During his June 1979 meeting with youth in Gniezno, Pope John Paul II intoned the song ‘Red belt’. Three hundred thousand participants of the Holy Mass sang the refrain in chorus: ‘For a Hutsul, there is no life like in the highlands / when fate throws him into the pits – he soon perishes from…
The end of Auschwitz came on 27 January 1945. That day, soldiers of the 60th Army of the 1st Ukrainian Front of the Red Army took control of the vast camp area. About seven thousand prisoners, including several hundred children, lived to see liberation in Auschwitz, Birkenau and Monowitz. The majority of the nearly 60,000…
The leftist Polish Socialist Party (Polska Partia Socjalistyczna, PPS) and the nationalistic National Democracy (Narodowa Demokracja) were the two most powerful Polish pro-independence groups established towards the end of the 19th century which continued their political activity in the 20th century. Among the most prominent figures in the first one was Józef Piłsudski (pseudonym “Ziuk”),…
This document, known as the Union of Krewo (also, the Act of Kreva), was issued on August 14, 1385 by Władysław II Jagiełło (Jogaila), Grand Duke of Lithuania, as the outcome of the negotiations he had conducted with the Polish lords acting on behalf of the child queen Jadwiga (Hedwig), and Jadwiga’s mother Elżbieta Bośniaczka (Elisabeth…
“Protest!” is a leaflet written by Zofia Kossak-Szczucka, a Polish novelist, social activist and co-founder of the underground Catholic organisation Front for the Rebirth of Poland (Front Odrodzenia Polski, FOP). Illegally distributed on 11 August 1942, the pamphlet called for solidarity with the Jews who were subjected to brutal terror. On 22 July 1942, the…
This outstanding artist became famous for his paintings depicting important moments in the history of Poland. They are a story highlighting the country’s former glory, but also contain warnings for its entire society. by Michał Haake Many paths into the creative future were open before the young, artistically gifted, Matejko (b. 1838). Wishing to…
