History

The history of the Church of St. Adalbert in Milwaukee is part of the history of the Polish American community. The life of many outstanding Poles, and of the simple but very patriotic Polish emigrants who support their activities, is connected with the community of this church. This story deserves to be saved from oblivion.

“Already in the first days of my internment in Birštonas, near Kaunas, on the Nemunas, I went for a walk along the river at the camp's border. Suddenly I noticed a small object shining in the sun. I picked it up and smiled. It was a silver thaler from 1580. On one side it showed the image of Stefan Batory with the Latin inscriptions «Stephanus, Rex Poloniae, Magnus Dux Lituaniae», and on the other side there was the coat of arms of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth."

Three related activities defined Mazewski’s career: his building of a highly successful law practice, his engaging in Republican party politics, and his involvement in the Polish National Alliance fraternal. A PNA national director in 1947 at age 31, Mazewski was elected President of the Alliance over Charles Rozmarek in September 1967 at the 35th national PNA convention in Detroit. Long involved in the Polish American Congress, he was elected PAC president in 1968. He served as president for 20 years — until his death on August 3, 1988.

Wołyń-Zhytomyr is close to the heart of every Pole. In these areas and on the Poles living here, the history of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries has left its mark of suffering. The following great sons of our nation were related to Żytomierz: Józef Conrad Korzeniowski, Jarosław Dąbrowski, Józef Ignacy Kraszewski, Juliusz Zarębski, Ignacy Jan Paderewski, and others.

May 28, 2021 marks the 80th anniversary of Fr. Maksymilian Kolbe - the guardian of Niepokalanów, a Franciscan monastery and a large publishing house - having been imprisoned in the German concentration camp at Auschwitz. On this occasion, the Franciscan Publishing House «Fraternal Call» in Krakow will be publishing a volume of poetry by Kazimierz Braun entitled "Songs of Saint Maximilian and other poems".

In recent years, the places better reserved for historians have been taken by propagandists for whom the facts are irrelevant. Thanks to this approach, victims of the Second World War are equated with the perpetrators, and the actual perpetrators of war crimes are either silent, or semantically neutral terms are used for them in order to divert attention from their guilt.

Clement Zablocki was born on November 18, 1912, the son of a grocery store owner on Milwaukee’s heavily Polish South Side. A diligent student who completed his college studies at Marquette University in 1936, Zablocki, well-liked and highly motivated, won many friends in his community by teaching civics to new immigrants and serving as his parish’s church organist. In 1942 he won election to the Wisconsin State Senate as a Democrat.

The book by Imogene Salva entitled "One star away" was published by the author's efforts in 2020 and tells the story of her mother, Józefina Nowicka, who as a child was deported from Poland with her parents and siblings by the communist authorities of the Soviet Union and placed in a forced labor camp in arctic areas of Russian Siberia during World War II.

The Poles were the only nation that did not give up the fight after the defeat in September 1939. Polish soldiers fought wherever there were fights against fascism. They believed that all roads lead them to a free Poland. Among such unwavering optimists were also men from the 1st Polish Armored Division of General Stanisław Maczek.

I never saw Poland, but I fought for the cause of a free Poland. Never did I and never will I waver in this struggle.… Let us love Poland, the land of our fathers. Let us love America, the land of our children.

The year 2021 was established by the Sejm and the Senate of the Republic of Poland as the Year of Cyprian Kamil Norwid on the occasion of the bicentenary of his birth. On this occasion, the Polish community abroad organizes various cultural events related to the figure and work of this outstanding Pole.