Recent Posts

Most Used Categories

Tag: History

You are Here :
Poland - Polish - Polonia, Political, , , ,

Drop Visas for Poles

Please contact your Senators and Representatives asking that they include Poland in the Visa Waiver Program by co-sponsoring and supporting House Bill H.R. 959 and Senate Bill S. 497.

From Alex Storozynski, President of The Kosciuszko Foundation, The U.S. Must Respect Its Allies

Polish-Americans [marched] up Fifth Avenue on Sunday, [October 2nd] in honor of Gen. Casimir Pulaski, a hero who saved George Washington’s life at the Battle of Brandywine. Yet ironically, if he were alive today, Pulaski would not be allowed to march in the parade without paying $140 and applying for a visa. However, Lafayette and Von Steuben would be able to visit the United States for free because France and Germany are included in the Visa Waiver Program.

The Nowy Dziennik-Polish Daily News, The Kosciuszko Foundation and the Polish community in America urge the United States Congress to include Poland in the VWP, which allows citizens of 36 foreign countries to travel to the U.S. for up to 90 days without a visa.

Poland is one of America’s closest and steadfast allies, sending its soldiers to shed their blood for freedom in Iraq, Afghanistan, Lebanon and other war zones. Polish troops have fought side by side with American troops, going wherever the United States asks them to go. So far, 29 Polish soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan, and 30 Polish soldiers have been killed in Iraq.

Like Pulaski, many Polish soldiers have served with distinction at the behest of the U.S. military. Gen. Roman Polko, former commander of the Polish Special Forces unit, GROM, (Thunderbolt), led the capture of a heavily guarded oil platform in the port of Umm Qasr during Operation Iraqi Freedom. The U.S. Army awarded Gen. Polko the Commendation Medal and the Legion of Merit Medal. But when I invited Polko to attend an event at the Kosciuszko Foundation in the spring, he told me that he could not come to New York because he did not have a valid American visa.

While Polko and other Polish soldiers can fight for American freedom, they cannot come see the Statue of Liberty without a visa.

Is this how America treats its allies?

President George W. Bush acknowledged that Poland is one of America’s closest allies and promised to include Poland in the VWP. Poland meets all of the criteria for the VWP, except one – the number of citizens denied visas after they pay the $140 fee.
American consulates around the world interview foreign citizens who apply for tourist visas to visit the United States. These consulates deny visas to people they think might overstay their 90 day visas or work illegally in America.

In 2008, President Bush announced that the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Slovakia and South Korea would become part of the VWP because these countries had a visa refusal rate lower than 10%. Poland was excluded because at the time its visa refusal rate was slightly higher than that. Today, Poland’s refusal rate is 9%. But after these other countries were added, Congress said that no new countries would be allowed into the VWP unless their visa refusal rate was less than 3%.

The only reason Poland has a 9% refusal rate is that American consulates count the same people over and over as they are denied visas several times. The true percentage of Poles who are denied visas is actually lower. And fewer than 3% of the Poles who do come to America stay longer than the 90 days allowed on their visas.

Countries with an overstay rate of less than 3% should be included in the VWP. The Secure Travel and Counterterrorism Partnership Act of 2011, H.R. 959, would do just that. The bill must pass both houses before President Obama can sign it.

The bill is sponsored in the House by Rep. Mike Quigley of Illinois, and the co-sponsors of the bill that are friendly towards Polonia include: Rep. Shelley Berkley [D-NV], Rep. Brian Higgins [D-NY], Rep. Duncan Hunter [R-CA], Rep. Marcy Kaptur [D-OH], Rep. Daniel Lipinski [D-IL], Rep. William (Bill) Pascrell, Jr. [D-NJ], Rep. Jared Polis [D-CO], Rep. Janice (Jan) Schakowsky [D-IL], Rep. John Shimkus [R-IL].

The Senate Bill S. 497 is sponsored by Senator Barbara Mikulski of Maryland, and co-sponsored by Senators Mark Kirk of Illinois, Mark Begich of Alaska, Sherrod Brown of Ohio, and Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota.

President Obama has written to Congress in “strong support” of the bill, but it must first pass both houses of Congress before it can be signed into law.

The key to passing this bill lies with New York Senator Charles Schumer, Chairman of the Immigration, Refugee and Border Security subcommittee in the Senate Judiciary Committee. Senator Schumer can influence the outcome of this bill in the Senate. It’s time for Sen. Schumer to take action on this bill and show that he cares about the one million people of Polish descent in New York State. He must become a co-sponsor.

In the House of Represenatives, the key is Rep. Elton Gallegly of California, Chairman of the Judiciary Committee’s subcommittee on Immigration Policy and Enforcement. Both committees must pass the bill before it can go to the Senate and full House for a vote.

