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Heroes, Victims, Role Models: Representing the Child Soldiers of the Warsaw Uprising

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Ewa Stańczyk
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Abstract

This article explores narratives surrounding child soldiers in Poland, with a particular focus on the Warsaw Uprising of 1944. My discussion examines a variety of contexts in which this figure appears, such as urban spaces, press debates, popular literature, and educational games, and unpacks the taboos associated with cultural constructions of childhood. The article points to the complex interaction between the enduring narratives of resistance and the struggle for independence which characterize Poland and the international humanitarian discourse on the use of children in war which goes beyond the local context. More generally, I show that the representations of Warsaw's young insurgents speak less of the children and their rights and more of contemporary notions of Polish national identity, the nation's wished-for or projected development, and collective hopes and fears in the wake of its accession to the European Union.

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Articles
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Slavic Review , Volume 74 , Issue 4 , Winter 2015 , pp. 738 - 759
Copyright
Copyright © Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies. 2015

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References

This work was supported by an EURIAS grant from the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study in the Humanities and Social Sciences (NIAS). I am grateful to the institute for hosting me during the 2014-15 academic year and providing an ideal environment in which this work could develop. I would like to thank John Kearns, Ewa Kopaczka, and the anonymous reviewers for Slavic Review for their helpful comments on earlier drafts of this article. I am also indebted to Jacek Frqs, Arthur Verhoogt, and Egmont Publishing for granting permission to use images for which they hold the copyright.

1 See Wells, Karen, Childhood in a Global Perspective (Cambridge, Eng., 2009), 37.Google Scholar

2 Scholars commonly agree that childhood is a social and cultural invention. Most notably, Philippe Ariès views it as a product of the modern era, associated with the rise of the family and the development of an educational system in Europe in the seventeenth century. See Ariès, Philippe, Centuries of Childhood: A Social History of Family Life, trans. Baldick, Robert (New York, 1962).Google Scholar

3 Wladyslaw Bartoszewski (“Ludwik“), “The Warsaw Uprising: Facts and Afterthoughts,“ Dialogue and Universalism 4, nos. 5-6 (2004): 25.

4 See, for example, lohn Radzilowski, “Remembrance and Recovery: The Museum of the Warsaw Rising and the Memory of World War II in Post-Communist Poland,” review of The Museum of the Warsaw Rising, Warsaw, Poland, by Jan Oldakowski, Public Historian 31, no. 4 (Fall 2009): 144.

5 1 use the term child soldier in line with the definition set out by UNICEF in the Paris Principles of 2007. A child soldier is “any person below 18 years of age who is or who has been recruited or used by an armed force or armed group in any capacity, including but not limited to children, boys and girls, used as fighters, cooks, porters, messengers, spies or for sexual purposes. It does not only refer to a child who is taking or has taken a direct part in hostilities.” See “The Paris Principles: Principles and Guidelines on Children Associated with Armed Forces or Armed Groups, February 2007),” 7, at http://www.unicef.org/emerg/files/ParisPrinciples310107English.pdf (last accessed August 1, 2015).

6 That is why they were often described by other insurgents as szczury kanalowe— the “sewer rats. “

7 Jerzy Tomasz Świderski (“Lubicz“), “Najmłodsi żołnierze Powstania 1944 r. Harcerski Pulton Lączników Btl. ‘Gustaw,'” in Świderski, Jerzy, ed., Harcerze 1944-1956: Najmlodsi w Powstaniu Warszawskim, drugiej konspiracji i więzieniach bezpieki (Warsaw, 2005), 59–61, 64.Google Scholar

