History

After the third partition, the area of ​​the seized Polish lands constituted more than half of the territory of Prussia, while Poles constituted almost half of its population. Since then, for 123 years, until 1918, Poland did not exist as a sovereign state.

Although there are no witnesses to this history anymore, substantial American archives remain, however, which allow to extract the truth about the great patriotism of over 20,000 soldiers and the entire army of involved civilians, Polish community activists who, together with the volunteers, devoted themselves to creating a great and strong, free and independent Poland, and for whom we should also ensure a worthy place in our historical memory.

The history of Polish Texans is not very well known. Very few people among the Polish diaspora realize that Texas was the first landing place for Polish refugees escaping the hardships after the November Uprising of 1830; also the site of the first Polish settlement in America; the first home for a Polish Catholic church and parishes on the continent; and the location of the first Polish-language school.

The celebration of Independence forces us all to reflect. It forces us to analyze the facts: what has been done to fix Poland and what has not. Many activities after 1989 are still in doubt.

In 1936, on the 100th anniversary of the Texas Declaration of Independence, the January 1936 Texas Centennial Exposition Bulletin stated: "In the Hall of Heroes of this Texas Hall of State, at the opening of the Centennial Exposition in Dallas on June 6, Felix Wardziński's name will be inscribed along with with the name of Sam Houston, the liberator, and Stephen F. Austin, the colonizer and father of the Lone Star Empire. "

At first, travelers thought that the train stopped in the middle of nowhere. Before them was a flat space covered with a slippery layer of mud. At dawn, they waited for the outlines of houses to appear on the horizon — in vain.

For many years, Polish governments were not interested in properly nurturing the Polish history. Even now, the history taught in schools contains many understatements and fake "facts". Therefore, the historical awareness of many Poles today is limited to the symbolic commemoration of monuments and memorial sites, while the rest of the world has no idea what the terrible fate of the Polish nation was during the Second World War, and the crimes committed against the Poles remain in the shadow of the Holocaust.

Poland and Germany have always been bordering each other, ever since the Middle Ages, ever since the times of shaping their individuality and identity. At a time when the borders between the states had not yet been firmly established, the inhabitants moved freely across the territories of both communities. In later periods, the waves of emigration were caused by economic and political reasons. About 8 million people have moved to Germany from Poland in the last 200 years.

"On the pan-European map of resistance, it is the Polish resistance movement that is leading and exemplary in many areas." The above quotes are not taken from a paean to Poland and Poles written by a Polish author or some polonophile. These are excerpts from a secret report by Major General Reinhard Gehlen, a longtime chief of German military intelligence in the East, prepared in April 1945 for the then Minister of the Interior of the Third Reich, head of the SS and Gestapo, Heinrich Himmler.

A small wooden church was finally erected on the corner of Brady and Humboldt in 1871 at the cost of $11,000. The Milwaukee Sentinel at the time reported that these St. Hedwig families were among the poorest of the poor, with the men being engaged in sewer construction and public works.

St. Cyril and Methodius, commonly known as the Polish Seminary, was founded in 1885 in Detroit, Michigan. In 1909, due to better housing conditions, it was moved to the nearby Orchard Lake, where it exists today. The creation of this seminary is connected with the mass economic emigration of Poles to the United States.