The lecture notes of University of Kansas Professor Anna M. Cienciala: Nationalism and Communism in East Central Europe. The notes cover the history of East Central Europe from the partitions of Poland beginning in 1772 through to the post-Communiest period.
The Online Encyclopedia of Mass Violence’s Chronology of Mass Violence in Poland 1918-1948
Telling the Irena Sendler story: Life in a Jar: The Irena Sendler Project
Protestant kids from rural Kansas, discovered a Polish Catholic woman who saved Jewish children. Irena Sendler and these students have chosen to repair the world. This web site shares the legacy and life of Irena Sendler, plus her ‘discovery’ for the world.
Editions Bibliotekos announced that Dr. John Guzlowski will participate in a series sponsored by the English Department of St. Francis College on October 11th from 4–6 pm. John’s reading and discussion, entitled War Remembered – Lightning and Ashes: Two Lives Shaped by World War II, will be the third such event initiated by Editions Bibliotekos and hosted by St. Francis. The event will be held in Founders Hall, 180 Remsen St., Brooklyn Heights, NY, and is free and open to the public.
CNN’s Eye On takes you to Poland starting Monday, September 12th.
Through interviews and in-depth coverage, get an up-close look at the country in an international context on TV and online.
In 1989, Poland became the first member of the Soviet bloc to establish a non-Communist government.
Since then it has run headlong into the western world with one of the fastest-growing economies in Europe. The CIA World Factbook calls Poland a regional success story…
Poland’s multiethnic past is remembered in A Commonwealth of Diverse Cultures. Highlights include the contributions of Poles whose heritage is Jewish or is from the Ruthenian/Byzantine East, Lithuania, Italy, France, Germany, Armenia, the Islamic southeast. This history of Scotts in Poland is not covered, but is also interesting.
James Conroyd Martin recently finished his manuscript focusing on the Polish Insurrection of 1830. He has posted lines from the manuscript on Facebook. Also, check out Morgen Bailey’s interview with James Martin at Morgen Bailey’s Writing Blog
Kanonia Square below was aglow with torches borne by people streaming towards Długa Street. Events had moved fast, much faster than Viktor had imagined. The people had joined the cadets’ insurgency with unexpected enthusiasm and resolve. Russians had always underrated the Poles, just as the Turks had at the Battle of Vienna. Here was more modern proof.
From The Text Message: Little Poland en la hacienda
From 1943 to 1946, Colonia Santa Rosa in Guanajuato, Mexico was the site of a US-government sponsored home for Polish refugees. About 240 miles northwest of Mexico City and “10 minutes’ ride by mule-drawn tram from the Leon railway station,” the hacienda included a 39-room ranch house, a flour mill, ten wheat storage warehouses, a chapel and other buildings, as well as several acres for growing crops. By October 1943, almost 1,500 Poles were sheltered at Colonia Santa Rosa.
Their path to Mexico was an unlikely one. Having been removed from their communities by the Soviet military in 1939, they first were put to work in Russia and Siberia. They were resettled in Iran by the Russians, and fell into the care of the British government. The British relocated them to camps in Karachi, then still a part of India, and sought US assistance for their support. An agreement was reached between the British, US and Mexican governments with the provisional Polish government in London to relocate these refugees to Mexico…
Martin Stepek seeks to understand and pass on what he has learned about his family’s life in Poland, and their odyssey to find refuge in Polish Legacy. His grandmother and grandfather died in Poland during World War Two, and his father and two aunts narrowly avoided the same fate.
BBC announces a new drama: The Spies Of Warsaw for BBC Four
Two 90-minute film adaptations of Alan Furst’s acclaimed novels will bring to BBC Four a combination of historically located, intelligent narratives, interlaced with flawed, romantic and utterly compelling characters. Furst, widely recognised as the current master of the historical spy novel, evokes a Europe stumbling into a Second World War, his taut and richly atmospheric thrillers grace the bestseller lists right around the globe. They have been described as “Casablanca meets John le Carre”.