8 In November 1942, three different age groups were created within the organization. The oldest boys, aged seventeen and over, formed the assault groups, which, under occupation, took part in armed resistance. During the Warsaw Uprising, its battalions, including Zośka and Parasol, gained a reputation as some of the best trained in the Home Army. Their younger colleagues, aged fifteen to seventeen, were part of the combat groups, responsible for reconnaissance and communication. The last group, codenamed Zawisza, after a Polish king from the Middle Ages, comprised children aged twelve to fourteen who were involved in auxiliary service such as intelligence work and carrying messages and goods. See, for example, Chadaj, Magdalena, “Trzeba było, to się szło,” Nasza Polska 32 (2012): 14.Google Scholar

9 Out of all Gray Ranks troops, it was inevitably the assault groups that suffered the greatest losses; on average, 80 percent were killed on the frontline. See Maria Wiśniewska (“Malina,” “Pucia“) and Jerzy Tomasz Świderski, “Harcerze w Powstaniu Warszawskim,“ in Świderski, ed., Harcerze 1944-1956,36.

10 See, for example, Jabrzemski, Jerzy, Harcerze z Szarych Szeregów (Warsaw, 1997).Google Scholar

11 Worthy of special mention is a monograph that looks at the history of child soldiers in the Soviet Union during the Great Patriotic War and the social, cultural, and historical foundations of this phenomenon. See Kucherenko, Olga, Little Soldiers: How Soviet Children Went to War, 1941-45 (Oxford, 2011).CrossRefGoogle Scholar The majority of the works on this subject focus predominantly on the African continent. See, for example, Denov, Myriam, Child Soldiers: Sierra Leone's Revolutionary United Front (Cambridge, Eng., 2010);CrossRefGoogle Scholar Honwana, Alcinda Manuel, Child Soldiers in Africa (Philadelphia, 2006);CrossRefGoogle Scholar and Coulter, Chris, Bush Wives and Girl Soldiers: Women's Lives through War and Peace in Sierra Leone (Ithaca, 2008).Google Scholar

12 For a detailed discussion of these contradictions in the context of Sierra Leone, see Denov, Myriam, “Child Soldiers and Iconography: Portrayals and (Mis)Representations,” Children and Society 26, no. 4 (July 2012): 280–92.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

13 See, for example, the senate resolution issued in November 2012 on the seventieth anniversary of the establishment of the Zawisza troops within the Ranks, Gray. “Uchwala Senatu Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej z dnia 9 listopada 2012 r. z okazji 70. rocznicy powolania do sluzby ‘Zawiszy’ Szarych Szeregów,” Nasza Polska 47 (2012): 14.Google Scholar

14 Kowalewska, Magdalena, “Polska Walcząca,” Nasza Polska 32 (2012): 4.Google Scholar

15 Duraczynski, Eugeniusz, “Powstanie warszawskie—badan i sporow ciqg dalszy,” Dzieje Najnowsze 27, no. 1 (1995): 71.Google Scholar

16 Adam Michnik, “Honor, pacierz i namysl,” Gazeta Wyborcza, July 30-31, 1994, 8-9.

17 Maria Janion, “Placz generate,” Gazeta Wyborcza, August 2-3,1997,14.

18 See, for example, Jan Nowak Jeziorański, “Nie przebaczajmy zbyt latwo,” Gazeta Wyborcza, August 5-6,1995, 6.

19 Andrzej Nowak, interview by Adam Tycner, “Wspaniała niezgoda na zniewolenie,“ Rzeczpospolita, July 28-29, 2012, P3. All translations from Polish are mine.

20 P. W. Singer, “Children at War,” Military History (September 2007): 52.

21 For a longer discussion of the memory of the Warsaw Uprising under communism, see Sawicki, Jacek Zygmunt, Bitwa o prawde: Historia zmagań o pamieć Powstania Warszawskiego 1944-1989 (Warsaw, 2005).Google Scholar See also Sawicki, Jacek Zygmunt, “Peerelu zmagania z legendę,” Newsweek Polska 31 (July 2004): 54–56.Google Scholar

22 Glębocki, Wiesiaw, Warszawskie pomniki (Warsaw, 1990), 105.Google Scholar

23 Hirschfeld, Lawrence A., “Why Don't Anthropologists Like Children?,” American Anthropologist 104, no. 2 (June 2002): 613.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

24 Nicholas Stargardt makes a similar observation about other representations of children in WWII. See Stargardt, Nicholas, Witnesses of War: Children's Lives under the Nazis (London, 2006), 10.Google Scholar

25 For first-hand accounts discussing the variety of roles played by female soldiers in the Warsaw Uprising, see Patrycja Bukalska, Sierpniowe dziewczeta ‘ 44 (Warsaw, 2013).

