Poland
The Roundup, First Book of the Trilogy in Historical Fiction
The Murano family saga is my primary theme. Pals Forever is published. So is The Resurrections. The third on The Eighteenth Camel is coming out any day. But the life of a cardiac surgeon and his family is not the only story I am interested in. I am expanding beyond
Country at the Crossroads in Europe
The end of the first millennium saw the developing of conditions for future wars in Europe. Christianity slowly kept expanding, and Poland, still a pagan country, didn’t want to accept the new order from the Holy Roman Empire, our powerful Western neighbor. Instead, we asked to be baptized directly by
The Polish Fight for Freedom
On this day, 83 years ago, a dark cloud descended on Poland. On September 1, 1939, the German hordes invaded our country from the West. Seventeen days later, the Russians completed the job, and marched from the East. Once again, Poland disappeared from the maps of Europe. But, as we
My Father and Growing up in a Communist Poland
My father was an honorable and a decent man. I still remember the first advice he gave me. “Don’t lie,” he said. “It’s so much easier to live your life when you don’t have to remember each version of the story you told different people.” He was honest to a
Tradycje. Epilog dla czytelników polskich
Dla moich polskich czytelników. Koncert w Piwnicy pod Baranami. A teraz sam autor, Jan Pietrzak. Tekst oryginalny. Jest takie miejsce u zbiegu dróg, Gdzie się spotyka z zachodem wschód… Nasz pępek świata, Nasz biedny raj… Jest takie miejsce, Taki kraj. Nad pastwiskami ciągnący dym, Wierzby jak mary, w welonach mgły…
Traditions
Teaching kids how to cook mother’s favorite dishes. Showing them the places your ancestors are from. Telling stories about how parents met and what they’ve done before you’ve arrived. Traditions. Most of the kids don’t think about what’d happened before they were born. And if they do––it happens late in
Why the Poles Fight, part 4
They were the largest group of the people participating in the Warsaw Uprising. And the only one not involved in the decision to rise. Before the war, Warsaw had a population of 1,300,000, and the city was the seventh largest of Europe. In March 1945, after the Germans evacuated, only
Why the Poles Fight, part 3
They were young, desperate, and had seen enough of German savagery. They wanted to be free and wanted to avenge the unspeakable brutality of the invaders. They knew they could die, but also knew there are worse things than death. But the youths of Warsaw weren’t the only players in
Why the Poles Fight, part 2.
The Museum of Warsaw Uprising is chilling evidence of the atrocity of dying Nazi experiment. Being beaten on both fronts, the Germans unloaded their rage on the essentially defenseless population of the Polish capital. Their destruction of Warsaw was symbolic and reminds me of the epic razing of Carthage by
Why the Poles Fight
“Why in the world did you fight the Germans in the Warsaw Uprising?” A good friend of mine shook his head. There was more than a question in his demeanor. I sensed a tone of disapproval. “Were you out of your mind?” He was Hungarian and left his native country
How We Care. My Mother.
“A mother is only as happy as her unhappiest child.” Nicole Helget, Stillwater When the Warsaw Uprising broke out, I was 6 months old. We lived in the center of the city, where the fighting was most brutal. One day, the group of insurgents brought us two infants whose mothers
How We Care. My Father.
When a father helps his son, they both laugh. When a son helps his father, they both cry. Yiddish proverb. One of the most consequential decisions of my life was to bring my parents from Poland to the United States. While they were getting older, I realized my parents’ future
The Best Polish Women Violinists
At the height of his career, Paganini was asked who was the best violin player of them all. “I don’t know who’s the best,” he answered with his natural modesty, “but the second-best is Karol Lipiński. There were many superb Polish violinists. Many of them were born when Poland was
How the Poles Fought for Their Country
80 years ago, our neighbors decided to change the course of Polish history. The Nazis invaded us from the West and the Soviets from the East. Once again, as it did through the centuries, our country had to defend its identity, culture, heritage and its territory. The brutality of the
Why the Poles are So Sensitive about World War II
The Poles lived through hell. WW ll started in our country. The hordes of invaders rolled over our land back and forth many times. Comparing them to the brutality of Genghis Khan’s wild tribes would insult Mongolian animals. The inhuman 20th-century ideology was added with sophisticated methods of killing and
Dark times, Coming Home
Those were the dreadful times. They were trying times. Polish people were put in the positions, where there were no viable solutions. Any bad choice, and you end up with a bullet in your head. Yet, people helped each other. Unspeakable danger quite often brings up the worst in people.
