Rafał Lemkin (1900–59) was an outstanding criminal law expert of Polonised-Jewish descent. He graduated from the Faculty of Law at the John Casimir University (Uniwersytet Jana Kazimierza) in Lwów. He contributed to the codification of the Polish penal law, and analysed criminal legislations of the totalitarian regimes of Italy and Soviet Russia. In 1933, he…
A temporary exhibition titled The Power of the Story: From and Old Chronicle to a Modern Museum has opened at the Polish History Museum. It focuses on various ways of narrating Polish history and is divided into its successive stages: from the Middle Ages until modern times. The exhibition makes the visitor familiar with the…
Three hundred years ago, a new political era began in Poland. A party was formed whose aim, apart from gaining and maintaining power, was to westernise the state. The Czartoryski family and its allies wanted to transform the consciousness of their compatriots, make radical changes in education, the judiciary, finance and the military, as well…
Look at the photo carefully. The face of a Polish girl dressed in the camp’s striped uniform is symbolic of Nazi policy towards children whose lives were considered unnecessary. by Piotr Abryszeński The German Generalplan Ost was created on the basis of the assumption that a “living space” (“Lebensraum”) in the territories of Central…
On January 22, 1863, the Polish ‘Central National Committee’ proclaimed the outbreak of an uprising and issued a manifesto whereby it proclaimed itself the Interim National Government. The document appealed to all the inhabitants of the former Polish-Lithuanian Rzeczpospolita (Commonwealth), within its pre-partition borders, to fight against tsarist rule for liberty. The manifesto heralded the…
Appropriate behavior is required during various social and business meetings and those who lack good manners are perceived negatively. It was similar in old Polish times when it was believed that everyone should have proper manners. The expectation was thatpolan everyone should be treated with respect and courtesy, although each party must always bear in…
