Sikorski’s “Prisoners” – interned in Cerizay, Rothesay and Tighnabruaich

Abstract

After September 1939 defeat, the Polish authorities were rebuilding the army in France and then in Great Britain. A surplus of officers in relation to the rank-and-file soldiers was a serious organizational problem. Various types of officers’ camps and muster stations were organized for officers’ overflow. Unfortunately, since autumn 1939 these places were also used as seclusion confinement, a kind of exile for Gen. Władysław Sikorski’s opponents, particularly representatives of Polish authorities from before the war, accused of contributing to the defeat of the country. A shameful page in the history of these inglorious places were the Cerizey Officer Centre in France, Officer Concentration Centre Rothesay on the Isle of Bute in Scotland and a little village of Tighnabruaich. The officers sent to these places were not isolated by any barbed wire. They were billeted in hotels and private guest houses and also received (although very reduced) salaries. However, many of them treated putting them aside on the side track as Gen. Sikorski’s revenge, as an unjustified punishment, consequently experiencing this fact as a personal drama.