Dark times, Trip to Auschwitz
There were the worst of times for my family, my country and the world. Two terrible powers, on their insane way to dominate, crushed everything and everybody that was on the way to oppose their vision of the world. Poland, for millennia, was squeezed between bad and worse, between two
Growing up under the Communism in Poland
In 1953, March 6th happened on Friday. When I came to the class in the morning, I saw my third-grade teacher sitting at her desk, head buried in her hands, crying. We sensed a personal tragedy, and not knowing how to react, quietly took our seats. She then looked at
Why?
Czesława Kwoka was 14 years old. On the arrival, they tattooed number 26947 on her left forearm. Then they took her picture. Not before the guard beat her up with a club. The Germans had sent the girl and her mother to Auschwitz to be exterminated. Both came from the
Our Dreams after Fifty Years, A Reunion
I just came back from Warsaw. My old Alma Mater honored us with the repeat of our graduation ceremony, from fifty-years back. Fifty years! I could remember us at our first one. Imagine a bunch of twenty-something boys and girls, all anxious to put the recently acquired knowledge to use,
“Loss of Innocence,” new in my series of Polish War Stories
Let’s imagine. Imagine yourself as a sixteen-year-old girl coming from a small village on the outskirts of Warsaw to the big metropolis. You overflow with hope for a bright future. You are ambitious and determined to make the best out of your young, budding life. The change in living conditions
Witold Pilecki’s Story of the Ultimate Courage
The movie “The Enigma Secret”, which came out in 1979, presented the Polish version of the events, and never achieved the publicity, as its British counterpart “The Imitation Game”, which appeared in 2014. Not unlike the Polish soldiers’ contribution to the final results of WW2. Having sustained the most casualties
How the Poles Got Screwed Again by Our Allies
The supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting. Sun Tzu Imagine the invisible war. The countries fight for their lives without weapons, soldiers, casualties, and without the property damage. At least not in the conventional meaning. The borders are imaginary.The fighters sit behind giant supercomputers and never
Finding Family Roots in Poland
“A tree without roots is just a piece of wood.”― Marco Pierre White Wouldn’t you love to meet your great-grandparents? Or at least, as an invisible man hover above their farm and watch them for a day or so? I would. Their farm in still there. But the only thing left
Learning from the past and about finding out my roots
History gives us a sense of proportion: it’s an antidote to a lot of unfortunately human trends like self-importance and self-pity. David McCullough Historian and Pulitzer prize winner. But first, one has to know his history. Here is a typical story I hear so often. We meet and after the initial
Roundup, The Picture; Polish War Series part 1
In a deep corner of the old drawer, he found a browned shoebox with two rubber bands holding the top down. On its side, the box had a yellowed sticker with ‘BLACK AND WHITE’ written with a broad, dark pencil. The rubber bands seemed aged, partially cracked, but still holding
Nasza Droga do Sukcesu albo Siatkówka w Akademii Medycznej w Warszawie
W roku 1961 zacząłem studia medyczne w Warszawie. Siatkówką zainteresowałem się jeszcze w szkole średniej i dla zachowania równowagi psychofizycznej chciałem również grać na mojej uczelni. Szczęśliwie znalazłem tam zespół podobnych zapaleńców. Skromne początki Treningi odbywały się na odległym stadionie i w dodatku późnym wieczorem. Ponieważ zajęcia na uczelni
Volleyball in Warsaw Medical School in the 60s
It was 1961, and I’ve just started my medical school in Warsaw. Volleyball interested me since high school and since I wanted to have a physical balance to my book education, I’ve found a volleyball team at my university. Modest beginnings We had practices in a far away arena late
The Largest Military Effort by Resistance Forces During WWII
Seventy-two years ago, on September 1st, Warsaw exploded. Two, may be three generations past. How many people still remember it? How many of them, who saw it with their own eyes, are still alive? And when our city erupted, there were only few not afflicted by these events. The Biblical
Story behind the picture
There are no colleges in Poland. In our last year of high school, we had to decide where to continue our education. To help us make a conscious choice, our beloved Latin, French and an ancient history teacher, Mrs. Libera invited several of her graduated students to talk to us
Best Dish in the Polish Kitchen
After WWII, countries in Europe were deluged with art inspired by the monstrosities of the conflict. Despite a relatively small population, Poland was presented with one of the highest casualty lists, the highest as a percentage of the total population of the nations. No wonder that the resulting impression on
Story of the cross in my father’s church
Christianity has a long history in Poland. In the 900s, we had no country – just a bunch of Slavic tribes. The ruler of one of them, Mieszko, had big ambitions, which fortunately were backed by the political and military skills. Having unification on his mind, Mieszko I, with substantial
Trip to Europe and How to Finance Your Education
A couple of months ago, Bonnie and I came back from an exhausting trip to the continent where I spent the first thirty years of my life. Four countries, countless cities and many sleepless nights. But we wouldn’t put a price, monetary and otherwise, on all the memories we’ve got.
