Reaction To The Polish Military Bear 

Wojtek later lived for a long time at the Edinburgh Zoo, and was often visited by Polish soldiers. Wojtek knew only Polish, because he lived with Polish soldiers for many years. Every time someone came to the zoo and Wojtek heard Polish, he stood on his two legs and saluted. He was a real soldier 🙂

Yes, yes it's Woytek's statue . In 2013, the City of Edinburgh Council approved the erection of a bronze statue of Wojtek, by Alan Beattie Herriot, to stand in the city's West Princes Street Gardens. Unveiled in 2015, it presents Wojtek and a fellow Polish Army soldier walking together. You have to see it😁

There is an easy explanation of why you wouldn't be taught of Wojtek at school. After the WWII Churchill sent Polish troops back to Poland and refused Polish military to participate in the London Victory Celebrations. Great Britain cut off the ties with Poland since Poland was abandoned and left behind the iron curtain and understandably learning the history of Wojtek and his time in the military would raise the unwanted questions about why was Poland left to their own devices after the war has ended

Tak naprawdę koniec historii Wojtka był smutny, nie mógł trafić do Polski jak i polscy żołnierze. Churchlil wyparł się Polaków i Polski i zostawił nas na pastwę Stalina i Rosji. A Wojtek przez wiele lat w zoo bardzo reagował na język polski.

Poland and Scotland have much in common! I'm Polish and I feel, we have similar spirits! Strong-willed, honorable, freedom- loving. I also track polish-scottish history :) Did you know Bonnie Prince Charlie was half blood Polish (Polish mother)? After the WWII many Poles moved to Scotland and it's calculated that about 8 thousand of Polish married a Scott! Also our historic paths crossed in USA in XVIIIth century then Poles had to escape from their country after partitions of Poland the same as Scotts after Culloden. I've read they lived together in Catholic community. They all support each other and miss their homelands. Scotts created a "Polish tartan" to memorize this friendship! It's red, white and navy blue- Polish national colors + the ocean tearing apart Poles from their home in Europe. It's such a moving gift! Bonus funfact: In Jadów near Warsaw, every year at the beginning of July, the Scottish Festival is organized to commemorate the Scots who lived there. I'm a fan of Scotland and I'm having a trip there this week. So excited! I'm planning on visiting Wojtek's memorial in Edinburgh :)

I love the "shock" when someone is finding this story of Wojtek xD "a BEAR?!", "a BEER?!", "a CIGARETTES?!", "a WHATEVER?!" :D it's fun cause it's true xD

Yes, that's the Wojtek the Soldier Bear Memorial near Edinburgh Castle.

There are many things that world don't know and don't want to know about Poland. For example, did you hear about polish mathematicians Rejewski, Różycki, and Zygalski who deciphered the Enigma and handed over the code to French and British allies?

I've learnt about Wojtek in primary school (I'm Polish).. they of course omitted the part about cigarettes and alcohol 😂.. but it's apparently true. 😅 And the monument of Wojtek is indeed near Edinburgh castle ;) ps I enjoy your videos. Have a good day, 😊

Yup... In Poland, Wojtek it is a very famous "person". His story you can find in polish school books and on yt. Biggest polish yt history chanel made a movie about him with more than 1.5mln views.

wojtek bear statue edinburgh :D

Pana reakcja i zaskoczenie na kaprala Wojtka była taka sama jak dla nas jakieś 20 lat temu która po upadku komunizmu historię międzywojenną odkrywaliśmy Wiele faktów historycznych była ukrywana !

You know, bear was really a hit in picking up ladies I ve heard❤😂. They have taken him sometimes to pubs and Wojtek was a very popular bear companion with ladies. Wojtek is not the first bear serving in Polish army. Baśka Murmańska was an arctic bear that was bought by Polish soldier in 1919. She was even taught to salute and was shown to Piłsudski. Unfortunately she was killed by the peasants when she ran away from leash and they hunted her down for her fur. Soldiers fought for her and has taken her body back with them on the boat.

To warto obejrzeć chyba najlepiej przedstawiona historia Wojtka ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-2vgrsF_b-C4.html

It's a pity that the Scots didn't treat Wojtek very well and locked him in a small cage. They referred to British regulations, but empathy would also be useful.