The arguments for including Poland in the VWP are strong. In addition to being one of America’s greatest allies, a productive member of NATO, and the European Union, the notion that Poles need to come to America to work is just flat out wrong. In fact, many Poles who have Green Cards have returned to Poland in recent years because the economy in their own country has grown faster than the U.S. economy.

Those Poles who do want to seek employment elsewhere can work in various countries across Europe. Poland is part of the “Schengen Area” of 25 European nations that allows passport-free travel across borders. Poles do not need to come here to work. They only want to come here to shop, visit relatives and see tourist sites, just like other Europeans.

It’s estimated that 7,000 Poles will be denied visas to the U.S. this year. Many more don’t even apply because the process offends them. I have several relatives and friends in Poland that have professional careers, and they refuse to come here and spend money because of the visa issue. Instead, they travel to tourist sites in Africa, Asia and South America to spend their vacation money.

Poland presently holds the rotating Presidency of the European Union, but incredibly, its President, Bronislaw Komorowski, had to apply for visa prior to his trip to the United States. By refusing visa free travel for Poles, the United States is pushing away an ally, and taking Poland for granted.

Poles pose no terrorist threat to America, and allowing Poles to visit the United States as tourists would encourage international trade and pump tourism dollars into our economy.
While the United States requires Poles to have visas when traveling to America, Poland waived visas for Americans more than 20 years ago.

Allowing Poles to travel without visas will add to our security and enhances law enforcement and crime-fighting efforts through data-sharing agreements between our respective countries.

There are 10 million Polish-Americans in the United States and they have been actively trying to include their fatherland in the VWP. As we march down Fifth Avenue today, we will not just be celebrating Polish culture, we will be handing out letters that Polish Americans can send to their Representative and Senators.

This is not a partisan issue, Republican or Democrat. It is an issue of respect. It is respect for the millions of Poles that helped build this country. It is respect for the millions of Poles who helped overturn Communism and bring down the Berlin Wall and the Soviet Union thanks to the actions of the Solidarity movement and Pope John Paul II.

If, like Gen. Polko, Gen. Pulaski were turned away from America’s shores because he did not have a visa, he would not have saved George Washington’s life at the Battle of Brandywine. If Gen. Thaddeus Kosciuszko had been kept out of America because of the visa issue, he would not have built West Point, or drafted the winning plans for the Battle of Saratoga. The American Revolution would have turned out much different.

For too long, the United States has treated our friends and families in Poland as second class citizens requiring them to pay hefty fees to apply for visas to visit this country, while Europeans from other countries travel here without visas.

Media, Poland - Polish - Polonia, , , , ,

Actors, Actresses, Personalities on Poland

The BBC Program, Who Do You Think You Are speaks with Strictly Come Dancing (BBC1)/Dancing With the Stars (ABC) judge Len Goodman. Mr. Goodman discovers the role his Polish great great grandfather had in 1830 November Uprising.

What’s special about Poland? Together with Val Kilmer, Natalie Portman, Russell Crowe, many more world celebrities discover the uniqueness of Poland!

Art, Poland - Polish - Polonia, , , , , ,

Films, openings, screenings

The Battle of Warsaw 1920

The Battle of Warsaw 1920, a new film by Jerzy Hoffman released this week. The movie tells the story of Polish – Bolshevik War of 1920 and the Battle of Warsaw, the pivotal moment in the war which stopped the spread of communism in Central and Western Europe.

The first world war is over; people are enjoying peace. But the Red Army is approaching and Lenin has ideas of world revolution. The Polish unite to resist and stop the Red Army outside Warsaw. In part this is a love story as well as a history lesson. We follow two newly married people caught up in the conflict. We sway back and forth from the front-lines, back to Warsaw, as the Red Army pushes east.

Wojtek The Bear That Went to War

Screening of Polish-British documentary about the bear who fought in World War Two: Wojtek The Bear That Went to War on Tuesday, November 15th, 6.30pm at Riverside Studios, Crisp Road, London W6 9RL

Wojtek The Bear That Went to War, directed by Will Hood and Adam Lavis, Narrated by Brian Blessed, and produced by Animal Monday and Braidmade Films, is the story of Wojtek the Soldier Bear – a magnificent 500lb military bear who fought in World War Two alongside a band of Polish soldiers, shared their beer and cigarettes – and eventually their fate. Told by those that knew him, his story will capture the imagination and provide a very different perspective of the Polish war story.

The screening will be followed by a Q&A with the director and veterans who knew Wojtek

Tickets: £8.50/7.50 cons.

More from BBC Scotland: Wojtek: the Polish soldier bear who lived at Edinburgh Zoo

In his own lifetime, Wojtek, a Syrian brown bear adopted by Polish soldiers in the Second World War, was a celebrity among his comrades. Seven decades on, in Scotland, his legend is undergoing a renaissance thanks to the efforts both of the Polish community itself and of local artists and writers.

