The Kos’ciuszko Chair of Polish Studies

Miller Center of Public Affairs

University of Virginia

Charlottesville, Virginia

Bulletin Number TwoFall 2002

The symbol of the KoÊciuszko Squadron was designed by Lt. Elliot Chess, one ofa group of Americans who helped the fledgling Polish air force defend its skies fromBolshevik invaders in 1919 and 1920. Inspired by the example of TadeuszKoÊciuszko, who had fought for American independence, the Americanvolunteers named their unit after the Polish and American hero. The logo showsthirteen stars and stripes for the original Thirteen Colonies, over which isKoÊciuszko’s four-cornered cap and two crossed scythes, symbolizing the peasant

volunteers who, led by KoÊciuszko, fought for Polish freedom in 1794. After thePolish-Bolshevik war ended with Poland’s victory, the symbol was adopted by the

Polish 111th KoÊciuszko Squadron. In September 1939, this squadron was amongthe first to defend Warsaw against Nazi bombers. Following the Polish defeat, the

squadron was reformed in Britain in 1940 as Royal Air Force’s 303rd KoÊciuszko. ThisPolish unit became the highest scoring RAF squadron in the Battle of Britain, often defending

London itself from Nazi raiders. The 303rd bore this logo throughout the war, becoming one of the most famous andsuccessful squadrons in the Second World War.

The title of our bulletin, Nihil Novi, invokes Poland’s ancient constitution of 1505. It declared that therewould be “nothing new about us without our consent.” In essence, it drew on the popular sentiment thatits American version expressed as “no taxation without representation.” The Nihil Novi constitution guar-anteed that “nothing new” would be enacted in the country without the consent of the Parliament (Sejm).Thus, the Parliament became the supreme institution of the nation. The Polish King was elected for life aschief executive. At the time, up to 15% of the inhabitants of Poland were entitled to vote, a level of fran-chise surpassed only by the United States and England in the early nineteenth century.

On the Cover:

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Nihil NoviEditor-in-chief: Professor Wojciech RoszkowskiManaging editor: Dr. M. J. Chodakiewicz — email: mc4nb@virginia.eduGuest editor: Dr. John Radzi∏owski (University of Minnesota)Contributing editor: Dr. Dariusz To∏czykPhotography by: Tom Cogill, Iga Henderson, T. Ron Herbert-Jasiƒski, Wojciech Jerzy Muszyƒski, and others.Special thanks to: Prof. Juliusz Kulski, Prof. Kenneth Thompson, Margaret Edwards, Rachel Kelly, Wistar Morris,

Richard Tyndorf, Mrs. Molly Ulam, and Robert Johnston.Layout of Nihil Novi by: Pixels Prepress, Charlottesville, VA.

The Kos’ciuszko Chair of Polish StudiesMiller Center of Public Affairs

2201 Old Ivy RoadP.O. Box 40046

Charlottesville, VA 22904(434) 982-2752

fax: (434) 982-2739http://www.viginia.edu/~miller

http://www.millercenter.virginia.edu

The Kos’ciuszko Chair of Polish StudiesMiller Center of Public Affairs

University of VirginiaCharlottesville, Virginia

The KoÊciuszko Chair Message 2General Pu∏aski Memorial Day Proclamation 3The 2001-2002 KC Report 4Our Esteemed Guests 6Students 8The KC Plans 9Selected Publications of the KC 10Notes & Quotes 11Professor Piotr Wandycz

Pre-War and Modern Poland: A Comparison 13Dr. W∏adys∏aw Kozaczuk

Origins of the Enigma/Ultra Operation 14Professor Ewa M. Thompson

Ways of Remembering: The Case of Poland 16John Radzi∏owski

150 Years of Polonia: November 29, Polonia’s Lost Holiday 17Professor Bogumi∏ Grott

The Volhynian Massacres, 1939–1945 18John Radzi∏owski

An Overview of the History of Poles in Modern Lithuania 19Rachel J. K. Grace

Awake and Fight: The Jewish Military Union and the Warsaw Ghetto 21Marek Jan Chodakiewicz

A Sybirak in America 23Professor Wieƒczys∏aw Wagner

The Warsaw Uprising of 1944: Preparation, Fight, and Destruction 25Warsaw Destroyed 26-27Youthful Insurgents: August 1 - October 2, 1944 28Julian Kulski

War and Remembrance: Personal Remarks 29Sebastian Bojemski

Jewish Insurgents in the Warsaw Uprising of 1944 30Marek Jan Chodakiewicz

The National Armed Forces: A Glimpse at the Grass-Roots 31John Radzi∏owski

Poland and the U.S.: Is a Special Relationship Possible? 39Biographical Dictionary of East and Central Europe: A Sample 40

Alter, Wiktor 40Kominek, Boles∏aw 40Nagy, Ferenc 41Zog I (Ahmed beg Zogu) 42

KC People and Events 44Pro Memoriam 47UVa Associates of the KC 51Urgent Action 52Poland is not yet lost 53

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Nihil Novi

Dear Friends and Colleagues,

It has been four years since theKoÊciuszko Chair in Polish Studies was estab-lished at the Miller Center of Public Affairs,University of Virginia. A brainchild of LadyBlanka Rosenstiel, Ronald Trzciƒski, and manyother friends, the KoÊciuszko Chair became real-ity because of the dedication of ProfessorKenneth Thompson, director emeritus of theMiller Center, and later Professor PhilipZelikow, current director. Symbolically, NobelPeace Prize winner Lech Wa∏´sa attended theKC inaugural ceremony of October 16, 1998, inCharlottesville.

In September 2000, Professor WojciechRoszkowski became the first Chairholder, aposition he held until August 2002. In May 2001he was joined by Dr. Marek Jan Chodakiewicz,who has held assistant professorship with theKC since. From 2000, we have taught severalclasses and seminars as well as given over adozen lectures and presentations at UVA andelsewhere. We have brought several renownedscholars and public personae to deliver speechesat UVA. We have researched for several projectsand submitted numerous papers and a fewscholarly works for publication. Meanwhile, inDecember 2001 we published the first issue ofNihil Novi: Bulletin of The KoÊciuszko Chair inPolish Studies. Please enjoy NN number two aswe spin the tale of another KC Year.

The KoÊciuszko Chair Message

Thaddeus KoÊciuszko

Ronald Trzciƒski and Lech Wa∏´sa, formerPresident of the Republic of Poland andNobel Peace Prize winner.

Professor Kenneth Thompson andLady Blanka Rosenstiel

Dr. Phillip Zelikow, Director of the Miller Center.

A Proclamation

“I came here, where freedom is beingdefended, to serve it, and to live and die for it.”

General Casimir Pu∏aski in a letter toGeneral George Washington

Every year, on October 11, we honor thememory of Brigadier General Casimir Pu∏aski, acourageous soldier of liberty who bravely gavehis life 222 years ago fighting for America’s inde-pendence. The stories of General Pu∏aski’s hero-ism during the Revolutionary War have been asource of inspiration for many generations ofAmericans, and his gallant sacrifice serves as apoignant reminder of the price patriots paid toobtain our liberty.

Pu∏aski, who was born in Poland in 1745,joined his first fight against tyranny and oppres-sion at age 21, defending his beloved Polandagainst Austrian, Prussian, and Imperial Russianinvaders. In numerous battles, Pu∏aski achievedfame as a calvary officer, earning promotion tocommander of an army of Polish freedom fight-ers. But the aggressors ultimately overcame thePoles, and Pu∏aski was forced into exile. In 1777,Pu∏aski offered his services to America’s fight forfreedom and set sail from France to join the warfor independence.

Far from his native land, Pu∏aski showed thesame courageous combativeness on Americansoil that had gained him fame at home.Distinguishing himself in battle after battle,Pu∏aski earned a commission from theContinental Congress as a Brigadier General,and he was assigned by General Washington tocommand the Continental Army’s calvary. In1779, during the siege of Savannah, GeneralPu∏aski made the ultimate sacrifice, giving hislife in battle so that our Nation might win itsfreedom. General Pu∏aski’s valiant leadershipearned him recognition as the “Father of theAmerican cavalry.”

Ever since his heroic death, America hashonored General Pu∏aski’s memory in manyways, including the naming of counties, towns,and streets after him. Since 1910, a statue ofGeneral Pu∏aski has stood in Washington, D.C.,permanently memorializing his patriotic contri-butions and noble sacrifice. Today, as werespond to the atrocities committed against theUnited States on September 11, we have beendeeply moved by the tremendous outpouring ofsympathy, support, and solidarity from ourPolish friends, from the highest levels of the gov-ernment to the thousands of Poles who placedflowers and candles at our Embassy gate. Ourtwo nations, united by the virtues and ideals thatGeneral Pu∏aski embodied, will always remainfriends and allies.

NOW, THEREFORE, I, GEORGE W. BUSH,President of the United States of America, byvirtue of the authority vested in me by theConstitution and laws of the United States, dohereby proclaim Thursday, October 11, 2001, asGeneral Pu∏aski Memorial Day. I encourage allAmericans to commemorate this occasion withappropriate programs and activities paying trib-ute to Casimir Pu∏aski and honoring all thosewho defend the freedom of our great Nation.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereuntoset my hand this tenth day of October, in the yearof our Lord two thousand one, and of theIndependence of the United States of Americathe two hundred and twenty-sixth.

GEORGE W. BUSH

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Fall 2002

President George W. Bush

General Pu∏aski Memorial Day Proclamationby the President of the United States of America

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Nihil Novi

The 2001-2002 KC Report

At home and away

During the Fall 2001 and Spring 2002 semesters,Professor Roszkowski mostly kept the fort, concentrat-ing on the KC activities at home. In Spring 2002, hetaught a class on “Poland in the 20th Century” (HIEU308) and delivered a guest lecture in Professor DickHoward’s class on constitutionalism. He also spokeabout “The Long-Term Political Consequences of theTreaty of Riga for Eastern Europe” at the AmericanAssociation for Advancement of Slavic StudiesConference in Washington D.C., on November 15,2001, about “Roots of the Political Transformation: the1980s in Poland” at UVa, on March 23, 2002, and about“Polish Paradoxes: On Recent Elections, Memory, andInternational Context of a Post-Communist Country”at Virginia Technical University, Blacksburg, on April17, 2002. Mostly, however, the Chairholder focused onhis monumental Biographical Dictionary of East andCentral Europe in the Twentieth Century, a gargantuanresearch project.

Meanwhile, Dr. Chodakiewicz was active athome and roamed far and wide. He wrote a number ofbiographical entries for the dictionary and worked onhis monographs, scholarly papers, and articles as wellas taught students and researched for several projects.He also delivered a number of lectures. Specifically, inFebruary 2002, Dr. Chodakiewicz spoke about “TheJewish Massacre in Jedwabne: Forensic Evidence,” atthe Fernbach International Affairs presentation(UVA). Later that month, he guest lectured atProfessor Roger Kanet’s University of Miami class onEast Central Europe. The title of his presentation was“From Stalinism to Pluralism: The Case of Poland.” InMarch, Dr. Chodakiewicz was privileged to deliverthe first Dekaban Lecture at St. Mary’s College of AveMaria University, Orchard Lake, MI. The topic was“Accommodation, Collaboration, and Resistance inPoland, 1939-1947.” In April, he spoke about “ATheory of Choices and the Methodology of a CaseStudy: A Polish County, 1939-1947,” at the Center forthe Study of Culture, Rice University, Houston, TX.All the while, throughout the Spring 2002 semester,Dr. Chodakiewicz taught a UVA seminar on theSecond World War, “Hitler’s War, Stalin’s Victory”(HIEU 401D).

Our summer was equally busy. In June 2002,Professor Roszkowski taught a class on “Poland in the20th Century” at the Summer School, Polish Instituteof Christian Culture, Rome, Italy. Later, he went toPoland to continue researching and writing hisBiographical Dictionary.

In late May and June, Dr. Chodakiewicz traveled toPoland, where, at the University of Warsaw, he and Dr.Barbara Fedyszak-Radziejowska (Polish Academy ofSciences – PAN) debated publicly Poland’s accession tothe European Union. The topic of his speech was“Poland: America’s Israel in Europe?” The debate wassponsored by the Independent Students Union and thePolitical Club “Nowe Paƒstwo.” Later, at the K!

Respublica student fraternity headquarters, he lecturedon “Jewish-Polish Historiogaphy after Jedwabne.” Dr.Marek Wierzbicki (Institute of Political Studies, PAN)and Dr. Bogdan Musia∏ (The German HistoricalInstitute in Warsaw) commented on the speech. Next, inGdaƒsk, Dr. Chodakiewicz participated in the makingof a TV documentary on a far-right underground organ-ization, the National Armed Forces, which foughtagainst the Nazis and Communists during the SecondWorld War.

Also in June, back in the US, Dr. Chodakiewiczattended the 65th Annual PIASA Conference atGeorgetown University, Washington, DC. He pre-sented two papers there: “Doom and Survival: ThePlight of the Jewish Community in the KraÊnik Area,1939-1947” and “Ordinary Terror: Jedwabne in theAftermath of the Massacre, August 1941-January1949.” The former paper was read for the panel“Polish Jewish History on the Local Level.” It wasorganized by Professor Thaddeus Radzi∏owski,President of St. Mary’s College of Ave MariaUniversity. In addition to Dr. Chodakiewicz,Professor John J. Hartman, Department ofPsychology, University of Michigan, talked about hisresearch on “The Jews of PrzemyÊl in 1939-40.” Dr.John Radzi∏owski of the University of Minnesotacommented on both presentations.

Dr. Chodakiewicz’s other paper was delivered atthe panel “Jedwabne: A Scientific Analysis.” The par-ticipants in the panel included Mrs. Zofia Korboƒska,who fought in the WW2 underground; Iwo C.Pogonowski, who spent over 5 years in Nazi prisonsand concentration camps and is a prominent Polonianpundit; Professor Jan Moor Jankowski, who partici-pated in the underground and later became world-famous scientist at the New York University School ofMedicine; and Charles Chotkowski, Director ofResearch, Holocaust Documentation Committee,Polish American Congress, and member of the execu-tive board of National Polish American - JewishAmerican Council. The panel was chaired byThaddeus Mirecki, President, WashingtonMetropolitan Area Division, PAC. (The texts of thepresentations are available at http://www.pacwashmetrodiv.org/new/jedwabne/index.htm).

During the Fall semester, Dr. Chodakiewiczsupplied teaching materials for and guest lecturedin Professor Marc Selverstone’s “The Second WorldWar” class (HIEU 352). The topics of the guest lec-tures were “The World of Extremes – Europe: TheRise of Fascism and Militarism” and “Stalingradand Kursk.”

Research and writing

As mentioned, Professor Roszkowski has beenhard at work on his Biographical Dictionary of East andCentral Europe in the Twentieth Century. About 1,600biographical entries are ready, including over 400written by Professor Roszkowski himself. Over 300 of

the entries have been translated into the English.Professor Roszkowski also contributed twelve essaysto Azymut, a supplement to the popular Catholicweekly Niedziela. In addition, he granted three inter-views (Znak, August 2001, and ˚ycie, 22 September2001 and 9 July 2002), concerning the American aca-demia in general and the KoÊciuszko Chair at UVA inparticular. Last but not least, Professor Roszkowskiwrote “After Neighbors: Seeking Universal Standards”for The Slavic Review (Fall 2002), which is an importantcorrective to a rather one-sided American debate onthe massacre of the Jewish population of Jedwabne inJuly 1941.

During the school year and, especially, during thesummer, aside from delving into several documentcollections in Poland, Dr. Chodakiewicz traveled tothe US Holocaust Memorial Museum Archives (USH-MMA) in Washington, DC, the Archives of the PolishMuseum of America in Chicago (APMA), IL, and theHoover Institution Archives (HIA), Stanford, CA.Special thanks to Dr. Maciej Siekierski, ZbigniewStaƒczyk, Dr. Anatol Shevelov (HIA), Jan LoryÊ(APMA), Dr. Michael Gelb, and Aleksandra Borecka(USHMMA) for all their kind advice, help, and atten-tion to our needs and projects. In particular we aregrateful for the materials we found for three new doc-umentary collections we are preparing: “Poland for thePoles!”: An Anthology of the Underground NationalistPress during the Nazi and Soviet Occupations, 1939-1949;An Execution or a Pogrom? The Massacre in Piƒsk, April3-4, 1919; and The Ejszyszki Affair: An Epilogue to Polish-Jewish Relations in the Eastern Borderlands, 1944.

In addition, Dr. Chodakiewicz continued with hisindividual writing projects. These included BetweenNazis and Soviets: A Case Study of Occupation Policies inPoland, 1939-1947, which has been approved for publi-cation and has to be submitted to Lexington Books byJanuary 1, 2003; and The Massacre in Jedwabne, July 10,1941: Before, During, and After, which is essentiallycompleted and awaits its approval by a publisher andsubsequent editorial changes as suggested by readers.

The same concerns one other work: Catholic and

Right: Essays on Spanish and Polish Traditionalism in the19th and 20th Centuries, which is co-edited by Dr.Chodakiewicz and Dr. Radzi∏owski and contains con-tributions by Professor Alexandra Wilhelmsen(University of Dallas), Professor Carolyn Boyd(University of California, Irvine), Dr. Boyd Cathey(Division of Archives and History, Department ofCultural Resources, State of North Carolina), Dr.Patric Foley, Dr. Radzi∏owski, and Dr. Chodakiewicz.The foreword will be supplied by Professor EugeneGenovese (former President, The Historical Society,Boston University).

By the end of the year, KC in cooperation withLeopolis Press will put out Polish Transformation: AWork in Progress. This is a collection of papers deliv-ered at a conference at the Miller Center on May 3,2001. It contains contributions on Poland after 1989 byProfessor Roszkowski, Professor Dick Howard(UVA), Dr. Zbigniew Stawrowski (PAN), ProfessorEdmund Wnuk-Lipiƒski (PAN), Professor KrzysztofJasiewicz (Washington and Lee University), DanCurrell, Dr. John Radzi∏owski, Dr. Dariusz To∏czyk(UVA), and Dr. Chodakiewicz (the last three scholarsco-edited the collection). We already have our ISBN:0-9679960-2-3.

Finally, between January and November 2002, Dr.Chodakiewicz submitted over 20 scholarly essays andpopular articles to Polish-language periodicals andnewspapers, including Fronda, Arcana, Glaukopis, Wi´ê,Radzyƒski Rocznik Humanistyczny, Rzeczpospolita,Najwy˝szy Czas!, and Gazeta Polska.

We’d like to thank all the Friends of theKoÊciuszko Chair (FKC) whose generous contribu-tions made our travel, research, and writing possible.We couldn’t have done it without you. Your supportis appreciated so much more because the University ofVirginia has been experiencing serious budgetary dif-ficulties. All state-funded travel, research, and writingactivities are suspended. However, we at theKoÊciuszko Chair have been moving right alongthanks to your generosity.

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Fall 2002

Mrs. Zofia Korboƒski and Iwo C. Pogonowski The PIASA Panel, June 7, 2002

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Nihil Novi

The generosity of the FKC allowed us also toco-sponsor The Polish Speakers Series with theMiller Center (Professor Kenneth Thompson)and the Center of Russian and East EuropeanStudies (Professor Allen Lynch) at UVA. Wehosted several eminent scholars.

Four events took place on the centralgrounds of UVA. On November 13, 2001,

Professor Piotr Wandycz (Yale University, emer-itus) delivered a lecture on “Poland Today andBefore the War: Contrasts and Similarities.” OnMarch 5, 2002, Professor Ewa Thompson spokeabout “Ways of Remembering: The Case ofPoland.” On April 12, 2002, Professor ClareCavanagh (Northwestern University) explored“The Limits of Lyric: Western Theory and

Postwar Polish Practice.” And on April 26, 2002,Professor Jan Kubik described for us the“Legacies of Socialism in Post-Socialist Poland.”

Four other events took place as Miller Centerforums. On May 6, 2002, Dr. John Radzi∏owskiconsidered “The Dead Hand of the Past: Polish-

Russian Relations at the Turn of the 21stCentury.” On May 9, the Polish and SlovakAmbassadors to the US, Przemys∏awGrudziƒski and Martin Butora, explained to usthe intricacies of “Central Europe andTransatlantic Relations after September 11.” OnJune 2, Professor Micha∏ Buchowski focused on “Shifting Identities and Fixing Borders: A Creation of the Other in Europe Today.”

