Hilary Koprowski: the man who overcame polio
The man that saved millions of lives

An effective polio vaccine, discovered in 1950, saved the health and lives of hundreds of thousands of children around the world. Born in 1916, the Polish doctor, virologist and immunologist Hilary Koprowski belonged to the elite “Pasteur club”, as the group of eminent vaccinologists working on new vaccines was called. by Piotr Bejrowski   Despite...

Jan Szczepanik, a genius from Galicia

Teacher and inventor Jan Szczepanik is also known, in what is perhaps a slight exaggeration, as the “Polish Edison” or the “Galician Leonardo da Vinci”. Although he was self-taught and had no technical background, he created several hundred inventions and technical solutions that contributed to the development of television, photography, film and the textile industry....

Kazimierz Prószyński: a pioneer of world cinematography

Kazimierz Prószyński was a cinematographer, director and inventor whose importance in the development of cinematography was highlighted by the famous Lumière brothers. by Piotr Bejrowski   He was born on 4 April 1875 in Warsaw and was the son of Konrad, an educational activist, founder of the National Education Society and publisher whose “Primer” was...

General Maczek: Tenaciously, yet chivalrously
an interview with Jacques Wiacek

“Fight just like a Polish soldier has always done throughout history. Fight tenaciously, and yet chivalrously!” Thus, General Stanisław Maczek, the model of an indomitable soldier, encouraged his soldiers to fight. Jacques Wiacek, author of “Histoire de la 1re division blindée polonaise (1939-1945): L’odyssée du phénix”, first French-language monograph on the 1st Division of General...

The world's largest cemetery of clergymen
Polish clergy - prisoners of KL Dachau

During World War II, 1,780 Polish clergymen were detained in KL Dachau, and 868 died there. “They forced me to live in ‘splendid’ barracks for thousands of people, to sleep on wooden, hard bunks under one blanket. They gave me the honor of being a guinea pig,” recalled Tadeusz Jasiński, one of the survivors. by...

Olga Boznańska: The painter of souls
(15 April 1865 – 26 October 1940)

Olga Boznańska is one of the most important artists of the 19th and early 20th Century, famous for her original style and boundless devotion to art. She was born in Krakow, the daughter of engineer Adam Boznański, Nowina coat of arms, and Eugénie Mondan, of French origin, on 15 April 1865. by Piotr Bejrowski  ...

It wasn't his scream or a tale about Jacek Kaczmarski
(22 March 1957 – 10 April 2004)

In the 1980s and 1990s, his songs were known and sung by everyone in Poland. His song “Walls” became the anthem of Solidarity and a symbol of the struggle against the communist regime. Jacek Kaczmarski was not just a “bard of the opposition” but also a charismatic poet, prose writer, and composer. by Jan Hlebowicz...

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Polishhistory is an online project of the Polish History Museum in Warsaw. It is primarily addressed to all those interested in Polish and Central European history. Our aim is to build a community consisting of those professionally involved in research and of those interested in the outcomes of research, essentially, all lovers of history. The...