Acquired as an orphaned cub in Iran, the young Wojtek was soon well-travelled: with the Artillery Supply Command of the Polish Second Corps he saw fighting in the deserts of north Africa, where the Second Corps joined the British fight against Rommel’s forces, and in Italy…

The Polish Americans on PBS

The Polish Americans applauds the spirit, determination and solidarity of an immigrant success story like no other. Using vintage film footage, family photos, personal recollections and experiences, this documentary special embodies Polish pride in a televised “family album” of the Polish-American experience.

The Polish Americans takes viewers to the bastions of Polonia across the United States, from New York City and Schenectady to Cleveland and Chicago, where parents instill in their children the virtues and values of their native land and a love of its traditions, like the pierogi so many mothers filled and pinched just right.

While strongly American and part of the larger culture, Polish Americans maintained a desire to keep their heritage alive — with rewarding results. The Polish Americans celebrates these proud achievements.

The Officer’s Wife

The Officer’s Wife was screened in Chicago on Friday, October 7th at the Copernicus Center. The screening was sponsored by the Polish American Congress.

Piotr Uzarowicz’s grandfather was one of the nearly 22,000 Polish prisoners of war executed in the Katyn massacre of 1940. Piotr recently completed “The Officer’s Wife,” a documentary about Katyn and the far-reaching effects the massacre – and its cover-up – had on the Uzarowicz family. The film is an ode not just to Piotr’s grandfather: Piotr’s grandmother and father, deported to Siberia during the war, are also key players – as is Piotr himself, who journeys to Poland, Russia, England, Canada, Ukraine and the U.S. on his film-making and personal odyssey. “The Officer’s Wife” was first previewed in May at the Kosciuszko Foundation in New York.

Warsaw Jewish Film Festival

The Warsaw Jewish Film Festival will take place in Warsaw, Poland from November 8-13. Screenings will be at the Kinoteka and Świt Theaters. This year’s Honorary David Camera is dedicated to Polish film and TV director and screenwriter Mrs. Agnieszka Holland.

Among the films competing, David, about the unlikely friendship between a Jewish and Muslim boy in Brooklyn, directed by Joel Fendelman.

“David” trailer from Joel Fendelman on Vimeo.

Into the Wind

Into the Wind is Steven Hatton’s first feature length documentary, capturing the life and wartime experiences of former Bomber Command veterans from the Second World War. As well as a document of unique historical value and significance, Into the Wind is a record of deeply personal stories, tales of friendships gained and lost, the perpetual possibility and proximity of death, the importance of love and family, the shared passion for flying and the moral implications of warfare.

The documentary features interviews with former aircrew originating from Poland, New Zealand, Australia, Canada, Guyana, Trinidad and Tobago and the United Kingdom, all of whom share the weight and responsibility of having helped change the course of history.

See the BBC Article
Into the Wind: The story of Bomber Command.

Events, , , , , , ,

Folklore events in Eastern New York

Legends and Tales

The New York State Folklore Society is hosting Legends and Tales on November 12th at Binghamton University. The tentative schedule includes:

The Fabled and the Fabulous: Dawn Saliba of Binghamton University on “Shakespeare, Three Sisters and a Scottish King: The Witchlore of Macbeth as Influenced by King James’s Demonology;” Daniel Irving, of Binghamton University on “You Can’t Lose What You Ain’t Never Had: Southern Mythology and the Precariousness of Performance;” and, Trisha Cowen of Binghamton University on “A New Perspective on Happily Ever After: Children Dying to Close the Portal Between Worlds.”

Legendary Transformations: Chris MacKowski of Binghamton University on “The Legend of Stonewall Jackson’s Arm;” Nick Hilbourn of Binghamton University on “The Stranger Upstairs: Disability Representation in Urban Horror Legends;” and Bambi Lodell of the State University of New York at Oneonta on “Mythic Elements in the Life and Legend of Lucy Ann/Joseph Israel Lobdell.”

The Keynote Address, “Haunted Halls, Mansions, and Riverbanks: Legends of the Southern Tier” will be delivered by Dr. Elizabeth Tucker.

Other sessions include a reading by Novelist Jaimee Wriston Colbert from her work “Shark Girls,” “Folklore in Practice: Collecting Narratives after Disaster Strikes” with an esteemed panel of folklore professionals, and a closing session focusing on storytelling in performance with Milbre Burch, “Changing Skins: Folktales about Gender, Identity and Humanity.”

Milbre Burch is a grammy-nominated and internationally known storyteller. She is currently a graduate student in theater and folklore at the University of Missouri. Her performance, “Changing Skins” is informed by research on the wealth and persistence of gender-bending folktales and cultural expressions around the world. The tales — adapted from print collections by folklorists, anthropologists, linguists and literary scholars – are interwoven with personal observations of the social construction of gender, and notes on historical and contemporary thinking about the diversity of gender expressions.

For additional information and to register visit Legends and Tales.

