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...

‘Threads were going from person to person, wispy threads of help...’: The Council for Aid to Jews ‘Żegota’
Operatives under threat of death by the Nazi German forces

In the summer and autumn of 1942, in the General Government (GG), the Germans carried out mass deportations of the Jewish population to extermination camps. These actions, code-named Operation ‘Reinhardt’, aimed to exterminate all the Jews from that area. The few who managed to escape deportation sought refuge on the so-called Aryan side. In these...

Jan Długosz: father of Polish historiography
(1 December 1415 – 19 May 1480)

Historian, chronicler, heraldry expert, geographer, diplomat and educator of Polish kings, Jan Długosz was undoubtedly one of the greatest historiographers of the Middle Ages. This author of the monumental 12 volume Annals or Chronicles of the Famous Kingdom of Poland died on 19 May 1480 in Kraków. by Piotr Bejrowski   Długosz was born in...

Note addressed to the Governments of the United Nations by the Polish Minister of Foreign Affairs, Edward Raczyński, regarding German crimes in occupied Poland
83rd anniversary of proclamation of the Note

The double attack on Poland by Nazi Germany and the USSR in September 1939 led to the effective dissolution of the Polish state. Although Poland lost its sovereignty, its legal authorities continued to function, organising the Polish armed forces in France and later in Great Britain. Under these circumstances, the primary aim of the Polish...

Tadeusz Kantor: A Total Artist
(6 April 1915 – 8 December 1990)

Tadeusz Kantor was a Polish multidisciplinary artist whose imagination transcended the confines of the canvas. His art surpassed painting to fully blossom on the theater stage. “The Dead Class” shocked audiences worldwide, and Kantor’s happenings constantly questioned the boundaries of art. From the humblest of materials – objects found in garbage dumps, mannequins, fragments of...

Władysław Szpilman: How did the pianist survive the war?
(5 December 1911 – 6 July 2000)

Władysław Szpilman is currently the most well-known of the Warsaw Robinsons. How did he survive in German-occupied Warsaw? by Michał Studniarek   In 1939, Władysław Szpilman resided in the center of Warsaw on Śliska Street with his parents, Samuel and Edwarda, his brother Henryk and his two sisters – Regina and Halina. Władysław was working...

Fortune-telling séances on St. Andrew's Day in Old Poland

St. Andrew’s Day falls on November 30, but in Old Poland the night before (St. Andrew’s Night) was considered a time of magic and fortune telling. In this period, it was believed that everything predicted on this night would come true. As a result, in nearly every noble manor and peasant cottage, fortune-telling sessions were...

The November Uprising: More Than a Romantic Rebellion
The outbreak of the November Uprising

One of the several classic ‘Polish insurgences’: armed, bloody and lost. Apart from the romantic legend around it, it is distinguished by the fact that the episode lasting a year was unusually effective in unsettling things as they were. After the lost uprising, two paths of development, possible before, were not available to the Poles...

Dr. A. Buława: November Night is "the second Warsaw Uprising"

On November Night, the lower classes of the Warsaw community joined the young cadets. According to Dr. Adam Buława, a historian from the Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński University in Warsaw, some historians even use the term “the second Warsaw Uprising”, as the first was the April 1794 insurrection.   Polish Press Agency: One of the historians...

Wanda Błeńska: a friend of lepers
(30 October 1911 – 27 November 2014)

Known and respected in Poland and abroad, she was called the Polish Mother Teresa. For more than 42 years she treated leprosy patients in Uganda, becoming one of the most eminent specialists in this field. She converted a rural leprosarium without any electricity into a modern medical centre. by Jan Hlebowicz   Even as a...

How Adam Mickiewicz turned into stone, or a short history of the bard’s monuments

It is easier to wipe a country off the map than to destroy its soul. In the 19th century, that truth was discovered by Russia, Prussia and Austria as the loss of independence had a mobilising effect on the Poles. It became an impulse for spreading patriotic attitudes as well as an unprecedented flourishing of...

Kazimierz Sosnkowski. Organiser of Polish Independence
(19 November 1885 – 11 October 1969)

The central place in the Polish vision of regaining independence in 1918 is occupied by Józef Piłsudski. However, many other politicians, military officers, and social activists made noteworthy contributions to this cause, including the ‘Commander’s’ loyal chief of staff and one of his most important successors: Lieutenant General Kazimierz Sosnkowski. by Tomasz Leszkowicz   Born...

Józef Piłsudski: The Father of independent Poland
(5 December 1867 – 12 May 1935)

A soldier, strategist, and statesman, he enjoyed immense authority among his compatriots. As Marshal of Poland, he became a symbol of the fight for freedom. Józef Piłsudski is still considered a national hero, and his influence extended far beyond the country’s borders, influencing the fate of Europe as well. by Grzegorz Barański   The road...
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Note addressed to the Governments of the United Nations by the Polish Minister of Foreign Affairs, Edward Raczyński, regarding German crimes in occupied Poland

83rd anniversary of proclamation of the Note

The double attack on Poland by Nazi Germany and the USSR in September 1939 led to the effective dissolution of the Polish state. Although Poland lost its sovereignty, its legal authorities continued to function, organising the Polish armed forces in France and later in Great Britain. Under these circumstances, the primary aim of the Polish...
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Dr. A. Buława: November Night is "the second Warsaw Uprising"

On November Night, the lower classes of the Warsaw community joined the young cadets. According to Dr. Adam Buława, a historian from the Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński University in Warsaw, some historians even use the term “the second Warsaw Uprising”, as the first was the April 1794 insurrection.   Polish Press Agency: One of the historians...
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Władysław Szpilman: How did the pianist survive the war?

(5 December 1911 – 6 July 2000)

Władysław Szpilman is currently the most well-known of the Warsaw Robinsons. How did he survive in German-occupied Warsaw? by Michał Studniarek   In 1939, Władysław Szpilman resided in the center of Warsaw on Śliska Street with his parents, Samuel and Edwarda, his brother Henryk and his two sisters – Regina and Halina. Władysław was working...
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The Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, 1733–1795: Light and Flame

Review of the book by Richard Butterwick

The 18th century was a time of enormous cultural, political and societal upheaval for the West. In the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, it was a period of decline that was completed by the partitions. However, reducing the 18th-century history of the Polish-Lithuanian state to a mere falling into political non-existence would be a simplified and thus false...

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The Battle of Warsaw 1920-2020

17 August 2020
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The Battle of Warsaw 1920-2020
The Second World War and its Consequences from the Perspective of 75 Years since its End. Panel 2
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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...
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