Before

Partition, annexation, unification: all these factors instil a deep patriotism in the hearts of Poles that nothing can extinguish. Although they are sometimes forced to leave their homeland, the spiritual bond with the land of their ancestors is such that they never forget their roots. France, the home of the Enlightenment, was their destination of choice.

A Polish queen of France, a French king of Poland… Over the centuries, the two countries have developed a special relationship: never at war with each other, they frequently fought side by side.

The end of the 18th century saw Poland annexed by neighbouring powers: Russia, Austria and Prussia. During the 19th century, attempts to unite the country by force were unsuccessful. Repression and the search for new ways to fight for independence obliged the insurgent authorities and the Polish elite to emigrate, mainly to France. This exodus is known as the Great Emigration.

Paris became the centre of Polish political and cultural life, maintaining constant contact with the country’s opposition. The Polish National School in Paris, known as Les Batignolles, the first Polish school in France, was founded in 1842. It was not just a question of teaching the children of emigrants the Polish language: they needed to be brought up with an awareness of their Polish identity!

With the Treaty of Versailles, Poland regained its independence. France, ravaged by war, was short of labour, while in Poland millions of people were looking for work. France and Poland sign an emigration agreement. Between the wars, almost a million Poles settled in France.

From the moment he took power in 1933, Hitler manoeuvred to enlarge the Lebensraum (“living space”) for the German Aryan “master race”. Treaties and agreements made after the First World War did not prevent the militarization of the Reich and claims to territories that were formerly German or shared a common bloodline and culture such as Rhineland, Austria, and Sudetenland. And soon the demand for free passage through Polish territory to the Free City of Danzig.

The Batignolles Polish School had been obliged to close in 1922. Attempts to replace it were unsuccessful until 1939, when the Polish Catholic Mission in France prepared to open a school in Amiens for the children of economic immigrants.