2018 People and Events

Author: Irena Fraczek
In the Jubilee Year of Polish Independence…

To commemorate the 100th anniversary of the restoration of Poland’s sovereignty, the Sejm of the Republic of Poland (the lower chamber of the Polish Parliament) declared 2018 to be the Jubilee Year of Poland’s Independence. In two separate resolutions, the Sejm proclaimed 2018 to be also the year of Zbigniew Herbert, Irena Sendler, Ignacy Tokarczuk and the Bar Confederation. In December 2017, the Polish Senat (the upper house of the Polish Parliament) added to this list the Polish Scouting, Women’s Rights and the Greater Poland Uprising (1918-1919).

Józef Piłsudski (Chief of State) and
Ignacy Paderewski (Prime Minister)
arriving at the Polish Parliament (1919)
Image adopted from Wikimedia Commons

November 11, 2018 marks the centennial of Poland regaining independence after 123 years of partitions by Russian, German and Austro-Hungarian empires. On that day in 1918, Józef Piłsudski became the head of Polish Army and de facto chief of the sovereign state known as the Second Polish Republic. The Sejm resolution pays tribute to the generations of Poles fighting for the dream of free Poland and working to preserve the “spiritual and material substance of the nation.” Among the “Fathers of Independence” mentioned in the motion is Ignacy Paderewski, cherished in the United States for his piano virtuosity. Using his worldwide fame to promote the idea of independent Poland, he is widely credited for his role in the U.S president and Nobel Peace Prize winner, Woodrow Wilson, including the creation of Polish sovereign state as one of prerequisite peace conditions for ending the World War I. Presented to the U.S. Congress on January 8, 1918 as point XIII of his famous “Fourteen Points,” this declaration remains the most remembered contribution of the United States into the rebirth of independent Poland.

February 1, 2018 brings the 100th anniversary of the birth of Ignacy Tokarczuk (1918-2012), one of the spiritual leaders of the Pole’s peaceful struggle for freedom in the dark years of communist rule. During his tenure as Bishop (1966) and then Archbishop of Przemyśl (1992), he tirelessly defended the rights of the faithful against the governmental repressions (earning him the name of “The Unwavering Bishop”) and his curia served as meeting grounds for the democratic and pro-independence opposition. A staunch proponent of the Solidarity movement, he was active in providing aid to those interned during the martial law (1981) and their families, supported the underground opposition activities and fostered initiatives to popularize the true history of Poland and its independent culture.

Casimir Pulaski in Częstochowa
Painting by Juliusz Kossak (1824-1899)

February 19, 2018 highlights the 250 anniversary of the Bar Confederation, an alliance of Polish nobles (szlachta) formed in 1768 at the Polish fortress of Bar (currently in Ukraine) and aiming to protect the Catholic faith and the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth against the Russian influence. Its defeat precipitated the First Partition of Poland (1772). An estimated 5,000 confederates were taken prisoners by Russians and deported to Siberia (often with their families), forming the first major group of Poles exiled to Siberia. Along with the Constitution of May 3, 1791 and the Kościuszko Uprising, the Bar confederation became a part of the fight for freedom lore cultivated during the Partitions of Poland. Among the most famous Bar confederates was Casimir Pulaski, who became a Polish-American hero after arriving to the United States in 1777 on the Lafayette and Benjamin Franklin‘s invitation to join the American Revolutionary War.

May 12, 2018 brings us back to the XX century and the 10th anniversary of the death of Irena Sendler (1910-2008), a Polish nurse known for saving around 2,500 Jewish children from the Holocaust. As a head of children’s department of Żegota, an underground organization of Polish resistance in German-occupied Poland, she was instrumental in smuggling Jewish children from the Warsaw Ghetto and finding for them shelter in Polish foster homes, convents and social care facilities. For these extraordinarily heroic acts (concealing Jews by Poles was then punishable by death and in fact, she narrowly escaped execution after Germans discovered her activities), Irena Sendler received numerous awards and tokens of recognition, while Yad Vashem recognized her as Righteous Among the Nations in 1965.