The greatest emigration of Scots to a European country took place in the 16th and 17th centuries. The Scots settled in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. The beginning of the Scottish settlement in Poland dates back to the 14th century. Merchants from Scotland began to trade with Gdańsk. In 1380, the first Scots settled in this city. The suburban settlement of Gdańsk took the name Stare Szkoty - Old Scots in the early 15th century. Increased immigration of Scots to Poland, from the second half of the 16th century to the middle of the 17th century. The Scots came to Poland mainly for economic reasons (Scotland was a poor country at that time) and religious reasons (conflicts in Scotland between Protestants and Catholics). Scotland's trade with Gdańsk revived and provided about 10% of all goods in this city. The number of Scots in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth is estimated at 7,400 families, i.e. about 37,000 people, they were Catholics and Protestants. The Scots began to assimilate with Polish society from the beginning of the 17th century, which was facilitated by a common religion (Catholicism) and mixed marriages. Another wave of Scottish immigrants came from the late 18th to the early 19th century. They were mainly engineers, textile manufacturers, farmers and millers. General Ludwik Michał Pac brought over 500 Scottish settlers to his estates in the Suwałki Region, who introduced crop rotation there, popularized potato cultivation, bred horses and sheep and built distilleries, starch factories, breweries, oil mills and an agricultural machinery factory. Also these immigrants were gradually polonized. Currently, Scottish origin can be recognized by the surnames: Czamer (Chalmers), Czochran (Cochrane), Dziaksen (Jackson), Kabron (Cockburn), Machlejd (Macleod), Szynkler (Sinclair), as well as in place names, e.g. Nowe Szkoty - New Scots, Szkocja - Scotland (Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship), Szkocja - Scotland (Podlaskie Voivodeship), Stare Szkoty - Old Scots e.t.c.. The most famous Scot in Polish literature is Ketling. Ketling (Hassling-Ketling of Elgin) is a fictional character in Henryk Sienkiewicz's(Nobel laureate for the novel Quo Vadis) novel Fire in the Steppe, the third volume of his award-winning The Trilogy. A Scotsman, Ketling moved to Poland where he became a Colonel of Artillery in service of the king of Poland John Casimir. Ketling married Krystyna Drohojowska, a former fiancée of his friend, Michał Wołodyjowski. Ketling was killed in the Siege of Kamieniec Podolski, when he (together with Wołodyjowski) blew himself up in a gunpowder depot.

I visited Wojtek (monument) yesterday in Edinburgh ❤

This is 100% Polish spirit and approach to animals

I don’t know how old are you Mate! But before 1989 we ware not allow to say those (and other too) stories in the school. It was Polish army story so it was forbidden. So I’m not surprised you don’t know that Wojtek spend rest of his life Scotland. There is a lot of things to say after 50 years of separation. I appreciate you doing it with honesty and empathy. Cheers!

@Mert Pol We have in polish youtube very intresting channel that is called Historia bez cenzury / Uncensored history. They creating many videos about famous people/battles/kings but focusing mostly about polish area. That from my my side i knew about our polish treasure that Wojetek 100% was.

Łukasz Wierzbicki jest autorem książeczki dla dzieci pt,, Dziadek i niedźwiadek " Polecam gorąco jako lekturę dla naszych milusińskich.

yeah, it's Edinborugh where his statue is. I wish I visit it one day

Wojtek was an orphan, like everyone else, he felt lonely during the war, so he quickly adopted his friends. He lost his mother during the war.

Last year I was in Edinghbourg ans I saw the monument of Wojtek so you were right saying you can see rhe Edinburgh castle in the background;)))

My uncle escaped from Dukla concentration camp and joined Anders coming down from russia, fought during entire africa corps, got wounded fighting over Monte casino, carried over to british hospital, fell in love with a british nurse and was sent to england. :)

Even if you are a bear, know that if you end up among Poles, you will always get beer and cigarettes. We are very friendly :)

I've heard about Wojtek some 10 years ago from the song "Wojtek" by Katy Carr, who is British with Polish roots and she recorded the whole album about Polish WWII heroes called "Paszport"

Cool our Wojtek 😊. Our bear was well looked after by the army...gr8 acid and support to our guys during the War... My kids love the story about the Wojtek..😂 Yes, he drank bear!

Wojtek posiadal Legitymacje Wojskowa, stopien wojskowy Kaprala i byl zaprowiantowany do kotla.