On September 13, Professor Wieƒczys∏aw JosephMario Wagner von Igelgrund zum Zornsteinand Professor Julian Kulski shared with us theirrecollections about fighting the Nazis during theWarsaw Uprising of 1944. Next, in Professor

Our Esteemed Guests

Professor Piotr Wandycz

Dr. Zbigniew Stawrowski

Miller Center May 9th 2002 Forum

Professor W. J. Wagner

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Fall 2002

Thompson’s class, the guests debated globalismand international conflict resolution.

We also held two separate events at MillerCenter West. On May 3, 2002, Dr. KrzysztofKoehler of the Jagiellonian University in Cracowand a visiting lecturer at the University of Illinoisin Chicago talked about “Carrying the Burdenof Freedom: Some Thoughts on Polish LiteratureAfter Ten Years of Political Freedom.” OnSeptember 6, we gathered in the Ulam Room toreminisce about the brilliant mathematicianStanis∏aw Ulam and his brother Adam, who was

an eminent Sovietologist at Harvard University.We also talked about the co-operation betweenLeopolis Press (which was founded by theUlams) and the KoÊciuszko Chair. Our guestsincluded Dr. Nina G∏adziuk (PAN and a visitingfellow at the International Jefferson Center atMonticello), Robert Johnston, John Tytus, Joseph

Liberman, and others. The event was chaired byMrs. Molly Ulam, Adam’s widow.

Between April and July we co-hosted Dr.Zbigniew Stawrowski (PAN), who was a visitingfellow at the Jefferson International Center inMonticello. Dr. Stawrowski’s interest is constitu-tional issues of America’s Founding Fathers,Thomas Jefferson in particular. From August toNovember, Dr. Nina G∏adziuk (PAN) researchedat Monticello. Her focus is the continuitiesbetween the English political and intellectual

debates in the 17th century and those of Americain the 18th century.

Last but not least, the KoÊciuszko Chairsponsored an exhibition of paintings by Anna M.Roszkowska. “Seen from a Distance:Metaphysical Landscapes” opened in theNewcomb Hall Gallery, UVA, on January 26,and closed on March 25, 2002. The opening nightreception was graced by the music of FrédéricChopin and Henryk Wieniawski performed bythe Karkowski Sisters Duo. Anna (violin) gradu-ated from Julliard, while Katarzyna (piano) fromthe Warsaw Conservatory. The artists can becontacted through their web site:www.karkowskaduo.org.

We would like to thank cordially ouresteemed friends for having contributed intel-lectual stimulation, artistic panache, andvibrant dynamism to the activities of theKoÊciuszko Chair.

Professor Julian Kulski

Mrs. Molly Ulam and Dr. Chodakiewicz

Anna Karkowska, Frofessor Wojciech Roszkowski,Mrs. Anna M. Roszkowska and Katarzyna Karkowska

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Nihil Novi

Students

Last but not least, there are the KC stu-dents. Prof. Roszkowski’s lecture courseattracted 40 students, while 14 (2 over theusual limit) enrolled in Dr. Chodakiewicz’sseminar. Two seminar participants volun-teered as research and office assistants: MikeLynch and Chris Goodrich. A volunteer withthe Knights of Columbus, Mike graduates inDecember 2002 and will probably pursue alegal career. Chris was awarded his BA inMay 2002, but, upon receiving his commis-sion as Second Lieutenant, he has remainedbehind at UVA’s Army ROTC as an instruc-tor. He is scheduled to enter the RangerSchool in March 2003. We wish them bothsafe journey as they enter their new careers.

We also hosted two graduate studentsfrom Poland: Sebastian Bojemski (February-April 2002) and Wojciech Jerzy Muszyƒski(June-September 2002). Both were research-ing, writing, auditing classes, and learing theUS university library system, including theInternet. They also took care of variousadministrative tasks at the KoÊciuszko Chairoffice and put together a mailing database forour purposes.

In addition, Sebastian conducted a numberof oral interviews with Polish WW2 veterans,in particular the participants of the WarsawUprising (1944), and researched at the Pi∏suds-ki Institute, New York, the Polonia Archives,St. Mary’s College of Ave Maria University,and the US Holocaust Memorial Museum(USHMM). The fruit of his reasearch was pub-lished in Poland by Glaukopis in August 2002:They went into the flood: The National ArmedForces in the Warsaw Uprising, 1944 (Poszli wskier powodzi: Narodowe Si∏y Zbrojne w PowstaniuWarszawskim, 1944).

Wojciech researched at the PolishMuseum of America in Chicago and at theHoover Institutiton Archives at Stanford,California. He spent much of the time anno-tating the anthology of Polish undergroundpress (1939-1949), co-edited jointly with Dr. Chodakiewicz.

Sebastian Bojemski visited with us com-pliments of a generous grant from theKoÊciuszko Foundation. Wojciech JerzyMuszyƒski benefitted from the generosity ofthe Independent Research Team Foundation

(Fundacja Niezale˝ny Zespó∏ Badawczy) ofWarsaw and the Tadeusz Ungar Foundationof Redwood City, California. We would liketo thank the following individuals whosekindness facilitated our interns’ sojourn inthe United States: Professor Jan MoorJankowski (New York University, emeritus),Iwo C. and Dr. Magdalena Pogonowski(Blacksburg , Va.), Witold Sulimirski (TheKoÊciuszko Foundation), Lady BlankaRosenstiel (The American Institute for PolishCulture), Zdzis∏aw Zakrzewski (TheTadeusz Ungar Foundation), and others.Special thanks to Scott Silet and Ewa Setaroof the UVA Alderman Library for havingtrained our interns.

We are hoping to see more interns sendour way and, especially, more UVA student-volunteers. The KoÊciuszko Chair needs you!

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Sebastian Bojemski’s book can be ordered bywriting to bojemski@yahoo.com

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Fall 2002

We plan big (it is the South, after all) andaim to carry out our plans 100%. So far wehave been quite successful in most of ourendeavors: teaching, research, writing, andnetworking. We plan to continue in this man-ner into the future.

As far as teaching is concerned, in theSpring 2003 semester, Dr. Chodakiewicz willtake over from Professor Roszkowski the lec-ture course on modern Polish history. It willnow be offered as “Poland and East CentralEurope since 1918” (HIEU 218). Students willbe able to familiarize themselves not onlywith the Poles, but also their neighbors, thusplacing Poland’s vicissitudes in their histori-cal context. Many thanks to Professor ChuckMcCurdy, Chair, Department of History,UVA, for looking favorably upon ourendeavor to teach Polish history. Further, wehave also been cooperating with ProfessorJohn H. Grever, Chairman of the HistoryDepartment at Loyola MarymountUniversity, Los Angeles, to develop a surveyclass on Western Tradition 1500-Present(HIST 101) expanded to include Polish contri-butions and a lecture class on the History ofPoland (HIST 498). Dr. Chodakiewicz willteach both of them during the 2003 summerschool session at LMU (June 30-August 8).We count on the local Polonia to enroll!

Our hands are full with a number ofresearch and writing projects (see above),which we shall continue pursuing during the2002-2003 academic year. In addition to ourwork on the Biographical Dictionary, we shouldsoon start writing a textbook on modernPolish history based upon our research andlecture notes. Next, although we have pre-pared and edited content material for the website of the KoÊciuszko Chair, we still need todesign the web site itself and anchor it in thecyberspace (any techy volunteers?). We alsoneed to put out all monographs and essay col-lections that we have prepared for publication:Polish Transformation: A Work in Progress;Catholic and Right: Essays on Spanish and PolishTraditionalism in the 19th and 20th Centuries;Between Nazis and Soviets: A Case Study ofOccupation Policies in Poland, 1939-1947; andThe Massacre in Jedwabne, July 10, 1941: Before,During, and After. We should also have a bi-lin-

gual (English and Polish) volume of the Ulamfamily correspondence, titled Anxiously fromLwów, ready for publication by Leopolis Pressin the Fall of 2003. We have been assistingLeopolis Press with several projects, includingthe memoirs of Helen Davis, the wife of for-mer US Ambassador to Poland, John Davis.An astute and witty observer, Mrs. Davis wasan eye-witness to the events leading to the fallof Communism and the advent of freedom inPoland in 1989.

We still have to set up an American Polish& associates networking system at UVA. Sofar we have been cooperating closely withProfessor Dariusz To∏czyk at the SlavicDepartment, who participates in a few of ourendeavors. Occasionally, we connect withProfessor Gabriel Finder, our specialist inJewish Polish history, Professors Allan Megill(intellectual history), and Professor DickHoward (constitutional law). Further, we havekept in touch with Professor MariaPospieszalska who teaches statistics and wediscovered Lori Cwalina at UVA developmentoffice. Perhaps we shall set up an informalgroup based upon culinary affinities as anexcuse to pow-wow and cooperate closely.

Last but not least, we hope to organize aconference on Poland and the European Unionand a symposium on Thomas Jefferson andTadeusz KoÊciuszko. And if there’s any sparetime left (he, he), we plan to commence a newresearch project in the National Archives inthe Fall 2003. The project concerns the rela-tionship of the US intelligence communitywith East Central Europe, Poland in particular(1939-1955). We would like to look at thenewly declassified materials concerningagents and secret operations sponsored andconducted by the Americans in Poland, EastCentral Europe, and elsewhere in the worldwith Polish resources and personnel. We arecounting on the assistance in this matter of ourlocal intelligence expert, Dr. Tim Naftali.

Our activities and plans at the MillerCenter would be impossible, were it not forfirm support of Professor Philip Zelikow,Director of the Miller Center, and ProfessorKenneth Thompson, Director Emeritus. Weare very grateful to both of them.

The KC Plans

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Nihil Novi

Professor Roszkowski:

W “After Neighbors: Seeking UniversalStandards,” The Slavic Review 61, no. 3 (Fall2002): 460-65.

W “Âwiat XX wieku,” [The World of the 20thCentury] in Wielki atlas historyczny(Warszawa 2002), 211-14.

W “Martyrology of Christian Churches in EastCentral Europe in the Years 1944-1956,” inChurches in the Century of Totalitarian Systems(Lublin 2001), vol. 2: 24-46.

W “Bydgoski marzec - wi´cej pytaƒ ni˝odpowiedzi,” [The Bydgoszcz March: Morequestions than answers] in: Marzec 1981:Perspektywa “spo∏eczeƒstwa obywatelskiego”(Bydgoszcz 2001), 23-32.

W “Rzàdy koalicji Sojuszu LewicyDemokratycznej i Polskiego StronnictwaLudowego” [The coalition government ofthe Democratic Left Alliance and the PolishPeasant Party] in Dziesi´ciolecie PolskiNiepodleg∏ej 1989-1999, ed. by WaldemarKuczyƒski (Warszawa 2001), 50-55.

W Historia Polski 1914-2000 [History of Poland],8th edition (Warszawa 2001).

W Pó∏wiecze: Historia polityczna Êwiata po 1945[Half a century: A political history of theworld] 2nd edition (Warszawa 2001).

W “Pezetpeeru obraz w∏asny,”[TheCommunist Party’s own image] ˚ycie, 26April 2001.

Dr. Chodakiewicz:

W “Pragmatism and Sympathy: Franco andEast-Central Europe, 1939-1955,”Intermarium: The First Online Journal of EastCentral European Postwar History and Politics,Columbia University, vol. 4, no. 3 (2000-2001)posted athttp://sipa.columbia.edu/REGIONAL/ECE/vol5no3/eiroa.pdf.

W “Der Warschauer Aufstand,” The SarmatianReview [Houston] vol. XXII, no. 2 (April2002): 875-80 posted athttp://www.ruf.rice.edu/%7Esarmatia/402/222chod.html.

W “America’s Eastern Tier: Poland betweenNATO and United Europe,” Periphery vol.8/9 (2002-2003): 4-12.

W “A Zionist Multiculturalist ForCompromise,” Intermarium vol. 5, no. 3(2002), posted at http://sipa.columbia.edu/REGIONAL/ECE/vol4no3/bookreview.pdf

W “Toward a Special Relationship: Polandbetween Ireland and Israel in AmericanForeign Policy,” Good News: A Journal of TheAmerican Institute for Polish Culture (2002-2003).

W After the Holocaust: Polish-Jewish Conflict in theWake of World War II (New York andBoulder, CO: East European Monographsand Columbia University Press, forthcomingSpring 2003).

W “Ordinary Terror: Communist and NaziOccupation Politics in Jedwabne, 1939-1949,” The Polish Review (forthcoming Spring2003).

W Between Nazis and Soviets: A Case Study ofOccupation Policies in Poland, 1939-1947(Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, forthcom-ing Fall 2003).

W “Agenci i bandy pozorowane: Z dziejówokupacji niemieckiej w janowskiem,”[Agents and sham bands: From the historyof the German occupation in the Janów area]Radzyƒski Rocznik Humanistyczny (Fall 2002).

W “Percepcja i rzeczywistoÊç,” [Perception andReality] Gazeta Polska 17 July 2002.

W “Amerykaƒscy Sowieci,” [American Soviets]Najwy˝szy Czas! 29 June 2002.

W “‘Gangi bandziorów’ w Grodnie?” [‘Gangsof bandits’ in Grodno?] Wi´ê, no. 1 (January2002).

Selected Publications of the KC, 2001 - 2002

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W “First, I think that Poland and the U.S. willalways have special relations, regardless ofwhich organization Poland joins. We have sim-ply so much in common from the history. It isthat many people from my country who remem-ber their origin; they love Poland and they haverelatives there. This is why we will have that spe-cial kind of a friendship. Poland should do whatit considers best for its citizens. If joining theEuropean Union is the best for Poles, I supportthis decision.”President George W. Bush querried aboutPoland’s accession to the European UnionPolish Public TV Channel 1, as reported byMichael Szporer, Siec Info, 18 July 2002.

W A lobbying campaign is under way to effectthe issue of a US Postal Service CommemorativeStamp to honor Lieutenant Colonel Matt LouisUrban/Urbanowicz (1919-1995). With 20 medalsand crosses, Urbanowicz is the most highly dec-orated US armed forces veteran of the SecondWorld War. Dubbed “The Ghost” by the Nazis,his decorations include the Congressional Medalof Honor and seven Purple Hearts.

W “I only know two words: service and merit. Ihave no merits. I’ve tried to serve.” (“Znam dwas∏owa: s∏u˝ba i zas∏uga. Zas∏ug nie mam. S∏u˝yçsi´ stara∏am.”) Countess Karolina Lanckoroƒska Rzeczpospolita, 26 August 2002

W Dr. Aldona WoÊwas recommendedby President GeorgeW. Bush to the boardof directors of the USHolocaust MemorialMuseum. A Friend ofthe KoÊciuszko Chairin Polish Studies,Aldona replacesProfessor StanislausBlejwas, the PolishStudies Chairholderat Central ConnecticutState University whopassed away last year.

W Q: What help did the residents of Warsawprovide to people of Jewish origin who hid?A: A great deal. Poland is not an anti-Semiticcountry. Those who state the opposite don’t

speak the truth and perform a bad service that ishostile to Poland. Let us remember that for tak-ing part in rescue activities on behalf of Jews onewas threatened with death. Not everyone couldmuster up the strength to run this risk. Noteveryone is born a hero. At least thirty Poleswere engaged in rescuing me. At least thirty, atthe risk of their lives. A colleague who workedwith me in the Polish Radio sheltered me for tendays in his lovely home. A year before the warended he took me from Narbutt Street toNiepodleg∏oÊç (Independence) Avenue, walkingwith me along this path at half past seven in themorning. I told him at that time, ‘Let’s not walktogether. I don’t have any documents. Whyshould you perish along with me?’ ‘No, we’ll gotogether,’ he decided, to which he added: ‘Yourchances of surviving the war are greater thanmine.’ And the day before the Warsaw Uprising(August 1944) he and a colleague from theunderground arrived at an agreed upon place inorder to purchase weapons. Someone betrayedthem. Vlasov troops put them up against a walland executed them. Later I found out that he wasa second lieutenant in the Home Army.”W∏adys∏aw Szpilman interviewed by TadeuszKnade, “Cz∏owiek musi byç silny,”Rzeczpospolita, 12-13 October 2002. “The Pianist”by Roman Polaƒski, a movie based onSzpilman’s war-time experiences, was releasedin Poland in September 2002.

W Professor Boles∏aw M. Biskupski of St. JohnFisher’s College has been selected to suceed Prof.Blejwas at CCSU. Congratulations!!!W Since May 2001, Dr. Peter D. Stachura hasbuilt up The Centre for Research in PolishHistory, Department of History, University ofStirling, Scotland, to impressive proportions.This is the only institution of this type in theBritish Isles. Annually, the Center offers TheGeneral W. Anders Memorial PostgraduateScholarship in Polish History, organizes theMemorial General Stanis∏aw Maczek lecture,and awards the General W∏adys∏aw SikorskiPrize in Polish History. Congratulations!!! (TheCentre director can be contacted at p.d.stachu-ra@stir.ac.uk.)W The Canadian Polish Congress endowed theKonstanty Reynert Chair of Polish Studies at theUniversity of Toronto. The Chair is headed byProfessor Piotr Wróbel, while Professor TamaraTrojanowska lectures in Polish at the SlavicDepartment of UT. Recently, an anonymous

Dr. Aldona Wos

Notes & Quotes:

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donation saved Polish language courses at UTfrom being phased out, a crucial victory for bothteachers and students of Polish history and liter-ature. Congratulations!!!W St. Mary’s College of Ave Maria University ofOrchard Lake and the Polish AmericanHistorical Association jointly with the DetroitHistorical Museum organized an exhibition“The Polish Experience in Detroit.” Heldbetween October 12, 2001, and March 31, 2002,the exhibition was a smashing success visited bythousands of people. Congratulations!!!W The Sarmatian Review of Rice University,Huston, TX, has been very favorably reviewedby Germany’s leading journal, FrankfurtherAllgemeine Zeitung (23 February 2002).Congratulations!!! SR can be accessed athttp://www.ruf.rice.edu/sarmatia/.

W Q: What is the reason for your generous giftsto Polish museums?

A: I only have one reason: everything that ismine is Polish. I want my nation to immerseitself more in the artistic and intellectual area ofEurope. These paintings lead the nation furtherinto the Western world to which we belong.

Q: And what is patriotism for you?A: It is the feeling of absolute belonging and

therefore of the foremost duty to serve the col-lective of the nation that I am a part of. The col-lective expresses itself through the highest val-ues in fine arts, literature, and other manifesta-tions of culture. This is the most noble reflectionof nationality.”Countess Karolina Lanckoroƒska interviewed byJacek Moskwa, “Ze swojego rodu,”Rzeczpospolita: Plus-Minus, 7-8 September 2002.

W Tens of thousands of works of art, manu-scripts, and historical objects stolen in Poland bythe Nazis and Soviets during the Second WorldWar remain unreturned. Most of them are inRussian state museums and depositories.However, occasionally, Western private collec-tors do return individual items, including latelythe London antiquarian Johnny von Haeften andthe Vizcaya Museum in Florida, the latter inlarge measure thanks to the intervention ofPoland’s Honorary Consul in Miami.Tomasz Staƒczyk, “SzlachetnoÊç ludzi, milczeniepaƒstw,” Rzeczpospolita, 2 February 2002.

W “We had good discussions in the Ministry ofDefense about our military-to-military partner-ship and our relationship, which is a strong one,

a healthy one and one that is evolving veryfavorably. With the President we talked a gooddeal about our partnership in the global war onterrorism, our appreciation for Poland’s signifi-cant contributions.”US Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld23 September 2002, Press conference at thePresidential Palace, Warsaw, posted at http://www.defenselink.mil/news/Sep2002/t09232002_t923polishpc.html

W In Bagram, Afghanistan, two Polish armyplatoons of engineers have been clearing minesand building fortifications for US troops sinceMarch 2002. The Poles are led by Major DariuszTulin. Their chaplain, Father (Captain) MariuszAgostin, ministers to all Catholics in the US-ledcoalition force. Among the newly admittedNATO members, the Polish detachment is thelargest from East Central Europe, followed by aCzech medic team. The Poles have so far sus-tained two serious casualties: Captain LeszekSt´pieƒ lost his leg in a mine explosion andCaptain Adam Kowal of the Grom special forcesunit was wounded in a separate incident. Z.L., “Do domu z Afganistanu,” Rzeczpospolita, 2October 2002; and Askold Krushelnycky,“Afghanistan: Polish Contingent ConcernedAbout the Earth,” Radio Free Europe/RadioLiberty, 15 April 2002, posted ath t t p : / / w w w . r f e r l . o r g / n c a / f e a -tures/2002/04/15042002103035.asp

W On October 12, 2002, US Congress approveda loan for Poland to buy F-16 fighter jets for itsair force. French and Swedish manufacturershave also attempted to sell their jets to Poland.

