Polish-Dutch Relations During the Cold War. Seen from The Hague

The Polish-Dutch relations have been shaped by the course of the international politics in Europe. After a period of rebuilding of the diplomatic structure in The Hague came a period of organization of permanent diplomatic services. The services were aimed not only at relations between the two respective governments but also at the thousands of Poles which lived here before the war or stayed in Holland with the 1st Armored Division of general Stanislaw Maczek when the war was over. The relations between official representatives of People's Republic of Poland and Poles were bad. The Cold War had victims on all fronts. Poles were afraid to return to communist Poland and had to decide to pick the land to begin the new life in. Some of them immigrated to the U.S., some went to Australia, Brazil, France and Germany to work in the coalmines. The official reports from the Polish embassy in The Hague show the feeling of isolation not only from the Polish emigrants but also from the Dutch political elites. The low-key relations, which fluctuated with the political atmosphere in Europe, were eased and normalized in 1971 with the new liberal communist leaders in Poland as a result of the official visit of J.M. Luns, the Dutch minister of International Affairs, to Warsaw. This new era in Polish-Dutch relations has ended in December 1981.