Richard Klein, Controller, BBC Four, says: “Alan Furst is one of the world’s finest writers on war and the costs of war on human relationships. It is with great pleasure that I can confirm that BBC Four will be dramatising for television one of his best known novels, Spies Of Warsaw. Furst and Four are a very good fit and I hope our audiences will enjoy the result of this collaboration.”
The characters of Alan Furst’s best-selling spy novels roam the foggy nights and steal across the rainy, cobbled streets of Prague, Berlin, Warsaw, Rome, and Paris. Furst’s protagonists join the ranks of the Resistance in one way or another. They include faded nobility, b-movie filmmakers, newspapermen, ship’s captains and compromised businessmen as well as waiters, shopkeepers, jaded intellectuals, tarnished grand dames, and boozy British secret agents. Together they march in the underground army that seeks to fight back against the Nazi occupiers.
Spanning the decade from 1933 to 1943, as the Germans slowly consolidate their political stranglehold on Europe, Furst’s stories are portraits of subjugated peoples who try to resist the suffocating inevitability of Hitler’s regime. They show the potency and the importance of espionage and pure intelligence in the run up to the war…
Alan Alda had his new play about Marie Skłodowska Curie, RADIANCE: The Passion of Marie Curie, read during opening night of the World Science Festival in New York on June 1st. From the NY Times: Meryl Streep to Participate in Alan Alda’s Marie Curie Play
Mr. Alda, who has written five screenplays and a carton-full of television scripts, said on Monday that “Radiance: The Passion of Marie Curie,” is his first attempt at playwriting. The idea struck him about three years ago when he was planning to organize a reading of excerpts from Curie’s letters for the World Science Festival. “Then I found out her letters were all still radioactive and I switched to Albert Einstein,” said Mr. Alda, who has a passion for science. “But I love Marie Curie and I think her story is so important and dramatic, I wanted to explore it and write a play about it.”
Curie was the first woman to win a Nobel Prize in 1902 – for the theory of radioactivity that she developed with her husband, Pierre – and the first person to receive the award twice. She was awarded her second Nobel in chemistry in 1911 for her discovery of two elements, radium and polonium. There have been several renditions of Curie’s life on stage, television and film, including the 1943 drama starring Greer Garson. Without giving too much of the plot away, Mr. Alda said his play focuses on the period between her first Nobel Prize and her second nine years later. The Nobel committee did not originally want to include Curie in the award and only backed down after pressure from her husband. “But they wouldn’t let her get up and accept the award,” Mr. Alda said. “She had to sit in the audience.” In the intervening years, Pierre Curie died and Marie had to run a gauntlet of setbacks and obstacles, but by 1911, Mr. Alda said, “her work is finally recognized, and she takes full credit for it, even though by now she’s weakened by radiation poisoning.”
“I think she had a kind of cognitive dissonance about it,” Mr. Alda said of the damaging fallout from her experiments. “She didn’t want to believe it was sickening her,” he added. “It’s part of the heroism of science itself. We as a species are just so interested in understanding things that might be dangerous to mess with, but nothing stops us.”
Mr. Alda, a voracious reader of nonfiction, said he did his own research. “All I read is science,” he said, though confessed that the math and chemistry involved still elude him…
From Polskie Radio: Poland – a land that time forgot?
A grim-looking farmer with a pitchfork and communist-era industrial cityscapes – such are the images of Poland often presented in modern-day history books in Western Europe, finds a new report.
The backward image of Poland so often presented in history books has been tackled in a report issued on behalf of the Foreign Affairs Ministry by historian Professor Adam Suchoński from Opole University, who looked into the history textbooks used in high schools throughout Europe.
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“These textbooks are still very much in use. Reprinted every couple of years, reinforcing negative stereotype of Poles and their country,” says Professor Suchoński, adding that “[Poles] are depicted as fighters, victims of war, persecution and failed national uprisings.”