Folk Arts in Education Development

The Society will also be presenting “Folk Arts in Education Development, a Workshop for Artists and Teachers” on Friday, October 21st from 8AM till 3:30PM at Celtic Hall, 430 New Karner Road, Albany, NY

The presentation will be led by Arts in Education Specialist Dr. Amanda Dargan of City Lore, Inc. along with featured artist Andes Manta.

Amanda Dargan holds a Ph.D. in Folklore and Folklife from the University of Pennsylvania. She is the Arts in Education Director for City Lore, Inc., a folk arts organization in Manhattan. In a joint effort with the Bank Street College of Education, Amanda Dargan pioneered a program of staff development sessions and seminars for teachers, administrators, and artists on how to integrate cultural studies and the arts into the core curriculum. Through a national initiative, Amanda Dargan and Paddy Bowman of the National Task Force on Folk Arts in Education have offered these trainings on how to effectively and creatively use students’ and communities’ resources in classrooms throughout the United States.

The session provides a forum where teachers may meet traditional artists from a variety of backgrounds, discover resources available for arts in education, make curriculum connections to traditional arts, and enhance local learning possibilities.

The event is free, but registration is required. For further information, contact Lisa at the New York Folklore Society at 518-346-7008.

2011 Summer Community Documentation Program

In the summer of 2011, the New York Folklore Society teamed up with the Schoharie River Center, the Schenectady Job Training Agency and the Schenectady High School to offer a six
week Community Documentation Program. NYFS staff Lisa Overholser and Ellen McHale joined SRC staff John McKeeby, Scott Haddam, and Ben McKeeby in working with nineteen Schenectady teens to document Schenectady’s green spaces and the activities which occur in and around Schenectady’s parks and waterways. The successful program was given special notice by the Schenectady Job Training Agency for its innovation.

Events, Poland - Polish - Polonia, , , ,

Deportees, crimes, and historical recollection

From Polskie Radio: Deportee Day [September 17th] recalls forgotten WW II exodus

Saturday sees the 7th World Day of the Siberian, saluting the hundreds of thousands of Polish citizens who were deported to far-flung corners of the Soviet Union during World War II.

Following tradition, the event is held on 17 September, marking the anniversary of the Soviet invasion of Poland in 1939.

Survivors from across the world are expected in Poland. Ceremonies will take place in the northern city of Gdansk, as well as in the nearby village of Szymbark, site of the extensive Siberian House Museum.

Deportees, including the elderly and children, were dispatched from Poland’s Eastern territories following the division of Poland between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union in September 1939.

The four transports began in February 1940, primarily to Siberia and Kazakhstan. Many perished during the cramped train journeys, as more did while working in forced labour camps or on collective farms.

The deportations dealt a heavy blow to Poland’s professional elite, but the transports included citizens of all classes and ethnic backgrounds.

Historians are still divided as to the numbers of those deported. Contemporary Moscow figures cited 330,000, yet Poland’s wartime government-in-exile claimed over a million.

The matter became a source of embarrassment to the Soviet Union, after Hitler reneged on his non-aggression pact with Stalin and invaded Moscow-held territory in 1941, thus prompting Stalin to turn to Great Britain – and by default its Polish ally – for support.

An amnesty was declared, and General Wladyslaw Anders, one of the thousands of Polish internees in the Soviet Union, was allowed to raise an army from among the prisoners.
The so-called Polish Second Corps journeyed to Iran, where it regrouped and joined the fight against the Nazis, as part of the British 8th Army.

However, thousands did not make it out of Soviet territory. Historian Andrzej Paczkowski puts the mortality rate at 8-10 percent.

Noted deportees included the writer Gustaw Herling-Grudzinski, whose post-war book A World Apart was cited by historian Anne Applebaum as one of the finest accounts of life in the Soviet Gulag.

Likewise, Poland’s most celebrated pre-war film star, Eugeniusz Bodo, was among those who perished in the Soviet Union.

Oscar-nominated Polish-Jewish film-maker Jerzy Hoffman survived the ordeal as a child. He is currently preparing to release Poland’s first 3D film, The Battle for Warsaw, this month.

As it was, the vast majority of Anders’ Army did not return to the Soviet-dominated Poland that emerged after the war.

Ryszard Kaczorowski (1919-2010), the last president of the government-in-exile in London, was himself a survivor of both Siberia and the Italian campaign.

Although the wartime deportations were devastating in Poland, they were by no means unique. In May 1944, Moscow launched the deportation of the entire Tatar population of the Crimea. Activists are calling for the action, known as Surgun, to be classified as genocide.