W The US Navy presented its Polish counter-part with a second warship: ORP TadeuszKoÊciuszko joins ORP Kazimierz Pu∏aski as themost technologically advanced ship in the PolishNavy.

W Americans of Polish descent, Polish-Americans, Polonians, Poles, and US historybuffs and military history specialists will beinterested to know that Francis Casimir Kajenckipublished Casimir Pulaski: Cavalry Commander ofthe American Revolution (El Paso, TX: SouthwestPolonia Press, 2001).

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We should undertake a comparison of cer-tain basic features of interwar Poland and thepresent, post-communist Poland, referred torespectively as the Second and Third Republic.

Looking first at Poland’s place in Europe—area and frontiers, we must contrast the threatposed to the Second Republic by its eastern andwestern neighbors with the current stability.After 1918-20 most of the borders were ques-tioned; in 1999 the only unrecognized border onthe Oder-Neisse was recognized by a unitedGermany and the Allied powers.

Turning to the population of the SecondRepublic , it consisted of 30 percent of minorities,most of them unfriendly to the state which didnot succeed in developing a consistent policytoward them. Anti-Semitism was grounded insocio-economic conditions, the Jews constitutingca. 10 percent of the population. In the ThirdRepublic minorities amount to 2-3 percent, andthe largest, the Germans have assured represen-tation in parliament. If anti-Semitism persists insome quarters, it has a different character asthere are hardly any Jews. It is opposed by a pro-gressive Church and lay circles.

Statehood (after 120 odd years of partitions)was considered to be of the highest value byMarshal Józef Pi∏sudski and his supporters,although the right insisted on the nation as cre-ator of the state. Political evolution after Pi∏suds-ki’s 1926 coup d’état led to an authoritarian, butnot totalitarian regime. Whether democracywould have prevailed or not, the 1939 war inter-rupted all processes. The Third Republic alsounderwent a certain evolution from the idealismof SolidarnoÊç to interparty strife for power. Newproblems such as the heritage of communismand “homo sovieticus” affected the politicalscene. The process of building a democracy maybe more important than constitutional provi-sions—international developments such as glob-alism, tribalism, etc. keep affecting the country.

In the field of economics the SecondRepublic had to create one economy out of thethree partitioned parts. The Third Republic hadthe unprecedented task of making a passagefrom a communist to a market economy. Certainproblems connected with an imbalance betweenthe countryside and towns, a rural and industri-al economy, and the influx of foreign capitalhave affected the economy of both republicsthough in somewhat different ways.

Finally, there is contrast between the diplo-macy of the Second Republic, which often facedtasks that resembled squaring the circle, andthat of the secure Third Republic. Although thelatter scored important successes (for instancejoining NATO), the difficulties connected withjoining the EU and the dilemmas of eastern poli-cies remain. Having “reentered Europe,” Polandhas to adjust to the changing world of the 21stcentury. The post- September 11 situation posesnew challenges.

Professor Wandycz delivered these remarks,excerpted here, at UVa on November 13, 2001.

Pre-War and Modern Poland: A Comparisonby Professor Piotr Wandycz

Professor Piotr Wandycz

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The inter-Allied intelligence OperationEnigma, according to David Kahn, a prominentAmerican historian of cryptography, was “thegreatest secret of World War II after the atombomb.” The breaking of the sophisticatedGerman machine cipher was the most spectacu-lar event, in terms of difficulty and far-reachingconsequences, in the entire history of secretwriting. Operation Enigma was one of the pow-erful weapons of the anti-Nazi war coalition.But in contrast to atomic energy, which itselfhad come to light in the terrific destruction ofHiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945, thesecrets of the Enigma remained hidden andunknown to the public for almost the next threedecades. Its details had been disclosed onlyfragment by fragment from the darkness inwhich the governments concerned had felt itbetter to keep them.

The lid on the mysterious Enigma “box” waslifted first a bit by me as early as 1967. MyStruggle for Secrets: Intelligence Services of Polandand the Third Reich 1932–1939 documents the factthat the German Enigma had been solved inPoland already in the interwar period. The bookwas duly reviewed in a Göttingen scholarlymonthly, and in 1970 Heinz Bonatz, formerlyhead of the Navy Radio Intelligence, in his mem-oirs questioned the Polish achievement in break-ing Enigma. Three years later, in his Enigma: TheGreatest Puzzle of the War 1939–1945, FrenchGeneral Gustave Bertrand supplied ample cor-roboration for the Polish claims and highlightedFrance’s contribution: by giving the Poles valu-able intelligence, collected in Germany throughan agent of their Deuxi ’eme Bureau. Meanwhile,Bertrand’s book, which ascribes “all the creditand all the glory” for breaking the Germanmachine cipher to the Poles, was totally ignoredby the British. But also there, in Great Britain, thetime had been growing ripe for a disclosure.

It finally appeared in 1974, in a book, titledThe Ultra Secret, written by F. W. Winterbotham,a former RAF intelligence officer. But this bookvirtually begins at the point where Enigma wasalready broken, and continues with accounts ofthe dissemination, use, and impact of theEnigma-derived intelligence on the Allies’ con-duct of war. It gives a fairly true if, at times,blurred picture of the gigantic “intelligence fac-tory,” with its central station at Bletchley, some70 km north of London, where interceptedGerman and other Axis cipher messages were

turned into plain language, translated, re-editedto conceal their source, and then sent to decision-makers, ranging from Winston Churchill and hischiefs of staff to various military commands inEurope and all over the world.

The most serious flaw of the book is the com-plete elimination from the Enigma picture ofwhat was the prerequisite for its very existence:the mastering by Polish mathematicians of thesecret German machine cipher, and passing onthe results of this work, along with the Polish-made replicas of the apparatus, to the British andFrench during a tripartite conference in Warsawas early as in July 1939. The “Winterbothamstory,” long since discarded, was that BritishIntelligence, sometime in 1938, contacted aPolish worker who was employed in a Germanfactory making Enigma-machines, and persuad-ed him to build a big wooden model of themachine. They gave the Poles the necessarymoney, and Polish Intelligence “acquired” themachine, by means not specified. Then, in theutmost secrecy, “the complete, new, electricallyoperated Enigma” was brought back to London.The British set to work, invented a device calledthe “Bronze Goddess,” and were able to readGerman Enigma ciphers. Winterbotham’s bookis the chief source of Western misinformationconcerning the Enigma secret.

But also in Great Britain, laudable attemptswere undertaken to present a just and unbiasedassessment of Enigma’s origins and its influ-ence on military operations between 1939 and1945 (for example, Ronald Lewin’s Ultra Goes toWar [1978]). The title page dedication ofLewin’s book reads “To the Poles who sowedthe seed and to those who reaped the harvest.”Much in the same flavor was the book by PeterCalvocoressi titled Top Secret Ultra (1980)which centers on the organization of Bletchleywith its over 9,000 cryptologists, intelligenceanalysts, signal and security officers, techni-cians, and WREN clerks; and Ralph Bennett’sUltra in the West: the Normandy Campaign,1944–45 (1980). However, an unpleasant set-back was the first volume of the official BritishIntelligence in the Second World War: Its Influenceon Strategy and Operations (1979), which clearlydowngraded the Polish and French contribu-tions, misquoting G. Bertrand’s book, etc. Totheir credit, the authors have revised some oftheir false opinions in volume 3 (2), whichappeared in 1988.

Origins of the Enigma/Ultra Operationby Dr. W∏adys∏aw Kozaczuk

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The earliest Polish work on the interceptedGerman machine ciphers began in 1928, rightafter the system’s introduction by the GermanArmy. However, no progress was made duringthe next four years. Then the Polish CipherBureau—which was part of 2nd Section (MilitaryIntelligence) of the General Staff—decided torecruit three young mathematicians, all of themgraduates of the Mathematical Institute at theUniversity in Poznaƒ. They were first all given,along with twenty-odd of their fellow-students,a rudimentary training in code breaking duringa special course, organized by the military. Theirreal aim was to find cryptological talents. Themost promising of the three was MarianRejewski. After his graduation, he went for aone-year period of advanced study in actuarialmathematics at Göttingen and, following hisreturn, taught at the Mathematical Institute inPoznaƒ.

On September 1, 1932, Rejewski and his twosomewhat younger colleagues, Jerzy Ró˝ycki,and Henryk Zygalski began work as regularemployees at the Cipher Bureau in Warsaw.During the first few weeks, the young mathe-maticians worked on relatively simpler GermanNavy codes. By that time the Kriegsmarine wasparticularly active in Polish waters, while theGerman government tried to curtail Polish rightsin then-Free City of Danzig in contravention ofthe provisions of the Treaty of Versailles. In earlyOctober 1932, Rejewski was given a separateroom and told to take a closer look at a pile of theEnigma research. He was also supplied with anobsolete commercial Enigma machine of the ini-tial type, which had been bought in Germany.Lacking many essential parts of the military-typemachine, especially the commutator (“plugboard”), it was quite useless. The Polish penetra-tion of the secrets of Enigma, remarks anAmerican cipher expert and historian, began inearnest when Rejewski realized the applicabilityof some properties of permutations to his analy-sis of the German machine cipher.

The whole complicated process of masteringthe secrets of the German Enigma that was con-cluded in the first days of January 1933 includeda combination of mathematics, statistics, compu-tational ability, and inspired guesswork. Variouspublications have erroneously maintained thatthe breaking of Enigma was a one-time feat. Infact, it involved two distinct matters. The firstwas the theoretical reconstruction of the cipherdevice itself. This allowed the Poles to determineEnigma’s electric wiring, then the intricate inter-dependence between different components of

the machine: the exchangeable rotors, the so-called entry ring, the commutator, etc. Thisknowledge enabled the Poles to build duplicatesof the Enigma, which made it possible to readGerman enciphered radio communication.Secondly, the Poles had to elaborate methods forrecovering the Enigma keys (starting positions)exclusively on the basis of intercepts. Successcould not come too soon for on the January 30,1933, the campaign that would ultimately deliv-er Germany into Hitler’s hands had begun.

The only British book dealing with the crypto-logical “nuts and bolts of the Enigma/Ultra,” TheHut Six Story: Breaking the Enigma Codes written byGordon Welshman, a Cambridge mathematicianand, along with Alan Turing, one of the leadinglights at Bletchley, could not be published in GreatBritain because it was banned by the OfficialSecrets Act. The book that eventually appeared,with considerable delay, in the U.S.A (Welshmanbecame an American citizen after the war), wasthe only publication by a former Bletchley code-breaker who pursued the path of Enigma researchalready paved by Marian Rejewski. The Polishmathematician had completed his first compre-hensive report on how the Enigma system wasbroken, including the full mathematical proof, insouthern France in 1942, while working in theclandestine French-Polish center (“Cadix”). Its firstprinted version appeared as an Appendix to mybook W kr´gu Enigmy (The Enigma Circle) in 1979.Welshman unequivocally states in his Hut SixStory that the British Ultra “would never have got-ten off the ground if we had not learned from thePoles, in the nick of time, the details both of theGerman military Enigma machine, and of theoperating procedures that were in use.”Welshman’s appreciative words also find strongcorroboration in a comment written by anAmerican cryptology expert on the article byRejewski. The expert wrote in the U.S. publication,the Annals of the History of Computing (vol. 3, no.3,July 1981), that “No doubt practitioners of grouptheory should introduce this property of permuta-tions [which had been applied by Rejewski—W.K.] to students as ‘the theorem that won WorldWar II.’ Of course, actually solving the Enigmatraffic via statistical analysis, table look-up ormechanical computation (the Poles used all thesemethods) was an immense undertaking—one thatno other country was up to at that period of histo-ry. At the same time Rejewski and his compatriotswere busting Enigma traffic on a ongoing basis,the only cryptanalatic technique available was amethod known as ‘cliques on the rods’ to theBritish or the ‘baton’ method to the French.”

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Although the opinions and assessments ofhistorical facts and developments made bypoliticians and statesmen may occasionally besubject to political considerations, in this casethey no doubt do reflect well-balanced and gen-erally accepted views, based on expert investiga-tions. “Before Poland fell”—said George Bushwhile addressing a huge audience in Gdaƒsk inAugust 1989, on the eve of the 50-th anniversaryof the outbreak of World War II, “you gave theAllies Enigma, the Nazi’s secret coding machine.Breaking the unbreakable Axis code saved tensof thousands Allied lives, American lives; andfor this, you have the enduring gratitude of theAmerican people. And ultimately, Enigma andfreedom fighters played a major role in the win-ning the Second World War.”

Historians will, no doubt, long debate exact-ly what was the influence upon the course of theSecond World War of the Allies’ ability to readGerman machine ciphers. Verdicts range from asignificant speeding up of the ultimate outcome,the saving of untold thousands of lives, to whatsome of the highest Allied commanders termed adecisive impact on the results of many cam-paigns, battles and operations.

The author has been studying the Enigma secretfor over 30 years. He wrote Enigma: How the GermanMachine Cipher Was Broken, and How It Was Readby the Allies in World War Two (Frederic, MD, andLondon: University Publications of America andArms and Armour Press, 1984). A recently releasedmovie mendaciously depicts a Polish mathematicianas actually working for the Nazis on the Ultra projectin England. Polish Ambassador in the US,Przemys∏aw Grudziƒski, has written an open letter toobject to this patent falsification of history.

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Prof. Ewa M. Thompson

Ways of Remembering:

The Case of Poland by Professor Ewa M. Thompson

A culture of commemoration persists inPoland. We can relate to the culture better, ifwe understand terms such as communal mem-ory, collective memory, cultural memory, trau-mas, and closure, as defined by AleidaAssmann. Cultural memory “rearranges eventsof the past into categories that become part ofone’s cultural identity; it enriches a personinstead of embittering him or her. With thepassing of time and the creation of written textsand other artifacts, the collective traumaswhich a nation has experienced reach closure,and society consigns them to the past. The trau-mas become part and parcel of the culturalmemory of a nation, rather than a means ofinflaming the imagination. Some group trau-mas, such as the Holocaust, become part of theworld’s cultural memory.”

Polish ceremonies of commemoration con-cern revisiting places where traumas occurred,or visiting substitute localities such as theatersand cemeteries. In Soviet-occupied Poland, thecountry’s theaters staged plays which redrewthe map of memory, while numerous historicalfilms rehearsed Polish traumas. In a distinctlyPolish tradition, the country’s cemeteriesbecame meeting places every year on All Souls’Day. Other substitute places of memory includeCatholic churches with their commemorativesculptures and paintings, and monuments scat-tered around the Polish landscape. Among thelatter, the Katyn and Solidarity monuments areparticularly prominent.

In Soviet-occupied Poland, the traumas of theSecond World War did not achieve closure. Untilthe 1990s, Poland remained a country of sup-pressed collective memories, delegitimized com-munal memories, and unacknowledged traumas.

A clash of memories resulted from the lossof sovereignty after the Second World War.Those who sided with the Soviets have one set ofmemories, those who fought the Soviets haveanother. In such conditions, the creation of acommon communal memory has become diffi-cult. The shrinking or de-legitimization of com-munal memory is one of the major traumas ofthe last sixty years in Poland, a trauma that isseldom recognized or articulated.

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Prof. Thompsondelivered her lec-ture, summarizedhere, at UVa onMarch 5, 2002.

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Fall 2002

A Sybirak in Americaby Marek Jan Chodakiewicz

Because many witnesses to dramatic events ofthe past often fail to leave any written recordbehind, a scholar of Polish history is often ham-pered in his quest to uncover the truth. And so is alay person simply eager to learn about Poland froma personalized account. Eugene Bak set out to rem-edy the problem. His Life’s Journey: Autobiography isa combination memoir, travelogue, history text-book, and a business school lesson.

Born in Polska Wola, near Podhajce, theProvince of Tarnopol, in Poland’s EasternBorderlands, Bak recalls that his childhood wasregulated by the daily chores of village life and, ona larger plane, by Catholic and partriotic holidays.“Day-to-day life was harsh in Polska Wola.However, people were generally happy andenjoyed life.” The nightmare began with the jointNazi-Soviet invasion of Poland in September 1939.

Bak and his family found themselves underthe Soviet occupation. Having survived the ini-tial wave of anti-Polish violence by Ukrainiannationalists and Communist revolutionaries, theBaks were soon deported to the Gulag as “ene-mies of the people.” While the adults slaved forStalin, the children were subject to Communistindoctrination. To counter such practices, theadults taught the kids secretly about their reli-gion and history. “Poland became a land of fairytales, a land of milk and honey. National figuresbecame our heroes and idols.” One of the clan-destine teachers “hated communism with such apassion that when his daughter Anulka attached

a red ribbon to her hair, he bacame extremelyangry and impulsively ripped the ribbon alongwith some hair from the surprised girl.” Asalways, aside from religion, humor proved themost powerful form of resistance. For example,the Polish slaves derisively referred to the Sovietleader as “Sralin” (shit-head).

Suffering hunger, forced labor, violence,death, and diseases, the family stuck togetherand most of them survived against all odds. Thekey to survival was not open rebellion butaccommodation: “Our survival was the result ofmy father’s ingenuity and his ability to outma-neuver the Soviet system.” There were manybrushes with death, including the time when hisseriously ill mother was miraculously saved by aPolish-Jewish pharmacist, a fellow inmate in theGulag. Nonetheless, death stared them constant-ly in the eye. The living and working conditionswere so abysmal that their friend, Mr.Kisielewicz “watched his children die one at atime. His prayers for a quick death for his chil-dren were very understandable.” A few relativesand many friends of the Bak family perished inStalin’s Russia, including Eugene’s six-year-oldcousin Krysia and his maternal grandfather, ahardy West Virginian miner. The survivors weresaved in the nick of time by General W∏adys∏awSikorski and General W∏adys∏aw Anders, “theliberator, our Moses, who led us from theNieludzka Ziemia [Inhumane Land].” Bak recallsfurther: “It was a joyous moment for us. Wewere able to go to confession, to attend mass andthank God for the recent developments. It wasthe first time in over two years we were allowedto worship God openly.”

While the adult males of the Bak familyjoined the Free Polish Army to fight and bleed atMonte Cassino and other battles, the womenfolkand the children found themselves in refugeecamps in Persia, Pakistan, and India. Eugene Bakwas so emaciated that his own mother failed torecognize him. Slowly, the Polish refugees recu-perated physically from the nightmare of theGulag. The psychological scars took much longerto heal. Maintaining their religious and nationalcohesiveness helped immensely. “We respectedindividual beliefs and maintained a high degreeof patriotism. We felt Polish deep down to ourbones and developed a sense of belonging to alarge Polish family scattered around the globe.”

The refugees settled into a camp routine:daily mass (complete with a pet goat, BaÊka, who

Dr. Marek Jan Chodakiewicz

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accompanied the children to church), school, boyscout activities, and other chores. Of course,Polish national and Catholic religious holidayswere observed just like at home. Otherwise, arather monotonous existence was punctuated bymischievous jackals who stole soap and by visitsfrom Allied soldiers, including Polish-AmericanGIs. The refugees avidly imbibed news from thewar. Upon learning that General Sikorski haddied in an air crash, “the camp was in shock;people were crying and hugging each other formoral support.” The refugees celebrated thegreat Polish victory at Monte Cassino in May1944, while individual families bewailed theirdead and worried about their wounded rela-tives. Eugene Bak’s father and uncle belongedfortunately to the latter category.

