THE POLISH COMBATANTS' ASSOCIATION IN CANADA

 

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The Polish Combatants' Association (PCA) is an organization composed primarily of the Polish veterans of the Polish 2nd Corps who fought alongside British and Canadian troops during the Italian Campaign, 1943-45, under the operational command of the British Eighth Army. Most of these combatants had been prisoners of the Soviet Union during the years 1939-1941, languishing in Soviet political prisons or toiling in the slave labour camps.

Many of these men and women lost friends and family members due to executions or the extremley brutal conditions in the labour camps and prisons. Poland was occupied by the Soviet Union under communism towards the end of the war so most Poles could not safely return home to a free nation. As a result, the PCA (Polish Combatants Association) was established after the war to help the demobilized Polish soldiers adjust to their new lives as civilians and exiles, to continue military traditions, and also to keep everyone at the ready, as many thought that the possiblity of a greater World War was to soon erupt. Many times this almost happened - with the outbreak of the war in Korea,  the Cuban Missile Crisis, Vietnam etc.

However, until the fall of communism in Poland in 1989 and in the Soviet Union shortly thereafter, the most difficult task of the PCA was to counter the unceasing and voluminous Soviet propaganda aimed at discrediting the Polish soldiers who fought with the western allies. There was an equal amount of propaganda which aimed to whitewash the Soviet atrocities against Poland and its people and promote communism. (For example, the Soviets constantly and loudly blamed the massacre of Polish officers in Katyn forest on the Nazis. They did not admit their guilt until 1990). The task of countering the propaganda was therefore entrusted to the Head Executive Board.