Haller’s Army
Also known as the “Polish Army” or the “Blue Army” in France during World War I, more than 25,000 men joined this group and fought between 1918 and 1920. Polish men from Minnesota volunteered to serve in this army.
Many records have been preserved and are documented below.
Photo: University of Michigan – College of Literature, Science and the Arts
PGS-MN Newsletters
(You will need to scroll down to the page indicated to find the article within the newsletter link)
| newsletter | title/author | page |
|---|---|---|
| Fall 2001 | The Polish Army in France in World War I (Haller’s Army) Recruitment Database – Northern Minnesota by Ray Marshall | 1 |
| Fall 2004 | Haller’s Army Recruits – 1918: The Rest of Minnesota | 11 |
| Summer 2005 | Haller’s Army Recruitment Papers by J.M. Bias | 8 |
| Fall 2005 | A Third Person from Wells in Haller’s Army by J.M. Bias | 7 |
PGS-MN Program Meetings
In September 2021, Dr. David T Ruskoski, Associate Professor History at Tulsa Community College spoke to PGS-MN on the Polish Army in France during the late 1910s. Independent Poland ceased to exist in 1795 and the various insurrections to restore the Polish state were thwarted by the Germans, Austro-Hungarians, and Russians.
During the First World War, Polish statesmen called upon the thousands of Polish immigrants in the United States to join the Polish Army in France, a military force funded by the French government and organized by the Polish Falcons of America and Ignacy Paderewski, the world-famous Polish pianist. Over 20,000 men trained in Canada and fought in the final months of the war on the Western front. While in France they were placed under the command of General Jozef Haller and became known as Haller’s Army.
At the conclusion of the war, the Allied leaders at the Paris Peace Conference decided to send the soldiers to Poland to fight in the Polish-Soviet War to stop the western advance of the Bolsheviks. When the war ended, the United States government, with the influence of Secretary of State Robert Lansing, funded the return of the soldiers to their homes in the United States.
Other Articles
| Source | TItle/Author | Comments |
|---|---|---|
| Foundation for East European Family History Studies (FEEFHS) | Polish Army in France Records: Haller’s Army: Recruitment Record Database – Background by James J. Czuchra | LInk to Article |
| Dissertation from Georgia State University, Department of History, 2006 | The Polish Army in France: Immigrants in America, World War 1 Volunteers in France, Defenders of the Recreated State in Poland by David Thomas Ruskoski | Link to the Dissertation |
| Historynet.com | Poland’s Men in Blue and Their Struggle for Independence by Peter Zablocki | Link to Article |
Book
Haller’s Polish Army in France
by Paul S. Valasek
Whitehall Printing, 2006
Available in the Hoffman Research Library at the Minnesota Genealogy Center.