In 1947, the Bak family joined the father inEngland. Two years later he was officially demo-bilized. The fiery heroism of the Gulag and thebattlefront yielded way to the quiet heroism ofrebuilding one’s life in exile. The Baks emigratedto the United States. From the start, they experi-enced the generous support of the Polonia(Polish American community). Eugene earned acollege degree in chemical engineering and agraduate degree in business because his oldPolish professor back in England dissuaded himfrom pursuing “a career in history and politicalscience.” The author of Life’s Journey became aprominent inventor, engineer, and businessmanager. Having survived Communist totali-tarism, Eugene Bak has remained sensitive toany manifestation of oppression and hatred.Thus, he was shocked by the anti-Black and theanti-Mexican animus in Texas in the late 1950s.Also, “there was noticeable discriminationagainst Catholics and even the ‘Yankees.’Strangely enough, I was exempted because I wasPolish.” The ideology of class hatred employedduring the unionization process did not sit wellwith Bak, either. In Newark, “the organizingeffort was bitter and antagonized many people. Ihad witnessed a transformation of a friendly andcooperative group of people into a confronta-tional environment not only between the man-agement and workers, but also among the work-ers themselves.” He remains weary of the ubiq-uitous federal bureaucracy, especially since theFDA foiled his efforts to ease the pain ofchemotherapy for cancer patients.

Bak traveled widely around the world, vis-iting Poland already in 1960, a bitter sweet expe-rience soured by the fact that some his cousinswere victims of Communist indoctrination.

He cheered up when he met other Poles whoinquired about “the possibilities of the West’sliberating Poland from the communists. Theywere particularly interested if John Kennedy, aCatholic, had a chance to become president ofthe United States.” Eugene Bak returned to theOld Country several more times, including in1970, when his relatives celebrated a familyreunion with a river of vodka, and during mar-tial law, when Ed Piszczek brought charity reliefto the desperate population. Having retired afew years back, he devoted himself to charityand social work. And throughout his eventfullife, Eugene Bak firmly believes, he has enjoyedthe protection of Our Lady of Kozielsk, thepatroness of the Free Polish Army and all theSybiracy (Siberian deportees). However, one sus-pects that his wife, Mrs. Basia Bak, has had alsomuch to do with Gene’s success.

Eugene Bak [Eugeniusz Bàk], Life’s Journey:Autobiography (Boulder, CO. and New York: EastEuropean Monographs and ColumbiaUniversity Press, 2002).

�

To order the book please write to PolishAmerican Cultural Center JPII, 6501 Lansing Ave.,Cleveland, OH 44105.

When Polonia’s oldest fraternal, the PolishRoman Catholic Union of America, was begun in1873, its founders enjoined all members to attendHoly Mass on two important Polish holidays.The first holiday is, or should be, well-known toall Polish Americans: May 3rd, PolishConstitution Day. This holiday is celebrated byPoles all over the world. The other holiday, how-ever, is one of which few today have ever heard:November 29.

This holiday was meant to mark the start ofthe November Insurrection in 1830, when cadetsfrom the Russian-controlled Polish army rose upalong with countless other patriots in an effort toregain Poland’s independence. The revolt failedthe following year and many Poles were killedoutright, died in Siberia, or went into exile.

Throughout American Polonia in the yearsprior to World War I, this holiday was celebrat-ed in communities large and small. These cele-brations were often as large or larger than thosefor May 3rd. (Yet another holiday was also occa-sionally celebrated. January 22nd marked thestart of the 1863 January Insurrection againstRussian rule.) It was an important holiday forthe early Polonia communities because it was aday celebrated primarily by Poles living in exile.It was also an event that taught new immigrantsabout Polish history, an education many of themhad been unable to get under the Partitioningpowers in Europe.

In one small, Midwestern farming commu-nity in the 1890s, November 29 was an all-dayaffair in which all Poles took the day off workand came into town for the festivities. First,there was a Mass at the parish church. Then,came the parade. Behind a brass band marchedthree Polish military companies led by veteransof the 1863 January Uprising and dressed in his-toric costumes. One company was of cavalry,one of infantry, and one dressed in the garb ofThaddeus KoÊciuszko’s “reapers of death”—thepeasant scythemen who charged the Russiancannon at Rac∏awice in 1794. Then, everyonecrammed into the parish hall to listen to speak-ers and poets. The pastor was the first to speak.His speech painted vivid pictures of each classof Polish society and how they had aided theuprising: the nobles the townspeople, the peas-ants. The broad-shouldered farmers and theirfamilies packing the hall wept as the speakersdescribed the sacrifices of the young Polishcadets and patriots, tears streaming down theirweathered faces, dripping from the ends of theold men’s mustaches.

The next speaker then told the audience howthe heroes of 1830 were looking down on the littlecelebration in the middle of North America andhow their sacrifices should be commemoratedevery day with hard work on behalf of God andcountry. Finally a troop of schoolgirls stood upand, choking back their own tears, recited poetryof Mickiewicz and S∏owacki. Then the assembledcommunity sang “Bo˝e coÊ Polsk´.”

Following World War I and Poland’s rebirthof independence, remembering a time whenPoland was not free fell out of favor in manyPolonia communities. It was a new era and peoplewanted to forget the dark times of the Partitions.Many began to celebrate a new Polish holiday,November 11, Polish Independence Day.

Looking back at these celebrations from thevantage point of a century, one can only wonderat the intensity of emotion and the powerfulmessages these early learned on November 29.The November 29 holiday was about so muchmore than remembering heroic deeds of a timelong past; it meant learning about a homeland, ahistory, and a culture. And it was about creatinga new Polish culture in America.

150 Years of Polonia: November 29, Polonia’s Lost Holidayby John Radzi∏owski

Dr. John Radzi∏owski

�

Fall 2002

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In September1939 Nazi Germanyand Soviet Russiajointly attackedPoland, while theWestern Allies stoodby idly. From thenuntil January 1945,Warsaw remainedunder German occu-pation. The Nazissegregated thePolish capital intothree sectors: Polish,Jewish, and German.

Warsaw, along with the rest of the country,was subjected to incredible terror. Terror tar-geted the Polish elite first, then it focusedmainly on the Jews, and lastly affected the restof the citizenry randomly.

The Poles resisted in unorganized andorganized ways. These included undergroundtraining, sabotage, and assassinations ofGermans and their collaborators. Aside fromnumerous acts of everyday armed resistance bythe Polish underground, there was a Jewishuprising in the Warsaw Ghetto in April 1943.

To prepare for the liberation of Warsaw, theunderground clandestinely trained its soldiers,including in particular Home Army officercadets, who constantly had to be on the look-outfor the Gestapo. Some of my colleagues werecaught and deported to Auschwitz. In terms ofpreparation for the insurrection, the clandestinecadets had several sources of armaments: home-made weapons; air drops from the West;weapons captured from Nazis; weapons boughtfrom German soldiers; and arms hidden by thePolish Army in 1939. However, all that wasinsufficient. On the eve of the Uprising, only 10percent of the Home Army personnel inWarsaw was armed.

As the Soviets advanced on Warsaw, theHome Army command ordered an uprising onAugust 1, 1944. The objective was to liberatethe capital from the Germans and to set up afree Polish government in the city withoutStalin’s diktat.

There were about 40,000 insurgents and800,000 Polish civilians in Warsaw. The popula-tion initially supported the Home Army. During

the first days, the Poles were victorious. Soon,however, the situation changed. There was norunning water. Electricity and gas were cut off.Food stores ran out. The insurgents and thecivilians were reduced to cooking their miserlymeals over open fire, for example my friendsand I dined on a grilled cat. The Germans sub-jected Warsaw to unobstructed aerial bombard-ment and heavy artillery shelling. The Nazisused Polish civilian hostages as live shields fortheir tanks as they advanced on insurgent barri-cades. The SS shot and burned wounded Polesalive. At least 200,000 inhabitants perished. Thecity was set ablaze.

After the Home Army capitulated onOctober 2, 1944, the Germans completely leveledthe city, blowing up and burning its remains.Throughout, from August 1944 until January1945, the Red Army halted its advance two milesaway from the city and idly and gleefullywatched the carnage.

This is a summary of Prof. Wagner’s speech atthe Miller Center Forum on September 13, 2002.

The Warsaw Uprising of 1944:

Preparation, Fight, and Destructionby Professor Wieƒczys∏aw Wagner

Professor Wieƒczys∏aw Wagner

Warsaw Destroyed

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Fall 2002

The Jewish Military Union (˚ydowski ZwiàzekWojskowy, ˚ZW) is one of the most mysteriousunderground organizations in Poland. This far-right group of Zionist Revisionists was activeboth under the Nazi and Soviet occupations.

Vladimir (Ze’ev) Jabotinsky founded theZionist Revisionist movement in the mid-1920s.Its ideology took shape by 1934. There was a sim-ple goal: the establishment and mass colonizationof a Jewish state in Palestine.1 Revisionist Zionismpromoted military force and training. It was amovement that transcended mere engagement inideological discourse, as it promoted direct actionbased on its ideals. There is a straight line fromthe activism of Revisionist Zionism to the activeresistance of the Jewish Military Union in theWarsaw Ghetto.

The ˚ZW was an occupation-time avatar ofvarious pre-war Zionist Revisionist organiza-tions, including the Brit Trumpledor (Betar, or theTrumpledor Union).2 This youth movement,founded in 1926,3 functioned in Jewish commu-nities throughout Europe to carry out the goalsof Revisionist Zionism in a practical way. TheBetarim4 were extremely militaristic. In the 1930s,two other Revisionist military groups wereformed: Brit HaHayal (Soldiers’ Union) and theIrgun Zevai Leumi (National MilitaryOrganization).5 Brit HaHayal was comprised ofJewish ex-soldiers and reservists in Poland. TheIrgun operated primarily in Palestine. “It wasfrom these three bodies – Betar, Brit HaHayaland the assimilationist circles – that thereemerged most of the commanders and fighters[of the ˚ZW] who took part in the Warsaw ghet-to revolt.”6

By November 15, 1940, all known Jews inWarsaw were confined to the ghetto. Adding to thenumber that already lived there, 140,000 Jews weremoved inside the ghetto limits, making a total of380,000 Jews. Fear pervaded the ghetto, but thegreatest fear of all was not being able to findenough food to survive. By May 1941, the Nazishad crammed an additional 120,000 Jews into theghetto. Hunger and diseases were rampant; peopledied of starvation in droves. In 1941 alone, as manyas 43,258 Jews died in the Warsaw Ghetto (an aver-age of about 120 people per day). In the summer of1942, the Nazis organized large transports to bringJews from the Warsaw ghetto to the death camps.The deportations to Treblinka, a death camp north-east of Warsaw, began on July 22. After the depor-

tations, approximately 60,000 Jews of 380,000remained in the ghetto. In addition, about 25,000Jews went in hiding, mostly passing as Christianson the “Aryan side.” 7

Meanwhile, before the Great Deportation ofJuly-September 1942, apart from legal Jewish activ-ities, to survive, individuals and groups madegreat efforts to keep life as normal as possible. Inaddition, two resistance groups arose and operatedin the ghetto. The ˚ydowska Organizacja Bojowa or˚OB (Jewish Fighting Organization), comprised ofabout 750 members, and the Jewish Military Union(˚ZW), which had up to 250 fighters. In August1942, the ˚ZW moved from its headquarters atLeszno Street to a new location at 7-9 MuranowskaSquare. It was there that the ˚ZW built a tunnelthat ran underneath Maranowska, with an outletoutside the ghettos walls. This tunnel was used formaintaining contact with the Polish undergroundSecurity Corps (Korpus Bezpieczeƒstwa, KB), whichwas a part of the Home Army. The ˚ZW created aseries of tunnels and bunkers which becameimportant during the uprising against the Nazis,also as a means of retreat.8

In the beginning of January 1943, the ˚ZWcalled for active resistance in the ghetto. “Awakeand fight! Not even one more Jew is to find hisend in Treblinka! Out with the traitors to the peo-ple! War for life or death on the conqueror to ourlast breath! Be ready to act! Be ready!”9 Aroundthe same time the ˚OB also released a call to fight.

By early April 1943, the ˚ZW had receivedreports that the Germans would attempt to liqui-date the ghetto around the middle of that month.The ˚ZW had obtained weapons from severalPolish sources by that time, chiefly from the KB.David Wdowiƒski, a leader of the ˚ZW, stated,“The contact with the Polish military organiza-tion made it possible for us in the beginning tobuy weapons, hand grenades, Molotov cocktails,munitions.”10 The Home Army also providedsome military training for ˚ZW members. SSGeneral Jürgen Stroop, who was in charge of liq-uidating the Warsaw Ghetto, believed that the˚ZW was actually part of the Home Army.11

There was indeed a connection: Some Polishfighters of the KB fought inside the ghetto alongwith the ˚ZW and the Zionist Revisionists hoist-ed a Polish flag to fly along side a Jewish flag dur-ing the first and second days of the uprisingwhen it broke out on April 19, 1943. A unit of theHome Army even attempted to break through the

Awake and Fight:

The Jewish Military Union and the Warsaw Ghettoby Rachel J. K. Grace

ghetto wall on the first day. In addition, therewere other acts of sabotage on behalf of theWarsaw ghetto insurgents – arguably the onlyexample in the history of Nazi-occupied Europethat someone actually fired a shot in defense ofthe Jews.12

Even before the Uprising broke out, the ˚ZWand the ˚OB decided to divide the ghetto into twosectors to be defended separately by each resist-ance group. There were eleven companies of ˚ZWfighters, four of which were stationed atMuranowski Square, and the remaining sevenmaintained individual locations. The plan for theuprising had been coordinated with Poles of theHome Army and the Communist People’s Armyon the outside of the ghetto who intended to fightalong with the Jewish resistance groups.13

The final date set for the liquidation of theghetto was April 19, 1943. It was the eve ofPassover, as well as the day before Hitler’s birth-day. On April 18, the ghetto council leaders wereplaced under arrest and told that liquidationwould begin the following day. The news imme-diately began to spread, and by that evening all˚ZW fighters had reported to their posts andwere prepared for battle. “Thus, the ZZW [sic]forces stood ready to face the enemy, furnishedwith detailed orders and well-mapped-out plansof attack and defense, assault positions, routes ofwithdrawal and hand-to-hand fighting.”14 The˚OB members were largely untrained and werenot as clearly organized. As a result, the ˚ZW car-ried out the most intensive attacks against theNazis during the uprising. The Germans hadplanned to liquidate the ghetto in three days, butthe uprising lasted twenty-eight days.

Some fighters who managed to escape theWarsaw Ghetto in mid-1943 went on to fight in theWarsaw Uprising of 1944. The almost 25,000 Jewsstill alive in Warsaw were in hiding, but manyjoined the resistance. They mostly fought amongthe ranks of the Communist People’s Army and theHome Army. A small number of ZionistRevisionists, including ˚ZW soldiers, fought in theNational Armed Forces (NSZ).15 Thousands of Jewswere among the 200,000 civilian victims of theWarsaw Uprising of 1944. Most of Warsaw’sremaining Jews blended into the Polish populationwhich was forcibly deported from the capital afterthe failed insurrection. A few hundred entered thesewers and woods, and some were even able to sur-vive, with the help of Poles, until the arrival of theRed Army in Warsaw in 1945.

Afterward, most surviving Jews left Poland.However, to expedite the process, the ZionistRevisionists maintained an underground organi-

zation. It was active as late as 1949, when it wasdestroyed by the Communist secret police.16

The author is a fourth year student at UVA.

Notes1 Walter Laqueur, A History of Zionism (New York: Schocken

Books, 1972), 353.

2 Named after Joseph Trumpledor who died in 1920 defend-ing Tel Chai, a Zionist settlement in Palestine.

3 Yehuda Benari and Joseph B. Schechtman, History of theRevisionist Movement (Tel-Aviv: Hadar Publishing HouseLtd., 1970), 333.

4 Members of the youth movement, Betar.

5 Chaim Lazar Litai, Muranowska 7: The Warsaw Ghetto Rising(Tel Aviv: Massada-P.E.C. Press Ltd.,1966), 41.

6 L azar, Muranowska 7, 42.

7 Isaiah Trunk, Judenrat: The Jewish Councils in Eastern Europeunder Nazi Occupation, 2nd. ed. (Lincoln: University ofNebraska Press, Lincoln, 1996), 72; Yisrael Gutman, ed.,Documents on the Holocaust (Yad Vashem, Jerusalem, 1981),281; Gunnar S. Paulson, Secret City: The Hidden Jews ofWarsaw, 1940-1945 (New Haven, CT: Yale UniversityPress, forthcoming 2003).

8 Lazar, Muranowska 7, 138, 148.

9 Gutman, Documents on the Holocaust, 303-304.

10 David Wdowinski, And We Are Not Saved (New York:Philosophical Library, New York, 1980), 81.

11 Kazimierz Moczarski, Conversations With an Executioner(Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1981), 133.Stroop’s personal dispatches from the Warsaw GhettoUprising are peppered quite liberally with the referencesto “Polish bandits,” i.e. KB and AK soldiers, who foughttogether with the ˚ZW. The AK also assisted the ˚OB,and so did the Communist underground. See the StroopReport in Biuletyn G∏ównej Komisji Badania ZbrodniHitlerowskich w Polsce, no. 11 (1960): 113-209.

12 W∏adys∏aw Bartoszewski, The Warsaw Ghetto (Boston:Beacon Press, 1987), 76.

13 Lazar, Muranowska 7, 225-27.

14 Lazar, Muranowska 7, 228.

15 The story of the Jewish participation in the WarsawUprising of 1944 still awaits a comprehensive scholarlytreatment. See Reuben Ainsztein, The Warsaw GhettoRevolt (New York: Holocaust Library, 1979), 179-180;Teresa Prekerowa, “˚ydzi w powstaniu warszawskim,”in Powstanie warszawskie z perspektywy pó∏wiecza: Studia imateria∏y z sesji naukowej na Zamku Królewskim, 14-15 czer-wca 1994 (Warszawa: Instytut Historii PAN iTowarzystwo Mi∏oÊników Historii, 1995), 84-94;Sebastian Bojemski, “Jewish members of the right wingNSZ,” Sarmatian Review vol. 22, no. 3 (September 2002):913-15; Sebastian Bojemski, W skier powodzi: Narodowe Si∏yZbrojne w Powstaniu Warszawskim (Warszawa: Glaukopis,2002), 235-52.

16 See Marek Jan Chodakiewicz, ˚ydzi i Polacy: Wspó∏istnie-nie, Zag∏ada, Komunizm (Warszawa: Fronda, 2000), 389,436-37.

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Fall 2002

During the Warsaw Uprising of 1944, Jewish fighters served in various units of the Polish under-ground, including the National Armed Forces (NSZ). This particular document concerns two Jewishinsurgents who fought in a unit organized mostly by officers of the NSZ in early August 1944. The docu-ment, Rozkaz dzienny no. 18, 4 September 1944, is available at Centralne Archiwum Ministerstwa SprawWewn´trznych i Administracji w Warszawie, zbiory Armia Krajowa, file (teczka) 185.

Battalion Commander in place, September 4, 1944Capt. “Lech”1

Order of the Day no. 18

1. Reassignementsa) As of today, I have reassigned privates “Dàber”2 and “Józef”3 to the 3rd Platoon of Sergeant “Rota”4

in the 2nd Company of 2nd Lt. “Kos.”5

b) I have reassigned volunteers Samuel Buchalter and Ca∏ek Perechodnik6 to the 2nd Company of 2ndLt. “Kos.”

c) I have reassigned privates “Ryszard”7 and “Wilk”8 and laison “Nina”9 for duties under Lieutenant“Drabiƒski,”10 sub-quartermaster of the 1st Battalion.

Reassigned personnel is to report to their sub-units tomorrow at 8:00 am.

Cc:Commanding Officer11 of the “Chrobry II” Group

Order to be carried out by:Commanding Officer of the 1st company12

Commanding Officer of the 2nd company13

Commanding Officer of the 3rd company14

Archives

Notes

1 Tadeusz Przystojecki (1905-1978), nome de guerre “Lech ˚elazny.” As a reserve officer, Przystojecki took part in the defense ofWarsaw in September 1939. In 1940 he joined the Secret Military Organization – Armed Emergency of the Nation (TajnaOrganizacja Wojskowa – Zbrojne Pogotowie Narodu) which became part of the Underground Army of the “Sword and Plow”Movement (Armia Podziemna Ruchu Miecz i P∏ug, APRMiP). In July 1944 the “Sword and Plow” subordinated itself to themajority group of the National Armed Forces (NSZ-AK), thus becoming a part of the Home Army.