I'm Wojtek and I love this story ❤ And yes bear you drink and smoke is also true 😂

The statue of Wojtek is Princess Street Park. We visited the statue to pay homage to Wojtek and the Polish Soldiers

Greetings from Poland, this story is amazing ;)

Wojtek's memorial is located in Edinburgh in a park near Princess Street

This bear was awesome, something entertaining about learning but since it's now viewed as not really great treatment of animal it's hard to talk about. It was 2ndww so u know different times.... as far as ethics goes. We do learn about this bear in high school on advanced history profile but I was interested in history and langulages and geography and other stuff a bit later tbh.

Poland could be very strong nation, but because of it's geography it has to spend almost all the money for military. Btw - Who is also from Poland?

This is not the first bear in the Polish army :) the first was Baśka Murańska, a white polar bear.

Dla wszystkich Polaków - NIE RZUCIM ZIEMI SKĄD NASZ RÓD - i tak mi dopomóż BÓG

Awesome soldier r.i.p wojtek we never forget you

Greetings from Poland :)

Eileen Orr is the author of the story of Wojtek, as well as the owner of the farm where the Polish soldiers were stationed after the war.

Pol, Wojtek is real, this is not an imaginary paddington bear :)

I'm polish but I don't live in Poland I visited Poland a few times. I did go to polish school though. Polish school is run by nuns from a polish church I go to and once we had a reading about Wojtek. I did know about him before I just don't remember how I found out about him because I was very young.

When you come to see Wojtek statue you should rub his nose for good luck. You will notice that his nose is polished and shiners more because people touching it

słyszałem że w Oławie znajduje się barokowy sarkofag jakiegoś Szwedzkiego szlachty

I love your face when you realised statues of Wojtek are around Edinburgh but you never hear about him😂😂

Wojtek nie był niedźwiedziem. Był kapralem Wojska Polskiego.

the bear was with them since cub but propably theres not many shots of him when hes little

You're right, this statue is in Edinburgh :)

Czego nie rozumieć Polska została oddana stalinowi - niedźwiedź był Europejski więc został w Europie

Pił piwo jak każdy Polak - palił papierosy na swój sposób - to szczera prawda

Wojtek the bear is amazing! Nice reaction, thanks! Some children learn about Wojtek from the school reading but I found out about him on the RU-vid channel.

I teraz stworzą film: "Wielki żołnierz Wojtek" 😆

You got monument at princess street gardens

Apart of Wojtek in Polish army was conscripted Baśka Murmańska, a polar Bear.

I would like to see such a scene where there is a battlefield, some air raids, grenades and fragments of ammunition around and a German soldier running near the monastery, seeing a bear with a Polish flag on his paw, running pissed off with ammunition on his back, I would honestly like to have two kilos in my pants 😄

You can clearly see that his spirit was polish

W zoo w Edynburgu ludzie byli przerażeni kiedy Polacy wchodzili do niedźwiedzia i bawili się jak z własnym dzieckiem

ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-KqTIAEwfeh0.htmlsi=W3D7eEP4fZ6he4-P heres best video about Wojtek, theres much more photos and videos of him............... also Wojtek was NOT the first bear to serve in Polish Army - first one was Basia Murmańska (female bear from murmansk in Russia, where deported Polish soldiers fought they way home to Poland, they brought her to Marschall Piłsudski himself in liberated Poland (after polish-bolshevik war)... sadly shortly after that bear was scared by something (propably a car or noise) and ran through river, where she scared peasant who killed her in self defence

Katy Carr wrote a song about him ❤

I am from Poland and I am saddened to say that I learned about him from YT, by sheer accident, several years ago and from an English-language channel. Can't recall what channel was it though. I was probably as surprised as you are now. I was never taught this story at school at history classes, nor had I heard it being told by anyone, anywhere over here in the preceding 35+ years before I stumbled upon it. Then again, most of my elementary school years were still under "previous management" and a lot of our history in the school curriculum of that era was... "omitted" for "reasons". It is quite possible that it is being taught to kids today, but I wouldn't know.

I've learned about Wojtek in school. Also my Grandpa was telling me about him.

Unfortunately, they don't teach about it in Poland yet. I'm 63 years old and I grew up under Soviet occupation, so it was never talked about and not only about it. I know the reason.

