- Between the wars ≈ 750,000 Poles emigrate to France (≈ 500,000 in 1939).
- The Resistance ≈ 50,000 Poles in France, nearly 5,000 fallen.
- 28 August 1944 Operation Amalgame: the FFI integrated into the French First Army.
- 1944 Creation of the 19th and 29th Polish Infantry Groups.
- Jan.–May 1945 From the Rhine (Colmar) to the Danube, with the French First Army.
- 18 November 1945 Parade in Warsaw; around 2,900 soldiers return to Poland.
A French-Polish history, from emigration to the Liberation of France.
The memory of Poles and Polish émigrés in the Resistance and the French First Army — from France to Poland.
The Polish emigration in France
Between the two world wars, nearly 750,000 Poles emigrated to France; around 500,000 were still there at the time of the German invasion. They worked mainly in the mines, in industry and in agriculture.
After the fall of France, clandestine resistance organisations formed within the Polish communities of France and Belgium. The Polish diaspora joined the struggle against the German occupier in great numbers.
Poles in the French Resistance
Despite repression, Poles organised underground networks, took part in strikes and armed actions, and fought in the ranks of the French Resistance.
An estimated 50,000 Poles took part in the Resistance in France, of whom nearly 5,000 lost their lives.
Operation Amalgame and the French First Army
On 28 August 1944, General de Gaulle ordered Operation Amalgame. Carried out in the autumn of 1944, it merged all partisan units — regardless of political affiliation — into the French Forces of the Interior (FFI), before integrating them into Army “B”, which became the French First Army under the command of General Jean de Lattre de Tassigny.
Foreigners serving in this army were to join the Foreign Legion or acquire French nationality. The commanders of the Polish partisan units opposed this and, in October 1944, set up a military commission together with the National Liberation Committee (CLN) of the emigration.
The creation of the Polish Infantry Groups
The commission’s efforts with the French Ministry of War bore fruit: authorisation was granted to form exclusively Polish units within the French Army, with Polish eagles and drill.
Formed from Polish units of the Resistance (FFI/FTP), two reinforced battalions — the equivalent of an infantry brigade — were reorganised into two groups: the 19th Polish Infantry Group, made up of soldiers from central and southern France, and the 29th Polish Infantry Group, from the north.
Their cadres — commanders, staffs and sub-units — were Polish officers linked to the Resistance; in the name of the French Army, the whole was placed under a French officer and administratively attached to the 201st North African Pioneer Regiment.
From the Rhine to the Danube
Formed as early as October 1944, the two groups fought alongside the French First Army. From 29 January to 3 February 1945, they were held in the command’s reserve during the fighting to reduce the German bridgehead on the Rhine and to liberate Colmar.
In April and May 1945, they took part in the First Army’s offensive from the Rhine to the Danube. At the end of hostilities, they were near the Swiss border, in the area of Konstanz, Singen, Donaueschingen and Tuttlingen.
The return to Poland
Kept within the French occupation corps until November 1945, the groups were then — with the agreement of the French authorities — sent to Poland with their equipment, weapons, uniforms and supplies. Around 2,900 soldiers made the journey; the others returned to their families and to the French mines.
The 19th and 29th Groups crossed the Polish border on 11 November 1945. On 18 November 1945, a great military parade was held in Warsaw, on Al. Ujazdowskie; shortly afterwards the two groups were disbanded and their soldiers assigned to other duties.
The dream of the homeland
For the young sons of Polish émigrés, this departure for their parents’ land was the fulfilment of a dream. Many knew Poland only through family stories.
They set out into the unknown, ready to rebuild their homeland alongside their compatriots — not yet grasping the scale of the destruction or the agreements of the great powers that would divide Europe. Their families, meanwhile, remained on the other side of the Iron Curtain.
Preserving memory, passing it on
The “Rhin et Danube” association keeps alive in Poland this singular history between Poland and France. It preserves and showcases documents, photographs, emblems, flags and testimonies, and honours those who fought for freedom.
True to its motto — “Oblivion is worse than death” — it takes part in patriotic and commemorative ceremonies, maintains ties with French institutions in Poland and passes on to new generations the memory of a shared history: that of Poles who, on French soil, chose to fight for freedom.