%0 Journal Article
%T The Political Significance of Émigré Representations of the Polish Soldier’s Sacrifice during the Second World War
%A Lencznarowicz, Jan
%J Konteksty Kultury
%V 2016
%R 10.4467/23531991KK.16.023.6762
%N Volume 13, Issue 4
%P 392-411
%K Polish emigration after the Second World War, Polish soldier during the Second World War, myth of heroic Polish soldier
%@ 2083-7658
%D 2017
%U https://ejournals.eu/en/journal/konteksty-kultury/article/polityczna-wymowa-emigracyjnych-przedstawien-ofiary-polskiego-zolnierza-podczas-drugiej-wojny-swiatowej
%X Among the Poles who after the Second World War remained beyond reach of Stalin’s power and decided not to return to their homeland military veterans were a particularly numerous and active group. It is they who played a huge role in organizing that wave of emigration in their countries of settlement and called the tune in the social and, especially, political life of war refugees. The memory of fight and loses suffered in war formed the basis of the myth of heroic Polish soldier that emerged in emigration. It became one of the pillars of the collective political identity of post-Yalta emigration. Not only did it contribute to shaping its ideological coherence, but also set out the goals of further fight, this time only political and not military one. Using a variety of primary sources, the author of the present article tries to answer the question about the role which the motif of blood sacrificed by the Polish soldier played in the symbolic representations of post-Yalta emigration, as well as about the political function those representations had.