Behind the Iron Curtain: Eleanor Roosevelt’s Visit to Poland in 1960

Abstract

This chapter focuses on Eleanor Roosevelt’s visits to the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) in 1957 and 1958 and Poland in 1960 and aims to show how officials in both countries welcomed and treated her and how local media perceived her activities. These trips are much less known than her other foreign journeys. Mrs Roosevelt’s biographers have usually mentioned and briefly commented on her visit to the USSR in 1957 (based mostly on her own writings, for instance, chapters in On My Own and column of “My Day”) and the interview with Nikita Khrushchev. But the knowledge on the Russian response to her visit remains limited and there is scant information on her second journey to USSR in 1958. What’s more, in her biographies we don’t find any, even basic, information on Eleanor Roosevelt’s visit to Poland, when she took part in the 15th Plenary Assembly of World Federation of the United Nations Associations (WFUNA), in the Polish Parliament (Sejm) in Warsaw, on September 5–10, 1960. On September 4, 1960, Eleanor Roosevelt was cordially greeted at the airport in Warsaw by Polish dignitaries and US Ambassador Jacob Beam. In the following days she participated in the Plenary Assembly and in several meetings with state officials, journalists, schoolchildren and so on. She was treated with respect and courtesy by Poles and presented everywhere, and particularly in the Polish media, as the most important personality of the WFUNA meeting and the most outspoken champion of the United Nations’ peace and disarmament. In Poland, and particularly in Warsaw, Eleanor Roosevelt witnessed still visible effects of the horrendous destruction of World War II and learnt more about it, which gave her more arguments for an anti-war and anti-nuclear stand. She publicly talked about the necessity of disarmament, particularly nuclear disarmament, which was presented in the Polish media with great appreciation for her generous contribution, as an American delegate, to the timely campaign for the disarmament and peace in Central Europe. This chapter elucidates unknown aspects of Mrs Roosevelt’s activities during her visit to Poland, mostly based on Polish archival sources and media responses.