In the spring of 1871, when Adolphe Thiers’ government fled to Versailles and the capital was engulfed in the flames of revolution, between four and six hundred Polish émigrés volunteered to fight under the red banner. Most of them had already experienced the smell of gunpowder, so they became the elite of the communard army…
On 31 October 1517 the theses of Martin Luther put an end to the medieval world. The religious unity of the past centuries was over, leaving room for new conflicts and problems in the future. One did not have to wait long for their arrival. by Michał Rzeczycki Centuries ago, it was believed that…
There are many professors, there are also quite a number of editors-in-chief, and a handful of university deans. Holding all those public posts, and then some, Marcin Król was just a historian of ideas to many. Like no other though, he used to open, make available and redefine entire areas of intellectual legacy, unknown, banned…
When the Germans invaded Poland on 1 September 1939, these two men called upon Polish Jews to fight. Then they attacked Stalin and paid the ultimate price. Up to this day, the deaths of Wiktor Alter and Henryk Erlich, leaders and activists of the General Jewish Labour Bund, a Polish Jewish socialist party, are among…
“We have written this not only to the German nation, but to our own nation as well. What we have written is (truly) devoid of cheap historical lies. We believe that an opportunity has presented itself – an opportunity to bring about a turning point in the current situation. We implore you, do not turn…
In his works discussing the role played by the Poles in the Holocaust, Jan Grabowski fails to utilize some important documents which Communist Poland handed over to West Germany in the 1960s, 70s and 80s. These materials have been recently re-discovered by the Pilecki Institute and considered as essential for providing a more accurate picture of German-Jewish-Polish relations in occupied Poland. The sources…
