De ‘Poolse kwestie’ in Nederland in de jaren 1914–1918: De rol van Poolse persbureaus in de cultuur- en kennistransfer over Polen

Abstract

With the outbreak of the Great War, there arose a new “space”, in which various events took place, parallel to the armed struggle. They led to the development of new relational networks between institutions and individuals. Not only in the warring and the occupied countries, but also in the neutral states, besides the armed fight, an ardent battle took place for the favours of public opinion, waged by means of propaganda activities. In addition to the press agencies of the fighting countries active in the Netherlands, which were intended to collect and distribute news in a conventional journalistic sense (but with hidden intentions), there were also press representatives from other countries, including Poland. They made sure that the Polish question was present in the Dutch press. The most important among those institutions were Sigismund Gargas’s Poolsch Persbureau (Polish Press Office) and the news agency under the auspices of the Naczelny Komitet Narodowy (Supreme National Committee). In part, they also played a role in the ‘psychological warfare’ of the German propaganda apparatus.