The most Polish thing imaginable: a drinking, smoking bear in the middle of a war. That pretty much sums up our history 😂

Polish soldier-the bear. When I was in a secondary school, I heard this story from tv. Of course it was in polish and thuth is the bear was drinking beer but not every day of course. Polish history is completly unknown because of its tragic history in the past. I have to remind Poland in 1795 disapeared from world's map for 123 years and we had in Poland a komunism after the world war the second when history was lied by komunists. This is the answer why Poland's history has gone. At the moment in Poland it is over thirty years without komunism but the generation that has grown up is fascinated in everything that comes from others and don't know the history of their country as well as foreigners. That's sad

I recommend a movie about another animal exactly about the Eagle👇 ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-361AL2pJkmQ.html Technically Wojtek is an abbreviation of Wojciech - an old Slavic name indeed meaning joyful warrior.

Wszystko całkowita prawda 👊🙂

I cried with laughter, I love the Polish sense of humor

it's also heartbreaking. Wojtek was betrayed at the end.

Z zachowaniem przyzwoitości pan kapral Wojtek - to prawda i ten niedźwiedź uzyskał medale wojskowe - miał własne wynagrodzenie za słóżbę - to JEST PRAWDA I TAK BYŁO

This Is the Princess Street Gardens and Wojtek's statue! 🥰

Actually last of those soldiers who took care of Wojtek back then has passed away this year.

Yes, there is a monument of Wojtek in Edinburg, Princes Street Gardens. Also one in Duns

yes we learn about him in school in Poland

uhmmm my mum always called me ''Wojtek'' as a nickname .i never knew why.

i knew this story since I was little. My dad told in early nineteens.

Yup, that is on the princess st. That is a big statue of him actually :)

Voytek's history has become known thanks to the book about him. A book that was also translated into English. When you read it, it is a very funny story, but it tears the heart apart at the end when soldiers have to say a final goodbye to their best friend.

Wojtek becomes a pop culture icon. There are at least two songs dedicated to Wojtek and his army mates. They are very different, but both are great. One is in Polish and one is in English. Check them out: PL: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-2Xt8iKsvmVs.html Marika & Maleo Reggae Rockers ft. Buslav - Piosenka o Wojtku (PANNY WYKLĘTE "WYGNANE" VOL.1) EN: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE--1uEn7dvne8.html Official music video for Wojtek (the Soldier Bear) by Katy Carr

I started watching you like 2 weeks ago and your videos are amazing! i really love that someone is recording videos that are so good and i see first time someone that learns poland!

I BEG YOU TO FIND THE BEAR STATUE IN SCOTLAND PLS!!

Yah, story of this brave person is one of my favourite. For these soldiers he was like family member, like he should be. He was the bravest bear

Hej i'm from Poland 🇵🇱🇵🇱🇵🇱🇵🇱

Cool our Wojtek 😊. Our Bear was well looked after by the army...gr8 acid and support to our guys during the War... My kids love the story about the Wojtek..😂 Yes, he drunk a bear!

My late father was Polish, veteran of Ww2 Polish 2 corp and he met Wojtek! He said Wojtek wanted his cigarettes out of his pockets, and if Wojtek wanted something, well you can imagine, it's hard to refuse! And yes he loved beer! Wojtek was one of the lads and he was really good for morale. We grew up hearing these stories. I'm 65 and these stories take me back to sitting on my dad's knee. Thank you. Patricia

Wojciech górom!

how could a poland bear not drink alkochol

yup, Edinburgh, not far from the castle. bronze statue. i eat my lunches there in this park.

Wojtek was promoted to Corporal!

bear grow fast, yes thats an actual photo, tere aro lot of photos of the bear and his soldier friends, chech it on wiki

ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-Bh34WlluPMY.htmlsi=Bq5OLK-6UjpavVTw Warto posluchac tej wersji polskiego zolnierza niedzwiedzia Wojtka :)

thats a huge honor ....for a bear -> a qualification not nessasary, but redeemd by 20 seconds late "omg this hero visited my home" :P

[*] dla Wojtusia

Yeah that was Edinburgh.

Jedyny pomnik Misa Wojtka zobacz Żagań ❤historia Misia 🐻 opowiada historię Polski 😢dodam wojna się skończyła 1945 a w polsce trwała wojna do lat 1980 to jest smutna historia Polaków 😢

4 Princes St Edinburgh, Scotland, EH2 2HG United Kingdom That's where the statue stands :)

Germans: we are training a war dogs. Poles: pfffff dogs? Hold my BEAR (wordplay with beer)

THX you for learnig polish history we have more. Enjoy!

Ameryka postawiła pomnik i odznaczyła swojego bohatera konia który wyniósł dziesiątki rannych w Wietnamie - Polacy mieli swojego misia

Maybe you will react to the parade of the Polish army?

Kapral Wojtek