From the Libra Institute: Report from the Capitol Hill Conference, “Katyń: Unfinished Inquiry”

On the eve of the 72nd anniversary of the Soviet aggression on Poland, an important conference took place on the Capitol Hill in Washington, DC. The conference entitled “Katyń – Unfinished Inquiry” was co-sponsored by fifteen civic and academic organizations from all over the United States, including organizations representing Katyń families and Siberian deportees such as the Katyń Forest Massacre Memorial Committee of New Jersey, Kresy-Siberia Foundation USA, National Katyń Memorial Foundation of Maryland, Polish Legacy Project of Buffalo, New York, Siberian Society USA, Siberian Society of Florida, the Poles of Santa Rosa in Chicago, the Polish Army Veterans Association in America and the Polish American Congress. The conference was co-organized by Libra Institute and the Institute of World Politics with the support of Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur.

While commemorating the Polish victims of the Soviet aggression of September 17, 1939, the participants deliberated how to achieve healing of the wounds and genuine reconciliation between the people of Russia and Poland in the twenty first century. The participants acknowledged that the path to reconciliation leads through revealing the full truth.

Professor David Crane who served as Chief Prosecutor of the Special Court for Sierra Leone presented Expert Report from the Katyń Symposium that took place at Case Western Reserve School of Law in February 2011. Referring to the Expert Report, he pointed out that genuine reconciliation must be built on truthful accountability through full disclosure, atonement, contrition and compensation. He also stated that although various experts offer different classifications of the Katyń crime, according to him Katyń qualified as genocide. Prof. Crane also stated that the United States should consider forwarding the evidence, findings and recommendations of the Madden Committee to the General Assembly of the United Nations with the recommendations that the United Nations take appropriate steps to have the case forwarded to the International Court of Justice and/or seek the establishment of an international commission that will investigate this case. The other ways in which the United States could assist in seeking justice for the Katyń crime would be the full disclosure of documents related to Katyń that are in the possession of the US Government and adopting legislation that would recognize the wrong that has been done by the United States as a result of the suppression of evidence. The United States should also consider issuing an apology to the Katyń victims and the Polish people, providing compensation to the Katyń families who are US citizens either directly or through the establishment of the Katyń Truth and Reconciliation Institute, and should sponsor an educational outreach program on the Katyń crime and the cover-up.

Dr. John Lenczowski, President of the Institute of World Politics, in his opening remarks pointed out that the Katyń crime aimed at eliminating the leadership class of Poland. He criticized the Russian anti-Katyń strategy by pointing out that the Soviet soldiers taken as prisoners of war by Poland as a result of the 1920 Polish-Russian War represented the invading army and died of communicable diseases. He also elaborated on the role of the US Government in covering up the Katyń crime and suppressing all Katyń related information, including the destruction of the key eyewitness reports by the top US Military Intelligence Officer, in order not to upset Moscow. He pointed out that the key Katyń-related documents have never been released by the US Government. Apparently, there is never a good time to do so, especially when the USA aims at resetting relations with Russia.

Frank Spula, President of the Polish-American Congress, spoke about the significance of the Katyń crime for the Polish-American community. He stated that he was honored to be in this congressional office building and participate in such a historical event, especially considering that this building was named after Sam Rayburn who initiated the original investigation into the Katyń crime sixty years ago. Back then Roman Pucinski, the Chief Investigator of the Madden Committee led the struggle for truth and justice. Today his daughter, Aurelia Pucinski, came to this congressional building to continue her father’s struggle for justice. Katyń has a special significance to the Americans of Polish heritage.

…

The closing remarks belonged to Wesley Adamczyk, Son of the Polish Officer imprisoned in Starobelsk, murdered in Kharkov and buried in the Piatichatki forest. Having searched for his father’s burial site for six decades, finally in June of 1998, while accompanied by his American-born son, Mr. Adamczyk had an opportunity to pay last respects to his father at the Piatichatki cemetery. Upon leaving, he appealed to his son never to forget that even the grinding of the bones and planting of the trees over the graves does not stop the truth from coming to the surface. Mr. Adamczyk stressed that today, nearly seventy years later, there still exist a “universal cover-up” of the Katyń crime in its entirety. He also explained that the origin of the cover-up of the Katyń crime, referred to as “conspiracy of silence”, began by the Big Four during the London meeting in the summer of 1945. The purpose of that meeting was to establish procedures for prosecution of major war criminals during the upcoming trials by the International Military Tribunal to be held in Nuremberg. It was there that the Big Four agreed that the Soviets would handle the indictment and prosecution of the Katyń crime, even though the Western Allies knew that all arrows pointed to the Soviet guilt. The Western Allies won the war against Nazi Germany but justice for the victims of the Katyń crime was never sought. In closing, Mr. Adamczyk appealed to the Government of the United States to undertake pro-active steps towards full disclosure and dissemination of all documents related to the Katyń atrocity in the possession of the US Government because without revealing full truth justice cannot be served.

More from the Case Western Reserve Journal of International Law: Katyń Conference Papers.