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The historian suggests that Poland should prepare an extensive overview of its history, which it should forward to the Georg Eckert Institute, an acclaimed reference center for textbook research in Germany and a Mecca for authors of history books.
Modjeska — Woman Triumphant: The first full-length documentary made about Helena Modjeska
Helena Modjeska was born in Krakow, Poland, on October 12, 1840. She received her only formal education while attending the convent run by the Order of the Presentation Sisters. She was seduced at a young age by one of the family guardians, Gustave Sinnmayer. He later fathered her two children, Rudolph and her daughter Marylka, who died in infancy. As the couple traveled with their acting troupe around the provincial towns of Galicia, Gustave used the stage name “Modrzejewski” while Helena adopted the feminine version “Modrzejewska”. Later, when performing abroad, she anglicized her name to “Modjeska”.
Realizing that her impresario could no longer advance her career, Helena left Sinnmayer, taking their son Rudolf, and returned to Krakow. While engaged in the Krakow theatre, she met the Polish nobleman, Karol Bozenta Chlapowski. They married in 1868 and left for Warsaw where she became the most celebrated actress of the Polish national theatre. Her brothers Jozef and Feliks Benda were also respected actors in Poland. The Chlapowski home became the center of the artistic and literary world. Yet, due to the political situation in Poland and its influence on her work, Helena’s life became unbearable.
In 1876, for personal and political reasons, Modjeska and her family emigrated to the United States with a small group of friends. They purchased a ranch in Anaheim, California, forming a Polish colony of intellectuals. The colonists knew very little about farming and the utopian experiment eventually failed.
Modjeska returned to the stage, debuting in San Francisco with an English version of Adrienne Lecouvreur and reprising the Shakespearean roles that she had performed in Poland. Despite her accent and imperfect command of English, Modjeska achieved great success in her thirty-year career in the United States and abroad.
In 1893 Modjeska was invited to speak in a women’s conference at the Chicago World’s Fair. She described the hardships of Polish women in the Russian and Prussian-ruled parts of Poland. The Russian tsar banned her from traveling or performing in Russian territory.
Modjeska became known for her support of charitable causes. She had ignited and influenced the careers of many international artists, such as Sienkiewicz and Paderewski. She advanced and uplifted the profession of acting for women…
Deconstructing myth: Cavalry did not charge the tanks – some interesting facts about the start of World War II. Based on John Radzilowski’s work and featured in the NocturN510 Blog.
The battle in the Polish Corridor was especially intense. It was here that the myth of the Polish cavalry charging German tanks was born. As Gen. Heinz Guderian’s panzer and motorized forces pressed the weaker Polish forces back, a unit of Pomorska Cavalry Brigade slipped through German lines late in the day on Sept. 1 in an effort to counterattack and slow the German advance. The unit happened on a German infantry battalion making camp. The Polish cavalry mounted a saber charge, sending the Germans fleeing at that moment, a group of German armored cars arrived on the scene and opened fire on the cavalry, killing several troopers and forcing the rest to retreat. Nazi propagandists made this into “cavalry charging tanks” and even made a movie to embellish their claims. While historians remembered the propaganda, they forgot that on September 1, Gen. Guderian had to personally intervene to stop the German 20th motorized division from retreating under what it described as “intense cavalry pressure.” This pressure was being applied by the Polish 18th Lancer Regiment, a unit one tenth its size.
From the Washington Post: George de Wrzalinski, GSA librarian and Polish emigre
George de Wrzalinski, a retired General Services Administration librarian and the scion of an aristocratic Polish family who during World War II was pressed into forced labor in a German aircraft factory, died Aug. 13 at the Powhatan Nursing Home in Falls Church.
He was 85 and died of complications related to chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, congestive heart failure and the effects of a stroke suffered in May, said his executor and friend, Margaret Shannon.
