Beyond the Ulmas: The Need for a Social History of Genocide in Occupied Poland

Commemorations hold a special place in national memory; historians have an obligation to protect the emerging social history from being eclipsed. Tom Frydel explains.

Karski and the Lords of Humanity

“Tell your people that they have a friend in the White House.” But the genocide continued, and in the end the friend gave Karski’s country to Stalin.

Trail of Hope: The Anders Army, an Odyssey Across Three Continents

This is a war story that unites the fate of soldiers and civilians. Thank you, Norman Davies, for gathering the memoirs, the photographs, and the historian’s details, and telling the story with such élan. Now where’s the young historian who will break new ground and write a scholarly work on this neglected subject?

Poland As An Ally: WWII Photo Essay

From Norway to Africa, from Russia to the Atlantic, in the air and on the sea, the Polish forces were there for their allies. Justine Jablonska pays tribute to the bravest and most loyal men and women of WWII.

The Ethnic and Religious Diversity of the Polish Lithuanian Commonwealth: Still Relevant Today?

Ethnic and religious diversity are now hot topics, something never tried before. Really? The Commonwealth warrants new attention. Thaddeus Gromada provides an introduction.

On the Eve of Freedom

In a 1988 newscast, Stephanie Kraft heard the hejnał played from the tower of the Mariacki Church and learned that Poles had been doing so all through the communist era. Intrigued by these determined and stubborn people, she chose Poland as her destination for a journalist junket. She has returned every year since.

Marek Hłasko: Killing The Second Dog

All the elements of seasonal hedonism are here – Sea, Sun and Sex – but so are cruelty, indifference and memory, all playing havoc with people’s dreams and hearts. It’s love and death in Tel Aviv.

Jill Godmilow: “Wow, We Did That?!”

“Wow, we did that?!” Yes, dear children, listen to Jill Godmilow and learn what your brave and smart elders once did, nothing less than “the greatest revolution in the world.”

Mieczysław Weinberg’s Opera The Passenger: On Memory and Forgetting

Mieczysław Weinberg’s opera, The Passenger, is not only a complicated work of art, but a complicated work of historical trauma. Magda Romanska reviews the work with a brilliant survey that covers the opera, the history, the novel by Zofia Posmysz, the film by Andrzej Munk, and the responses to the production.

Isfahan, the City of Polish Children

They received gifts of dates, nuts, roasted peas with raisins, and juicy pomegranates; visited museums, mosques and bazaars; and were always greeted with kindness. All this in what has often been called the most beautiful city in the world.

Hollywood Place Conversations: All About Ida

It’s a black-and-white film about a Polish Catholic nun that America didn’t ridicule but fell in love with. Agnieszka Niezgoda asks three members of the Academy, “Why?”

When Rhinos Roamed the Polish Prairie: The Exotic Homeland of Poles in Africa

The world’s largest crocodiles cooled off in nearby water, and hippos and baboons helped themselves to lunch. But it was entertaining. And Irene Tomaszewski was there.

NEON

The Neon signs of the communist era were works of art, even though the product was never in stock. Eric Bednarski celebrates the art and the artists.

Hollywood.PL: Beyond the Dream: Personal Roads to the Silver Screen

Talented, gutsy and successful – and each one with a story that rates a movie of its own. This is a book you won’t be able to put down.

Krystyna Wituska: Her Life and Literary Afterlife

The memorial Centre in the German city of Halle Saale will unveil a monument to Krystyna Wituska, a young Polish prisoner executed on June 26, 1944, and two German authors will launch their book, Zelle Nr. 18: Eine Geschichte von Mut und Freundschaft (Cell No. 18: a History of bravery and friendship) to mark the 70th anniversary of her death.

Camouflage

“Masterpieces of Polish Cinema,” organized and restored by Martin Scorsese’s Film Foundation and curated by the great filmmaker himself, is the largest collection of classical Polish cinema to date.

Don Fredericksen reviews Krzysztof Zanussi’s brilliant film, Camouflage.

Warsaw 1944: Hitler, Himmler, and the Warsaw Uprising

With access to hitherto unused archives, historian Alexandra Richie brings little-known facts and a sobering description of the barbaric destruction of the people and the city of Warsaw.

Polish California: From Pioneers to Silicon Valley

Meet the “Polanders” of California who celebrated their 150th anniversary.

From a Polish Country House Kitchen

Attention all foodies: Polish food is fresh, lively and delicious. Reviewer Pierre Gratton dismisses stale opinions. A French conspiracy, he suspects, ably put down by Anne Applebaum and Danielle Crittenden.

Cabaret Liberation

Getting the vote is all well and good. But what if women want more than that? Beth Holmgren looks at Poland’s interwar cabaret culture.

“The Driest of Facts:” Witold Pilecki’s Mission in Auschwitz

Michał Kasprzak’s brilliant review cuts to the essence of The Auschwitz Volunteer.

Quo Vadis, Wisława?

Where is Szymborska going?

Benjamin Paloff suggests that she is, in fact, staying; she has a lasting place in our literature, her poems have that special quality that enables them to unfold into variations of themselves.