2 NN.3 W∏adys∏aw Romaƒski.4 Zygmunt Poncyliusz (“Rota”).5 Miko∏aj Kobyliƒski (“Kos”). Before the Uprising, he was a staff officer of the Warsaw District of the “Sword and Plow”

Movement (NSZ-AK-MiP).6 Ca∏ek Perechodnik was a Zionist Revisionist before the war. Later, he served as a ghetto policeman in Otwock until 1942, when

he went into hiding, assisted by his Polish Christian friends from the Nationalist Movement. After the fall of Warsaw in October1944, Perechodnik went into hiding in the city and was killed under unknown circumstances in late 1944. He left a diary, Czy jajestem mordercà? [Am I a murderer?] (Warszawa: Karta, 1993).

7 NN.8 NN.9 Janina Chrzanowska.10 NN.11 Major Zygmunt Brejak (“Zygmunt”) was originally in the National Military Organization (Narodowa Organizacja Wojskowa –

NOW) and followed it into the ranks of the Home Army in 1942. On August 4, 1944, “Zygmunt” took over the command of the“Chrobry II” NSZ-AK group from Major Leon Nowakowski (“Lig”) of the NSZ-AK.

12 Capt. Piotr Zacharewicz (“Piotr Zawadzki”) of the NSZ-ONR (the National Radical Camp/Lizard Union). 13 2nd Lt. Miko∏aj Kobyliƒski (“Kos”) of the NSZ-AK-MiP.14 Lt. Zbigniew Brym (“Zdunin”) of the AK, earlier probably in the Union of Armed Struggle (ZWZ).

Jewish Insurgents in the Warsaw Uprising of 1944by Sebastian Bojemski

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Nihil Novi

Warsaw’s Youthful Insurgents

August 1 - October 2, 1944

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Fall 2002

War and Remembrance: Personal Remarksby Julian Kulski

In retrospect, Iaccept my child-hood wart imeexperiences andmisfortunes gladlyand gratefully. Myresolve to appreci-ate the beauty andvalue of life wasstrengthened, and Ibecame determinedto pursue a creativelife and career.

War i s anunimaginable hor-ror, but it is also full

of heroic, celestial deeds. I tried to erase the evilmemories and draw my inspiration from thegreat sacrifices and acts of love which are seldomencountered during peacetime.

There was only one 1944 Warsaw Uprisingand yet it encompassed a multitude of eventswhich changed history: the brutal suppressionby the Germans; the total destruction of a beau-tiful, historic city; the murder of 250,000 civiliansin two short months; the devious and evilhypocrisy of Stalin; the ominous silence ofRoosevelt and Churchill; the lack of adequateAllied support; the hopeless attempt to preventSoviet occupation; and the deadly struggle ofyoung boys and girls against the evils of Nazismand Communism.

No other uprising has ricocheted through anation’s history with more glorious resounding.It compounded Poland’s long legacy as adefender of freedom; left an indelible mark onthe national character of the Poles; but it wasalso the subject of great criticism and conjec-ture. Some saw the struggle as an unmitigatedpolitical and military disaster—destruction ofthe capital and of the underground army whichwas desperately needed to fight the Soviet evilempire, but the boys and girls who laid downtheir lives for freedom were neither politiciansnor military strategists. They were simply braveantagonists against the vicious, methodicalextermination of all Poles simply because theywere Poles. Like their Jewish brothers in the1943 Warsaw ghetto uprising, they chose to diefighting. With homemade grenades, theyattacked the Germans’ well-equipped, sophisti-cated army, and fought squadrons of bombers,heavy artillery and Hitler’s crack armored regi-

ments. They believed with all their hearts andsouls that theirs was a righteous cause and oneworth dying for.

History proved these young people wereright beyond a shadow of a doubt, and the skep-tical critics were wrong. The Solidarity move-ment, which contributed to the downfall of theSoviet empire, was the brave extension of thePolish resolve to be free. Its leaders freely admitthat they were carrying out the legacy of thePolish legions in World War I and the WarsawUprising of World War II. The example of a gen-eration willing to make the supreme sacrifice indefense of freedom and democracy provided avivid template for the Solidarity movement.

I am infinitely grateful that in my lifetime Iwas allowed to see the restoration of the WhiteEagle proudly wearing the crown of freedom,bestowing its legacy upon an independent, freeand democratic Poland. I am gratified andmoved that my comrades in arms can now restin the peace they deserve in the military ceme-tery in Warsaw— knowing that their deathswere not in vain, assured that their defense ofindependence will never be forgotten by all free-dom-loving people.

The author was a 14 year-old Home Army sol-dier during the Warsaw Uprising of 1944; the abovehas been excerpted from his speech at the MillerCenter on September 13, 2002, and will be includedin his forthcoming book Legacy of the White Eagle.Professor Kulski also authored Dying, We Live: ThePersonal Chronicle of a Young Freedom Fighter,Warsaw, 1939-1945 (New York: Holt, Rinehart andWinston, 1979).

Julian Kulski, 16 years old.

Warsaw Uprising,

August 1 — October 2, 1944.

On the Eve:Population: approximately 800,000, including

about 25,000 Jews in hiding (the Nazis had

murdered about 350,000 local Jews in previous

years)

Polish underground insurgents (mostly Home

Army): 40,000, including probably 4,000

women (only 10,000 of the insurgents were

armed but mostly with small arms and lacked

artilery, air cover, and armor).

German military and police garrison and rein-

forcements: 21,520 (including tanks, artilery,

and planes).

Polish civilian losses: Killed 200,000 — 250,000

Deported from Warsaw 600,000

Including:

To the concentration camp in Pruszków: 500,000

next to other Nazi concentration camps: 50,000

and to German forced labor camps: 150,000

Polish insurgent losses:Killed-in-action 10,200

Missing, presumed dead 7,000

Seriously wounded 5,000

Taken prisoner and sent to POW camps 15,900

German losses:Killed-in-action 10,000

Missing, presumed dead 7,000

Wounded 9,000

Physical destruction of Warsaw:93% of the city destroyed

Including:

10,455 buildings

923 historical sturctures (museums, palaces, etc.)

25 churches

14 public libraries

64 high schools

81 elementary schools

5 universities and graduate schools

Source: J.K. Zawodny, Nothing But Honour: TheStory of the Warsaw Uprising, 1944 (Stanford, CA:

Hoover Institution Press, 1978).

Warsaw Uprising,

August 1 — October 2, 1944.

On the Eve:Population: approximately 800,000, including

about 25,000 Jews in hiding (the Nazis had

murdered about 350,000 local Jews in previous

years)

Polish underground insurgents (mostly Home

Army): 40,000, including probably 4,000

women (only 10,000 of the insurgents were

armed but mostly with small arms and lacked

artilery, air cover, and armor).

German military and police garrison and rein-

forcements: 21,520 (including tanks, artilery,

and planes).

Polish civilian losses: Killed 200,000 — 250,000

Deported from Warsaw 600,000

Including:

To the concentration camp in Pruszków: 500,000

next to other Nazi concentration camps: 50,000

and to German forced labor camps: 150,000

Polish insurgent losses:Killed-in-action 10,200

Missing, presumed dead 7,000

Seriously wounded 5,000

Taken prisoner and sent to POW camps 15,900

German losses:Killed-in-action 10,000

Missing, presumed dead 7,000

Wounded 9,000

Physical destruction of Warsaw:93% of the city destroyed

Including:

10,455 buildings

923 historical sturctures (museums, palaces, etc.)

25 churches

14 public libraries

64 high schools

81 elementary schools

5 universities and graduate schools

Source: J.K. Zawodny, Nothing But Honour: TheStory of the Warsaw Uprising, 1944 (Stanford, CA:

Hoover Institution Press, 1978).

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Between 1914–21 and 1939–45, the Poles sus-tained terrible population losses, placing them ina comparable position with the Jews andArmenians. During the Second World War, thePoles suffered from the Soviets, the Germans, andtheir auxiliaries from minority ethnic groups. Inthe eastern Polish province of Volhynia, the Polesfaced the wrath of the Ukrainian nationalists ofthe Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA). Accordingto W∏adyslaw and Ewa Siemaszko, the UPAactions in Volhynia were genocidal. They listedmany instances of anti-Polish violence in theirmonumental Genocide Committed by UkrainianNationalists on the Polish Population of VolhyniaDuring World War II (1939–1945), which took thelives of tens of thousands of Poles.

While acts of genocide have an old history,the legal concept of genocide as such is relativelynew. The term genocide was coined in 1942 by aPolish-Jewish lawyer Rafa∏ Temkin whoharkened from Poland’s southeastern border-lands. After the war, he became the chief authorof the Convention on the Prevention andPunishment of the Crime of Genocide, ultimatelyapproved by the General Assembly of the UnitedNations on December 9, 1948. According to theConvention, which has been ratified by most UNmember states, “genocide means any of the fol-lowing acts committed with intent to destroy, inwhole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial, or reli-gious group, as such.” The concept of genocidealso includes physical and mental torture, rape,forcible sterilization, and other actions “calculat-ed to bring about a physical destruction of agroup in whole or in part.”

Genocide in Volhynia started in 1939 withthe Soviets shooting, arresting, and deportingthe locals, mostly Catholic Poles, but alsoOrthodox Ukrainians, and Jews, mainly refugeesfrom the West. In 1941 and 1942, the Nazis con-centrated on the mass-murder of Jews, SovietPOWs, Communist functionaries, and, to a lesserextent, the remnant of the Polish Catholic elite.Later, Nazi terror affected also ordinary Polesand Ukrainians.

Some Ukrainian nationalists turned to geno-cide to get rid of their Polish neighbors. Acts ofgenocide were perpetrated against all Poles whofound themselves within the sphere of operationof the UPA and other Ukrainian extreme nation-alist groups. No mercy was shown on account ofsex or age. According to the Siemaszkos,wounded Polish victims were thrown into wells,cut down with axes, sawed with saws, and hadtheir eyes gouged out. Alexander Korman enu-

merated as many 136 types of torture practicedby the UPA.

According to the accounts collected by theSiemaszkos genocidal acts were often committedby neighbor against neighbor, and sometimeseven by spouse against spouse in mixed mar-riages (such crimes were usually perpetratedunder duress). It is worth stressing that the vic-tims also included those ethnic Ukrainians whoopposed the extreme nationalists of the UPA.Here is an eyewitness account of the aftermath ofa single massacre: “The corpses were laid out in arow in front of the house, beginning with the eld-erly [Polish] father, and next to him his [Polish]wife, son-in-law, and [Polish] daughter, sur-rounded by their three children. All of this, withthe coffins standing next to the bodies, made ahorrifying impression. The son-in-law (aUkrainian) staring with his empty eye sockets (hiseyes had been gouged out), all covered in knifewounds, drew our attention. His Polish wife, withher teeth knocked out of her lower jaw, her breastpunctured with knife wounds, with broken armsand forearms and legs also broken at the thighsand shins. Axe wounds were inflicted on the backof the elderly mother (aged around 60) and on thehead of the boy and the elderly father (around70).” Having committed murder in such a heinousfashion, the attackers typically looted the proper-ty and destroyed all traces of Polish settlement.

Mercifully, there were also righteousUkrainians who helped Poles. Furthermore,Polish self-defense units arose. Some of themwere affiliated with the Home Army, while othersoperated spontaneously. Some cooperated withSoviet partisans and a few procured arms fromthe Germans.

In addition to listing specific instances ofassaults, the Siemaszkos reproduce Ukrainiannationalist documents, including military orders,press articles, and songs and poetry. A collectionof 78 rare photographs graphically illustrates thehorror of what transpired in Volhynia during theSecond World War. The Siemaszkos argue com-pellingly that what took place there was in fact anattempt at the total biological liquidation of thePoles. The slogan “Ukraine for the Ukrainians”was fulfilled in the most brutal way possible.

W∏adys∏aw and Ewa Siemaszko, Ludobójstwodokonane przez nacjonalistów ukraiƒskich na ludnoÊcipolskiej Wo∏ynia 1939–1945, 2 volumes (Warszawa:Wydawnictwo von borowiecky, 2000).

Professor Grott teaches at the JagiellonianUniversity in Cracow.

The Volhynian Massacres, 1939–1945by Professor Bogumi∏ Grott

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An Overview of the History of Poles in Modern Lithuaniaby John Radzi∏owski

The Polish community in modern Lithuania(and Belarus) traces its origins to the late MiddleAges. In 1386, Poland and Lithuania concluded adynastic union with the marriage of the heiressto the Polish throne (Jadwiga or Hedwig d’Anju)and the Lithuanian Grand Duke (Jogaila inLithuanian, and Jagie∏∏o in Polish). At the time,the Grand Duchy of Lithuania was a sprawling,sparsely populated military state stretching tothe Black Sea, whose rulers were ethno-linguisti-cally Baltic and pagan. The majority of inhabi-tants were East Slavic and Orthodox. The dynas-tic union was a catalyst for the conversion of theruling classes to Roman Catholicism.

Within a relatively short time, the majorityof the formerly pagan elite not only acceptedCatholicism but were Polonized in the process.At that time, ethnic identity did not exist in themodern sense. So, Polonization not only openeda cultural window to Europe, it also becameincreasingly tied to political rights. At the time,Poland’s large service-gentry class retained awide range of “civil rights” that helped ensure alimited central monarchy. By Polonizing,Lithuania’s elite joined this class. WhileLithuania retained a fair degree of autonomywell into the early modern era (until the Union ofLublin in 1569), it was not, as some historianshave supposed, based along ethnic lines.Polonization was also furthered by growingcommercial ties and by immigration as Polish-Slavic settlement gradually spread northwestalong the Narew and Niemen watersheds.

Vilnius (Pol. Wilno), the historic capital ofLithuania, was for much of its history a city inhab-ited mostly by Poles, Belorussians, and Jews. Priorto the partitions of Poland (1772–95) names like“Poland” or “Lithuania” in this context had noethnic connotation as understood today. Thus,Adam Mickiewicz, Poland’s bard, could quiteproperly begin Poland’s great national epic poem,Pan Tadeusz, with the line “O Lithuania, myhomeland, thou art like health to me!”

The 123-year period of Russian rule had adeleterious effect on the area’s Polish elite which,aside from physical losses due to tsarist repres-sion, lost most of its lands. They retained a strongcultural tradition and their Polishness was broad-ly understood to include other ethnic and reli-gious groups. “Lithuanian” identity among thisPolish strata was hard to define, being partly aregional identity and partly political and social.Many of modern Poland’s leading figures

emerged from this multi-ethnic region, includingMickiewicz, Józef Pi∏sudski, and Nobel laureateCzes∏aw Mi∏osz. Nevertheless, Russian rule andthe emergence of modern nationalism droveLithuania’s various ethnic and religious groupsapart and made impossible the recreation of amulti-ethnic Polish-Lithuanian state. Of particularimportance was the rise of modern Lithuaniannationalism that grew from a new strata of elitesthat originated largely from the Baltic-speakingpeasant majority.

World War I and the Polish-Soviet Warresulted in the re-creation of independent Polishand Lithuanian states. In 1919 Bolshevik forceshanded Vilnius over to Lithuania against thewishes of the Polish population. Lithuanianclaims to a large part of Belarus, however, wereignored and Poland’s forcible seizure of Vilnius in1920 was bitterly resented by Lithuanian nation-alists who nursed long grievances against Poland.The result was Polish rule over an ethnicallymixed area, while a Polish population of perhaps250,000 remained within the boundaries ofLithuania, about 10 percent of the total popula-tion. The two states were without diplomatic rela-tions until 1938. Demands for greater culturalautonomy (similar to that granted to the Jewishminority) were resented by nationalists, who tookthe position that most of Lithuania’s Poles werereally deracinated Lithuanians who merely need-ed to be re-Lithuanianized. Efforts were nothelped by the desire of many Poles in Lithuania to“re-unite” the country with Poland. As a result,Lithuanians took measures to confiscate Polish-owned land, especially estates; restrict religiousservices, schools, and publication in Polish; andlimit Polish voting rights. Poles were often

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referred to in the press as the “lice of the nation.”In the areas controlled by Poland, new settlementof Polish army veterans and economic ties withPoland brought greater Polonization.

World War II brought tragedy and disasterto the region, resulting in a loss of independencefor Lithuania, mass murder of the region’s Jews,and the destruction of a free Poland. The Polishcommunity of Lithuania was devastated by bothSoviet and German rule, losing most of its elites.(Thousands of members of the Polish elite alsoperished in Ponary at the hands of Lithuaniancollaborators.) Polish resistance cells emergedvery early in this region, first to combat Sovietkilling and repression and later to resist Nazirule. Large Soviet partisan groups were alsoactive and in 1943 began a brutal offensiveagainst non-Communist Poles which includedthe massacres of entire villages. Although someshort-term alliances against the Germans wereeffected, the Soviets used these opportunities toidentify and later arrest or kill the leaders of thePolish underground. After the Soviet takeover in1944, Polish armed resistance continued into1952. Tens of thousands of Poles left or were“transferred” to Poland proper.

The new Lithuanian SSR incorporatedVilnius and most of the area seized by Poland in1920. Although both Poles and Lithuanians suf-fered under Soviet rule, the Soviet governmentpursued a divide-and-conquer policy andallowed Polish cultural life to continue, albeitunder tight control. Poles were used to counterthe perceived threat of Lithuanian nationalism.As Lithuania began its struggle for independ-ence in 1989, the Polish minority was again usedby the communist regime against the independ-ence movement, despite the fact that the PolishSolidarity movement and all subsequent freePolish governments strongly supportedLithuanian independence. Opposition to inde-pendence was strongest in Vilnius, while ruralPolish communities generally favored independ-ence. In the end the ineptitude and brutally ofSoviet attempts to retain control of Lithuaniaundermined whatever support existed for theold regime among Lithuania’s Poles.

Independent Lithuania has a Polish popula-tion of somewhere between the 1989 Soviet cen-sus count of 258,000 and higher estimates of280,000 (about 7 percent of the population). Itremains heavily concentrated in the Vilniusregion and along the Belarusan border, althoughPolish communities also exist in Kaunas (Pol.Kowno), Trokai (Pol. Troki), and Klaipòda (Pol.K∏ajpeda, Ger. Memel). Poles have a variety of

political, social, cultural, and religious organiza-tions, as well as over 125 schools and 10 periodi-cals, such as Kurier Wileƒski (Wilno Courier).

Following independence, old issues aroseonce again. Lithuanian nationalists sought torestrict the Polish minority and Lithuanize them.Lithuanian nationalists under VytautasLandsbergis were particularly strident in theirdemands to repress the Polish minority and toextract an apology for the Polish seizure ofVilnius in 1920. The extremist Iron Wolf societyeven launched physical attacks on Poles in a fewinstances. The Polish minority, for its part,demanded autonomy and transferred its alle-giance to Warsaw. The Polish government wasforced to play a careful mediating role which fre-quently frustrated the Polish minority. Tensionsbetween the two countries peaked in 1992 andearly 1993. Yet, Lithuania’s need to rejoin the westand, ironically, the electoral success of the formercommunists, allowed the two countries to sign amutual cooperation treaty on April 26, 1994. Thishelped to cool tempers within Lithuania and nor-malize relations between the two countries.Occasional problems have flared over matterssuch as attempts to spell Polish names viaLithuanian orthography in official documentsand education in Polish. The biggest source of bit-terness has been the slow pace of the return ofPolish property, especially in the areas incorpo-rated into the “Greater Vilnius.” Nevertheless,given the past tension evident in relations, the sit-uation of Polish minority has improved.

Sources: Vladis Krivickas, “The PolishMinority in Lithuania, 1918–1926,” Slavonic andEast European Review 53, no. 130 (Jan. 1975):78–91; Z. Anthony Kruszewski, “Poles in theNewly Independent States of Lithuania,Belarus, and Ukraine,” in National Identities andEthnic Minorities in Eastern Europe, Ray Taras,ed. (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1998);Vytautas Landsbergis, Lithuania: IndependentAgain (Seattle: University of Washington Press,2000); Artur Patek, “Polska Diaspora naLitwie,” in Polska Diaspora, Adam Walaszek,ed. (Kraków: Wydawnictwo Literackie, 2001);John Radzi∏owski, “Ejszyszki Revisited,1939–45,” Polin: Studies in Polish Jewry 14 (forth-coming, 2002); Tim Snyder, “The Poles:Western Aspirations, Eastern Minorities,” inNations Abroad: Diaspora Politics andInternational Relations in the Former Soviet Union,Charles King and Neil J. Melvin, eds., (Boulder,Colo.: Westview Press, 1998); press articlesfrom Gazeta Wyborcza, Warsaw Voice, ˚ycie, andKurier Wileƒski.