Mr. Wrzalinski (pronounced “Jalinsky”) retired from the GSA in 1997 as chief librarian of the technical division of the National Capital Region. This job included oversight of architectural, engineering and other blueprints for federal buildings in the Washington area, including the White House.
He came to the United States in 1954 and was naturalized as a citizen in 1960. His neighbors said he flew a U.S. flag at his house in Arlington County every day, but he also retained his Polish roots and Old World mannerisms.
“When he greeted me, he always kissed my hand,” said Shannon, who lived next door to Mr. Wrzalinski for 36 years.
Jerzy Ludwik de Wrzalinski was born Jan. 30, 1926, in Poznan, Poland. His father was a colonel in the Polish army and would later become mayor of Gniesno. His mother was a concert pianist, and a grandmother was a Polish princess. A twin sister died at birth.
In 1940, he was a 14-year-old high school student in Gniesno when the occupying Germans shipped him to an aircraft factory near Breslau, where he reinstalled oxygen lines in damaged aircraft. He would later tell friends that he began smoking in those years because laborers who smoked were allowed cigarette breaks. (He quit smoking in 1983.)
Near the end of the war, he was relocated to a forced labor camp at Aschersleben, which was a subcamp of Buchenwald. He was liberated by the British there in April 1945.
After the war, Mr. Wrzalinski lived in displaced persons camps in Germany for several years. He was fluent in German, Polish, English, French and Russian, and he had various translating jobs.
Upon immigrating to the United States, he settled in St. Paul, Minn., where he worked in the personnel office of Remington Rand, the business-machine manufacturer. He had said he was once denied a pay raise there with the explanation that “he can be happy that he’s in America.” He studied English at the University of Minnesota’s extension division.
When he became a U.S. citizen in St. Paul, he changed his first name, Jerzy, to its anglicized version, George.
He moved to the Washington area in the early 1960s and became a cataloguer and analyst for a College Park documentation company. Later he was a documents and information specialist for a NASA contractor. He joined the GSA in 1984 and retired in 1997.
Mr. Wrzalinski never married, and he had no immediate survivors.
In the last years of his life, his neighbors in Fairlington supervised his medical care and helped look after his house, where in addition to the American flag, he flew the Polish flag and the state flags of Maryland and Virginia daily. He had an elaborate and extensive flower garden.
He looked the part of a European aristocrat. On summer days, he wore tennis whites, unwrinkled and pressed immaculately, and he liked to invite friends and neighbors over for drinks in the evening. He frequented the Fairlington community swimming pool, where he befriended the Polish lifeguards.
Marian Wojciechowski, 97, of Las Vegas
Passed away June 5, 2011. Was born April 25, 1914, in Polaniec, Poland.
Marian was a World War II veteran, a platoon leader who fought German forces Sept. 1, 1939 at the Battle of Mokra, considered to be a tactical victory for the Polish cavalry. His regiment, the 21st Pulk Ulanow Nadwislanskich, was later awarded the Virtuti Militari. He continued fighting after Russia attacked Sept. 17, 1939, then joined the Polish underground resistance. He was arrested and tortured by the Gestapo in Radom, and sent to Auschwitz (Nr. 50333), Gross Rosen, and Leitmeritz concentration camps. In the displaced persons camps of post-war Germany, he met and married Wladyslawa Poniecka, who had survived the Gestapo prison Pawiak in Warsaw, and the concentration camp Ravensbruck (Nr. 7532) north of Berlin. In 1950, they came to America with their daughter, and settled in Toledo, Ohio.
Marian was awarded a master’s degree in economics and business administration from the Warsaw School of Economics in 1937. He worked as auditor for the Union of Agricultural Cooperatives before his arrest in 1942. From 1946-1947, he was an officer in the Polish Civilian Guard under the command of the U.S. Army in the American Zone of West Germany. He also served as chief liaison officer for Polish groups to the International Refugee Organization. Marian was the owner and editor of the Polish-language weekly newspaper “Ameryka Echo” in Toledo until 1961. He worked for many years as urban renewal project administrator with the City of Toledo. From 1980-1994 he was an administrator with the Neighborhood Housing Services of Toledo, finally retiring at the age of 80. Marian moved to Las Vegas in 1998 to be closer to his family.
