Voice from afar?

On 16 September 2025, Prof. Krzysztof Kania (Toruń) will give a lecture followed by a panel discussion entitled ‘Voice from afar? The Polish government-in-exile during the Second World War’ at the Museum Berlin-Karlshorst. Prof. Claudia Weber (Frankfurt Oder) will take part in the panel discussion. The event will be moderated by Robert Parzer, director of the German-Polish House.

Poland, September 1939: Following the complete occupation by the German Reich and the Soviet Union in accordance with the provisions of the Hitler-Stalin Pact, the Polish government fled to France. What would happen in Poland? There were widely differing views on this within the country, among the government in exile and among the Allies fighting against Germany. From London, where the Polish government found refuge after the occupation of France in the summer of 1940, it controlled the underground state in the country and received information about the crimes of the German and Soviet occupying powers.

After the end of the Second World War, the government in exile was abandoned by its former allies. Changing alliances and seemingly increasingly desperate attempts to maintain its legitimacy in the face of the installation of a communist regime in Poland shaped the politics of the government in exile until 1990.

Crises, changes, multipolarity: much of what still characterises politics today can already be seen in the policies of the Polish governments in exile. In this context, the event not only shows what the Hitler-Stalin Pact meant for Eastern Europe, but also invites reflection on the current state of German-Polish relations.

The event is jointly organised by the Berlin-Karlshorst Museum and the German-Polish House.

Dr. Krzysztof Kania, professor at Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń. His main research interests include: the history of Polish diplomacy, the history of Polish independence emigration, the history of Poland and Great Britain, biographies and epistolary writing in the 20th century. He publishes in ‘Dzieje Najnowsze’ (Recent History), ‘Przegląd Zachodni’ (Western Review), Klio and Vandenhoeck&Ruprecht Verlag. He is the author of the first academic biography of Edward Raczyński (Edward Bernard Raczyński 1891–1993 diplomat and politician, Warsaw 2014), which was awarded by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs as the best publication in the field of Polish diplomatic history in 2015. He is the author, editor and co-editor of several academic monographs, collective works and academic source editions, including: Wielka Brytania 1918-1939 w świetle polskich źródeł dyplomatycznych (Great Britain 1918-1939 in the light of Polish diplomatic sources), Toruń 2007; Polskie Dokumenty Dyplomatyczne 1932 (Polish Diplomatic Documents 1932), Warsaw 2011; August Zaleski, Memoirs, Warsaw 2017; Jan Nowak-Jeziorański, Edward Raczyński, Correspondence 1952-1975, Wrocław 2019; and Inspire the Nation. Speeches by Edward Raczyński in Exile, 1939–1989, Warsaw 2023.

Prof. Claudia Weber is a professor at the European University Viadrina Frankfurt (Oder) in the Faculty of Cultural Studies and holds the Chair of European Contemporary History. From 2017 to 2019, she was director of the Viadrina Centre B/Orders in Motion and from 2015 to 2018 vice-president for research and young academics. Her research focuses on the history of violence and dictatorships in the 20th century, the cultural history of the Cold War, the history of war in the modern era, historical Europeanisation processes, and the history of European concepts. Her monograph Der Pakt. Stalin, Hitler und die Geschichte einer mörderischen Allianz (The Pact: Stalin, Hitler and the History of a Murderous Alliance), published in 2019 and already available in Slovak, Hungarian and Italian, was awarded the Friuli Book Prize for Contemporary History in 2022. Other examples include Krieg der Täter. Die Massenerschießungen von Katyń (War of the Perpetrators: The Mass Shootings of Katyń) in 2015 and Auf der Suche nach der Nation. Erinnerungskultur in Bulgarien 1878-1944 (In Search of the Nation: Culture of Remembrance in Bulgaria 1878-1944) in 2006. She was also featured in the podcast Eine Stunde History – Das Ende des Koreakrieges 1953 (One Hour of History: The End of the Korean War in 1953), a production of Deutschlandfunk.

Robert Parzer is a historian and director of the German-Polish House in Berlin. More information can be found here.

Please note: By participating in the event, you consent to photographs and video recordings of yourself being used as part of promotional material by the organisers. Photography and filming (e.g. with a mobile phone camera) are not permitted.