The National Armed Forces: A Glimpse at the Grass-Rootsby Marek Jan Chodakiewicz

Our knowledge about the National ArmedForces (Narodowe Si∏y Zbrojne, NSZ), a far-rightPolish anti-Nazi and anti-Communist under-ground organization, is largely limited to itspolitical center and top military cadres.1

Although in-depth studies of the NSZ are sorelylacking in English, most Western scholars andpundits focus on their extreme nationalistic ide-ology, anti-Semitism in particular, projecting itonto all soldiers of that underground group.However, this is a rather incomplete and distort-ed approach. To expand our understanding ofthe organization it is necessary to shift the focusfrom the leadership to the rank-and-file mem-bers. Therefore we have examined personal filesof the NSZ soldiers in the county of JanówLubelski/KraÊnik in the Province of Lublin.2

Most of the soldiers were male Polish Christianpeasants, often related and of average economicmeans or even outright poor, with some militaryexperience prior to joining the underground andfighting against both enemies of independentPoland: the Nazis and Communists.

HistorySince personal files largely lack specific data

on the ideological profile of the soldiers of theNational Armed Forces, it is important torecount briefly the history of the organization inthe county of Janów to understand that therecruits did not necessarily follow the extremenationalist line of the political center in Warsaw.3

Like elsewhere in central Poland, the NSZwas active under both the Nazi (1939–44) and theSoviet Communist (1944–47) occupations of thecounty. The developments within the localnationalist underground only partly followedthe nation-wide patterns. Already in the fall of1939 several university students and members ofthe far right National Radical Camp (ObózNarodowo-Radykalny, ONR–ABC) flockedhome to the county, where they founded a fewcells of the Lizard Union (Zwiàzek Jaszczurczy,ZJ). Simultaneously, a number of activists of thestaunchly right-wing National Party(Stronnictwo Narodowe, SN) formed the countystructure of the National Military Organization(Narodowa Organizacja Wojskowa, NOW).Initially, however, the ZJ and NOW were over-shadowed in strength by the Pi∏sudskite militaryunderground Union for Armed Struggle(Zwiàzek Walki Zbrojnej, ZWZ).

The ZWZ was an umbrella organization,uniting most Polish clandestine activists in thecounty (who maintained an overlapping mem-bership in other groups as well). Unfortunately,in 1940 and 1941 the ZWZ command sufferedextremely serious blows from the Nazis whoalso came close to destroying other groups aswell. However, the National MilitaryOrganization recouped and began taking controlof the now-rudderless clandestine cells of theZWZ and other organizations, including the cen-ter-left populist Peasant Party (StronnictwoLudowe, SL) with much of its Peasant Battalions(Bataliony Ch∏opskie, BCh), the right-wing pop-ulist Polish Armed Organization (PolskaOrganizacja Zbrojna, POZ), and at least a dozenother secret groups.

By mid-1942 most clandestine forces in thecounty were arrayed under the Nationalist com-mand in the National Army (Armia Narodowa,AN). By the fall of 1942 the National Radicals ofthe ZJ and most of the Nationalists of the NOW(so-called SN Opposition, which controlled AN)united to form the National Armed Forces.However, a minority of the NOW negotiated amerger with the ZWZ to form the Home Army(Armia Krajowa, AK) in the spring of 1943. TheAK county command was controlled by theNationalists with almost an equal participationof the Pi∏sudskites and some involvement bycenter-left Populists of the SL, in particular in thecivilian structures of the underground, theCounty Government Delegation (powiatowaDelegatura Rzàdu, DR). Most of the NSZ subor-dinated itself to the AK on an autonomous basisonly gradually between the spring and summerof 1944. However, the nationalist radical minori-ty of the NSZ (ZJ) stayed apart from the merger.

During the winter of 1944 and 1945, alreadyunder the Soviet occupation, the NOW part ofthe AK joined the NSZ part of the AK and bothsubordinated themselves to the nation-wideNational Military Union (NarodoweZjednoczenie Wojskowe, NZW). Locally, how-ever, the group continued to use the appelationNOW. Until the summer of 1945 the nationalistradicals of the NSZ (ZJ) maintained a separateorganization. Later, the majority subordinateditself to the NOW-NZW, while a small minorityjoined the Pi∏sudskite Freedom andIndependence (WolnoÊç i Niezawis∏oÊç, WiN).

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IdeologyAs mentioned, personal files do not allow for

any definite conclusions concerning ideologicalpreferrences and party affinities of individualsoldiers of the NSZ. Many members of varioussecret organizations who were coopted by theNationalists and the National Radicals between1940 and 1944 usually followed their superiors inthe complicated twists and turns of mergers andsplits that characterized the clandestine Polishindependentist organizations of the county ofJanów. The heterodox composition of the mem-bers and their original underground groups guar-anteed the lack of ideological uniformity amongthe soldiers of the NSZ. The rank-and-file wereideologues neither of the National Party nor of theNational-Radical Camp. According to a Populistobserver, even “the ONR [i.e. the far right part ofthe NSZ] is not considered a political group.There are small assault squads here composed ofpeople who do not have any political affinities butare acting to avenge themselves on the [German]occupier for the evil deeds and [for] the victims[of the Nazi terror].”4 Thus, it can be argued thatthe average NSZ man and woman were virtuallyindistingishable from their counterparts in theHome Army and the Peasant Battalions in termsof their Polish nationalism. After all, their nation-al consciousness was solidified, if not formed, inthe face of the terror visited on their country bytwo foreign invadors, the German Nazis andSoviet Communists.

Structures and membershipBetween 1942 and 1947, within the struc-

tures of the NSZ, the county of Janów constitut-ed a self-contained territorial unit of the LublinDistrict (okr´g). The county was divided into 5regions (rejony), each fielding at least a singleclandestine company of the NSZ. Each regionwas divided into outposts (placówki). At thepeak of their expansion in July 1944, the NationalArmed Forces enrolled a minimum of 1,500 anda maximum of 3,000 soldiers in the county ofJanów. About 400 of them fought part-time orfull-time in guerrilla units inside and outside ofthe county. The rest remained in their cells asgarrison troops and reinforcements.5 At theapogee of their numerical strength in March1944, there were about 7,000 NSZ fighters in theLublin District, and perhaps 90,000 in Poland.Only a fraction of those who served in the under-ground between 1939 and 1947 lived longenough to establish a personal file with the NSZveteran union after 1990. The veteran union hasabout 10,000 members nationwide.

The SampleOur sample contains 172 veterans, including

27 women. In 1991, they were enrolled in sevenoutposts of the NSZ veteran union in the locali-ties of the former county of JanówLubelski/KraÊnik (Dàbrowica, KraÊnik, ¸ychów,Potok Stany, Rudnik, Zaklików, ˚abno). Fourmembers currently with the veteran union out-post in Lublin who spent the war time in thecounty of Janów are also included in the sampleas are six other local NSZ members who werementioned by their colleagues in the question-naires but lack their own personal files.

The most important information in the per-sonal files comes from questionnaires veteransfilled out in 1990-91 concerning their personalexperiences. Some entries in the questionnaires ofthe 172 soldiers surveyed were incomplete.Simply, the respondents ignored certain ques-tions. Hence, at times, some problems are consid-ered below on a basis of fewer than the total num-ber of respondents in the sample. The respon-dents were asked to provide their age, social ori-gin, profession, the duration of their service in theNSZ, their rank, combat experience, and stories ofpersecution by Nazis and Communists.

AgeWe can differentiate between three age

cohorts for the purpose of this study. The sen-ior batch consists of soldiers born before 1916(13 men and 5 women); the middle group con-cerns those born between 1916 and 1926 (110men and 20 women); and the youngest groupregards fighters born after 1926 (22 men and 2women). Altogether 172 persons in the sampleprovided data on their age. Probably 100 ofthem had had some form of military experiencebefore joining the NSZ.

NSZ Soldiers by Age in Janów County

Soldiers born: Before After

1916 1916–26 1926 Total

Men 13 110 22 145Women 5 20 2 27TOTAL 18 130 24 172

Eighteen members of the NSZ, includingfive women, belong to the oldest category.However, the group of soldiers born before 1916is underrepresented mostly because of naturalattrition but also for political reasons. Older andthus usually higher-ranked on the military andorganizational ladder, they would necessarilybear the brunt of Nazi and Communist terror.This point is further reinforced by the fact that

the personal files show that the rank-and-file sol-diers from the oldest cohort survived their supe-riors from the same group. The oldest of thatgroup is Maria ¸obodziƒska “Maria” (born1901). Active in the underground since 1939, shewas in charge of supplying food and caring forwounded partisans in the environs ofZakrzówek. Her male counterpart age-wise,Bronis∏aw Gnat “Tajny” (born 1907), was only aplatoon leader at the Szastarka outpost after1941. Their superiors, senior in rank and age, didnot survive until 1990 and hence cannot be con-sidered in the current study. Data is also lackingto determine how many in this cohort served inthe army even though both the Russian Empire(which controlled the Lublin area until 1915) andthe Republic of Poland (between 1918 and 1939)maintained obligatory military duty for allmales. It is also unknown how many able-bodiedmen fought in the First World War (1914-1918)and the Polish-Bolshevik War (1919-1921).Nonetheless, it appears that most males in theoldest age cohort and some in the middle agecohort must have had some military experiencebefore joining the NSZ.

The largest single category in our sample isNSZ members born between 1916 and 1926 (110able-bodied men and 19 women). At the time ofthe war, they were mostly of military draft age.Thus, it was natural that they volunteered orwere asked to join the underground in numbersgreater than other age cohorts. Those bornbetween 1916 and 1922 (or, more correctly,between 1900 and 1922) most likely performedtheir obligatory military duty with the PolishArmy during peacetime and some of them evensaw combat. At least some of the representativesof the middle cohort struggled against the Nazisand Soviet Communists in the SeptemberCampaign of 1939.

The third age group consists of those bornafter 1926: 22 men and 2 women. A relativelysmall size of the cohort reflects the reluctance ofthe NSZ leadership to enroll minors in theorganization. The presence of minors in theranks, particularly in the field units, was rare.This is true especially for individuals born after1929. However, in the rare instances when per-sons age 17 and less did serve, their membershipusually resulted from a military contingency. Forexample, several minors were admitted to fieldunits of the NSZ after the total destruction ofBorów and neighboring villages by the Germansin February 1944.6 The youngsters, including the11-year-old private Marian Fràczek “Kajtek”(born 1933), simply had neither family nor a

home to return to and, hence, were co-opted bythe guerrillas. Another 11-year old, AleksanderSkrzypek “Orze∏” (born 1933), was enlisted as amessenger to bring help during a Communistattack on his village. Almost all of these minorswere dismissed from active service in August1944 when the NSZ (and other Polish under-ground movements, including the Home Army)re-converted itself into a cadre organization.7

However, a few who joined guerrilla units asminors were kept on during the second occupa-tion when they reached maturity. For example,Marian Bobolewski “Góral” joined at 16 in thespring of 1943 and fought until his capture bythe NKVD in the fall of 1944, shortly after heturned 17. Nonetheless, minors serving in fieldunits were an exception tolerated often becausethey were orphans (e.g., Roman D˝alik“Szatan”), or their close relatives were in theNSZ. The influence of family connections onmembership in the underground should there-fore be considered next.

FamilyUnlike the regular military, membership in

underground organizations was often a familyaffair. A minimum of 50 out of 172 persons in thesample reported, unprompted, some family con-nections in the underground. In some instancesseveral members of the same family spanningthree generations and both sexes served in theNSZ, mostly in clandestine cells.

Youngsters were much more prevalent inthe NSZ outposts than in the guerrilla units.Family bonds decided the case. In 1942,Stanis∏aw Saganowski “Dàb”, the commander ofthe Aleksandrówka outpost, recruited his sonJerzy Bogdan Saganowski “Brzoza” (born 1925),who was 17 at the time. In 1943, W∏adys∏awKrawiecki “Kocio∏”, the commander of theMajorat outpost, swore in his younger brother,Józef Krawiecki “Krupa” (born 1930), who sub-sequently served as a courier.

Commonly, participation in the NSZ was afamily affair. This accounts for high enrollmentin particular families. The Krawiecki brotherswere joined in the NSZ by the remainder of theirfamily, parents Józef and Katarzyna, and sisterNatalia “Wierzba” (born 1921). Their farmsteadserved as a clandestine hospital and an armsdepot. Similarly, all of the children of theSpaleniec family—the sisters Bronis∏awa“Jadzia” (born 1926) and Stanis∏awa “Ma∏a”(born 1929) as well as the brothers Jan “Sobieski”(born 1924) and W∏adys∏aw “Modrzew” (born1918) were recruited by their father, Jan

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Spaleniec “Sokó∏.” There were other soldiers-sib-lings: Jan, Kazimierz, and Tadeusz Boczek, andJulian and Edward Stolarz. Six members of thePoray-Wybranowski family served in the NSZ:the parents Jan “Radosz” and El˝bieta “Gandhi”,their two daughters, Maria “Fala” and Hanna“Hajduczek”, and their two sons, Kazimierz“Kret” and Józef “Âwider.”8

Family ties often guaranteed safety and loy-alty that transcended even patriotism itself.Women joined almost invariably because theirsiblings, parents, or other relatives were alreadymembers. They constituted a minority of the offi-cially sworn-in fighters: 27 out of 172 in the sam-ple. In reality, however, the proportion ofwomen involved informally was most certainlyhigher. Many helped their relatives and friendswithout formalizing their membership in theunderground, i.e., taking a formal oath.9

Social Origin and ProfessionMost NSZ soldiers came from the peasantry:

113 out of 117 who responded the question abouttheir social origin. Only a few claimed to be fromother social classes: three were members of theintelligentsia and one of the landed nobility(Maria Zub-Zdanowicz née Poray-Wybranowska). No data is available for the restbut—judging by their last names and ruraldomicile—it can safely be assumed that over-whelmingly they were peasants.

Data on social origin partly reflects the infor-mation on the professional life of 41 NSZ sol-diers at the time of the war and in its immediateaftermath. Farming was pursued by 36 persons,one person worked as a store clerk, another as acooperative employee, still another was a storeand restaurant owner, and two were employedwith the railroad. There were no entries for theremainder of the sample, but it can be safelyassumed that, overwhelmingly, they wereinvolved in farming because they listed thecountryside as their residence.

The fact that over 90 percent of those sur-veyed were of peasant background and pursuedfarming for a living should not come as a sur-prise. Polish Christian peasants constituted anabsolute majority in the county of Janów. A ruralbranch of almost any underground organizationautomatically enlisted most of its recruits fromthe majority group in the countryside. Further,additional research strongly suggests that mostNSZ members were small-landholders and poorpeasants.10 This should be stressed becauseCommunist propaganda often depicted the NSZas a “a lordly army” (paƒskie wojsko).

Duration of ServiceOf those surveyed, 59 claimed membership

in the NSZ until August 1944 only; one personclaimed membership after 1944 only; and 98 saidthey served before and after August 1944. Thus,over half of the sample indicated their tenure inthe underground to have been during both theNazi and the Soviet Communist occupations.However, the actual number in that categorymay actually be larger. In 1990–91, when thedata were collected, many were still reluctant totalk about their anti-Communist activities. Mostof those who claimed that they discontinuedtheir involvement in the NSZ in July 1944 werenot deserters or turncoats. First, their command-ing officers dissolved their units and orderedmany to demobilize. Second, more importantly,some NSZ members were simply arrested,imprisoned, or deported by the Communists;others were drafted or induced into theCommunist-led army. Third, a few went intohiding. Fourth, the rest re-entered civilian life:they enrolled at school, moved out of the area, orundertook the rebuilding of their war-ravagedfarmsteads. Whenever possible, however, eventhe “civilians” kept in touch with their erstwhilecomrades-in-arms. That certainly seems to havebeen the case if they remained in the county.

Generally, a continuity of one’s involvementwith the underground was the norm during bothoccupations. The only person in the sample whojoined the National Armed Forces after thearrival of the Soviets, Antoni Fiut “Smia∏y” (bornin 1930), was too young to have been permittedto join before. The longest serving soldier of theNSZ was Andrzej Kiszka “Dàb”. He cooperatedwith the underground already in October 1939and joined the “Ojciec Jan” guerrilla detachmentin June 1943. From August to November 1943,his unit was a part of the NSZ. Later it becamesubordinated to the AK only to revert to theNationalist command in the second half of 1944.Kiszka remained with his unit and, after 1954,fought and survived on his own until he wascaptured by the Communists in his sylvanbunker outside of Janów Lubelski on December31, 1961. He spent 22 years underground.11

RankThe sample of 172 persons consists over-

whelmingly of rank and file members of theNSZ. Most of the commissioned officers werekilled by the Nazis, Soviets, or PolishCommunists. A few escaped to the West. By thetime the personal files were collected, most of theremainder of the leaders had died of natural

causes. Of the two officers, who lived longenough to join the NSZ veteran organization,Franciszek Flisiƒski “MyÊliwy” (born 1917) wasa First Lieutenant in the reserve of the artillerybefore the war. The other, Second LieutenantRoman Duma “Duszyƒski” (born 1914), receivedhis commission only on July 5, 1945, from theLublin NSZ underground command (he laterwas transferred to the AK–WiN “Zapora” unit,where he retained his rank). Non-commissionedofficers were a mixed lot. Some of them had heldtheir rank before the war, as e.g. the CavalrySergeant of the reserve (wachmistrz) Jan Wieleba“Lew” (born 1907) of the 14th Jaz∏owieckiLancers Regiment. Others rose through ranks.For example, platoon leader (plutonowy) RomanD˝alik “Szatan” (born 1925) had been a juniormilitary cadet (elew) before the war with a rankof private-trumpeter.

Military ranks in the NSZ

Privates NCOs Commissioned Officers

108 13 2

Service PostMost of the NSZ members served in the

outposts (placówki). As garrison troops, theyrarely saw any offensive action at all. Instead,they were support troops, fulfilling vital dutieslike gathering intelligence, storing weapons,and providing food and shelter for the fieldunits. On occasion, the guerrilla units wouldaugment their strength by temporarily mobiliz-ing members of the outposts for a particularaction. Only a few of NSZ soldiers were full-time partisan fighters. Overwhelmingly, thesewere fugitives, first sought by the Nazis and,later, by the Communists.

Served in

Field unit Outpost Both

7 71 39

The earliest reported instance of armedguerrilla activity is that of Tadeusz Boczek“Groêny” (born 1912). He fought in theAleksandrówka unit in September and October1942. Later, he was assigned to the SpecialAction group at the outpost of Szastarka. Boczekwas mobilized periodically for combat until hesurrendered to the Communists in 1947.However, only a little more than 30 percent ofthe NSZ members (61 soldiers) ever saw combat.When they did go into action, it was both againstthe Nazis and the Communists. This fully reflect-ed the theory and practice of the National

Armed Forces which fought against Poland’stwo enemies often simultaneously.

Fighting

vs. Nazis vs. Communists vs. both

only only

13 8 40

TerrorTerror affected all NSZ soldiers and their

families, though some of them were impacteddirectly. It is worth stressing that most of thosewho survived their arrest by the Nazis wereseized for reasons other than their participationin the underground. Most often they were cap-tured as random hostages, slaves for forcedlabor, or as peasants delinquent in surrenderingthe forced food quota. On the other hand, thevictims of the Communists suffered incarcera-tion for their independentist activities and notany other offenses. When aware of their clandes-tine affiliation, the Nazis usually tortured andexecuted the NSZ fighters, or sent them to con-centration camps which was often tantamount toexecution. The Communists usually tortured theunderground members but more often than notpreferred incarcerating rather than killing them,especially after May 1945.

Collectively, nearly half of the sample, or 82persons were apprehended by either the Nazisor the Communists or both. Some of the victimswere captured more than once. In total, 82 NSZsoldiers were captured more than 124 times.Only two women reportedly suffered arrest,though. Janina Rozenbaugier and Teresa Bielecwere both arrested by the Communists. The for-mer was released shortly after her incarceration;the latter was sentenced to five years in jail.