Marian was a past commander of the Polish Army Veterans Association Post 74 in Toledo for 10 years, a member of American Legion Post 545 in Toledo, and a member of the VFW. He actively participated in many organizations, such as the Polish American Congress and Polish National Alliance. Marian also received many honors and awards during his lifetime, including medals for his military service during World War II and his work in urban development. In 2009, at the age of 95, Marian realized his wish to return to Mokra to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the start of World War II. He also visited the former Polish Army Cadet Officers Cavalry School in Grudziadz, and even Auschwitz along the way. He was accompanied on this splendid adventure by his grandson Craig with Jodi, Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur of Toledo, and Dr. Roman Rozycki of the Las Vegas Polish community.
From the Modjeska Club: Tadeusz Bociański
Born 17 August 1935. Died 14 July 2011. Tadeusz Bociański served as the President of the Modjeska Club from 1983 to 1989. His activities contributed to elevating the Club to its high social status and to establishing its broad scope of cultural activities. With an extraordinarily limited budget, he was able to bring to California the most distinguished Polish politicians, actors and artists. As the owner of a Cultural Agency PolArt he organized performances by famous Polish theaters and cabarets throughout the entire West Coast and the Southwest. He was also active in other social and cultural organizations. On 17 January 1998, he received the Cavalier Cross of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland for his achievements in promoting Polish culture abroad.
Eternal rest grant unto them O Lord!
Seventy-one years ago, on September 1, 1939, the Nazis invaded Poland. In those first days and the six years that followed, more than five million Poles died.
Resources and reflections on Poland and the start of World War II:
John Guzlowski’s poem: Landscape with Dead Horses wherein he seeks to capture and describe the feelings of his parents and the Poles of their generation.
A poem: I Sing the Song of Maczkowce, by Martin Stepek commemorating his parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles and all Poles from the pre-war eastern border area who were forcible resettled in labour camps in Siberia by the Soviet Red Army in 1940 and 1941.
New Duns exhibition will focus on moving story of Polish troops: ‘For Our Freedom and Yours’ – the story of the 1st Polish armored division at the Duns library. The exhibit traces the story of the famous Polish armoured division, from their formation in Duns in 1942 to their campaigns in western Europe in 1944-1945 under the command of the esteemed General Stanislaw Maczek. Admission to the exhibition in Duns Library Exhibition Room is free from August 13th to September 24th.
The Doomed Soldiers – Polish Underground Soldiers 1944-1963 – The Untold Story: The story behind the underground armies resisting Nazi German and Russian Communist occupiers as well as collaborators.
Ułani, ułani – Archival information on the Polish Calvary and resistance during the first days of the war. Abandoned by allies, and attacked from behind by the Red Army, the documentary includes interviews with surviving cavalry from the September campaign, statements from Nazi German leaders, and the fate of the Polish cavalry after surrender.
Night Of Flames – A historical novel and winner of the 2007 “Outstanding Achievemnet Award” from the Wisconsin Library Association. The story follows Polish cavalry officer, Jan Kopernik, and his wife, Anna, through five years of war and the underground resistance in their courageous quest for freedom.
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The Katyn Order, the acclaimed historical novel/thriller set in World War II surrounding one of history’s most heinous war crimes.
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M.B.B. Biskupski’s Hollywood’s War with Poland: 1939-1945. Danuta Goska reviews the book at Writing the Polish Diaspora and states:
[The book] is a must-buy, must-read and must-keep book for several audiences. Twenty-first century American citizens seeking insight into ethnic jockeying for power will want to read this book. Conspiracy theorists fascinated by the ability of popular culture to twist human minds will find support for their most Orwellian nightmares. Polish Americans who care about the abysmal position of Polonia in the arts, politics, journalism and academia will buy, read, and reread it. Biskupski’s style is straightforward, without academic or aesthetic flourishes. The average reader will have no problem.
