Rev. Bernard Nowicki, pastor of the Heart of Jesus Polish National Catholic Church in Bayonne, will lead the contingent for the 2012 tri-state Pulaski Day parade in Manhattan and for the activities in celebration of the 75th anniversary year.
His selection was announced by Richard Romelczyk, chairman of the Bayonne Pulaski Memorial Parade Committee.
Fr. Nowicki was honored at a Sashing Brunch on April 14 at the Chandelier Restaurant in Bayonne.
Fr. Nowicki is a native of western New York where he participated in the Polish dancing troupe founded by his mother, participated in a seven-week church youth excursion to Poland, was a presenter of Polish language declamations and poetry at celebratory occasions, and appeared in various stage presentations.
Fr. Nowicki served as the pastor of two parishes in the Pittsburgh area where he met and married Barbara Ann Liberasky. They have a daughter, Berit Elizabeth, who resides in Massachusetts.
Fr. Nowick is chaplain of the NY-NJ Seniorate United Choirs, a chapter of the PNC National United Choirs (NUC) that was organized to advance and preserve Polish musical culture.
Thirteen projects earned a first, second or third place award, which is a record number for Lake-Lehman. Twenty-two students from the district will move on to the state competition, to be held May 4 and 5 at Cumberland Valley High School in Mechanicsburg.
One student from Dallas High School, Peter Shaver, won first place for his individual research paper and will be attending the state competition.
First place, Individual Performance: Courtney McMonagle (Grade 10), for her project entitled “The Polish National Catholic Church: Their Reaction, Revolution, and Reformation.”
One Norman Rockwell painting had enough influence to shape a History Day project for four Lake-Lehman students.
“The Problem We All Live With,” by Norman Rockwell, depicts 6-year-old Ruby Bridges, the first black student to attend an all-white elementary school in New Orleans in 1960, as she walks to school. Surrounding little Ruby are four U.S. Marshalls, whose heads were left out of the painting.
The students displayed the project, called “Building Bridges: Empowering Racial Harmony,” at the regional History Day competition at the Penn State Wilkes-Barre campus in Lehman Township on March 24.
“We just loved it,” said 15-year-old Emma Evans, of Lehman Township. “It was very inspiring.”
Evans and fellow 15-year-olds Mandy Scavone, Julia Pilch and Emily Crawford designed an exhibit to tell viewers – and judges – more about Ruby Bridges’ plight during the Civil Rights Movement.
“She was really brave,” Pilch, of Shavertown, said of the painting’s subject. “She was only six. When people told her to go away, she prayed instead of getting angry.”
The theme of this year’s History Day contest is “Revolution, React, Reform in History,” and the girls from Lake-Lehman thought Bridges’ story was nothing short of revolutionary.
The rules of History Day allow students to choose from a few different mediums to display their topic. Some choose exhibits, others pick performance, some can build websites, while others create documentaries to get their points across.
Several of the 55 Lake-Lehman students who participated in the contest chose documentary, while 16 participating Dallas students chose several different mediums to present their historical findings.
The Back Mountain area students were part of the competition that included 213 students from 17 school districts located in Northeastern Pennsylvania.
Seventeen-year-old Jeremy Peters and 16-year-old Mike Podskoch, both of Dallas, stood nervously outside a technology classroom where other students were showing their documentaries on Saturday.
They made a documentary called, “The New Deal: A Revolution in Government,” which featured 1930s photographs of men holding signs to find work, people lined up outside various buildings and other Depression-era images, with narration from both students.
“I’ve always had a fascination with 1930s and 1940s history,” said Peters. “The New Deal can’t be applied; you have to show it. We thought the photographs and music would invoke emotion.”
Despite having a background in the subject, Peters was not prepared for the competition and judging process.
“I’ve been to History Day before but did not compete,” he said. “It’s interesting. I’m a little bit nervous. I didn’t expect this many judges – maybe three or four, not, like, 12.”
Back in the exhibit part of the competition, veteran History Day competitor Peter Kuritz, 16, of Shavertown kept his partner, 14-year-old James Rinehart of Dallas, from getting nervous.
The pair designed an exhibit about Otto von Bismarck, first chancellor of the German Empire.
“He talked more about diplomacy than war,” Kuritz, who has participated in History Day three times, said of his project’s subject.. “I thought it was interesting how he unified Germany to become a central power, a strong power.”
Rinehart was most interested in the creation of Germany.
“Germany wasn’t just one country,” he said.
“But one man unified the whole country,” added Kuritz.
Congratulations to Courtney and all the students who designed project.
