Polish Theatre in the Time of War (1939–1945). Fight—Will to Survive—Losses—Legacy

Abstract

During World War II Polish theatre people took an active part in the fight with both Germany and the Soviet Union. Several of them fought with a weapon in
hand as officers and soldiers of Polish armies in the September 1939 campaign, later as combatants of the Home Army (AK), and also within Polish armed forces fighting abroad. Many more fought with a weapon of the word. While boycotting German sponsored stages in the General Government, they created the whole network of small underground theatre groups. Two major centers of this activity were Warsaw, where the Clandestine Theatre Council (Bohdan Korzeniewski, Leon Schiller, Edmund Wierciński and others) organized and sponsored underground theatre productions and acting studios, and Kraków with The Rhapsodic Theatre (led by Mieczysław Kotlarczyk), The Independent Theatre (led by Tadeusz Kantor), and a circle of artists and apprentices gathered around Juliusz Osterwa, who frequently gave one-man shows. Productions were also prepared in German oflags and concentration camps. The great actor Stefan Jaracz performed for fellow inmates in Auschwitz, Zofia Rysiówna in Ravensbrück, and Roman Niewiarowicz in Dachau. Such productions were recorded also in Soviet camps (gulag system). Soldier theatres were organized at the Gen. Anders Second Corp, then also at the Polish forces under
Soviet command. Losses of Polish theatre due to the war were staggering. In terms of material losses, The National Theatre in Warsaw was bombed by the Lufwaffe on September 19, 1939, and eventually Poland lost about 70% of theatre buildings standing in August 1939, plus their libraries, sets and costumes magazines, etc. In terms of human losses, about 300 theatre professionals died (out of about 2000 in 1939). Some were killed in military actions, some murdered in either German or Soviet camps. The losses in the spiritual domain were uncountable. Theatre artists
were deprived of the possibility to perform, thus executing their profession and vocation. Theatre spectators were left without their artistic nourishment. The struggles, sacrifices, and deeds of the war-time Polish theatre had a profound influence on the history of Polish theatre of the second half of the 20th century. They were not only an important element of the nation’s war-effort, but—indirectly— contributed to the restoration of Poland’s freedom at the end of the 20th century.