The 60′ documentary tells the story of a group of children, members of Scouts Group 22 and 54 that grew up in the Grochow neighbourhood of Warsaw in the 1930s. They went to the same schools, most attended the same church, and they all joined the scouts at approximately the same age. As scouts they did what most scouts do all over the world: learn camping skills, love their country and be loyal to each other.

In 1939, just before the occupation of Poland by Germany and the Soviet Union, The Polish Scouting Organization decided to go underground. It had to prepare the scouts to be the soldiers of the future. From underground schools and among the altar boys, the teachers and priests would select the children who were brave and able to keep secrets to form units of four or five children. They would spend many hours spying on German troops to gather information for the Home Army, the Polish resistance during the occupation. They would conduct sabotages: changing street names from German back to Polish; stealing German flags and writing graffiti on the walls. They would dig for weapons previously hidden in cemeteries. They would be the couriers and messengers and they would distribute newspapers made by members of the resistance.

In 1944 during the Warsaw Uprising, hundreds of the older scouts took part in the fight. Many of the girl scouts worked as nurses. Almost all the information distributed during the uprising was through the scouts. Some of the scouts were captured and sent to concentration and labor camps. Others were killed.

Although the story of the scouts’ resistance is well known in Poland, little is known outside. After the end of WWII, The Yalta Conference of February 1945 sanctioned the creation of a provisional government in Poland, then under the influence of the Soviet Union. For the following fifty years a communist-controlled government ruled the country, resulting in many economic and political problems and isolation of its people. It was only after 1990, with the victory of Lech Walesa and the Solidarity Movement, that Poland started opening up to the world economy and many amazing stories of bravery of the Polish resistance during WWII started to come out.

Due to the country’s isolation, many Polish people believe that they have been misunderstood, and at times criminalized. The narrative on this subject tends to focus on the Holocaust and the killing of more than three million Polish Jews during WWII. Not much is known about Poland’s loss of more than two million of its non-Jewish citizens during the war. The Warsaw Uprising was a terrible tragedy. Close to two hundred thousand civilians and twenty thousand soldiers were killed. Eighty percent of the city of Warsaw was destroyed.

Seventy years later, the survivors of scout groups 22 and 54, fourteen men and six women, maintain a strong bond of friendship. They get together regularly to carry on the mission of educating new generations of Polish children about the resistance movement and the importance of honouring those who gave their life for a free Poland.

Scouts Forever was shot in Warsaw by a Polish crew and is being produced and directed by Dianela Urdaneta, a Washington-based journalist, producer and director with more than 25 years of experience. The Documentary is in postproduction. A crowdfunding campaign is currently running on Seed&Spark until December 15th.

Author: Dianela Urdaneta, email dianela@arthavision.com

The article has been published on linkedin.com