Kresy-Siberia Group and Foundation Resources:

Research, Remembrance and Recognition of Polish citizens’ struggles in the Eastern Borderlands and in Exile during World War 2. Kresy-Siberia is the premiere “one-stop” location on the internet providing information sources on the Kresy, the persecutions and deportations of Poles, and Polonian life in exile during and after World War II.

Their resources include:

[AMAZONPRODUCT=0226004430]

Maps and Shadows

A two part interview on Zita Christian’s show “Full Bloom” with Krysia Jopek. Ms. Jopek discusses her book “Maps and Shadows” and the story of two of the four survivors of the Polish deportation to Siberia in 1940, her father and aunt.

[AMAZONPRODUCT=1607720078]

Events, Poland - Polish - Polonia, , , ,

Reopening of the Adam Mickiewicz Library

The Grand Re-Opening of the Adam Mickiewicz Library took place at the Adam Mickiewicz Library & Dramatic Circle on Saturday, September 17th. I was once a member of the Adam Mickiewicz Library and Dramatic Circle and had visited its tremendous library several times. There are true treasures there and great resources for historical research.

The library had been officially closed and generally inaccessible for the last 17 years. During the reopening tours were provided by librarian Mary Lanham.

Here is a video of the re-opening ceremony:

The library is located in the Adam Mickiewicz Library & Dramatic Circle building at 612 Fillmore Ave., Buffalo, NY.

PNCC, Poland - Polish - Polonia, , , ,

Philadelphia’s Pulaski Day Parade 2011

Father Major Sławomir Andrew Biliński of the Polish National Catholic Church served as 2011 Pulaski Day Parade Military Marshal.

Polish-born priest and doctor, Father Major Slawomir Andrew Bilinski has a distinguished career of service in military and civilian settings. After arriving in the U.S. as a priest in the Polish National Catholic Church, he was assigned to Holy Mother of Sorrows PNC Church in Dupont, PA, where he served as pastor until 2000. After earning a B.S. in pre-medical studies at Wilkes University, Father Bilinski entered Thomas Jefferson University Medical College in Philadelphia and joined the U.S. Army as a Lieutenant. Upon completion of his medical degree in 2004, he was promoted to Captain and served his internship in Emergency Medicine at Hahnemann University Hospital and residency training at the Underwood Memorial Hospital of Thomas Jefferson University. At that time, Father Bilinski also assisted at St. Valentine’s Church in Philadelphia.

In 2007, Captain Bilinski was transferred to Brooke Army Hospital and Medical Center at Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio, TX, where he served as medical doctor in the Emergency Room, Troop Clinic, and wounded soldiers unit. He was promoted to the rank of Major in October, 2010.

Major Bilinski now serves a triple vocation as U.S. Army officer, priest and physician by caring for our soldiers and their families at Fort Lee, Virginia. When he visits his hometown of Philadelphia, he assists with Father Krzysztof Mendelewski at St. Valentine’s PNC Church on Margaret Street, in the Frankford section of Philadelphia.

Christian Witness, PNCC, Poland - Polish - Polonia, , , , , ,

The Prime Bishop’s Visit to Poland

Prime Bishop, the Most Rev. Dr. Anthony Mikovsky, accompanied by the Rev. Gregory Młudzik visited Poland from August 13th to the 23rd.

Prime Bishop Mikovsky and his party first visited Warsaw, attending Holy Mass at Good Shepherd Parish, accompanied by the Rt. Rev. Sylvester Bigaj, Bishop of the Canadian Diocese of the PNCC.

Following Holy Mass, the group attended by a contingent of Scouts laid a wreath and offered prayers at the tomb of PNCC Bishop and Martyr Joseph Padewski.

The Prime Bishop next visited the Polish Catholic Parish of St. Barbara in Bolesław (Krzykawa-Małobądz) on August 15th for their Dożynki (Harvest) Festival. The Prime Bishop also visited the birthplace of our first Bishop, and organizer of the Polish National Catholic Church, the Most Rev. Francziszek Hodur in Żarki as well as the Parish of Our Lady of Perpetual Help and monument to Bishop Hodur in Libiąż.

The Prime Bishop ended his visit at Our Lady of Perpetual Help Parish in Strzyżowice on September 20th where he took part in the Parish’s 50th Anniversary Holy Mass and celebration. Rev. Młudzik was baptized and raised in the parish at Strzyżowice.

The retired pastor of Our Lady of Perpetual Help is the Very Rev. Eugene Stelmach. Fr. Senior Stelmach served the parish for forty-nine years and was also Dean over five parishes in his Seniorate. Fr. Senior Stelmach was also active in ecumenical circles, serving as Vice-chair of the Silesian branch of the Polish Ecumenical Council. The Parish’s current pastor is Rev. Adam Stelmach, the son of Fr. Senior Stelmach.

