Before the storm

Powrót żołnierzy 42. pułku piechoty z manewrów (Muzeum Wojska w Białymstoku)
The return of the 42nd infantry regiment soldiers from the military manoeuvres
(Army Museum in Białystok)

Preceded by Austria and Czechoslovakia, the Second Polish Republic became the next country over which swastika cast its shadow. For the last twenty years, the country had been recovering from over a century of partitions and damages and quickly overcoming obstacles to its development. However, the geopolitical location was a huge problem: Poland was in between two totalitarian countries – the Third Reich (West) and USSR (East), which had very ambitious plans concerning the expansion of their influences. Having faith in the international alliances with France and Great Britain, Poland was developing its army. Knowing the taste of occupation, the society believed that the forthcoming war would finish like the Polish – Soviet war of 1920 – with repulsing the attack of the enemy.

The world that our grandparents had known was about to cease to exist.