Persons arrested by:

the Nazis the Communists Both Total

8 70 4 82

It seems that fewer people lived to tell the taleof an arrest by the Nazis than by the Soviet orPolish Communists. In other words, the survivalrate for the victims of Communism was higher.Overall, at least 124 arrests were made, with fewpeople experiencing more than one apprehension.The Soviets and Polish Communists were respon-sible for nearly 85 percent (114) of the arrests. Theexact number of the arrests carried out by theoccupiers is impossible to establish because sever-al of the seized NSZ soldiers described theirpredicament as “having experienced manyarrests” (aresztowany wielokrotnie).

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Three examples illustrate the point. TadeuszWojewoda “Litwin” (born 1922) escaped from aforced labor camp (Baudienst) but was arrestedby the Nazis and spent six months in theMajdanek concentration camp. Released, hefought in the “Cichy” unit of the NSZ. OnOctober 18, 1944, he was apprehended by theNKVD and sent to a Siberian camp. WhenWojewoda returned home on November 14,1947, he was arrested by the Office of PublicSecurity (Urzàd Bezpieczeƒstwa, UB), interro-gated, tortured, and held in prison without atrial. In another case, Józef Nieradko “Batory”(born 1915) was arrested “several times” after1945 but each time escaped his captivity. Then,in 1948 , he managed to c ross in toCzechoslovakia where he was captured by theCzech security police and handed back over tothe Polish Communists. Nieradko was sentencedto 15 years but managed to break out in 1949while being transferred. He was recaptured in1953 and released in 1959. Finally, Piotr D´ba“Szum” (born 1917) was deported to the Gulagin January 1945. He returned in December 1947.Within the next four years he was arrested atleast 17 times by the Polish Communist SecretPolice and held without charges for various periods of time.

Instances of Arrests by:

the the Polish

Nazis Soviets Communists Total

10 34 80+ 124+

Most arrests were of a provisional type.Eighty-two NSZ soldiers were seized as hostages,held for interrogation, and released after a shorttime. However, slightly over 25 percent of thosearrested were subsequently sentenced to prisonor camp terms. Most served time in PolishCommunist jails or camps. The Nazis sent threepeople to the Majdanek concentration camp,while the Soviets deported six to the Gulag.(Again, other sources tell us that many more NSZsoldiers were dispatched to Nazi and Communistcamps but they did not survive and, hence, arenot accounted for in the sample).

The duration of provisional arrests oscillatedbetween two weeks, when Wac∏aw Drop“Wacek” (born 1920) was held by the NKVD in adug-out (ziemianka), and 17 months, whenCzes∏aw Be∏za “Malina” (born 1923) was held bythe UB without a trial in KraÊnik, Lublin, andRaciborz prisons. The most lenient prison sentence was two years for Leon Âlusarz “Lis”(born 1922), who had it shortened to 8 months by

an amnesty. The harshest was a death sentencefor Roman D˝alik “Szatan” (born 1925) whichwas later commuted to 15 years.

It is also interesting to note that at least threepeople served in labor camps and coal mines inCommunist Poland. Boles∏aw Chmielowiec“Komar” (born 1920), who was sentenced tonearly 14 years, was sent to the coal mine ofChorzów and the Anielewicz Street labor campin Warsaw (OÊrodek pracy wi´êniów Warszawa—ul. Anielewicza). Arrested in 1946, Zdzis∏aw¸agodziƒski “Longinus” was held in theG´siówka labor camp in Warsaw (formerly aNazi camp) and in other prisons. Even though heturned himself in during the sham amnesty in1947, Stanis∏aw Wójcik “Ig∏a” was sent to slavelabor in the “Jowisz” coal mine, where he spentmore than three years.

Because the survival rate in the county ofJanów was lower under the Nazis than under theSoviets and Polish Communists, fewer individu-als in our sample survived to report their experi-ence with the German security services.12

Captivity and Escape

Types of arrests by:

Temporary Camp Escaped Total

arrest or jail

Nazis 3 4 3 10Soviets 24 6 4 34Polish

Communists 55 20 10 85Total 82 30 17 129

On the positive side, there were seventeensuccessful escapes between 1939 and 1947,including two facilitated by partisan attacks onprisoner convoys. Further, as a result of the Naziand Communist terror, a few of the NSZ mem-bers were forced to go into hiding. That categoryincludes people either with or without falseidentity papers. Only one of the fugitives, acareer soldier, Leon Bartkiewicz “Matros” (born1911), was wanted for his underground work byboth occupiers. Bartkiewicz went into hiding inDecember 1939 only to emerge from the under-ground in 1956.

Other victims of Nazism went into hidingfor reasons usually unrelated to their under-ground work. Some of the fugitives failed todeliver their food quota; avoided conscription ordeserted from the Baudienst; or fled forced laborin Germany or eluded the Arbeitsamt recruiters.It was only upon becoming illegal that some ofthese fugitives joined the underground. Duringthe Communist occupation after 1944, however,

the fugitives were wanted mostly for theirinvolvement with the NSZ. Draft dodging anddesertion were also factors that influenced one’sdecision to go into hiding. Conversely, someinfiltrated the Polish Communist army to avoidarrest, e.g., Roman D˝alik “Szatan” of the“Cichy” unit and Kazimierz Bàk “Niewoda” ofthe Wilko∏az outpost. (However, the data con-cerning the military service of the NSZ soldiersin the Communist-controlled army is too sketchyto allow for any firm conclusions).

Hiding during the Terror

Went into hiding under

the Nazis the Communists both

5 23 1

Military Service under the Communists

Served in the

Communist Army Deserted Dodged Draft

14 5 1

ConclusionMost of our cases concerned the rank and

file male soldiers of the NSZ, who are uniform-ly Polish Christians (172 persons).13 Over 90 per-cent (113 out of 117 queried) of them were ofpeasant origin. Most supported themselves byfarming during the war and its aftermath andseem to have been rather poor (36 out of 41responses). At least 50 of the undergroundmembers had close relatives in the organiza-tion. They were recruited by a family memberor they enlisted their own family members toserve with them. A minimum of 100 had hadsome form of military experience prior to vol-unteering for the NSZ. At least 98 indicated thatthey had served in the NSZ during both Naziand Soviet occupations. As a result, about 45percent (or 82 persons) suffered from the Naziand Communist terror.

On a general plane, our research suggeststhat the social and political profile as well as thewar-time and post war experience of an averageNSZ veteran in the county of Janów differs lit-tle, if any, from his or her counterparts in theHome Army.14

Notes

1 Whereas the clandestine politicians were mostly affili-ates of the far right National Radical Camp (ObózNarodowo-Radykalny, ONR-ABC) and the National Party(Stronnictwo Narodowe, SN), only some of the militarymen, career officers in particular, had been involved

with the Nationalist Movement (Ruch Narodowy)before the Second World War. Many of the top militarypersonnel were either apolitical or vaguely conservativeand even Pi∏sudskite in their views. On the NSZ, its ide-ology, cadres, and activities see Marek JanChodakiewicz, Narodowe Si∏y Zbrojne: „Zàb” przeciw dwuwrogom (Warszawa: Fronda, 1999); Zbigniew S.Siemaszko, Narodowe Si∏y Zbrojne (London: Odnowa,1982); Leszek ˚ebrowski, Narodowe Si∏y Zbrojne:Dokumenty, struktury, personalia, 3 vols. (Warszawa:Burchard Edition, 1994-96); Wojciech Jerzy Muszyƒski,W walce o Wielkà Polsk´: Propaganda zaplecza politycznegoNarodowych Si∏ Zbrojnych, 1939-1945 (Warszawa:Rekonkwista and Rachocki i ska, 2000); and, more gen-erally, Krzysztof Komorowski, Polityka i walka:Konspiracja zbrojna ruchu narodowego, 1939-1945(Warszawa: Oficyna Wydawnicza Rytm, 2000).

2 These files are property of The Union of Soldiers of theNational Armed Forces (Zwiàzek ˚o∏nierzy NarodowychSi∏ Zbrojnych). The Union was created in 1990 in Lublin.Its founders were the NSZ veterans assisted by under-graduate students at the Catholic University of Lublin(Katolicki Uniwersytet Lubelski). It groups people whohad been denied veteran benefits before 1989. There isonly one member of the union in my sample who, byconcealing his affiliation with the NSZ, had securedveterans’ benefits from the official, Communist-domi-nated organization (ZBOWiD). Quite a few of the NSZsoldiers remain in veteran unions of other organiza-tions, most notably the Home Army. They are not con-sidered in this study. We would like to thank Dr.Bohdan Szucki, the president of the Union and keeperof its archives, for granting us access to his collection.Some of the data from the personal files (akta osobowe)of the Archiwum Zwiàzku ˚o∏nierzy Narodowych Si∏Zbrojnych, Okr´g Lublin [afterward AZ˚NSZOL],have been published in the internal circulation Biuletyninformacyjny z dzia∏alnoÊci za lata 1990-1991 (Lublin:Zwiàzek ˚o∏nierzy Narodowych Si∏ Zbrojnych, Okr´gLublin, 1992).

3 For unpublished primary sources to study theNational Armed Forces see Archiwum Akt Nowych[afterward AAN], Warsaw, collection NSZ, files207/1 through 39; AAN, collection DR, files 202/I-42and 54, 202/II-6, 8, 21, 36, and 37, 202/III-7, 22, 34, 33,127, 208; AAN, collection AK, files 203/III-40, 44, 127,128, 137, 203/IV-2, 203/VII-8, 69, 203/XII-9, 10, 14,203/XIII-1; AAN, collection Antyk, file 228/17; AAN,collection RGG, files 214/I-4; and ArchiwumPaƒstwowe Lublin, collection NSZ, files 47 and 48;APL, collection AK, files 1, 13; Archiwum Paƒstwowew Lublinie, Oddzia∏ w Kraƒniku [APLOK], Relacjeustne dotyczàce faktów i zdarzeƒ z lat okupacjihitlerowskiej na terenie Janowa Lubelskiego zebraneprzez Józefa Zar´b´; personal files, ArchiwumBrygady Âwi´tokrzyskiej NSZ [the Holy CrossBrigade Archives], St. Mary’s College of Ave MariaUniversity, Orchard Lake, MI; and the Zub-Zdanowicz Family Archive, Oakville, CT, U.S.A.

4 Komendant LSB “Ambro˝y,” Raport LSB Obw. KraÊnikna dzieƒ 25.V.1944, Archiwum Zak∏adu Historii RuchuLudowego w Warszawie, Bataliony Ch∏opskie KraÊnik,file IV/9.

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�Maria Zub-Zdanowicz and NSZsoldiers from the county of Janów(the “Step” Unit of the HolyCross Brigade) about to link upwith General George Patton,May 1945.

5 Chodakiewicz, Narodowe Si∏y Zbrojne, 325-29; MarcinZaborski, “Okr´g Lubelski Narodowych Si∏Zbrojnych,” Narodowe Si∏y Zbrojne: Materia∏y z sesjinaukowej poÊwi´conej historii narodowych Si∏ Zbrojnych,Warszawa, 25 paêdziernika 1992, ed. by Piotr Szucki(Warszawa: Zwiàzek ˚o∏nierzy Narodowych SiàZbrojnych, 1994), 179-237.

6 Occurring on February 2 and 3, 1944, this was thelargest “pacification” in central Poland with almost 900Polish Christian civilians dead. The attackers includedGermans and Eastern European auxiliaries, dubbed“Ukrainians.” Having leveled the main base of theNSZ in the area, the Nazi gendarmerie reported falselyabout “destroying a bolshevik band,” thus even in itsinternal circulation documents perpetrating the fictiondisseminated daily by the official propaganda thatonly “Jews” and “Communists” resisted the Nazis. SeeFernschreiben, 3 February 1944, ArchiwumPaƒstwowe Lublin, OK I/524, KdOrpoDL, TL(February 1944), file 22. When such nomenclature wasused in the official propaganda, it was intended tointensify anti-Communism among the Poles. For exam-ple, after the NSZ freed twenty prisoners, killing a gen-darme and dispersing the rest of the policemen, nearZakrzówek on January 16, 1944, the Nazi propagandacalled the ambush the work of “kommunistisch-bolschewistischen Elementen.” Forty-one hostageswere executed in revenge. See Bekanntmachung, 20January 1944, APL, KdSipoSD, file 16, 4.

7 Marek Jan Chodakiewicz, “Accommodation andResistance: A Polish County during the Second WorldWar and Its Aftermath, 1939-1947,” (Ph.D. thesis,Columbia University, New York, 2001), 283-308 to bepublished as Between Nazis and Soviets: A Case Study ofOccupation Politics in Poland, 1939-1947 (Lanham, MD:Lexington Books, forthcoming 2003).

8 The Poray-Wybranowskis do not have their personalfiles except for “Fala”—Maria Zub-Zdanowicz,who

provided data on the rest of the family. Originally, thesePosnanian deportee landed nobles and conservativemonarchists were soldiers of the Union of ArmedStruggle (ZWZ). Only after the destruction of the ZWZcounty leadership by the Nazis did the Poray-Wybranowskis join the NSZ. The males in the familywere officers of the NSZ, while the females served asmedics and couriers.

9 For example, neither war-time nor post-war membershiprolls show that the entire family of Second Lieutenant JanWraga “Nerfeld” was involved with the NSZ, a curiousomission since his wife was an important undergroundactivist following her husband’s escape from the Gestapowhich greatly limited his overt functions. The omissionmost likely stems from the fact that the Wragas regis-tered themselves as AK veterans. See Danuta Wraga-Ruszkiewicz, Czas l´ku i nadziei (Kraków: FundacjaCentrum Dokumentacji Czynu Niepodleg∏oÊciowego,Ksi´garnia Akademicka, 2000).

10 This concerns not only the NSZ but also the HomeArmy (BCh) and the Peasant Battalions (BCh). SeeChodakiewicz, “Accommodation and Resistance,”253.

11 Chodakiewicz, Narodowe Si∏y Zbrojne, 228, 437.

12 Appendices 3, 9, 11-14, 38-39, 49, in Chodakiewicz,“Accommodation and Resistance,” 525, 531, 533-36,560-61, 571.

13 There were also soldiers of other ethnic groups in theNSZ partisan units in the county of Janów. However,none of them currently belongs to the Lublin branchof the NSZ veteran organization. See personal files,AZ˚NSZOL; Marek Jan Chodakiewicz, “NSZ i ˚ydzi:Teoria a praktyka,” Prawica Narodowa, vol. 6, no. 1(April-June 1995): 61-73.

14 Chodakiewicz, “Accommodation and Resistance,”239-309.

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As the U.S. prepares for war in Iraq andcontinues to hunt terrorists in Afghanistan andelsewhere, many of Americas allies are waver-ing. France and Germany -- nationsAmericans helped to free during World War IIand helped to rebuild after the war -- areagainst us and one German leader even com-pared the U.S. president to Adolf Hitler. Russia,Ukraine, and Belarus, all ruled by authoritarianex-communists, have aided Iraq, even sellingSaddam Hussein new weapons. Only Britainseems to stand by our side.

Poland has quietly supported the U.S., butthe question is, what next? Today, Polandstands at an important crossroads. She is try-ing to enter the European Union. The Polesare “notoriously” pro- American, a fact thatdoes not sit well with the French andGermans and may even hurt Poland’s chancesto enter the EU.

Although EU membership would be a greatbenefit to Poland and her neighbors, it mightalso be a mixed blessing. The EU has changedfrom a common economic community into avery large, centralized bureaucracy that hasattempted to impose homogeneity on the conti-nent at the expense of local cultures and tradi-tions. It is also relentlessly secular.

On the other hand, an alliance withAmerica requires that Poland be loyal, that itssoldiers, sailors, and airmen be brave, and thatits markets be open to American companies.Americans are not interested in changingPoland’s religious practices or imposing someform of social engineering.

In an ideal world, Poland should be botha member of the EU and a close Americanally. Being in the EU would make Poland abridge between America and Europe. LikeBritain in the west, Poland in the east couldput some backbone into other EU membersand effectively represent American ideals. Bythe same token, a close alliance with the U.S.would ensure the Poland does not becometoo dependent, economically or politically, onother EU members, thus retaining autonomyfrom some of the sillier aspects of the EU andmight show that the EU need not be rigidlyhomogeneous to be successful.

Although Poland has done much to join theEU, it needs to be far more active in pursuingthe U.S. alliance. It is crucial that Polish troopsnot only participate in any coalition againstSaddam Hussein, but that they do more thanguard some distant air bases far from the frontlines. And, most critical of all, the Americanpublic must see the Poles in action and see itregularly. The British have gained muchgoodwill in America thanks to their very pub-lic support of the U.S. effort. Poland needs todo the same.

To date, while Poland is clearly interestedin a special relationship with the U.S., it has notdone two important things. First, it has notmade its case to the American public throughthe media as Britain has. Most Americans thinkthat out of all of Europe, only the British sup-port us. Second, the Poles must take a moreactive and hands-on approach to the Polishcommunity in the U.S. Polish Americans are thenatural ones to put Poland’s case before our fel-low Americans. Yet, we are weak and divided,and consequently, often abused. A more activerole by the Polish government would help gal-vanize Polonia and spur the development of anew generation of leaders who could be effec-tive spokespeople.

Poland needs both Europe and America.Without both, her options become far more lim-ited and her voice for good weaker.

Poland and the U.S.: Is a Special Relationship Possible?by John Radzi∏owski

�

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Nihil Novi

He was a son of a rich merchant. While in theWojciech Górski High School in Warsaw he wasarrested by the Russian police for organizing theschool strike of 1905. At that time he started secretwork for the Bund. Between 1906 and 1910 he stud-ied in Li ’ege, Belgium, where he qualified as engi-neer. In 1912 he returned to Warsaw but was arrest-ed and deported to Narym in Siberia in April 1913.He managed to escape and spent the years 1914-17in Belgium and Great Britain where he directed theBund activities of a group called “Ferayn Verker”and belonged to the British Labor Party. In March1917 he returned to Russia. After the BolshevikRevolution A. was elected to the CentralCommittee of the Bund. In late 1918 he returned toPoland to represent the Bund in the WarsawCouncil of Workers’ Delegates. He urged stoppingPolish military operations in the east and called fora strike in Polish armament industry. Nevertheless,during the First Congress of the Polish Bund inCracow in April 1920, he opposed the party’s entryinto the Comintern. In mid-1921 he was sent toMoscow to negotiate the cooperation of the Bundwith the Comintern but was arrested by the Chekafor contacts with the Social-Revolutionaries. Soonreleased, he returned to Warsaw where he evenmore vigorously opposed the Bund’s cooperationwith the Comintern. For some time he favored theVienna International but in 1930 he moved a reso-lution in favor of the Bund’s entry into the SecondInternational. Along with Henryk Erlich he repre-sented the Bund in the latter. From 1934 he favoreda united front of Communists and Socialists inPoland. He represented Jewish unions in theCentral Committee of Trade Unions (KomisjaCentralna Zwiàzków Zawodowych). In 1937 hevisited Spain. He published many articles in the

Bund press, e.g. Folks-Tsaytung, Nowe Pismo, andMyÊl Socjalistyczna.

When the Third Reich invaded Poland inSeptember 1939, A. went eastward. Arrested by theNKVD in Kowel, he was released and agreed toorganize an International Jewish Anti-FascistCommittee in Great Britain and the United States.After the Polish-Soviet agreement of July 1941 he gotin touch with the Polish Embassy in Kuybyshev andwas appointed the Embassy’s delegate inSverdlovsk. During the recruitment of Polish citi-zens to General W∏adys∏aw Anders’ army, heopposed the Jewish nationalists who wanted sepa-rate Jewish units. On 4 Dec. 1941 he was arrested bythe NKVD along with Henryk Erlich on the groundsof alleged cooperation with Nazi Germany. Bothmen were soon killed by the Soviets despite ener-getic protests by the Polish embassy and Allied gov-ernments. The accusations were absurd and thewhole Alter and Erlich affair remains a politicalenigma. His sister Estera Iwiƒska was a Polishlawyer and his brother, Issak Arens, was a Sovietdiplomat. A. was the author of several works includ-ing “Socjalizm walczàcy” (“Militant Socialism,”1926), “Tsu der Yidnfrage in Poiln” (“The JewishQuestion in Poland” 1927), “Antysemityzm gospo-darczy w Êwietle cyfr” (“Economic Anti-Semitism inthe Light of Data,” 1937) and “Hiszpania w ogniu”(“Spain on Fire,” 1937).

Encyclopedia Judaica, Vol. I; S∏ownik biograficznydzia∏aczy polskiego ruchu robotniczego, Vol. I; HenrykErlich i Wiktor Alter (New York 1951); The Case ofHenryk Erlich and Wiktor Alter (London 1943).