Hollywood’s War with Poland is an essential resource that proves, beyond any question, that powerful people, prompted by geopolitical competition and deep hostility worked hard to sully the image of Poles, Polish-Americans, and Poland. They did this during World War II, when Poland was playing a key historical role. World War II began when Nazi Germany invaded Poland…
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From Polskie Radio: Landmark Solidarity ‘August Agreement’ remembered
Today marks the anniversary of the famed August Agreement, signed 31 years ago on 31 August 1980 – an event that marked the beginning of the end for communism in Poland.
Also known as the Gdansk Agreement, the breakthrough followed strikes at the fabled shipyards in the northern Polish city, with former employee Lech Walesa at the helm.
By 24 April 1980, the communist government estimated that some 130,000 employees from 140 companies in Gdansk and neighbouring Gdynia had joined the strike. The nearby port city of Gdynia followed suit, with approximately 60,000 not turning up for work.
The authorities were compelled to act. As it happened, Poland’s communist leader Edward Gierek called for a peaceful solution to the conflict.
Negotiations ensued between the so-called Interfactory Strike Committee (MKS) and the government. Talks touched on such key themes as censorship restrictions, the release of political prisoners and the allowing of the Church to participate in radio and television programmes.
The first point in the famed 21-demands struck a decisive blow:
“Acceptance of free trade unions that are independent of the party, and of enterprises, in accordance with convention No. 87 of the International Labor Organization concerning the right to form free trade unions.”
The agreement caused a brief eruption of freedom of expression in Poland, before the clampdown of December 1981, when a state of martial law was declared.
Nevertheless, the regime eventually fell due to efforts of Solidarity campaigners, culminating in the Round Table Agreement of spring 1989.
The Poster Art above is for the documentary Robotnicy ’80. In this clip from the movie you hear Lech Wałęsa say: Mamy prawo do strajku! (We have the right to strike!)
Forwarded by Dr. John Guzlowski
GRINNELL COLLEGE: Tenure-track position in the Department of English (Ethnic American Literature and Poetry Writing), starting Fall 2012. Assistant Professor (Ph.D.) preferred; Instructor (ABD) or Associate Professor possible. Grinnell College is a highly selective undergraduate liberal arts college whose English department offers courses in a broad range of literary traditions spanning the long history and present multiplicity of writing in English. The College’s curriculum is founded on a strong advising system and close student-faculty interaction, with few college-wide requirements beyond the completion of a major. The teaching schedule of five courses over two semesters will include Literary Analysis, a survey and an advanced seminar in Ethnic American literature, and eventually introductory and advanced courses in poetry writing. Every few years one course will be Tutorial (a writing/critical thinking course for first-year students, oriented toward a special topic of the instructor’s choice).
In letters of application, candidates should discuss their interest in developing as a teacher and scholar in an undergraduate liberal arts college that emphasizes close student-faculty interaction. They also should discuss what they can contribute to efforts to cultivate a wide diversity of people and perspectives, a core value of Grinnell College. To be assured of full consideration, all application materials should be received by November 11, 2011.
Please submit applications online by visiting our application website. Candidates will need to upload a letter of application, curriculum vita, transcripts (copies are acceptable), statement of teaching philosophy, a set of recent teaching evaluations, a writing sample, and also provide email addresses for three references. Questions about this search should be directed to the search chair, Professor Astrid Henry at 641-269-4655.
Grinnell College is an equal opportunity/affirmative action employer committed to attracting and retaining highly qualified individuals who collectively reflect the diversity of the nation. No applicant shall be discriminated against on the basis of race, national or ethnic origin, age, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity and expression, marital status, religion, creed, or disability.
I appeal to you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that you may prove what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. — Romans 12:1-2