July 28, 2018 turns focus to the 20th anniversary of the death of Zbigniew Herbert (1924-1998), one of the greatest and most translated Polish and European writers of poems, essays and drama of the XX century. Publication of his work translations in the United States helped him to become one of the most popular Polish poets in the English literary circles. The Polish Sejm pays tribute to him as a champion of the canons of beauty and craftsmanship in the arts and in life, the ethical codes clearly differentiating between the good and evil. His experience of living through the horrors of Nazism and Communism provided him with inspiration to explore and resist the evil mechanisms of power and ideology – as well as to reconciling beauty with the reality of human suffering – in both his literary work and real life.

Polish Scouts, 8th Central Euro Jamboree
By Azymut via Wikimedia Commons CC BY-SA 4.0

November 11, 2018 doubles as a salute to Polish scouting (harcerstwo) with the 100th anniversary of the Polish Scouting and Guiding Association, currently the largest organization of scouts in Poland. Beginnings of the movement go back to 1910 and the city of Lwów, where its legendary founder, Andrzej Małkowski, distinguished Polish “harcerstwo” from its more traditional forms in other countries as “scouting plus independence.” True to this definition, several generations of Polish scouts (called in Polish “harcerze”) become the epic defenders of Lwów against Ukrainians in 1918 (the Lwów Eaglets) as well as the heroic fighters in the Greater Poland Uprising, the Polish-Soviet War, Silesian Uprisings, and the World War II (the Grey Ranks). The Senat resolution pays tribute also to the ethos of scout organizations opposing the communist rulers and soviet occupiers after the World War II.

Manifestation of Polish suffragettes
on Women’s Day in Kraków (1911)
By Nowości Ilustrowane, via Wikimedia Commons

November 28 brings to the fore the 100 anniversary of Polish women gaining full voting rights shortly after the Polish state was officially reborn (by comparison, the 19th Amendment to the US Constitution guarantees such right to American women since 1920). The Election Regulation Decree signed by Józef Piłsudski on November 28, 1918 stipulated also that regardless of gender, every eligible voter could also be elected to both houses of the Polish parliament. Based on this decree, eight women representing the full political spectrum made history after being elected in parliamentary elections held on January 26, 1919. It is in tribute to those eight women that Polish Sejm declared 2018 to be the Year of Women’s Rights.

Polish children pay homage to Ignacy Paderewski
in Poznań’s Hotel Bazar on December 27, 1918. (Painting by Leon Prauziński, executed by Germans in 1940 for painting scenes from the Wielkopolska Uprising)

December 27 calls attention to the Greater Poland Uprising (Powstanie Wielkopolskie) of 1918-1919, one of the very few Polish insurgences that ended in a victory. Its aim was to return Wielkopolska, at the time under the Prussian rule, to the newly formed Polish state. The revolt erupted as Ignacy Paderewski stopped in Poznań on his way back to Poland (December 26, 1918). Thanks to the heroic and determined efforts of the people of Wielkopolska, and high toll of their blood (continued during the World War II, when German occupiers publicly executed any surviving Wielkopolska insurgents they could hunt down), nearly all of the traditionally Polish land (known as the “cradle of Poland”) ended within the boundaries of the Second Polish Republic.

Irena Frączek (last edits on January 13, 2018)

2017 Polish Christmas Carols

2017 The Christmas Tradition of “Kraków Szopka”

Irena Frączek reports……….

The first Thursday of each December is a time of great excitement on the Krakow’s Main Square (Rynek Główny) known for its lively street life and architectural treasures including the Cloth Hall (Sukiennice) and St. Mary’s Basilica (Kościół Mariacki). From the early hours of the morning, crowds gather around the Adam Mickiewicz monument (Pomnik Adama Mickiewicza) to marvel at the new crop of colorful Krakovian szopkas (szopki krakowskie) arriving for the annual competition. After the noon Trumpet Call (Hejnał Mariacki) from St. Mary’s Basilica tower, participants of a cheerful parade fronted by folk musicians circle the square and carry them to the Krzysztofory Palace (Pałac pod Krzysztofory), where judges select the winners.

