History

The year 2024 brings us another celebration of Pierogi Day, on Tuesday, October 8. This date, known in the international calendar as National Pierogi Day , is a holiday dedicated to one of the most recognizable dishes from Polish tables.

The camp photograph of Czesława Kwoka is well known. It was taken by Wilhelm Brasse (a Pole) who, as a prisoner of Auschwitz, was assigned to take documentary photographs in the camp.

There are still a few weeks left until November 5, 2024. Will any of the candidates make a direct appeal to the Polish community for support? Will the current Polish American Congress or the Polish-American Coalition make such an appeal for support for a candidate? Or will it happen again that we, as Polonia, will allow ourselves to be manipulated.

For decades, successive German governments considered it impossible to pay compensation to Polish victims of World War II and the German occupation of 1939-1945. In 1990, Chancellor Kohl managed to sweep the issue of material compensation for victims under the carpet and ensured that the subject of reparations did not appear at all in the 2+4 treaty (which replaced the peace treaty and regulated the reunification of Germany).

In the Stutthof concentration camp, throughout its entire period of operation, various pseudo-medical experiments were carried out on prisoners. These acts are classified as crimes against humanity consisting of conducting medical experiments that resulted in death, serious damage to health or other bodily harm to the people undergoing these procedures.

Today is the 85th anniversary of the Soviet aggression against Poland. On September 17, 1939, in the early morning hours, the Soviet Union attacked Poland by force of arms. In this way, Stalin fulfilled the August secret agreement with Hitler (the Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact).

When the issue of German reunification weighed on the table in 1990, Chancellor Helmut Kohl did his best to sweep the issue of compensation for the Polish victims of the Nazi occupation under the rug. And he succeeded.

He was the first to create and describe the definition of the crime of "genocide" and to push for its introduction into international law by the UN. This was his life's mission, for which he paid a high price. August 28 marked 65 years since his death.

All of us from our generation remember the first bilingual monthly magazine in the United States, "Polish News". It is still published today by our wonderful friend Krystyna Teller. Since neither the Polish authorities, nor the media noticed that Krysia had already retired, we allow ourselves to recall how "Polish News" came into being.

The German executioners did a lot to erase the traces of their crimes in the Chojnice Valley of Death. After many years, we have extracted the remains of the victims from the unmarked pits and are providing them with a dignified burial.

From the very first days of fighting, the Germans committed heinous crimes against the local population and Polish Army soldiers, thus violating the provisions of the Geneva Convention. They began the systematic extermination of the Polish population.