The BBC Polish Service During the Second World War

Abstract

During the Second World War the broadcasts of the BBC Polish Service became a major source of information in occupied Poland. Although listening to, or possessing, a radio was punishable by death under the German occupation, Poles were willing to risk their lives in order to hear the news from London. For many, the BBC remained the only contact with the outside world, whilst listening itself became a symbol of resistance. The Polish Service was required to follow the official line of British government's policy, presenting a positive picture of the USSR. Anything considered anti-Soviet was expunged. Given that the BBC European Service was designed as an instrument of British propaganda, the Polish Service was recognised as a powerful medium in territorial and political disputes between Poland and the USSR.

KEYWORDS:

• BBC Polish Service
• BBC European Service
• BBC
• Broadcasting during the Second World War
• History of Poland
• Propaganda

During the Second World War, the broadcasts of the BBC Polish Service became a major source of information in occupied Poland. Although listening to, or possessing, a radio was punishable by death under the German occupation, Poles were willing to risk their lives in order to hear the news from London. For many, the BBC remained the only contact with the outside world, whilst listening itself became a symbol of resistance. The broadcasts not only connected Poland with the rest of the world but also informed the Poles about what was happening in their own country. The BBC Polish Service played a significant role in transmitting news about the situation at the front as well as about internal political issues. Moreover, the BBC Polish Service co-operated with the Polish Underground Movement which monitored the British broadcasts and distributed clandestinely extracts in newspapers and leaflets. This cooperation, however, was not a direct one, but worked through the Polish government-in-exile, which in 1941 took refuge in London. The BBC Polish Service also exercised a significant influence by supporting Allied intelligence, sabotaging German actions and interrupting work in German factories. The broadcasts from London had an enormous impact on listeners in Poland since it established a link with the Polish government-in-exile whose representatives often spoke on the air, thus playing an important role in maintaining public morale. Since Britain was considered as Poland's most important ally, and given the fact that the news came from London, an illusion was created that Poland was the centre of the world's attention.¹

My preliminary research reveals that the BBC Polish Service was required to follow the official line of the British government, presenting a positive picture of the USSR, Britain's ally from 1941 onwards. Anything considered anti-Soviet was expunged. Controversial issues such as the Polish-Soviet border, the deportation of Polish citizens, the arrests of members of the Polish Home Army, or the Katyn massacre were labelled sensitive and withheld from the BBC broadcasts. As a result, the impartiality and credibility of the BBC were questioned in some quarters in Poland.

After the cessation of the diplomatic relations between Poland and the USSR in 1943, the subject of the post-war Polish-Soviet frontier became a major issue for the Polish government-in-exile. While the British government was willingly to act as a mediator between the Polish Prime Minister Mikolajczyk and Stalin, the BBC Polish Service was recognised as a powerful medium in the Polish-Soviet negotiations because of its wide audience in Poland and among the Polish Army fighting all over the world. Given that the BBC European Service was designed as an instrument of Britain's foreign policy, the BBC's Polish broadcasts represented a significant medium for convincing the Polish public to assent to the Soviet Union's territorial demands. Since the acceptance of the Curzon Line did not have the support of the Polish population, nor of the leaders of the Polish Underground, it was recognised that, rather than being grounded on logical argument, it would be necessary to ‘sell’ this policy to Poland by way or propaganda.² Further analysis points to the assumption that the British government, although aware of Soviet political manoeuvring, arrests and killings of the Polish Home Army, concealed information from the public and required that broadcasts to Poland should assume ‘an increasingly emotional anti-German tone’ and that ‘the political questions should fall into the background’ while not giving ‘an impression that we are concealing anything’.³ Similar treatment was given to the coverage of the Warsaw Rising in 1944 when the BBC Polish Service failed to inform Polish listeners comprehensively about the actual political and military situation. Although the Political Warfare Executive (PWE) already acknowledged in February 1944 that it was highly probable that the Red Army would occupy Poland, right until the end of the war the BBC Polish Service continued to suppress information which could in anyway undermine the Soviet Union's position as a friendly neighbouring country and guarantor of Poland's independence.

State of Research

An examination of the relevant literature demonstrates the limited nature of the work done to date on the BBC Polish Service during the Second World War. The importance of the Service in this period has been neglected by both English and Polish scholars. Asa Briggs (The War of Words), Gerard Mansell (Let Truth to Be Told) and Krzysztof Pszenicki (Tu Mowi Londyn [This is London]) are the only writers to have considered the BBC Polish Service within the historical framework of the BBC European Service.

Briggs contributes significantly, providing an in-depth analysis of the BBC European Service; its structure, organisation and internal relations, including the relationship between the PWE and the Foreign Office. However, little attention has been paid to the BBC Polish Service itself. The author discusses the listening conditions in Poland under German occupation and the role of the Polish Underground in monitoring the BBC's broadcasts as well as in distributing their content through the clandestine press. Moreover, he highlights the importance of the BBC Polish Service in sabotaging the German occupation forces in Poland. Briggs’ main focus, however, is on Radio Polskie, the Polish-language programme organised by the Polish exile government (under close supervision of the British government) and transmitted by the BBC. In contrast, Mansell presents a more comprehensive account of the BBC Polish Service, drawing on interviews with former employees of the Service, including its editor, Gregory Macdonald. The book also offers a greater insight into the origins of the Service, its relations with the PWE and the Polish government-in-exile in London, and its internal affairs. Nevertheless, as is the case with Briggs, the Polish Service is only mentioned in the context of the overall structure and work of the BBC European Service; the analysis does not explore the actual content of the BBC's Polish broadcasts.