In Polish, the word “szopka” (plural “szopki“) refers to the nativity scenes (szopki bożonarodzeniowe) that adorn every Polish church at Christmas time. Called also mangers, cribs or crèches, they became popular after St. Francis of Assisi created the first manger in Greccio, Italy (1223) and Franciscans brought the idea to Poland just a few years later. The Krakovian szopka emerged from this tradition in the early XIX century due to winter shortages of jobs for stone masons, brick-layers, tilers and carpenters.

To make money during the seasonal slowdown, the industrious construction workers began to create the miniature copies of the church mangers used to carry them along as portable backdrops for kolędowanie (a custom involving groups of door-to-door carollers collecting donations for their singing in ritual costumes) or staging the nativity plays (called jasełka in Polish) on the streets or in the houses of wealthier folks. These spectacles starred amateur actors and/or puppets, both gradually replaced with doll-like figurines populating the crèches. That’s how a new form of folk art was born taking life on its own outside of the church setting.

Fierce competition among the craftsmen helped to shape the unique characteristics of the Krakovian szopka. To attract attention of spectators and potential hirers, the szopka makers were forced to innovate – and they did so by turning to flashy materials as well as incorporating the elements of Kraków’s architecture and/or reflections of its legends, history and political/social life. In what became the most distinctive trait, the Kraków crèche took a shape of an urban structure fusing elements of some of the city’s most famous buildings (e.g. the Wawel Castle, Sigismund’s Chapel, Sukiennice, the Barbican, or St. Florian Gate) crowned with the Town Hall Tower or towers of St. Mary’s Basilica and other churches. They also became exquisitely ornate and sparklingly colorful – the effect achieved with the extensive use of cellophane, tinfoil, tissue paper, beads and small pieces of plastic or glass.

The range of characters populating the Kraków szopka also goes far beyond that seen in the traditional nativity scenes (the Holy Family, the Three Kings, angels, shepherds and animals). The most common additions are folks in regional costumes (mostly from Kraków and Podhale) and heroes of local legends (the Dragon of Wawel, the Kraków trumpeter, Lajkonik or the sorcerer Pan Twardowski). But some crèches spotlight historical figures (like Tadeusz Kościuszko, the Polish and American hero who famously took his oath on the Krakow’s Old Town Square in 1794) as well as contemporary politicians, clergymen, artists and sportsmen. Szopka craftsmen also make references to current global or local events such as Poland’s accession to the European Union, the World Youth Day 2016, or expansion of paid parking zones in the city.

The amount of work that goes into creating those marvels of folk art is truly mind boggling. An average szopka maker spends on his/her hobby about 2,000 hours per year (5 hours a day) and larger structures, which can reach the heights well in excess of 10 feet, take over 10,000 hours to complete. As such workload is unfeasible for many individuals, some crèches are created as group efforts involving family members and/or circles of friends or classmates. But whether solo or in a group, it is clearly a labor of love as many szopka makers indulge it since childhood into their senior years. And for all those dedicated folk artists, there is no greater joy than scoring a win in the annual competition for the most beautiful “Kraków Szopka.”

The first edition of the tournament was organized in 1937 to reignite interest in the tradition that weakened during the World War I and fire up the competitive spirit among the szopka makers. Since then the contest was held every year (with a five year pause during the World War II) and winners of its 75th edition were announced on December 10, 2017. As it recently became a custom, all of the 171 entries submitted this year will remain on display in the post-competition exhibit till the end of February 2018. Some winners will also join the already substantial szopka collection of the Historical Museum of the City of Kraków (Muzeum Historyczne Miasta Krakowa), the main organizer and promoter of the competition. The collection is the largest in Poland (about 300 items) and can be viewed all year round in the Krzysztofory Palace located on the Main Square.

