Polish Poets in the War 1939-1945

During World War II Polish poets fought with weapon and pen against the occupants both on the domestic front and the battlefields abroad. They fought in all Polish armies, regular and conspiratorial formations, in General Anders's army as well as in General Berling's army. Their poetry encouraged the Polish people to fight and nourished patriotic feelings in a society distressed by the war in an occupied country, ghettos, detention camps, prisons and concentration camps. Poetry served as a kind of prayer for the Polish people, providing them with a kind of diversion from their tragic lot, when the war deprived them of their homeland and dignity.