Joseph Conrad and Being a Bilingual Writer
The life and writings of Joseph Conrad fascinate me. He was born Józef Teodor Konrad Korzeniowski in the area of Poland annexed by Russia after the partitioning of my country at the end of the 18th century. His father was a highly educated person. Writer, translator and would-be-revolutionary member of
Courage and the Price of Integrity
It was 1942, three years after the German invasion of Poland. In the village of Rekowka, 90 miles south of Warsaw, German troops appeared in a house occupied by two families, Skoczylas and Kosiorow. Apparently acting on a tip, they were looking for Jews. Indeed, there were six Jewish people
The Greatest Massacre in the European History
During the process of learning how to write a novel, one is urged to study how to begin the story. The opening of the novel is said to have the ability not so much to break it, as is seen as a chance to raise it to the memorable level.
The Perennial Question for the People Who Emigrate
A few weeks ago, I traveled to Chicago to meet my friends from Poland. We are all physicians, all surgeons. We were trained by one of the most prominent Polish professors of surgery, a very well-educated, renaissance man, speaking five or six languages. Prof. Nielubowicz was in turn trained in
Polish Migration and How to Compensate for Our Shortcomings
The history of Poland is known for massive waves of migration of her citizens. The phenomenon is easily attributed to our geographical location on the East-West political and trading routes and us being squeezed between the two, and sometimes three, four and even five, big and megalomaniac powers. During the
To Be Free, You Have to Be Able to Defend Yourself.
In two weeks it will be 70 years. Two, may be three generations ago. How many people still remember it? How many of them, who saw it with their own eyes, are still alive? And there were only a few not afflicted by these events. The Biblical scene of
What’s new in Poland
Sovereignty is not given, it is taken. Kamal Ataturk Once again, Poland was stood up by her allies. Before WWll we had military agreements with the governments of Great Britain and France regarding common defense in case of military aggression on either country. We also had a nonaggression agreement with Russia.
Polish Had the First European Modern Constitution in 1791
Those who don’t know the history are destined to repeat it. Edmund Burke History doesn’t repeat itself, but does rhyme. Mark Twain Nescire autem quid antequam natus sis acciderit, id est semper esse puerum. To be ignorant of what occurred before you were born is to remain always a child.
The Fine Art of Improving History
The much despised political leaders of North Korea are in the news again. No.2 Jang Song Thaek was recently stripped of power by No.1 Kim Jong-un. Jang was Kim’s uncle and widely regarded as the younger leader’s mentor. The political move was dramatic and happened in a full view of
…And Why Their Parents Don’t
In my previous post, I described scenarios in which young people are leaving the countries of their birth. Now is the time to contrast the older generation. During my stay in the United States, I was carefully watching the life of my parents in Poland. We sent letters as often
Why Young People are Leaving the Country of Their Parents
Italy: The Nation That crushes Its Young. (NYT, Oct 30, 2013) Italy Breaks Your Heart. (NYT, Oct 26, 2013) These two recent articles published in the New York Times captured my attention. They both comment on the exodus of Italian young people, particularly males, and their travel to France, England
Three Heroes Who Overthrew the Communism in Europe
Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall! Ronald Reagan (1987) This is how most people in this country see the fall of communism in Europe and the person who made it happened. Let me tell you another side of this story. In 1945, after victory over Hitler’s Germany and with the
Polish mathematicians on the forefront of fight with Germany
The universe is made up from stories, not atoms. Muriel Rukeyser Europe in the 1930s saw general tensions growing as a result of WW I and German unhappiness with the Treaty of Versailles. The Germans were arming themselves and obviously getting ready to change the balance of power. Secrecy of
Abraham Lincoln and Tsar Alexander ; Twin Brothers of Different Mothers
All the forces in the world are not so powerful as an idea whose time has come Victor Hugo While reading “Anna Karenina” I came across a very interesting subject being discussed: the problem of serfdom. Konstantin Levin, 32 years old landowner, wants to increase productivity on his farmland. Sees
How to Love Your Country
I love Italy! I am fascinated by its roots, history, culture and customs. The landscape is unique and the people very friendly. I took Latin at school and recently learned Italian. Each time I travel there, the experience is unforgettable. Most people don’t know how strong ties between Poland
How to Help Children to Cherish Our Heritage
Recently, I am reading a lot about people getting interested in their roots. Usual avenues to trace them are through Ellis Island records, Mormon Church archives and popular websites such as ancestry.com, genealogy.archives.org and so on. It is becoming quite a popular pastime, and I see many retired persons
