Stanisław Moniuszko: founder of the Polish national opera

Stanisław Moniuszko, one of Poland’s greatest composers, was born on 5 May 1819 in Ubiel in the Minsk province (currently Belarus). As a composer, he was well-known for incorporating elements of folklore and the works of national poets into his musical compositions. During his career, he wrote several hundred songs and church songs as well…


Wiktoria and Józef Ulma. They died because of hiding Jews

From the spring of 1942, in the territory of the General Government (GG), German policy towards the Jewish population entered a phase of mass deportations to extermination centres. These actions, carried out under the code name ‘Operation Reinhardt’, aimed at the extermination of all Jews in the GG area. Among the few who escaped deportation…


Rudolf Weigl. The man who defeated typhus

He was not born Polish, but became a Pole by choice. Rudolf Weigl was a pioneer in using lice to breed typhus germs and the creator of the first effective vaccine against this terrible disease. by Piotr Abryszeński   Rudolf Weigl was born in Moravia to an Austrian family on 2 September 1883. After his…


1 September 1939: The beginning of hell

“This means war. From now on, all other matters and issues become of secondary importance”, stated the message broadcast by Polish Radio on the morning of 1 September 1939. “We set our public and private lives on a special track. We have entered war. The entire effort of the nation must go in one direction….


Józef Piłsudski's letter to Feliks Perl

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”),…


Jan Olszewski. Duty and independence

Jan Olszewski was born on 20 August 1930 to a railway family that has been strongly associated with the tradition of Polish independence ever since. One of his grandfather’s brothers was killed in the January Uprising of 1863-1864 against the Russian invader. Stefan Okrzeja, the brother of his grandmother, formed the Combat Organization of the…


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