Sweden was the main destination for many immigrants from partitioned Poland. In 1797, Polish national hero
Tadeusz Kościuszko stayed in
Stockholm and
Gothenburg. In the spring of 1863, armed Polish volunteers from Western Europe assisted by foreigners of various nationalities attempted to reach partitioned Poland by sea via Sweden. This
Lapinski expedition stopped on the island of
Öland and in
Malmö, where it was met with sympathy of the local Swedes. The Swedish authorities, fearing Russia, were forced to put the Poles under arrest, so the Poles departed in May 1863 to attempt a naval landing near
Klaipėda. During
World War II, the
Polish resistance movement, in cooperation with Polish outposts in Sweden, organized escapes of Poles from
German-occupied Poland to Sweden by sea. In 1948, the Polish Veterans Association in Gothenburg was established by former Polish prisoners of
Nazi German concentration camps, and in 1962 it was transformed into the Polish Cultural Association in Gothenburg. ==Education==