Book Review: The Struggle for Poland
| Date | 01 March 1954 |
| DOI | 10.1177/002070205400900114 |
| Author | Geo. W. Simpson |
| Published date | 01 March 1954 |
| Subject Matter | Book Review |
62
INTERNATIONAL
JOURNAL
know
what
they
wanted,"
which
seems
true
enough
if
we
allow
for
their
underlying,
if
often
misguided
or
fanatical
patriotism.
Only
after
1933,
he
finds,
did
the
men
of
the
Free
Corps
jump
on
to
the
Hitler
band-wagon. And
when
they
did,
they
were
in
many
cases
kittle
cattle, not
sufficiently
anti-communist
or
anti-
semitic,
difficult
to
discipline,
and
tending
to
take
the
Nazi
social
programme
more
seriously
than
Hitler
did.
Many,
indeed,
were
liquidated
with
Roehm
in
1934.
Their
real
contribution
to
Nazism,
the
author
concludes
"lies
in
that
brutality
of
spirit
and
in
that
exaltation
of power
which
the
men
of
the
Free
Corps
bequeathed
to
the
Third
Reich."
Toronto
R.
FLENLEY
THE
STRUGGLE
FOR
POLAND.
By H.
Peter
Stern.
1953.
(Wash-
ington,
D.C.:
Public Affairs
Press.
79pp.
$2.00)
This
small
book
is
designed
to
set
forth
the
main
events,
chiefly
diplomatic,
concerning
the
fate
of
Poland
from
September,
1939,
when
Hitler
began
a
renewed
German
drive
to
the
east,
to
January,
1947,
when
the
manipulated
Polish
elections
of
that
month
left
the
country
under
the
control
of
Stalin.
The
"struggle" referred
to
in
the
title
is
mainly
the
conflict
of
views
between
the
Soviet
Union
and
the
Western
allies.
The
book con-
sists
of
some
fifty
pages
of
narrative,
nine
pages
of chronology
of
events,
five
pages
of
documents
and
three
pages
of
bibliog-
raphy.
It
is
therefore
a
summary,
and
a
guide
to
further
read-
ing
rather
than
an
essay
or
fresh
interpretation
of
events.
Even
this
bare
narrative
conveys a
sense
of
the
deep
tragedy
which
has
again
overtaken
that
unhappy
land.
In
the
nineteenth
century
Poland
was
a
detached
soul
seeking
to
find
its
reunited
historic
body;
in
the
middle
of
the twentieth century
Poland
is
a
reunited
historic
body which
has
been
deprived of
its
historic
soul.
Hence
the
tragedy.
Like
all
tragedy
it
shows
the
cor-
ruption
of
the
good
and
the
heroic
by
the
co-existence
of
pride
and
stupidity
exploited
by cunning and
malice.
However,
Poland
means
more
to
the
contemporary
world
than
a
tragic
spectacle
exciting
pity
and
terror.
It
is
one
of
the
key
segments
in
the
present
cold
war.
This
book
confines
itself
to
a
succinct account
of
one
period of
the past
and
does
not
presume
to
give
to
the reader
the
deeper
complexities of
the
historic
situation,
or
to
suggest
a new
approach
to
the
Polish
problem.
It
is
therefore best
characterized
as
a useful
handbook
of
refer-
ence.
University
of
Saskatchewan
GEo.
W.
SIMPSON
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