools with home-related subjects), where teachers taught the children of Polish refugees in Polish, amongst others, as well as the history and geography of Poland, with a focus on national education. In addition, there was the commemoration of anniversaries like Constitution Day on May 3rd and Independence Day on November 11th, as well as the anniversary of the November Uprising, the January Uprising and the 1920 Battle of Warsaw, the "Miracle of the Vistula". By the end of the 1950s, however, only 12% of Polish children were enrolled in this school system. The education of young Poles by the ZPU remained at this level until the early 1970s.

Two other important components of the ZPU's commitment to the interests of Polish refugees were war reparations and civil and criminal cases. At the time, shortly after the association was founded, they were dealt with under the umbrella term of legal advice. Thanks to cooperation with Polish lawyers, the board of the ZPU and the Central Committee for Former Internees in German Prisons and Concentration Camps (Centralny Komitet byłych Więźniów Niemieckich Więzień i Obozów Koncentracyjnych) were able to start legal applications for compensation for periods of time spent in concentration and labour camps. The ZPU very often played the role of an intermediary, assisted Poles in the translation of court documents, assessed their legal status, paid their lawyers and conducted correspondence with German courts on behalf of Polish refugees. The lawyers involved in these matters from the outset included Roman Błeński and Alojzy Mikołajewski, as well as Mieczysław Chmielewski who lived in London. The inclusion of the latter was to prove very fruitful. An important part of the work was also the provision of assistance to citizens of the People's Republic of Poland, who turned to the executive board of the ZPU with their requests for war reparations.