Józef Bem


Józef Zachariasz Bem was a Polish engineer and general, an Ottoman pasha and a national hero of Poland and Hungary, and a figure intertwined with other European patriotic movements. Like Tadeusz Kościuszko and Jan Henryk Dąbrowski, Bem fought outside Poland's borders anywhere his leadership and military skills were needed.

Early life

He was born on 14 March 1794 in Tarnów in Galicia, the area of Poland that had become part of the Habsburg Monarchy through the First Partition in 1772. After the creation of the Duchy of Warsaw from the territories captured by Napoleon, he moved with his parents to Kraków, where after finishing military school and joined the ducal forces as a fifteen-year-old cadet. He joined a Polish artillery regiment as a sub-lieutenant and then lieutenant in the French service, took part in the French invasion of Russia, and subsequently distinguished himself in the defence of Danzig , winning the Knight's Cross of the Legion d'honneur.
After the Congress of Vienna in 1815, the Duchy of Warsaw was transformed into the constitutional Kingdom of Poland, a dependent territory of the Russian Empire, and Bem became a teacher at a military college. There he carried out research on a newly designed rocket-like missile, publishing his research with extensive illustrations.
Bem became involved in a political conspiracy to restore Poland to full independence, but, when his membership in a secret patriotic organisation was discovered, he was demoted and sentenced to one year in prison. Although the sentence was suspended, Bem resigned his commission and moved to Galicia. In Galicia he researched steam engines and their application, and again published his results. Bem lived in Lviv and Brody until 1830, where he planned to write a treatise on the steam engine.

November Uprising

When the November Uprising, a struggle for Polish independence, broke out on November 29, 1830, against the Russian Empire, Bem immediately joined the Polish insurgents. He arrived in Warsaw, was given a major's commission and the command of the 4th Light Cavalry Battalion, which he led during the Battles of Iganie and Ostrołęka. During the Battle of Ostrołęka, Bem's forces bravely charged the Russian opponents. Although the Polish army suffered a serious defeat with a loss of 6,000 men, Bem's actions prevented the destruction of the entire army. For his valour on the battlefield, Bem was awarded the Virtuti Militari Golden Cross and promoted to the rank of Brigadier General. He was steadfastly against capitulation until the very end of the Uprising, during the desperate defence of Warsaw against Prince Paskievich. Nonetheless, the Polish army was eventually compelled to lay down arms on October 5, 1831, and crossed the Russian–Prussian partitional border under the command of General Maciej Rybiński in the Great Emigration.

First exile

Bem then escaped to Paris, where he supported himself by teaching mathematics. In France, he published his next work, on the National Uprising in Poland, in which he not only gave an appraisal of the 1831 insurrection, but also tried to present a programme for the continuation of the struggle for the country's freedom. During his stay in France, he collaborated with the Hôtel Lambert organization and was a member of the Historical and Literary Society.
In 1833 he went to Portugal to assist the liberal Dom Pedro against the reactionary Dom Miguel, but abandoned the idea when it was found that a Polish legion could not be formed there. When in Portugal, he was the target of an assassination attempt, carried out by Russian agents.

1848 hero

A wider field for his activity presented itself in 1848. First he attempted to hold Vienna against the imperial troops of Alfred I, Prince of Windisch-Grätz, and, after the capitulation, hastened to Pressburg to offer his services to Lajos Kossuth, first defending himself, in a long speech, from the accusations of "treachery to the Polish cause" and "aristocratic tendencies" ˙— which the more fanatical section of the Polish émigré Radicals repeatedly brought against him. He was entrusted with the defence of Transylvania at the end of 1848, and in 1849, as General of the Székely troops, he performed miracles with his little army, notably at the bridge of Piski on February 9, where, after fighting all day, he drove back an immense force of pursuers.
After relieving Transylvania he was sent to drive the Austrian General Anton Freiherr von Puchner out of the Banat region. Bem defeated him at Orsova on May 16, but the Russian invasion forced him to retreat to Transylvania. From July 12 to 22 he was fighting continually, but finally, on July 31, his army was annihilated by overwhelming numbers in the Battle of Segesvár, Bem escaping only after feigning death. Yet he fought a fresh action at Nagycsür on August 6, and contrived to bring his fragmented army to the Battle of Temesvár, to aid the hard-pressed General Henryk Dembiński. Bem was in command and was seriously wounded in the last pitched battle of the war, fought there on August 9.

Second exile and death

On the collapse of the rebellion he fled to the Ottoman Empire, where he adopted Islam, and served as Governor of Aleppo under the name of Murad Paşa/Pasha. His last military victory was defeating Bedouins sieging the city of Aleppo. On 10 December 1850, he died of malaria.

Character and legacy

Bem was a man respected for his courage and heroic temper, both of which were in contrast with his small stature. His influence is said to have been magnetic: although none of his Székely subordinates understood the language he spoke, most revered him. As a soldier Bem was remarkable for his excellent handling of artillery and the rapidity of his marches. In Hungarian, he is often referred to affectionately as "Bem apó", which roughly translates into "Grandpa Bem" or "Old man Bem".
A statue to his honour has been erected at Marosvásárhely but he lives still more enduringly in the verses of the Hungarian national poet Sándor Petőfi, who fell in the fatal action of July 31, 1849 at the Battle of Segesvár. His remains were brought back to Poland in 1929 and laid to rest in a mausoleum in :pl:Park Strzelecki w Tarnowie|Strzelecki Park in the city of Tarnów.
The Hungarian Revolution of 1956 began on October 23 with a protest at the foot of the Bem Statue in Budapest.

Works

Józef Bem published also in French, Polish and German languages books about the history of Poland, technology and military aspects:

In popular culture

The great Polish poet Cyprian Norwid, a descendant of Jan III Sobieski, dedicated to Józef Bem the poem Bema pamięci żałobny rapsod , which was subsequently used by other artists including Zbigniew Herbert and Czesław Niemen.
Since 1969 Czesław Niemen's Bema pamięci żałobny rapsod became cult status in Central Europe and also beyond the Iron Curtain.
In 1974 an English version was re-recorded with the help of Michał Urbaniak, John Abercrombie, Jan Hammer, Rick Laird and Don Grolnick, which was published worldwide by CBS Records International.
In 1977 the Bema pamięci żałobny rapsod intro from the 1970 initial issue was bootlegged by the West German rock band Jane as intro and reprise intro for the second side of their elegic Krautrock album Between Heaven and Hell also immediately achieving golden record status.
Józef Bem's descendants are present mainly among artists and in music related business in Poland and in exile and include the jazz singer Ewa Bem and her brothers Aleksander Bem and the jazz guitarist Jarosław Bem.