11 November 1918 is considered the symbolic date on which Poland regained its independence. However, the process of laying down the legal foundations of the reborn state continued for a number of years. One of the main things was to draw up a constitution. As early as February 1919, the single-chamber Legislative Sejm (parliament) elected…
The Centre for Polish-Lithuanian Studies is a newly-established research centre at the University of Aberdeen. Inspired by the legacy of Jerzy Giedroyć, to whose memory the Centre is dedicated, it aims to restore consideration of Poland-Lithuania and its legacy to the mainstream of European history and culture. Its research and teaching agenda will encompass not…
Win a copy of The Volunteer by Jack Fairweather, which was recently named Costa Book of the Year. Fairweather’s biography of Witold Pilecki presents the life of this soldier from the Polish anti-Nazi underground who voluntarily entered KL Auschwitz with a mission to uncover its horrors and reveal them to the world. On this occasion,…
The 20th century brought the world inconceivable suffering and the death of hundreds of millions of people killed in the name of sick, totalitarian ideologies. The death toll of Nazism, fascism and communism is obvious for people of our generation. It is also obvious who is responsible for those crimes – and whose pact started…
Historian Alfredas Bumblauskas, poet and translator Kornelijus Platelis and the company Kauno tiltai are this year’s recipients of awards bestowed by the Poland-Lithuania Cooperation and Dialogue Forum. ‘It is important for us to strengthen Polish-Lithuanian relations,’ said Robert Kostro, director of the Polish History Museum, during the award ceremony. In his letter read out by…
Exactly 75 years after the 1st Polish Armour Division took control of the Dutch city of Breda driving the Germans out, the Polish History Museum has made films about its commander General Stanisław Maczek (known as a ‘hero of five nations’) and Marian Walentynowicz, one of the soldiers fighting under his command. The event titled…
