Hollywood's War with Poland, 1939-1945

7. Hollywood and the American Poles during the War

19  Hollywood and the American Poles during theWar by world war ii, hollywood had a long history of ignoring the Polish population of the United States or presenting them negatively. This, in part, reflected the unenviable position the Poles occupied in American society and consciousness in the decades before the Second World War. The Poles were among the “new immigrants” from Eastern and Southern Europe who largely displaced the previous flow of arrivals from Western Europe by late in the nineteenth century. Of this group the Poles were a significant number. Exact figures are speculative, but at least 2 million arrived between 1890 and the outbreak of World War I.1 Among the recent immigrants, only the Italians exceeded the Poles, and not by much. The Poles were far more numerous than any other group from Eastern Europe: many times the number of Czechs, Hungarians, and Balkan Slavs, and far more than the Russians, for example.2 Of course, the Polish immigrants were outnumbered by the Irish, German (including German Jews), and British populations, who had been far longer in residence. German Jews had also arrived early in the nineteenth century. After 1880, however, the Jewish arrivals were overwhelmingly from Eastern Europe. By 1914 the Poles probably exceeded the Jewish population in number but were not as well organized . Moreover, Eastern European Jews shared the opprobrium of all Eastern Europeans, including Poles. Polish Jews were in an unusual position. Most joined the American Jewish community and tended not 10 Hollywood’sWar with Poland, 1939–1945 to associate with Christian Poles. This phenomenon had complex roots, but the growing anti-Semitism of certain elements of the Polish population —the “nationalist” movement—certainly was a noteworthy factor. In general the new immigrants were not well received by American society, which regarded them as inferior to the older stock of Americans . In 1902, Woodrow Wilson described Poles, along with Hungarians and Italians, as “men of the meaner sort” possessing “neither skill nor energy nor any initiative of quick intelligence.” They were a “coarse crew,” even less desirable than the Chinese.3 Such views were widespread in American society. John Higham, in a famous work, described them as “conservative racial nativists.”4 The famous Dillingham Commission, authorized by Congress in 1907, issued a report in 1911 that found the Poles intellectually and psychologically inferior to the resident population. It also concluded that Poles and others from Eastern Europe could not be assimilated, and thus their numbers should be restricted. This report formed one of the bases for the Emergency Quota Act of 1921, which drastically reduced the number of immigrants in general and specifically discriminated against Southern and Eastern Europeans.5 Although all of the recent arrivals suffered this burden, Polish immigrants ’ situation was unusual because of their relatively large numbers. In many ways the Pole was the Eastern European par excellence, probably accounting for the plurality of all the migrants from that part of the world. The Poles were thus in a difficult position: large enough in number to draw attention but too few—and too poor, and too uneducated— to be a powerful presence in their new home. One should add that, with the American government’s sanction of their ascribed inferior status, there was little the Poles in America could do to demand equality. For Hollywood, American Poles were essentially negative characters . In Universal’s 1942 Eagle Squadron, devoted to the exploits of two American pilots in British service early in the war, we are told one of the two, Wadislaw Borowsky (not a Polish name), was born in Poland but raised in Pennsylvania.6 Borowsky is emotionally unstable—a common attribute of Poles in Hollywood—and his recklessness results in his betraying the squadron, thus leading to its destruction.7 The film was regarded as one of the worst releases of 1942.8 Although the Hollywood version of the Italian campaign—The Story of G.I. Joe—omits Poland’s role, as we have noted, it does feature Hollywood and the American Poles during theWar 11 a PolishAmerican, Sergeant Warnicki (played by the obscure ex-pugilist Freddie Steele), who, like the lamentable Borowsky, loses his mind.9 Indeed, the Pole, or at least the American Pole, as an incompetent misfit is a minor subgenre; Poles seem always on the edge of nervous collapse in Hollywood. The Warnicki role is nonetheless not without moment. The character...