The jubilee celebration was attended by representatives of the Churches in the Silesian branch of the Polish Ecumenical Council (PRE) including: the Protestant cathedral choir “Largo Cantabile” from Katowice, Bishops from the Evangelical Lutheran Church Dioceses of Katowice and Cieszyn, the honorary chairman of the Silesian branch of the PRE, the Rev. Jan Gross of Cieszyn, and representatives from the Mariavite parishes in Gniazdów and Sosnowiec. Faithful from the Evangelical Lutheran Church of the Czech Republic from Czech-Cieszyn as well as guests from across Poland, the United States, and France were also in attendance.

Church filled to capacity
Procession into church
Ecumenical guests
Largo Cantabile
Prime Bishop Mikovsky and Fr. Gregory Młudzik
Blessing before the Proclamation of the Gospel
The Prime Bishop addresses the faithful
Overflow crowd seated outdoors - a frequent sight at churches in Poland
Honor Guard of soldiers and coal miners
Prime Bishop Mikovsky at the reception and dinner after Holy Mass
Fellowship, great friends, faith, and kiełbasa!
Fr. Senior Stelmach (foreground), Prime Bishop Mikovsky, and honored guests

Christian Witness, Perspective, Political, , , , , ,

Getting poorer

Poverty is on the increase, inequality — not based on personal effort — but systematically driven is on the increase. Those who have are fewer and fewer, those without are increasing, and those in the middle are on a downward spiral. What is the proper faith response? Where are the strong calls to justice and prophetic witness?

From the U.S. Census Bureau: Poverty

The data presented here are from the Current Population Survey (CPS), 2011 Annual Social and Economic Supplement (ASEC), the source of official poverty estimates. The CPS ASEC is a sample survey of approximately 100,000 household nationwide. These data reflect conditions in calendar year 2010.

  • The official poverty rate in 2010 was 15.1 percent — up from 14.3 percent in 2009. This was the third consecutive annual increase in the poverty rate. Since 2007, the poverty rate has increased by 2.6 percentage points, from 12.5 percent to 15.1 percent.
  • In 2010, 46.2 million people were in poverty, up from 43.6 million in 2009—the fourth consecutive annual increase in the number of people in poverty.
  • Between 2009 and 2010, the poverty rate increased for non-Hispanic Whites (from 9.4 percent to 9.9 percent), for Blacks (from 25.8 percent to 27.4 percent), and for Hispanics (from 25.3 percent to 26.6 percent). For Asians, the 2010 poverty rate (12.1 percent) was not statistically different from the 2009 poverty rate.
  • The poverty rate in 2010 (15.1 percent) was the highest poverty rate since 1993 but was 7.3 percentage points lower than the poverty rate in 1959, the first year for which poverty estimates are available.
  • The number of people in poverty in 2010 (46.2 million) is the largest number in the 52 years for which poverty estimates have been published.
  • Between 2009 and 2010, the poverty rate increased for children under age 18 (from 20.7 percent to 22.0 percent) and people aged 18 to 64 (from 12.9 percent to 13.7 percent), but was not statistically different for people aged 65 and older (9.0 percent).

From the AP via Yahoo!: Behind the poverty numbers: real lives, real pain

At a food pantry in a Chicago suburb, a 38-year-old mother of two breaks into tears.

She and her husband have been out of work for nearly two years. Their house and car are gone. So is their foothold in the middle class and, at times, their self-esteem.
“It’s like there is no way out,” says Kris Fallon.

She is trapped like so many others, destitute in the midst of America’s abundance. Last week, the Census Bureau released new figures showing that nearly one in six Americans lives in poverty — a record 46.2 million people. The poverty rate, pegged at 15.1 percent, is the highest of any major industrialized nation, and many experts believe it could get worse before it abates.

The numbers are daunting — but they also can seem abstract and numbing without names and faces.

Associated Press reporters around the country went looking for the people behind the numbers. They were not hard to find.

There’s Tim Cordova, laid off from his job as a manager at a McDonald’s in New Mexico, and now living with his wife at a homeless shelter after a stretch where they slept in their Ford Focus.

There’s Bill Ricker, a 74-year-old former repairman and pastor whose home is a dilapidated trailer in rural Maine. He scrapes by with a monthly $1,003 Social Security check. His ex-wife also is hard up; he lets her live in the other end of his trailer.

There’s Brandi Wells, a single mom in West Virginia, struggling to find a job and care for her 10-month-old son. “I didn’t realize that it could go so bad so fast,” she says.

Some were outraged by the statistics. Marian Wright Edelman of the Children’s Defense Fund called the surging child poverty rate “a national disgrace.” Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., cited evidence that poverty shortens life spans, calling it “a death sentence for tens and tens of thousands of our people.”

Overall, though, the figures seemed to be greeted with resignation, and political leaders in Washington pressed ahead with efforts to cut federal spending. The Pew Research Center said its recent polling shows that a majority of Americans — for the first time in 15 years of being surveyed on the question — oppose more government spending to help the poor.

