Poland

I confess there’s much that I have in common with Masha Gessen, Barbara Engelking, and Jan Grabowski. We’re all middle-aged Jews, who by accident of birth in the post war era escaped the horrors of the Second World War experience. Additionally, our families originated from much of the same locales in Eastern Europe. My Dad’s people hailed from Lwow and Premysl in what was once the Austrian partition of the first Polish Commonwealth. On my mother’s side, I grew up hearing stories from both my Babcza and Great Babcza of life in a Russified Ukraine in the years before the 1917 revolution that ended Tsarist rule and brought Lenin and his gang to power over the expanse of Holy Russia.

In my opinion, a sterile discussion about Polish narrative has been going on in the Polish media since 2016. The year is 2021 and still nothing is happening here. There is no large medium that would promote Polish interests in English, in the global arena.

Recent tensions between Biden and Putin reflect a long-term confrontation between the US and Russia. Let us approach this continuous threat from a broader geopolitical perspective. The United States needs tools to continue securing peace in Europe while focusing on China.

Once again, we are starting to see more about the importance of the NATO Alliance in our media. Perhaps, Poland’s place in the Alliance will also get some positive attention. We shall see! But just what is NATO? And how did Poland become a member?

In her list of priorities, Poland should pay more attention to careful strategic planning beyond current tactical concerns. Poland needs to create a plan of connecting with her neighbors: Lithuania, Ukraine, and Belarus in a network of connectivity. The plan should also include the analysis of any obstacles to such connectivity development potential.

There is a Polish hero, a "cursed soldier", buried in one of the cemeteries in Milwaukee, and his name is Edmund Banasikowski. Colonel of the Polish Army, commander of the subversive group "Wachlarz", Deputy in the F Inspectorate of the Vilnius District of the Home Army. In the spring of 1945, he was arrested by the NKVD. He managed to escape from prison and make his way to Warsaw. In view of the growing Soviet terror and repression against former Home Army soldiers, he decided to leave the country. In the spring of 1946 he moved to Sweden, and in 1951 he left for the United States, where he settled permanently in Milwaukee.

The indomitable soldiers are, in other words, the Polish post–war independence- and anti–communist underground. It was a partisan movement of a kind, resisting the sovietization of Poland. They fought a fight against the security apparatus of the USSR and the services subordinated to them in Poland.

"Polonia Christiana" published (June 4, 2019) an interview by Tadeusz Kolanek with Dr. Teodor Gąsiorowski, entitled How the myth of Haller's Blue Army was killed. It is very good that we return to the figure of the great Pole and the great commander, General Józef Haller, and recall the Blue Army. It is a pity that, at the same time, the same text is part of the plot to kill the memory of, the destruction and concealment of the figure of another great Pole, Ignacy Paderewski. His name is never mentioned in this interview, which is a poignant "abandonment" — hard to believe, and impossible to justify. I will focus here on the "Paderewski Case" - and rather than on Paderewski's "myth", on the truth about Paderewski.

Sometimes, in order to better understand the situation in which the American Polonia found itself after 1989, it is worth analyzing how the relations between the Polish State and the Polish community developed after Poland regained independence in 1918. Reliable research by several independent teams of scientists, and a political will, are needed in this matter.

Aleksander Doba, Poland's world-famous traveler, died at the age of 74 after climbing Mount Kilimanjaro, Africa’s highest peak. Best known for his solo ocean expeditions, he was the first person to paddle a 23-foot sea kayak across the Atlantic, a voyage of 3,352 miles. He was also the first person to cross the ocean using only his own muscle-power.

Everyone tried to anticipate what issues President Biden would raise in his speech to the international community. Such an opportunity to hear the most important theses of American foreign policy took place during a speech at the Munich Security Conference. The whole world heard Biden's "America is back, the transatlantic partnership is back."