Courtesy or diplomacy? The visit of Elisabeth Queen of the Belgians to Poland in 1955
Courtesy or diplomacy? The visit of Elisabeth Queen of the Belgians to Poland in 1955

Summary/Abstract: From 21 February to 21 March, Warsaw hosted the Fifth International Chopin Competition. A guest of honour was Elisabeth Queen of the Belgians, who spent almost two weeks (from 12 to 23 March) in Poland, listening to artists who were taking part in the third stage of the competition. For the Warsaw authorities, the presence of Elisabeth was meant not only to ensure “exceptional publicity” to the Chopin Competition, but also help improve the image of the Polish People’s Republic abroad. A surprise for the Polish hosts, and also the most “resounding political effect of the visit,” was the queen’s handing in of an aide mémoire addressed to the Polish government to Chairman of the State Council Aleksander Zawadzki, a move previously insisted on by Brussels. The document, handed in on the final day of the visit, contained a plea to allow Belgian wives of Poles, twelve in number, to visit their families in Belgium, to pardon Albert Snauwaert, who had been serving his conviction in the Rawicz prison for six years, and to give consent to members of Polish-Belgian families to leave Poland and reunite in Belgium. Ultimately, although the visit did not bring any tangible political results, the stay of the queen was expected to improve the atmosphere in political relations between Poland and Belgium in the longer term.

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