Pszenicki's Tu Mowi Londyn [This is London] is an excellent source of information about those who worked at the BBC Polish Service. However, it concentrates mainly on the post-war Communist era. The author relies heavily on the works of Briggs and Mansell and makes no references to primary sources. Moreover, discussion on wartime censorship is very limited. Also worth mentioning is Michael Fleming's Auschwitz, the Allies and Censorship of the Holocaust, which includes an analysis of the papers and bulletins of the BBC Polish Service. However, the main focus of this study is on the BBC's coverage and censorship of German atrocities committed in Auschwitz. In addition, valuable information on the impact of the BBC's Polish broadcasts on listeners in Poland can be found in Nowak's Kurier z Warszawy [Courier from Warsaw], Mazur's Bureau of Information and Propaganda [Bureau of Information and Propaganda] and in Kwiatkowski's Polskie Radio w Konspiracji [Polskie Radio in conspiracy].

Aims of Research

In addition to this literature, my thesis aims to provide a comprehensive account of the structure, organisation and output of the BBC Polish Service. Based on previously neglected archival sources, it will contribute to the histories of the BBC European Service, the BBC Monitoring Service, the PWE and the Polish government-in-exile, and it will expand our knowledge and understanding of the relationship and interaction between those institutions. Focusing on questions of wartime censorship and propaganda and on the coverage of issues which became a subject of dispute between the Polish and Soviet governments, the study analyses the extent to which the BBC Polish Service was used as an instrument of British foreign policy. Therefore, the principal research question is this: to what extent did the BBC Polish Service report objectively, representing, as was claimed during and after the war, the points of view of both the Polish and the Soviet governments? In order to answer this question, the analysis will focus on the level of compliance of the BBC Polish Service with the directives issued by the PWE and with the censorship guidelines of the Foreign Office. Special attention will also be paid to the BBC's relationship with the Polish government-in-exile, and in particular with the Polish Ministry of Information which also sought to influence the BBC's Polish-language output. In this context, we shall also examine the relationship and cooperation between the BBC Polish Service and Radio Polskie. Hence, the thesis will shed new light on the diplomatic relations between Poland, Britain and the USSR and on the spread of Communism in Eastern Europe during the Second World War.

Sources

The thesis draws on primary sources from the BBC Written Archives Centre in Caversham, notably scripts of the BBC Polish Service bulletins, minutes of meetings, propaganda and news directives, notes of correspondence, memoranda, European Intelligence Papers (e.g. Studies of European Audiences and output reports), BBC Monitoring Digests, and PWE directives for the BBC Polish Service. Moreover, it makes use of Foreign Office papers (National Archives, Kew, London) discussing the importance and difficulties of broadcasting to Poland. The Polish Underground Movement Study Trust and the Polish Institute and Sikorski Museum (both situated in London), among other important primary sources related to the Polish government-in-exile, its diplomatic relations with Britain and the USSR and on the exchange of information with the Polish Underground, hold documents on the relationship between the BBC Polish Service and the Polish Ministry of Information. Here, the main focus is on the Polish Ministry of Information, papers of Polish couriers and emissaries, and reports and correspondence from Radio Polskie employees who, in many cases, worked for both Radio Polskie and the BBC Polish Service. Wartime circumstances and repression during the Communist period in Poland resulted in the destruction of most of the documents. However, some of the scripts of the BBC'S Polish-language bulletins were monitored by the Polish Underground and can be found in the Central Archive of Modern Records in Warsaw. In addition, the thesis will make use, first, of material from the Hoover Institute at Stanford, notably memoranda and correspondence discussing the relationship between the Polish government-in-exile in London and the BBC Polish Service; second, of papers of the BBC Monitoring Service held at the Imperial War Museum archive at Duxford; and third, of Noel Newsome's collection of BBC European Service papers, private correspondence, memoranda, and the Studies of European Audience reports held at the Churchill Archives Centre at Churchill College Cambridge. The study also draws on a private collection of unpublished papers and articles of the wartime editor of the BBC Polish Service, Gregory MacDonald (currently in the possession of his son).

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Additional information

Agnieszka Morriss, Department of Journalism, City University, Northampton Square, London EC1V 0HB, UK

Notes

1. Nowak, Kurier z Warszawy.

2. Propaganda, Directives: Polish Service: PWE, 16 January 1944, BBC Written Archives Centre, Caversham, Reading, R34/663.

3. Political Warfare and Executive directives for Poland: broadcasts to Poland: Polish underground movement, 23 March 1944, The National Archives, London, FO 371/39422.