“Sustaining Culture: A Regional Conversation,” will bring together folk and traditional arts practitioners, professionals and enthusiasts from the mid-Atlantic region and New England. The meeting includes professional development workshops, a conversation with local cultural activists, documentary film screening, and field trips, along with the opportunity to meet informally with your peers. Public sector and academic folklorists, community scholars, tradition bearers, students, and others interested in traditional culture are welcome to attend. Over 75 participants are expected, so don’t miss this opportunity to network!
The New York Folklore Society, in conjunction with the Erie Canal Museum, will be hosting a public symposium about the Music of the Erie Canal on November 2 and 3, 2012. We invite presentations, papers, and demonstrations on the Music of the Erie Canal. Possible themes include songs and the folk process; the creation of community; archives and collections; popular music of the Canal; and the Erie Canal as presented in music education, but we are open to other potential themes as well. Papers and presentations should be no more than 20 minutes in length; performances, demonstrations or lecture-demonstrations should be no more than 30 minutes in length. Poster presentations and other presentation formats will also be considered.
Community Cultural Documentation for Schenectady and the Mohawk Valley
A collaborative project of the New York Folklore Society and the Schoharie River Center, with support from the William Gundry Broughton Charitable Foundation and the New York State Council on the Arts
The New York Folklore Society is pleased to announce that it will be launching an ongoing out-of-school documentation program for Schenectady-area teens. If you are between the ages of 12 and 18 and are interested in exploring your community’s history and culture, and would like to learn real-life skills of interviewing, video and audio documentation, this program is for you!
Please call the New York Folklore Society at (518) 346-7008 or send an E-mail to receive updates and further information.
The Discovering Community Summer Institute offers educators the opportunity to explore the power of field research as a means to facilitate student engagement with their home communities.
Over the course of an intensive, week-long program participants will work with cultural researchers, documentary media specialists, artists, and fellow educators in a learning environment that models an ethnographic approach to community enquiry. The Institute brings together place as the context, sustainability as the goal, and service-learning as the strategy.
Political Science and Music at the University of Michigan
By Raymond Rolak
ANN ARBOR– Two special events will be presented on the campus of the University of Michigan as part of the Center of Russian, East European and Eurasian Studies. On Tuesday, April 17, at 4 p.m., the former President of Poland, Aleksander Kwasniewski, and former Czech Prime Minister, Petr Pithart, will be speaking at the Rackham Auditorium. There will also be a panel dialogue and both will be on the dais addressing: “The European Crisis: A View from Warsaw and Prague.”
The special guests because of their insight and wealth of experiences will offer their own unique perspectives on recent events in Europe. Highlighted will be the challenges that become associated with political changes and successes in emerging democracies. The program is part of the continuing education series of the Weiser Center for Emerging Democracies.
On Wednesday, April 18, 12:00 p.m.-1:30 P.M., CREES and the Center for International Studies will have a noontime concert and enrichment presentation on “Jewish Music in the Time of the Holocaust.” The music of Czech-Jewish composer Pavel Haas will be showcased. Haas managed to compose songs while interred at the Terezín concentration camp. Presenters will include: Timothy Cheek, associate professor of voice, Caroline Helton, assistant professor of voice, Kathryn Goodson, piano and Allen Schrott, bass-baritone.
In an unassociated coincidence of music and politics, 120 years ago, Ignace Jan Paderewski made his first of six visits to the University of Michigan campus to perform one of his renowned piano concerts. The beloved Polish patriot did a benefit performance for women’s sports on February 18, 1892.
The former Prime Minister of Poland in 1919 always was open to discuss and lobby for a free Poland. He amassed a large fortune through his musical enterprises, most of which he donated to the service of Poland and the benefit of needy musicians and Jewish refugees.
The Last ‘Battle of Britain’ Aviator Laid to Rest
By Raymond Rolak
TORONTO– Tadeusz Sawicz, a former Polish World War II Air Force Officer, was honored with full military ceremonies when his remains were flown to Warsaw, Poland from Toronto, Canada for a state burial recently.
Polish Defense Minister Tomasz Siemoniak, Polish Air Force troops, and soldiers from Britain’s Royal Air Force attended the arrival. Siemoniak said with reverence, “General, welcome in Poland, we shall always remember what you have done for the Republic of Poland.”
The honor ceremonies were historical because Sawicz was the last surviving Polish aviator that flew combat in the “Battle of Britain.” Brig. Gen. Tadeusz Sawicz died October 19, at the age of 97. He had been confined to a suburban Ontario nursing home. His ashes arrived at the military airport near Warsaw and his remains were interred at the military Powazki cemetery. His widow Jadwiga and daughter Anna attended the solemn event. The memorial started with a Catholic Mass.
With the RAF Queen’s Color Squadron present, Polish military spokesperson Czeslaw Mroczek said that Sawicz gave us an example of “true patriotism.”