How I Survived Socialism: A Self-Help Guide for Worried Americans

The regime was harsh, the system absurd but rules made up in Moscow were no match for the individualistic Poles. Magda Romanska’s delightful piece shows us how it was done. Elegantly, of course.

Freedom Climbers

Patrice Dabrowski reviews Bernadette McDonald’s gripping and heart-wrenching chronicle of the greatest Himalayan climbers of the 20th century. Winner of the American Alpine Association’s Literary Award, the Grand Prize at the Banff Mountain Book Festival, and Britain’s Boardman Tasker Prize.

Starring Madame Modjeska: On Tour in Poland and America

Helena Modjeska, a great 19th century Polish actress who came to the US at age 30, learned enough English in six months to play Ophelia, except for the mad scene which was too difficult. So she played that in Polish and wowed them. Aren’t all madwomen incoherent anyway? Margaret Araneo reviews Beth Holmgren’s great book about the very talented, and very independent, Madame Modjeska.

Why Speak Polish?

It’s easy to say which nation has the fastest trains (France) or the largest number of prime ministers who’ve probably been eaten by sharks (Australia), but it’s impossible to know which country has the best writers, let alone the best poets. Even so, if cash money were on the line, you’d find few critics willing to bet against Poland.
– David Orr,
The New York Times,
July 29, 2007

Isabelle Sokolnicka concurs, and thinks the language may have something to do with it.

Scotland and Poland: Historical Encounters, 1500-2010

A 16th century mayor of Warsaw was a Scottish immigrant. In the 1940s, and again this century, Scotland has welcomed Poles. Time to renew this “auld acquaintance… for auld lang syne.”

Kresy: First the Forest

For centuries, the biodiversity of the great forest of Poland’s eastern borderlands was the natural habitat for a diversity of cultures.

The Zookeeper’s Wife

Book reviews are usually assigned to reviewers who know something about the subject at hand. Film reviews? Not so much. So CR takes a look at The Zookeeper’s Wife… and also some of the reviews.

The Dark Heart of Hitler’s Europe: Nazi Rule in Poland Under the General Government

Germany’s genocidal colonialism in occupied Poland was the “Heart of Darkness” in its relentless exploitation and brutality. The Dark Heart of Hitler’s Europe provides essential context to understanding the individual atrocities of that period.

The Chosen Maiden

Eva Stachniak’s book offers a rare glimpse into the turbulent life and times of Bronia Nijinska and the waning days of the Russian empire. Nijinska’s talent was overshadowed by her brother but as he said, “Art is all that matters… Everything else is distraction.”

The Polish Response to the Holocaust: A Discussion

CR takes this opportunity to publish a letter written by Eli Rubenstein, the Canadian Director of the March of the Living and an award-winning educator, to the JTA (Jewish Telegraph Agency) concerning its Dec. 11th article about Polish rescue efforts of Jews during WWII, followed by our own comments.

OJCU – To My Father

In 1938, a little girl, Alina Bandrowska, saw her father arrested by the NKVD, the Soviet secret police. He never returned.

Hela: A Novel of Science, Faith, Love and Poland

Hela can be exasperating. Her views on gender relations outdated and her national prejudices problematic, she says inappropriate things at the dinner table. But she is the aging relative you love anyway, for her frankness and spirit.

England Dotty

The unflappable, ever courteous Jonathan Lipman was living a life filled with friendship and laughter. Suddenly his daughter asked her mother not to speak Polish in public. You never know where a populist’s hatred will strike next.

Polska Dotty 2

Back in 1999, Lipman sailed his little ship in the (mostly) smooth Polish sea. Back in London, they happily welcomed the EU-Polish immigrants. But the once smooth English Sea is getting increasingly turbulent. Not that the Polish sea has remained calm.

Welcome to Spring 2016!

Welcome to Springtime in Africa. Yes, there are seasons there, not so pronounced perhaps, but the blossoms on their jacaranda trees are as welcome as are crocuses in northern climates. Commentary, books, films, and a new podcast.

Lilac Girls

Martha Hall Kelly’s novel is based on the true story of Caroline Ferriday, a New York socialite who brings Polish Ravensbruck survivors to America for treatment. And locates the criminal Dr. Herta Oberheuser.

Bridging Urban America

A documentary about an engineer? Take a look at Ralph Modjeski’s bridges. They are breathtakingly beautiful and they were built to last. Basia and Leonard Myszynski’s film is a must.

Introducing… POLcast

Tune in to the lively new podcast for a weekly series of great stories and interviews on topics ranging from serious to funny, quirky to obscure with Toronto’s Małgorzata Bonikowska and Tomek Kniat.

War and Peace in Vilnius

In Lithuania to study the once culturally diverse now vanished communities of the region, Lynn Lubamersky found a BBC TV crew there too, filming “War and Peace.” That’s enough to set a historian thinking about imperial Russia then, imperial Putin now, the communities that don’t want to vanish… and the BBC’s Downton Abbey-style production.