26 Denov, “Child Soldiers and Iconography,” 284.

27 The link between gender and nationalism is not limited to the Warsaw Uprising but can be discerned in other contexts. For example, Elżbieta Ostrowska argues that in the nineteenth century, in particular, the figure of the Polish Mother was used as a way of strengthening the homosocial community of men involved in the national struggle. Elevated to a semi-divine level, she was to facilitate male bonding and inspire nationalist sentiment. See Ostrowska, Elżbieta, “Matki Polki i ich synowie: Kilka uwag o genezie obrazów kobiecości i męskości w kulturze polskiej,” in Radkiewicz, Malgorzata, ed., Gender: Konteksty (Krakow, 2004), 215–52.Google Scholar

28 Matylda Witkowska, “Łódź ma pomnik Malego Powstańca,” Dziennik lódzki, August 1-2, 2009, 2.

29 See, for example, Bunda, Martyna, “Rozmowa z Markiem Kondratem na 60. urodziny: Na swoim przekletym miejscu,” Polityka 42 (2010): 91.Google Scholar

30 Denov, “Child Soldiers and Iconography,” 282.

31 This is a common practice across the global north. See, for example, Lee-Koo, Katrina, “Horror and Hope: (Re)presenting Militarised Children in Global North-South Relations,“ Third World Quarterly 32, no. 4 (May 2011): 739 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed

32 For a discussion of western debates on child soldiery as the new “colonial” discourse, see Manzo, Kate, “Imaging Humanitarianism: NGO Identity and the Iconography of Childhood,” Antipode 40, no. 4 (September 2008): 635.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

33 Cook, Daniel Thomas and Wall, John, “Introduction: Broadening the Conversation,“ in Cook, Daniel Thomas and Wall, John, eds., Children and Armed Conflict: Cross- Disciplinary Investigations (Basingstoke, 2011), 1.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

34 Jerzy Filipowicz, Mialem wtedy 14 lat, 3rd ed. (Warsaw, 1975), 5.

35 With the aging of the population of former child insurgents, there has been a proliferation of first-hand accounts, published especially as edited volumes of testimonies. For more recent compilations of eye-witness accounts, see, for example, Jerzy Mirecki, , ed., Dzieci ‘ 44: Wspomnienia dzieci powstanczej Warszawy (Warsaw, 2014);Google Scholar and Hanasz, Marian, ed., Warszawskie dzieci (Warsaw, 2014).Google Scholar

36 Filipowicz, Mialem wtedy 14 lat, 12.

37 Ibid., 84.

38 See David Elkind, The Hurried Child: Growing Up Too Fast Too Soon (Reading, 1981), 3.

39 Filipowicz, Mialem wtedy 14 lat, 11.

40 Ibid., 135.

41 Breen, Claire, “When Is a Child Not a Child? Child Soldiers in International Law,“ Human Rights Review 8, no. 2 (January 2007): 73.Google Scholar

42 It is worth noting that the United Kingdom only permits the recruitment of children over the age of sixteen and as long as they have parental consent.

43 Frąś, Jacek, “Kaczka,” in Kolodziejczak, Tomasz, ed., Wrzesień: Wojna Narysowana. Antologia Komiksu Polskiego, vol. 2 (Warsaw, 2003), 121–26.Google Scholar

44 See, for example, the speech delivered by President Aleksander Kwaśniewski on the sixtieth anniversary of the uprising. Aleksander Kwasniewski, “Dziękujemy ci, powstańcza Warszawo,” Rzeczpospolita, August 3,2004, A6.

