Polish president wants Communism museum
Polish President Bronislaw Komorowski said it is finally time for Poland to have a museum devoted to the crimes of communism.
During a debate on history curricula in Polish schools Monday, Komorowski said Poland could no longer be the only central and eastern European country without such a museum. Communists controlled Poland from 1945 to 1989. Continue reading
Schools unite to lift WW2 children from watery grave
One March day in the last weeks of World War Two, more than 70 German children squeezed into a plane designed for 14 hoping to be flown to safety from the advancing Soviet tanks in north-eastern Nazi Germany.
Minutes after takeoff the plane dived into an icy lake, killing everyone on board. Nearly 70 years later, former war foes Germany and Poland are joining forces to try to raise the wreck from Resko Przymorskie in western Poland. Continue reading
Right and justice shine through the infernal prism of wartime Poland
One of my most treasured possessions is an old photograph. Taken in 1910, in Krakow, Poland, it shows five generations of my ancestors on my mother’s side, beginning with my great-great-grandfather, Joseph Pinkus Krengel, who was born in 1818.
Due to the unusual nature of the surname, Krengel, it isn’t hard to trace the history of my family. In fact, we know that they left Spain for Poland at the end of the 15th century, just when the interrogators of the Inquisition were polishing their twisted metal with Jewish blood. Continue reading
Educators revive history of Poland’s Jews
Every Polish town and village had its Holocaust. That’s what Zuzanna Radzik wants Polish children to learn.
Her task is not easy. Although Polish children are taught about the Holocaust, they don’t learn what happened in their own towns. Continue reading
Bellingham man helps create replica of ancient Polish synagogue
Bellingham timber framer Jackson DuBois couldn’t resist the opportunity to work six days a week in Poland hewing logs for a history project that warmed his heart as much as it warmed his muscles. Continue reading
‘Adopt-a-locomotive’ helps old Polish engines build up steam
Inch by grimy inch, a group of volunteers at a Polish railway museum is scraping away at decades of rust and soot to restore old locomotives to their former glory.
Their enthusiasm for steam doesn’t stop with the painstaking labour. Several of the volunteers are happy to pay 400 euros ($500) to “adopt” a century-old heavy hauler. Continue reading
Hitler Lair: Polish Officials Seek to Turn Nazi Leader’s Bunker Into Tourist Bonanza
Officials in Poland are hoping that a secret fortress once used by Nazi German leader Adolph Hitler to hold meetings and to shelter from aerial bombardments becomes a major attraction for tourists. Continue reading
Warsaw Museum Lego concentration camp
A Lego model of a concentration camp made by Polish artist Zbigniew Libera has been bought by the Warsaw Museum, the museum reported on its website on Monday. Continue reading
Shakespeare: Stratford. London. Gdańsk?
In a wind-blasted former car park outside GdaÅ„sk’s historic city centre, Professor Jerzy Limon is marking out a theatre. “The main stage,” Limon says, indicating the rubble-strewn ground, “will be here, and the box stage here.” We both squint at a perilous-looking ditch. “The audience sits there.” Continue reading
Chopin experts debate photo’s authenticity
Chopin experts are trying to determine whether a photo that has surfaced in Poland is really of the 19th century composer.
If authentic, it would be only the third known photograph of Chopin, who lived from 1810-1849. Continue reading
