Poland

In today's interview, Kurier Polski hosts Jan Dziedziczak - Secretary of State, Government Plenipotentiary for the Polish Diaspora and Poles abroad.

“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.

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.

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.

We, the Presidents of the Republic of Poland, the Republic of Estonia, Ukraine, the Republic of Latvia and the Republic of Lithuania, meet today in Warsaw to celebrate the 230th anniversary of the adoption of the May 3rd Constitution. The adoption in 1791 of this important act regulating the legal system of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth was of historical importance, as it was the first modern basic law adopted on our continent and the second in the world.

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.

One of the most heart-wrenching reports a parent could ever receive is that their child is seriously ill. In Poland, this may not be where the bad news ends. Very often the parents of sick children are informed that the medicine or treatment which could save their child’s life is not supported by the National Health Fund (Narodowy Fundusz Zdrowia). This is when the real fight for a miracle begins because the costs of life-saving foreign treatments and medications are so high that they are out of the reach of the parents and the healthcare community. The available time to raise funds is typically a major challenge as well. This is a plea for a miracle and a plea for help.

Rather than demand that Poland pay reparations to foreign Jewish groups for heirless Polish-Jewish properties, which is a precedent absent in Western law, Congress should demand that Germany and Russia pay reparations to Poland for the extensive death and destruction the Germans and Soviets inflicted on the country and its people during World War II.

The bankruptcy proceeding of the Buffalo Roman Catholic Diocese is overseen by Honorable Carl L. Bucki, the federal Chief bankruptcy Judge for Western New York. It involves tens of thousands of persons and reaches as far as Poland and the Vatican. The symbolism of a devout Polish American Catholic presiding over the legal consequences of decades-long sex scandal in the Buffalo Roman Catholic Church cannot be overestimated.