Irene Tomaszewski is a writer, editor at CR, founding president of the Montreal-based Canadian Foundation for Polish Studies and program director of Poland in the Rockies. She is the author of "Inside a Gestapo Prison 1942-44: The Letters of Krystyna Wituska" and "Codename Żegota: The Most Dangerous Conspiracy in Occupied Europe," co-authored with Tecia Werbowski, published by Praeger in Spring 2010. In February of 2011 she received the Lech Wałęsa Media Award at the Polonaise Ball in Miami, Florida.
Jan Karski is a hero not just for our times but for all times, says Irene Tomaszewski as she recalls her first meeting with the modest hero. He represents the best in humanity and the collective will of a nation that would not submit.
Meeting a heroine from the “generation of ‘44” is a privilege. Fortunately, Aleksandra Ziółkowska-Boehm kept a record of her friendship with one of the Warsaw Uprising’s great women.
Poland’s magnificent, 10-million strong opposition movement to communism, Solidarity, was not only successful, but it was peaceful. No matter the provocation, Solidarity never resorted to violence. When it achieved victory, it remained true to its commitment to peace. There were no reprisals, no show trials, no riots; some hated monuments [...]
College graduates look back on their freshman year and know this: Wouldn’t it have been great to have a network right from the start? A spark. An idea, A conversation. Action. A new initiative in Canada’s Hamilton-Toronto area – and it’s spreading.
Award-winning author Eva Stachniak’s dazzles with a tale of intrigue, ambition, spying, treachery, flattery, conflict and fear in St. Peterburg’s Winter Palace.
Powerful, peaceful and quintessentially Polish: Solidarity. Canadian author Heather Kirk spotlights the many facets of a world-changing revolution that killed “precisely no one.”
The largest single collection of Polish art is not in Poland, but in India. A special exhibit brings it home, at least for a visit, attracting thousands of visitors to a visual feast.
The children of post-war Polish exiles, scattered across the world, are forming virtual communities. Together they are telling their history, refusing to leave it in the hands of those who don’t know… or don’t want to know.
Exquisitely graceful prose and a powerful story make Edward Herzbaum’s journals read like a novel, a timeless telling of the years 1939-1945.
It’s only been since my father’s generation has begun to pass away that I’ve come to recognize that their stories are the richest part of my inheritance…
– Andrew J. Borkowski
Krysia Jopek’s story of a gentle family uprooted by people who rearrange borders without hearing the gunshots or seeing the victims.
Recovery following a near fatal stroke unlocks memories buried for more than 50 years, which Marian Kołodziej renders into pen and ink drawings covering several rooms of his Labyrinth in the town of Harmęże, Poland. Ron Schmidt’s brilliant film allows you to enter that labyrinth, alone and in silence.
“It is a great honour to meet and talk to people whose courage, strength and endurance have shaped our Polish Heritage. We can only look up to that great generation who would sacrifice everything to be free. Working with these extraordinary men and women is a life-changing privilege and I encourage everyone to experience this as well, before time runs out…”
– Marcin Lewandowski
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.”
The greatest scientist of the last century is celebrated on the 100th anniversary of her second Nobel Prize.
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