Klub Angielski w Budapeszcie (1940): epizod z działalności kulturalno-oświatowej polskiej społeczności uchodźczej na Węgrzech w latach II wojny światowej

Abstract

The article is an attempt at a reconstruction of the brief period of activity of the so-called English Club in Budapest (8 January – 31 July 1940), which was the cultural arm of the British charity organization, Polish Relief Fund. It was active in Hungary in the beginning of the WWII and it cared for Polish civil emigrants in this country. Despite its name, the English Club (directed, like the whole Fund, by Francesca Mary Wilson) had little association with British culture, but rather was a cultural-educational body of the Polish war emigration in the Hungarian Kingdom. Beside the Polish Institute and the Polish Clubroom, it was the third major organization of this type, however, due to its short existence, its activity was obviously less impressive than the activity of the other two institutions. It functioned effectively merely for four months (March to June 1940) and managed to organize 12 cultural-artistic evenings, presenting shows by its own theatrical company (directed by Stanisław Urski and performing also outside Budapest, in refugee camps), one popular-scientific lecture, an occasional exhibition of the refugees’ achievements, and three debates, dedicated to the war and political issues, and associated with the military defeat and capitulation of France. The Club was closed as a result of the self-liquidation of the Polish Relief Fund (due to war-time circumstances), whose British personnel returned to England.