Laskavě prosíme o zatčení…
We Kindly Ask for Arrest …

Political Repression in Poland after World War Two in the Light of Efforts to Emigrate via the Czechoslovak Republic

Summary/Abstract: On 24 October 1947 the Czechoslovak Ministry of the Interior received a letter from the Polish Ministry of Public Security requesting that a trio of Polish citizens, who were alleged to have illegally crossed the Czechoslovak–Polish border on the same day and headed for Pezinok, Slovakia, be arrested. Even though according to the description in the letter they had committed crimes against property, they were in fact Mieczysław Dąbrowski, Maria Hulewiczowa and Wincenty Bryja, leading officials of the Polish People’s Party, who were trying to flee to the West from the increasing repression in their homeland. Their fates not only reflect the post-war situation in Poland but also draw attention to the fact that Czechoslovakia was at that time a relatively frequent transit area for Poles leaving their homeland for Western Europe.

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