The Long Way Home
An American Journey from Ellis Island to the Great War
David Laskin

Honoring an Omitted Soldier

Friday, October 16th, 2009

One nice thing about of being a writer – aside from never having to dress up for work – is that people seem genuinely interested in the details of how you ply your trade.  I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been asked where my ideas come from, how I do my research, where I find the stories I tell.  Since there’s nothing more enjoyable than talking about yourself (hence the popularity of blogging?), I’m always happy to oblige.

In this second attempt to summon an echo from the vasty depths of the blogosphere, I’m going to talk about how I came by a story that I didn’t tell in my book.  Early on in my research, I was having trouble finding Polish-Americans who had served in the war.  Italians and Jews practically came knocking on my door, but no Poles.  I contacted Stephen L. Harris, the author of three terrific books about heroic NY National Guard units in World War I, and he gave me an invaluable tip:  Harris suggested that I place short articles in the Polish-American press explaining the nature of my project and soliciting stories from readers.

I submitted a piece to The Polish Weekly and soon received a letter from a woman named Mary Sidick who lives in Canton, Michigan.  Ms. Sidick told me that her father Lawrence Bartus had emigrated from Poland to Michigan and fought in the war not with the United States Army but with Haller’s Army.  A bit of research revealed that this outfit, also known as the Polish Army in France, was an independent  military organization made up largely of Polish immigrants.  Though Haller’s Army fought alongside the Allies, its ultimate mission was to free Poland from Russian, Prussian, and Austrian control and secure Poland’s reunification as a single country.

Ms. Sidick wrote me that her father had been working as a baker when, on August 31, 1918, he enlisted in the Polish Army in France in order to avenge the death of his brother John, who had died in action earlier in the war.  “He fought in France,” Ms. Sidick said of her father, “was wounded in the legs, was waist deep in water in the trenches and prayed to God that he never have a son to experience the terrors of war.”

When I pressed her for more information, I received a second letter with this vivid, moving passage:

[My father] came to the States from the Carpathian Mountains in Poland, loved being outdoors, liked to tell stories, play cards, horseshoes and was very likeable.  When his parents died when he was little, he and his brothers [John and Martin] would cry themselves to sleep because of hunger.…My father suffered from trench feet all his life and the smell was very bad.  He also had to give up his prior job as a baker, because of lung problems due to being gassed.  When my brother was born, my dad cried.

My dad never passed up the Salvation Army kettle without a donation. He said when he got off the train in France it was cold and raining and he was handed a hot cup of coffee by the Salvation Army.  I continue the tradition in his memory.  Every Memorial Day my dad flew both the American and Polish flags on our front porch.  He was very proud to be a soldier.  We would go to the cemetery and pay tribute to the dead, and dad would have tears in his eyes when taps were played.

In the first draft of The Long Way Home, I included a brief history of Haller’s Army as well as this letter – but, alas, the entire Haller’s Army section, including Lawrence Bartus’s story, got deleted when my editor asked me to make substantial cuts to the manuscript.  Mary Sidick phoned me recently to inquire about the progress of my book, and it pained me terribly to confess that her father’s story did not make it into the final version. I hope this blog is some compensation.

This, I now see, is one virtue of blogging:  it’s never too late to include another story – or to honor the contribution and the memory of a humble baker who went to war for two countries he loved.  If you have ancestors, Polish or otherwise, who served in the First World War, I urge you to hit the “Submit Your Story” button to the right.

If you’d like to learn more about what Lawrence Bartus experienced in France, take a look at the Haller’s Army Website and the book Haller’s Polish Army in France by Paul S. Valasek .

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