In addition to becoming a permanent fixture in Kraków’s Christmas tradition, the phenomenon of Kraków szopka occupies also a bright spot in the cultural landscape of Poland. By blending the history, legend and modernity with the powers of imagination and freedom of expression, it is a unique form of folk art with the engaging message and artistic authenticity. In recognition of these qualities, Szopka Krakowska was placed in 2014 on the National Intangible Cultural Heritage List. In March 2017, Polish government filed a petition to include it also on the UNESCO’s List of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. The decision is expected in December 2018. When approved, Szopka Krakowska will become the first entry from Poland on the list that currently features 429 culture elements from all over the world.

2017 Dr. Mazurkiewicz lecture notes

The Story of Polish and East European Exiles
in the United States After World War II

Lecture by Dr. Anna Mazurkiewicz

Professor of history at the Gdańsk University
and the 2017-2018 President of the
Polish-American Historical Association (PAHA)

The lecture took place in the Polish Center of Wisconsin on November 16, 2017 under the sponsorship of the Wisconsin State Division of the Polish American Congress and the Polish Heritage Alliance.

…………………LECTURE NOTES
…. by David Rydzewski with edits by Dr. Donald Pienkos

This is the great, if little known story of many Polish and other East European po-litical leaders and activists who had fled their homelands after 1945, the year World War II ended. Soviet Russia had taken over their homelands, suppressed their countries’ freedom and initiated what became known as the Cold War with the United States and the Free World. For the exiles from Eastern Europe, the U.S. government would provide both a new homeland and the support they sought in order to carry on their struggle to regain their countries’ freedom from Communist domination.

After the Faustian bargain that began at the Teheran Conference with Russia’s push to change the borders of post war Poland to the Curzon line and furthered and expanded that argument in Yalta and Potsdam; Britain and the United States negotiated away the rights and freedoms of 100 million East Europeans. With eyes only on how to end the war in Europe and the Pacific, as speedily and at least expense in allied lives, they traded war time expediency, for 45 years worth of cold war subjugation of those people.

Arthur Bliss Lane, American ambassador to Poland wrote a book in 1948 called I Saw Poland Betrayed: An American ambassador reports to the American people. It was first published in the U.S. and later in Poland by an underground publisher. It was a early report to the world by an American insider on this Faustian bargain. East European exiles had been saying this since the end of the war.

America began to fund these exiles in covert ways. In 1949 the U.S. government formed the “National Committee for a Free Europe”, later known as the “Free Europe Committee” or FEC. This group funded by American intelligence agencies created tools for spreading an anti-communist message, for use in the Iron Curtain countries. So began Radio Free Europe, the Europe Free Press, speakers bureaus, and other programs.

Polish exile groups organized in different ways and often were at odds with one another. The FEC pushed for one national committee, but that was a tough task for groups such as the Polish Political Council, the Polish National Democratic Committee, and the Polish Council of National Unity, and the Polish Council in the U.S., who all had similar goals, Poland’s independence, but competing strategies.

In 1954 national committees of nine Central and East European countries formed the Assembly of Captive European Nations (ACEN). This new organization delivered an anti-communist message from the intellectual, educational, scientific and political elites of these nations, who kept alive the voice of the “stateless.” For 7 years the ACEN had a building across the street from the United Nations building in New York, where they kept messages of Europe’s oppressed, visible to the western world.

Without an independent base for financial and political support, the question needs to be asked ,“Were these Polish and East Europeans exiles just part of Dependent Political Organizations, sponsored by American and Western European countries, primarily serving their interests?”

Did FEC and ACEN serve America first and only then exiles and those in the captive countries? Or did it materially help and give hope to those exiles and their countries? Well, it is true that “He who pays the Piper calls the tune”, but what did the exiles and their countries gain?

In the short term, hope was kept alive, and in the longer term, these exiles and their causes saved political tradition, helped spread their countries cultural herit-age, and helped the establishment of East European and Central European Studies as an academic pursuit.

Today those ACEN countries form the eastern watchtowers of NATO, defending themselves and other NATO member states.