“The news of rising poverty makes headlines one day. And the next it is forgotten,” said Los Angeles community activist and political commentator Earl Ofari Hutchinson.

Such is life in the Illinois town of Pembroke, one of the poorest in the Midwest, where schools and stores have closed. Keith Bobo, a resident trying to launch revitalization programs, likened conditions to the Third World.

“A lot of the people here just feel like they are on an island, like no one even knows that they exist,” he said…

From Robert Reich writing in the Christian Science Monitor: What you won’t hear about during the 2012 election: Why progressive ideas like wage increases and medicare won’t be mentioned during presidential debates

We’re on the cusp of the 2012 election. What will it be about? It seems reasonably certain President Obama will be confronted by a putative Republican candidate who:

Believes corporations are people, wants to cut the top corporate rate to 25% (from the current 35%) and no longer require they pay tax on foreign income, who will eliminate capital gains and dividend taxes on anyone earning less than $250,000 a year, raise the retirement age for Social Security and turn Medicaid into block grants to states, seek a balanced-budged amendment to the Constitution, require any regulatory agency issuing a new regulation repeal another regulation of equal cost (regardless of the benefits), and seek repeal of Obama’s healthcare plan.

Or one who:

Believes the Federal Reserve is treasonous when it expands the money supply, doubts human beings evolved from more primitive forms of life, seeks to abolish the Internal Revenue Service and shift most public services to the states, thinks Social Security is a Ponzi scheme, while governor took a meat axe to public education and presided over an economy that generated large numbers of near-minimum-wage jobs, and who will shut down most federal regulatory agencies, cut corporate taxes, and seek repeal of Obama’s healthcare plan.

Whether it’s Romney or Perry, he’s sure to attack everything Obama has done or proposed. And Obama, for his part, will have to defend his positions and look for ways to counterpunch.

Hence, the parameters of public debate for the next fourteen months.

Within these narrow confines progressive ideas won’t get an airing. Even though poverty and unemployment will almost surely stay sky-high, wages will stagnate or continue to fall, inequality will widen, and deficit hawks will create an indelible (and false) impression that the nation can’t afford to do much about any of it – proposals to reverse these trends are unlikely to be heard.

Neither party’s presidential candidate will propose to tame CEO pay, create more tax brackets at the top and raise the highest marginal rates back to their levels in the 1950s and 1960s (that is, 70 to 90 percent), and match the capital-gains rate with ordinary income.

You won’t hear a call to strengthen labor unions and increase the bargaining power of ordinary workers.

Don’t expect an argument for resurrecting the Glass-Steagall Act, thereby separating commercial from investment banking and stopping Wall Street’s most lucrative and dangerous practices.

You won’t hear there’s no reason to cut Medicare and Medicaid – that a better means of taming health-care costs is to use these programs’ bargaining clout with drug companies and hospitals to obtain better deals and to shift from fee-for-services to fee for healthy outcomes.

Nor will you hear why we must move toward Medicare for all.

Nor why the best approach to assuring Social Security’s long-term solvency is to lift the ceiling on income subject to Social Security payroll taxes.

Don’t expect any reference to the absurdity of spending more on the military than do all other countries put together, and the waste and futility of an unending and undeclared war against Islamic extremism – especially when we have so much to do at home.

Nor are you likely to hear proposals for ending the corruption of our democracy by big money.

Although proposals like these are more important and relevant than ever, they won’t be part of the upcoming presidential election.

But they should be part of the public debate nonetheless.

That’s why I urge you to speak out about them – at town halls, candidate forums, and public events. Continue to mobilize and organize around them. Talk with your local media about them. Use social media to get the truth out…

John Gray’s essay from the BBC: A Point of View: The revolution of capitalism

Karl Marx may have been wrong about communism but he was right about much of capitalism, John Gray writes.

As a side-effect of the financial crisis, more and more people are starting to think Karl Marx was right. The great 19th Century German philosopher, economist and revolutionary believed that capitalism was radically unstable.

It had a built-in tendency to produce ever larger booms and busts, and over the longer term it was bound to destroy itself.

Marx welcomed capitalism’s self-destruction. He was confident that a popular revolution would occur and bring a communist system into being that would be more productive and far more humane.

Marx was wrong about communism. Where he was prophetically right was in his grasp of the revolution of capitalism. It’s not just capitalism’s endemic instability that he understood, though in this regard he was far more perceptive than most economists in his day and ours.

More profoundly, Marx understood how capitalism destroys its own social base – the middle-class way of life. The Marxist terminology of bourgeois and proletarian has an archaic ring.

But when he argued that capitalism would plunge the middle classes into something like the precarious existence of the hard-pressed workers of his time, Marx anticipated a change in the way we live that we’re only now struggling to cope with…

Events, Poland - Polish - Polonia, , , , ,

Miscellany for Learning

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.

…

“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.”

…

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.

All Right Reserved © 2005 - 2023