He got his wings at the Aviation Cadet School in Dęblin, Poland in 1935. At the start of World War II in 1939, Sawicz flew in Poland’s air protection against the invading German Nazis. He was a member of the famed “Pursuit Brigade” which defended Warsaw in September of 1939. After the formidable power of the German Luftwaffe collapsed Warsaw’s air defenses, he joined Polish pilots fighting in France. Shortly after, when Paris surrendered, he joined thousands of Polish airmen, soldiers and sailors who traveled to Britain to take up the fight once again.
In the summer of 1940, General Władysław Sikorski – the head of Poland’s Government in Exile in London – signed an agreement with the British Government to form a Polish Air Force in Britain.
Sawicz served with distinction in the Polish Air Force in Britain from the 1940 “Battle of Britain” until 1947, and was credited with shooting down three German aircraft. He had been awarded Poland’s highest military honor, the Order Wojenny Virtuti Militari in 1943 and numerous other British, U.S., and Netherland aviation medals.
During the “Battle of Britain” German bombers devastated England’s airfields, cities and ports in a bid to destroy its defenses in preparation for a planned invasion. The Nazi’s had hoped they could bomb Great Britain into submission for surrender or a favorable negotiated peace.
In preparation for the invasion, Adolph Hitler had written in his famous Directive #16, “The English air force must have been beaten down to such an extent morally and in fact that it can no longer muster any power of attack worth mentioning against the German crossing.”
During the “Battle of Britain” the highly trained and battle hardened Polish airmen had the highest kill rates of all the RAF pilots that took part in this specific window of WWII. They were credited with 203 confirmed airborne kills.
Sawicz had time with the famous 303 Polish Fighter Squadron and also the 315. The 316th Warsaw Squadron, which flew Hawker Hurricanes, was under his direction in 1941. He also served under the Polish-American ace Francis Gabreski in the 56th Air Group. Sawicz suffered injuries in a 1944 on ground airfield collision when another Spitfire ran into him. He then was Polish Wing Commander at Coltishall, England and later in France coordinating advanced bombing raids into Germany.
Gabreski had been assigned to the Polish Squadron right after the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941 in Hawaii. His mission was to learn the 303 Kosciusko Squadron tactics because of their high German kill rate. Aggression and Nazi hatred was the key to the Polish airmen’s success. They also had the faster Spitfire. The Spitfire was built for speed which allowed it to accomplish its mission so successfully against enemy aircraft. With its sleek elliptical wings which had a thin cross-section, it allowed for a higher top speed than other fighters of its time, including that of the Hawker Hurricane.
Gabreski, known famously as Gabby, stayed in the U.S. service and later commanded a wing of F-86 Sabres at Selfridge Air Force Base in Macomb County during the Korean conflict in 1950. The two would periodically rendezvous and last got together for a reunion and aviation art exhibit in Toronto in 2000. Gabreski passed in 2002.
Sawicz also commanded the 131 and 133 Polish Wings and was demobilized as a Major in 1947. He stayed on in England after the war because of Russian occupation of his home area. He emmigrated to Canada in 1957. He was both a gentleman farmer and had worked for a Regional Canadian Airline. In 2006 he was named an honorary Brigadier-General by Polish president Lech Kaczynski.
There is a dedicated Polish War Memorial monument in the London Borough of Hillingdon that honors the Polish Airmen that defended Britain. In 2010 the monument was refurbished for the 70th anniversary celebration honoring those that participated in the “Battle of Britain.”
The 145 Polish aviators honored in London in the official RAF Role of Honor that had flown in the ‘Battle of Britain’ are now known affectionately as the “The Few.” This is from a phrase made famous by a Winston Churchill speech. There is a special stained glass window in Westminster Abbey honoring them.
'Battle of Britain' memorial stained glass windows at Westminster Abbey in the Polish RAF Aviators alcove, London, England.
The Polish American Historical Association (PAHA) has issued a call for nominations for various awards and a young scholar grant. All nominations should be sent to the Chair of the Awards Committee, Dr. Stephen Leahy (Shantou University, China).
Young scholar award nominations must be received by May 1, 2012.
Graduate Student Research Paper Award recognizes a substantial original research paper on Polish-American history and culture produced by a young scholar in the humanities or social sciences. This award includes a $500 travel grant to present the paper at PAHA’s 2013 Annual Meeting. The candidate for the award must be a graduate student at the time of the application or nomination.
The following award nominations must be received by July 15, 2012.
Mieczyslaw Haiman Award is offered annually to an American scholar for sustained contribution to the study of Polish Americans.