45 Bruyn, Dieter De, “Patriotism of Tomorrow? The Commemoration and Popularization of the Warsaw Rising through Comics,” Slovo 22, no. 2 (2010): 58.Google Scholar

46 McCloud, Scott, Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art (New York, 1994), 30.Google Scholar

47 Hirschfeld, “Why Don't Anthropologists Like Children?,” 613.

48 These are not the only examples of children's books on the theme of the Warsaw Uprising. Rusinek, Michal, Zaklęcie na “W” (Warsaw, 2011)Google Scholar, and Joanna Papuzinska, Asiunia (Warsaw, 2011), are also worthy of special mention.

49 Jacek Szczerba, “Wersja dziecięca powstania,” Gazeta Wyborcza, August 1, 2006,12.

50 Slawinski, Szymon, Maty powstaniec (Warsaw, 2006), 14.Google Scholar This would, of course, suggest that the quasi-military activities undertaken by the “sewer rats” were, from the very beginning, designed specifically for the youngest participants of the uprising and that the scouts were possibly recruited precisely because they were children.

51 Szczerba, “Wersja dziecięca powstania,” 12.

52 See, for example, Slawinski, Maty powstaniec, 15,19, 20-21, 27.

53 This infantilizing of the memory of the Warsaw Uprising is also visible in the educational devices produced by the Warsaw Rising Museum, including coloring books aimed at children as young as three, puzzles, and board games.

54 Cezary Gmyz, “Nowe święto narodowe,” Rzeczpospolita, August 1, 2008, A5.

55 Marta Brzezińska, “POP-Powstanie Warszawskie,” Gazeta Polska, July 27,2011,23.

56 Jarosław Wroblewski, “Dzieciaki z ‘Radoslawa,'” Gazeta Polska, August 3,2011,18.

57 Maciej Milosz, “Legenda adresowana do mlodych,” Rzeczpospolita, July 30, 2010,1.

58 Jerzy Szacki, interview by Katarzyna Wisniewska, “Zabawa czy zaloba,” Gazeta Wyborcza, July 28-29, 2012, 3.

59 Brzezinska, “POP-Powstanie Warszawskie,” 23.

60 Paweł Wieczorkiewicz, interview by Rafal Jablonski, “Powstanie skomercjalizowano, ale to lepsze od zapomnienia,” Życie Warszawy, July 27, 2007,16.

61 See, for example, Marcin Turkot, “Komando hitlerowskich cyborg ów,” Tygodnik Powszechny, July 31, 2011, 31.

62 Katarzyna Kubisiowska, “Gra o historic,” Tygodnik Powszechny, January 12, 2010, 34.

63 Moynagh, Maureen, “Human Rights, Child-Soldier Narratives, and the Problem of Form,” Research in African Literatures 42, no. 4 (Winter 2011): 40.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

64 Lee-Koo, “Horror and Hope,” 739.

65 Other examples of educational entertainment addressing the uprising rarely deal with the theme of child soldiers. For example, the long-awaited computer game Uprising '44: The Silent Shadows, produced in 2012, focuses on the Cichociemni, the elite paratroops of the Home Army, trained in Britain, who also took part in the uprising. Similarly, the Facebook project Rumpel z przeszlosci—1944 Live (My Mate from the Past: 1944 Live) focuses on older soldiers, ages twenty-three and twenty-four. In contrast, the 2005 album Powstanie Warszawskie (The Warsaw Uprising) by the Polish rock band Lao Che looks at the trajectory of the revolt more generally. For an interesting discussion of the Facebook project, see Bruyn, Dieter De, “World War 2.0: Commemorating War and Holocaust in Poland through Facebook,” Digital Icons: Studies in Russian, Eurasian and Central European New Media 4 (2010): 45–62.Google Scholar