ABSTRACT
The year 2014 was the 70th anniversary of many important WWII battles. Polish historical re-enactors decided to organise several pilgrimages to memorial sites that were significant for Polish history. The chapter analyses two pilgrimages undertaken by groups re-enacting Polish Armed Forces in the West to Monte Cassino in Italy (May 2014) and to Arnhem/Oosterbreek/Driel in Holland (September 2014) as a kind of secular pilgrimage.
The re-enactment groups distinguish their battlefield visits from ‘mere tourism’, nor do they see them as a continuation of their military interests. The visits are seen as the fullest realisation of the goal of historical re-enactment: experiencing the past. They seek to be in the actual place where a battle occurred with their contemporary ‘brothers in arms’. They wear uniforms of the period as well as armour and equipment from the re-enacted period or their replicas. They not only mimic the past, but also meet veterans, thereby gaining deep, existential and, in a sense, sacral experiences. Memorial sites become for them cult sites.
Although re-enactors in no way become WWII soldiers, they experience particular connection to heroes from the past; they honour them and try to recognise the past through their ‘microhistories’. Re-enactors create their own ceremonials which not only commemorate the past, but also allow them to establish and sustain a bond with the past. The pilgrimage route presented in this chapter reflects the combat trail of Polish Armed Forces in the West and is marked – ‘sanctified’ to use the re-enactors’ term – by the blood of Polish soldiers. A particular past becomes sacral and is perceived and experienced as such by pilgrimage participants.