Oskar Halecki Prize recognizes an important book or monograph on the Polish experience in the United States. Eligibility is limited to works of historical and/or cultural interest, including those in the social sciences or humanities, published in the two years prior to the year of the award.
Skainy Civic Achievement Award honors individuals or groups who advance PAHA’s goals of promoting research and awareness of the Polish-American experience and/or have made significant contributions to Polish or Polish-American community and culture.
Amicus Poloniae Award recognizes significant contributions enhancing knowledge of Polish and Polish-American heritage by individuals not belonging to the Polish-American community.
Distinguished Service Award is given occasionally to a member of PAHA who has rendered valuable and sustained service to the organization.
Kulczycki Prize recognizes outstanding scholarship in a dissertation about the Polish experience in America. The Award includes a subvention to help the winner publish their work.
Creative Arts Award recognizes the contributions in the field of creative arts by individuals or groups who have promoted an awareness of the Polish experience in the Americas.
Kulczycki Prize recognizes an important dissertation on the Polish experience in the United States offered to a graduate student or younger scholar within the first five years after awarding of the doctorate degree to assist in the publication of a book or monograph.
The Kosciusko Foundation Presents “Mozart’s Sister”
By Raymond Rolak, Weronika Lukaszewska contributing
NEW YORK– With one showing on Sunday January 22, 2012 at 5p.m., the Kosciusko Foundation is presenting “Mozart’s Sister” starring Sylvia Milo. A veteran New York stage performer, Milo conceived the storyline and showcase concept that is including other Polish musicians and theater entertainers.
Milo, originally from Warsaw, Poland, graduated from New York University and the Lee Strasberg Theatre Institute. She currently performs in repertory at the Flea Theater in NYC. Sylvia is also an accomplished acoustic and electric violinist.
The narrative tells of Maria Anna (Marianne) Mozart who was a keyboard virtuoso, composer, and child prodigy in her own right. She toured Europe often in the late 1700’s and performed with her more famous younger brother, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. When still children and Maria Anna being five years older, she was often billed as the headliner. She went by her nickname Nannerl Mozart. There is new historical evidence she was an outstanding composer also.
A French film released in 2010 starring Marie Feret had the same title.
Warsaw 1935, a new film which provides an opportunity to view a city and discover an era. Warsaw, the metropolis called “The Paris of the North” in all its prewar glory. The film is a reconstruction in film and realized in 3D!
1935 Warsaw explores the deeper reality of our recent past. Until now we could only view the Warsaw of 1935 through old photographs, just shadows and outlines of the city. These photos only built a partial picture of the beauty, cultural richness, and sense of a Warsaw that existed 75 years ago. It is summer 1935 in Warsaw. We see a day in the life of this beautiful and proud city.
The movie, in three parts:
Part One – The action of downtown Warsaw and Marszałkowska Street
Part Two – The Saxon Garden and the Old Town.
Part Three – The area that became the Warsaw ghetto in its original, natural, and life filled form.
The surprising story of one city … 75 years ago. See it, for the first time. Early 2012.
The attack took place on a sunny Sunday morning. A minimal contingent of soldiers was on duty at the time. Most offices on the base were closed and many servicemen were on leave for the weekend. New technology, including the new radar mounted on Opana Point, were in place, manned and functioning at the time of the attack. The incoming Japanese attack planes were detected by the radar and reported, but were mistaken for an incoming group of American planes due from the mainland that morning.
While there were veiled warnings and isolated events of Japanese hostilities in the weeks, days and hours ahead of the attack, no one in command at Pearl Harbor or in Washington, D.C., expected a Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, especially before war was formally declared. Effective cryptography and successful cryptanalysis were in their infancy at the time. Under-funded, under-manned and under-equipped, cryptanalysts had been ordered to concentrate on Japanese diplomatic traffic, rather than naval messages. The nation would have had a much clearer picture of the Japanese military buildup and, with the warning provided by those messages, might have prevented the disaster of Pearl Harbor.
About 360 Japanese attack planes had launched at dawn from aircraft carriers in an attack force of about 33 ships, under the command of Vice-Admiral Chuichi Nagumo. The strike force had steamed, under the cover of darkness, to about 275 to 200 miles north of Oahu. Once the bombers sighted the island, they split into two groups. One group proceeded overland at low altitude across the island and the other flew over the water around the island to make an approach from the south. At 7:55 a.m., the first bombs and torpedoes were dropped. After two hours, the U.S. sustained 18 ships sunk or severely damaged, about 170 aircraft destroyed, and there were about 3,700 casualties. Japanese casualties were minimal.
TORONTO– Tadeusz Sawicz, a former Polish World War II Air Force Officer, was honored with full military ceremonies when his remains were flown to Warsaw, Poland from Toronto, Canada for a state burial recently.
