The book is similar to My Home in the Field of Honour (1916), by Frances Wilson Huard in that it describes how the female head of an upper middle class family dealt with the German occupation of her large family home.
Both books describe long and dangerous journeys involving several members of the household, including servants. Both books tell how the authors helped care for wounded and sick soldiers. The home of each author was used by a high military officer of the German army, and also ransacked and vandalized by German soldiers.
An important difference between the books is how the author of When the Prussians Came to Poland lived through seven months of life under the occupying authority of the German army in her hometown of Suwalki. The author of My Home in the Field of Honour luckily avoided this fate when the German army was pushed back during the Battle of the Marne in 1914.
When the Prussians Came to Poland includes many heart-wrenching moments as Turczynowicz struggled desperately to get proper care for her children in a town where the Germans were ruthlessly controlling food, medicine, and other necessities of life.
Turczynowicz's life under occupation lasted from February 1915 to September 1915. During that time, she witnessed many acts of cruelty by German soldiers, including the rough treatment of Russian prisoners from a nearby battle. This behavior by German soldiers was often justified as revenge for losses in East Prussia during fighting between the Germans and Russians.
This occupation took a heavy physical and mental toll on the townspeople, often leading to death by malnutrition or suicide. Four months into the occupation, Turczynowicz wrote:
There was one constant stream of peasant funerals, with now and then a more pretentious one with the priest. It was a common sight to see people carrying a rough box, with a bit of green upon it, or all wrapped up in a shawl, singing the song for the dead as they slowly and painfully went on their way. The wall of those voices still rings in my ears—supremely melancholy and hopeless. Hopeless for themselves—for the dead were rather to be envied. War had taken the sting away!But Turczynowicz also experienced occasional moments of kindness from her captors, and learned to take advantage of these flashes of humanity in a war that tested everyone's character. German soldiers sometimes played with her children, including a young man who had been a waiter in New York City before the war. A German captain is particularly helpful to Turczynowicz and her family, in spite of the official duties of his position.
Turczynowicz's life under occupation was a roller coaster of hope and despair. During this occupation, the Germans successfully advanced against the Russians, pushing the Russian army out of Russian Poland and deep into Russia.
When the Prussians Came to Poland is an important record of fighting on the war's Eastern Front, which was not documented as much as the fighting on the Western Front. It complements Four Weeks in the Trenches (1915), by Fritz Kreisler, which covers a time period and fighting area that overlaps with part of When the Prussians Came to Poland, but is about an enemy of Poland and Russia (Austria).
Suwalki was part of the informal Kingdom of Poland that had been an independent country before being partitioned and annexed by Germany, Austria, and Russia in the late 1700's. When the Prussians Came to Poland gives the reader a deep sense of the Polish identity that had persevered after Poland lost its independence. Turczynowicz wrote about the hope for independence that helped motivate many Poles to fight in the war.
The devotion of Turczynowicz to her children helped her to finally leave Suwalki, in spite of the continuing German occupation. A sick child who needed special care helped get approval for a request to leave, after many failed requests.
When the Prussians Came to Poland also describes long journeys taken by the author both before and after her life under occupation, in attempts to escape the fury of the war.
Like many other World War I memoirs, the book begins in the quiet days just before the war broke out. After the war began, Turczynowicz did much traveling with her children and servants, to stay safe and to try to stay in contact with her husband Stanislaw, who had been assigned work as an Inspector-General of Sanitary Engineers.
After Turczynowicz and her children left Suwalki, they made a complicated trip through East Prussia, Berlin, and Holland. They finally reached the United States, where Turczynowicz worked to publicize the plight of the people in her adopted homeland of Poland.
The New York Times praised When the Prussians Came to Poland on January 7, 1917:
This book is a remarkable and intensely interesting record of personal experience with war that not only gives a vivid picture of Poland devastated, but also shows, in its simple, unassuming narrative, what marvels of effort necessity and will can force the human body to achieve. No more impressive, illuminating book has been produced by the war.
When the Prussians Came to Poland was published around November 5, 1916, when it was mentioned in a general book column in The New York Times. Front page headlines in that day's Times included:
- RUMANIANS WIN FRONTIER HEIGHT EAST OF PREDEAL / Bucharest Troops Advancing at Several Points Along Southern Transylvania Line. / BATTLE RAGES ON THE ALT / Teutons Retire Rapidly in the Juil Valley, Losing Prisoners and Guns. / GERMANS WIN IN GALICIA / Capture Positions from the Russians on the River North of Halicz.
- GERMANS THREAT OF DRASTIC RULE TOWARD NEUTRALS / Would Demand Guarantees That No Part of Cargoes Be Landed in England. / AIM AT BRITISH DETENTION / Hint at Effort to Force British to Stop Taking Neutral Ships to Kirkwail.
- WILSON CLOSES CAMPAIGN; FEELS PULSE OF VICTORY / Sees Inspiration and Impulse Coming to Nation and the World Next Tuesday.
Online versions:
Newspaper information from Newspapers.com (https://www.newspapers.com/).
Photographs of Laura de Turczynowicz from When the Prussians Came to Poland.
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