Wojciech RoszkowskiProfessor Roszkowski was the first KoÊciuszkoChairholder at UVA (2000-2002)

�He was the son of a miner from Upper Silesia.

He completed secondary school in Rybnik andthen began theological studies at the JagiellonianUniversity in Cracow. After his ordaination in 1927K. left for Paris where he graduated from theInstitut Catholique. In 1931 he gained a doctoratein philosophy and in Catholic social science.Between 1930 and 1931 he was a curate in D´bieneat Katowice, and from 1931 to 1939 a diocesan

secretary of the Catholic Action in Upper Silesia.During the German occupation he worked in theKatowice curia and secretly helped prisoners ofthe Nazi concentration camps. In September 1945Primate August Hlond appointed him the apos-tolic administrator of Opole. K. greatly contributedto the stabilization of the Polish community in theregion of Opole and to the rebuilding of dozens ofchurches. He set up the Publishing House of the

Alter, Wiktor (7 Feb. 1890 M∏awa–4 Dec. 1941 Moscow), Polish-Jewish Socialist politician.

Kominek, Boles∏aw(23 Dec. 1903 Radlin–10 March 1974 Wroc∏aw), Polish cardinal, archbishop of Wroc∏aw.

Biographical Dictionary of East and Central Europe: A Sample

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Holy Cross in Opole. On 28 Jan. 1951 he was forcedby the Communist authorities to leave his office.Between 1951 and 1953 he worked in the Cracowcuria and lectured in sociology at the theologicalfaculty of the Jagiellonian University. K. was con-secrated bishop on 10 Oct. 1954 but only inDecember 1956, on the wave of W∏adys∏awGomu∏ka’s thaw, was he able to begin the missionof the first Polish bishop of Wroc∏aw.

In March 1962 Pope John Paul XXIII nominatedhim archbishop and in June the same year the met-ropolitan of Wroc∏aw. Although the Polish authori-ties at first refused to give him a passport, he latertook an active part in the Second Vatican Council.At the end of the council he was an initiator and themain author of a manifesto addressed to theGerman bishops, in which the famous sentence “weforgive and ask forgiveness” was formulated. InNovember 1965 the censorship blocked his article“Dialog z Niemcami” (“The Dialogue with theGermans”) in Tygodnik Powszechny, in which heexplained to the Polish Catholics the meaning of hismanifesto. In a campaign, which was unleashedagainst the Polish bishops, K. was one of the maintargets. In 1968 the authorities initiated the con-

struction of a monument of John XXIII in Wroc∏aw,which was a propaganda action aimed at givingpolitical credibility to the pro-Communist Catholicsof the PAX and at causing a split among the clergy.K. called the action a mystification and proposed tospend the gathered funds on the construction of achurch commemorating the work of the deceasedpope. In February 1973 he was named cardinal. Formany years he presided over the PastoralCommission of the Polish Episcopate and over aspecial committee for western dioceses. He was thevice-president of the Council of the EuropeanEpiscopal Conferences. He was buried in theWroc∏aw Cathedral. His memoirs “W s∏u˝bie ZiemZachodnich” (“In the Service of the WesternTerritories”) were published posthumously in 1977.

Tygodnik Powszechny 1974, No. 11; VerbumCrucis—Dei Virtus. Ksi´ga pamiàtkowa w ho∏dzie kar-dyna∏owi Boles∏awowi Kominkowi, Wroc∏aw 1974;Rudolf Bucha∏a, “W s∏u˝bie narodowi. Kard.Boles∏aw Kominek (1903-1974),” ChrzeÊcijanin wÊwiecie, 1980, No 89; Antoni Dudek, Paƒstwo iKoÊció∏ w Polsce 1945-1970, Cracow 1995.

Wojciech Roszkowski

�Born into a peasant family, for many years he

worked as a farmer. In 1923 he joined the first Partyof Smallholders founded by István Nagyatádi-Szabó. In 1929 N. published an article on the polit-ical discrimination of peasants, which brought himpopularity in the Hungarian countryside. As theHorthyst authorities disregarded the postulates ofpeasants N. left the party, which became anappendage of the system, and along with ZoltanTildy he began to form the new Independent Partyof Smallholders. The party was officially created on12 Oct. 1930 at a rally in Békés, and N. was electedits secretary general. Despite the pressure of theHorthysts in the elections of 1935 the party gained25 per cent of the votes, though only 23 seats in theparliament. N. was elected an MP. In September1941 he also became the leader of the suprapartyPeasant Union. After the defeat of the Hungarianarmy at Voronezh in 1943 N. led to the alliance ofthe Peasant parties with the Social Democrats, inopposition to the Horthyst policy.

On 17 Apr. 1944 he was arrested by theGestapo in Pécs, and next he was imprisoned inBudapest. The Horthyst prison administrationreleased him when the Arrow Cross Party tookover the power in mid-October 1944, which prob-ably saved his life. Under the rule of Ferenc

Szálasi he remained in hiding, but in January 1945started to revive his party in the territories whichwere free from Nazi occupation, though taken upby the Red Army. From the spring of 1945 he heldthe post of minister of reconstruction in the provi-sional coalition government, and of the chairmanof the National Cooperative Council. On 19 Aug.1945 he was again elected the leader of the Partyof Smallholders. After the victory of the party inthe elections of 4 Nov. 1945 N. was elected thepresident of the parliament. When the then PrimeMinister Zoltan Tildy assumed the presidency, 3Feb. 1946, N. became the head of the government.Despite the fact that the Smallholders had anabsolute majority in the parliament this govern-ment was of coalition character because of thedemands of the Allies’ Committee of Control andits head Marshal Kliment Voroshylov. TheDeputy Prime Minister Mátyás Rákosi, the leaderof the Communist Party, played a special role inthis cabinet.

In the summer of 1946 N. held talks inMoscow, and then in the United States, GreatBritain, and France. The position of the governmentand of the Party of Smallholders was being under-mined by the intrigue of the Communists whodirected the departments of security and justice.

Nagy, Ferenc(8 Oct. 1903 Bisse–12 June 1979 Fairfax, Virginia), Hungarian peasant politician.

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The Communists revealed subsequent “plots”against the democracy, in which they finallyentangled the secretary general of the Party ofSmallholders, Béla Kovács. N. courageouslydefended his closest associate but could not pre-vent his arrest by the Soviet service. In May 1947he went for a short holiday to Switzerland, wherehe learned that Kovács was forced to testify againsthim. Rákosi demanded N.’s resignation as primeminister, threatening that otherwise he could notguarantee the safety of his wife and his 5-year-oldson, who still remained in Hungary. On 2 June 1947N. resigned from his post of the head of the gov-ernment, and having received the American visa heleft with his family for the United States.

In America N. bought a farm in Herndon,Virginia. He belonged to the Executive Committeeof the Hungarian National Council, and from 1960to the Hungarian Committee, in which he dealt

with foreign affairs. As a representative of theCommittee N. sat in the Assembly of CaptiveEuropean Nations, and in the years 1961–62 wasits president. In 1948 he published in the UnitedStates his memoirs The Struggle Behind the IronCurtain, which were issued in Hungarian in 1990in his homeland.

Peter Horvath, Communist Tactics in Hungarybetween June 1944 and June 1947, Ph.D. Thesis; NewYork University 1955; Paul A. Homori, SovietInfluences on the Establishment and Character of theHungarian People’s Republic 1944–1954, Ph.D.Thesis, University of Michigan 1964; Nagy Ferencminiszterelnök: visszamelékezések, tanulmányok, cikkek,(összeállította és a bevezetot írta, Csicsery-RónayIstván), Budapest 1995; Eric Roman, Hungary andthe Victor Powers, 1945–1959, New York 1996.

Wojciech Roszkowski

�Zog I (Ahmed beg Zogu)(8 Oct. 1895 Burgayet, Mat–9 Apr. 1961 Paris), king of Albania.

He was born as the son of Xhemal Pasha, headof one of the most powerful clans of AlbanianZogolli. He completed a lycée and the TurkishOfficers Academy in Instanbul. During WorldWar I he served in the Austrian army as “ColonelHonoris Causa.” In 1920 he became the command-er-in-chief of the Albanian army and in 1921 min-ister of the interior. In November 1921 he wascommissioned to suppress an insurrection in thenorth of the country. The armed forces assembledby him were composed of volunteers who werelinked with his clan. Z.’s divisions became the ori-gin of the gendarmerie and the base of his politi-cal position. Declaring himself a supporter of thePeople’s Party Z. maintained at the same time con-tacts with leaders of the opposition party, the con-servative Progressive Party. After a series of gov-ernment changes, on 14 Dec. 1921 Z. enteredTirana with his armed divisions and forced theresignation of the government and the GeneralCouncil. He appointed Xhafer Ypi new primeminister. Z. himself remained minister of interior.The opposition concentrated in the NationalAssembly where Bishop Fan Noli, Stevro Vinjayand Luigj Gurakuqi were especially influential.On 22 March 1922 the divisions of Z.’s opponentsgained control of the capital but withdrew underpressure from the Western powers.

After the passing of the provisional statutes ofthe state by the parliament in September 1922 Z.became prime minister, which intensified the con-flict. Now the opposition also demanded the liqui-dation of the feudal remnants in the countryside

dominated by great latifundists. In the elections ofDecember 1923 Z.’s adherents won the majority ofthe vote but did not manage to control the disas-trous economic situation. On 23 Feb. 1924 Z. wasinjured in an assassination attempt by a secondaryschool student. Since the parliament was dominat-ed by conservative lords, Z. bestowed premiershipon Shefket V°rlaci. Provocation and treacherousassassinations committed at the government’sorder induced the populist opposition to an insur-gent action, which in May 1924 spread throughoutTirana. The government fled to Greece and Z. to theKingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes. On 16June 1924 the reformers formed the cabinet of FanNoli. Before this government had a chance toimplement the reform program, Z. returned withhis armed forces from Yugoslavia. After a two-week of struggle on 24 Dec. 1924 Z. entered the cap-ital and established a dictatorship.

On 6 Jan. 1925 Z. became the head of the gov-ernment and divided the country into ten militaryzones supervised by the clan leaders (bayraktar).Having prepared the reform of the system, on 25January he summoned the Constituent Assembly,which proclaimed the republic and passed a pre-liminary constitution on the basis of which on 1February Z. became president. On 2 March theAssembly passed a new constitution, whichdefined the state as a parliamentary republic.However, the president nominated one third of theMPs and senators, while women, the clergy andmilitary men became disfranchised. Z.’s power wasbased on the commanders-in-chief and clan lead

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ers, especially the great landowners from theSouth. Z. organized the rally of their representa-tives in Tirana, where on 25 June 1925 they took theoath of faithfulness (besa) in exchange for theacknowledgement of their privileges. Z.’s positiondepended on the strength and loyalty of the gen-darmerie trained by the British General JoselynPercy. At the same time Z. brutally suppressed theopposition. Most probably at his order Gurakuqiwas murdered in Bari in March 1925, Bajram beyCurri a month later, and also Z.’s brother-in-law,Ceno bey Kryeziu, was put to death in Prague inNovember 1927. Z. also forced V°rlaci to emigrate.

In June 1928 Z. dissolved the Assembly andcalled an election. The voting of 17 Aug. 1928 wascarried out under the evident supervision of thearmy and the police. The new Assembly proclaimedAlbania a monarchy and on 1 Sept. 1928 announcedZ. king of Albania. He assumed the title Zog I. In theproclamation of 5 Dec. 1928 he presented himself tothe nation as king-reformer, announced the modern-ization of the country and its adoption of Europeanstandards. In 1929 the civil code came into force and,in 1930, the criminal code. In May 1930 a limitedagrarian reform, designed by an Italian expertGiovanni Lorenzoni, began to be implemented.However, it did not change much in the dispropor-tionate structure of land ownership. Little changed,as well, with regard to literacy and economic devel-opment. Under the rule of the royal regime Albaniaenjoyed political stability although the oppositionwas suppressed and the reforms were half meas-ures. In foreign policy Z. sided with Fascist Italy. In1925 he obtained a loan there, a year later signed an

Albanian-Italian treaty of friendship and security,and in 1927 a 20-year treaty of mutual aid whichsubordinated the country to Italy. Benito Mussolinimade Albania his bridgehead to the Balkans, con-trolling Albania’s finances and army. Italian influ-ence promoted some economic advances in theregion of Tirana and Durr°s, where the Italians builta port. As king, Z. attempted to exert his rule overthe Albanians in Greece and Yugoslavia, whicharoused tensions there. In 1938 he married theHungarian Princess Geraldine Apponyi. Out of thisrelationship the successor to the throne, his sonLeka, was born.

On 7 Apr. 1939 Mussolini liquidated Albania’sstatus of a formally independent state, sending hisforces to Tirana. Victor Emmanuel III assumed thethrone of Albania, and Z. fled with his familythrough the mountains to Greece, and then viaRomania, Poland, Latvia and Sweden he arrived atGreat Britain. After the war he could not returnhome where the influence of his supporters rapidlydiminished and the Communists took over thepower. He formally abdicated on 2 Jan. 1946. Helater lived for some time in England and thenmoved to Cannes, France.

Biographisches Lexikon, Vol. IV; Bernd JürgenFischer, King Zog and the Struggle for Stability inAlbania, Boulder, Colo. 1984; Mirash Ivanaj, 24 or°te fundit t° mbret°ris° s° Zogut: ditar, Tirana 1997;Jerzy Hauziƒski, Jan LeÊny, Historia Albanii,Wroc∏aw 1992; Obituaries from the Times 1961–1970,Reading 1975.

Wojciech Roszkowski

�Professor Wojciech Roszkowski was born in

1947. He graduated from the Warsaw School ofEconomics with a Ph.D. in economic history (1978).Between 1985 and 1986 Professor Roszkowski wasvisiting researcher at Georgetown University inWashington D.C. In 1988 he was a Wilson CenterFellow, and in the following year a visitingprofessor at the University of Maryland, CollegePark. From 1990 to 1993 he served as vice-president of the Warsaw School of Economics incharge of restructuring the university. Between1994 and 2000 Professor Roszkowski held the postof Director of the Institute of Political Studies of thePolish Academy of Sciences (ISP PAN), a positionfrom which he resigned to take over theKoÊciuszko Chair. His main field of expertise iscontemporary history.

Prof. Wojcich Roszkowski

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KC People and Events

Dr. Philip Zelikow, Lady Blanka Rosenstiel and Ambassador Przemys∏aw Grudziƒski

Prof. Marshall Brement and Mr. WalterBeaman

Mrs. Anna M. Roszkowska and Prof. Maria Pospieszalska

Prof. Roszkowski, Mrs. and Prof. James Ceaser

Prof. Dariusz To∏czyk, Mrs. Anna M. Roszkowska and Prof. WojciechRoszkowski Prof. Piotr Wandycz

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Prof. Julian Kulski, Lady Blanka Rosenstiel and Prof. Wojciech Roszkowski

Dr. Zbigniew Stawrowski and Elizabeth Coty Dr. Philip Zelikow and Ambassador Przemys∏awGrudziƒski

Dr. Zbigniew Stawrowski, Mrs. Molly Ulam and Prof. DariuszTo∏czyk

Prof. and Mrs. W. J. Wagner andMr. Waldemar Dowiak

Dr. John Lenczowski and Mr. W. J.Muszyƒski

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Nihil Novi

Mr. Sebastian Bojemski, Miss KatarzynaKarkowska, Dr. Marek Jan Chodakiewicz and Mr. Wojciech Bukalski

Miss Anna Karkowska, Lady Blanka Rosenstiel andMiss Katarzyna Karkowska

Gerald Jaski, Lady Blanka Rosenstiel, Mary Lou Rajchel andDr. Chodakiewicz

Mrs. and Prof. Marshall Brement, Prof. Julian Kulski and Prof. Kenneth Thompson Prof. Iwo. C. Pogonowski

Prof. Allen Lynch

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Fall 2002

Pro Memoriam:In this section we would like to remember special individuals who contributed significantly

to American Polish, Polish émigré, and Polish endeavors. Most of them came from “The GreatGeneration” and, in many ways, their biographies are rather similar. Although we cannot

possibly honor all those who passed away, we have listed at least some of The Ancient Oneswho have recently left us.

Jerzy Przy∏uski (1909-2000) was born inOdessa, lost his parents in the Bolshevik revolu-tion, but was able to escape to Poland in 1922. Hestudied law at the Stefan Batory University inWilno, where he joined the National Party. InSeptember 1939 he fought against the Sovietsand their supporters but soon retreated westwith General Franciszek Kleeberg to join battleagainst the Nazis. Captured in October 1939,Przy∏uski spent the war in a German POW camp.Later, he served as a Polish Red Cross represen-tative in the American zone of occupation inGermany. Eventually, he emigrated to the US,where, in Chicago, he continued social, political,and community work in various organizations,including the Polish American Congress.Przy∏uski supported the independentist opposi-tion and Solidarity in their struggle againstCommunism in Poland. After 1989 he donatedgenerously to the Polish University inWilno/Vilnius.

Gra˝yna Cioromska (1927-2001) lost hermother during the Second World War, while herfather fought as an officer in the Free PolishForces in the West. She escaped from Poland in1946 to join her father in England. Later, theymoved to the US: Pittsburgh and Chicago.Cioromska was involved in social and communi-ty work, serving first as the chairwoman of theLegion of Young Polish Women (Legion M∏odychPolek) and then a director of the Polish AmericanCongress. She provided charitable aid to thePoles during the Communist regime.

Professor Stanis∏aw Bóbr-Tylingo (1919-2001) was born outside of Wilno and barely fin-ished high school when the Germans invadedPoland in 1939. He found himself in the paramil-itary reserve in the east and, consequently,fought against the Soviets and their supporters.A pre-war member of a radical nationalist group,he continued as a soldier of its clandestine war-time avatar: the Lizard Union and, later, theNational Armed Forces. He also enrolled in anunderground Polish university to study history.

Bóbr-Tylingo fought in the Warsaw Uprising of1944, sustaining serious wounds. Imprisoned ina POW camp until 1945, he later joined the HolyCross Brigade and served as an undergroundcourier between Soviet-occupied Poland and US-occupied Germany. Subsequently, having emi-grated to France, he received his Ph.D. in Historyfrom the Sorbonne in 1955. Bóbr-Tylingo com-menced teaching at the Polish UniversityAbroad (Polski Uniwersytet na Obczyênie) in theUK, where he also obtained his post-doctoraldegree under Professor (General) Marian Kukiel,and at the National Irish University at Cork.From 1962 he lived in Canada and worked as ahistory professor at St. Mary’s University inHalifax, Nova Scotia. He published scores ofarticles and books, but alas left his History ofPoland unfinished. Nonetheless, Bóbr-Tylingofound time for social and political involvement,including Polish scouting and schools inCanada. He supported Solidarity in its strugglefor Poland’s liberation and kept in touch with hisfellow veterans around the world, includingPoland after 1989.

Franciszek S. Gabryszewski/Francis S.

Gabresky (1919-2002) was born in a Polish fam-ily in Boston. He became a super-star fighterpilot during the Second World War and theKorean War. “Gaby” was one of a handful ofAmerican aviators who scrambled to fight theJapanese at Pearl Harbor in December 1941.Between November 1942 and April 1943 heserved as a trainer and a liaison officer betweenthe US Air Force and the Polish squadrons of theRoyal Air Force in England. Later, he flew 166combat missions over Europe downing a total of28 enemy aircraft until he was shot down in July1944. Gabresky survived a POW camp and livedto fight the Communists in Korea, where he andhis jet clocked 6 1/2 aerial victories in 1951 and1952. Among his many decorations “Gaby” cher-ished Poland’s Cross of Merit personallybestowed upon him by General W∏adys∏awSikorski. Later in life he involved himself in cor-porate affairs and local politics, among other

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things running Grumman Airspace companyand Long Island Railraod. In recognition of hisachievements, an National Guard airfield inWesthampton Beach, NY, was named Francis S.Gabreski Airport. He recounted his adventuresin “Gabby”: A Fighter Pilot’s Life (Atglen, PA:Schiffer Publishing, 1998).

Edward Marcin Kemnitz (1907-2002) camefrom a prominent Polish family of entrepreneursof German origin. He studied law at theUniversity of Warsaw, where he also joinedAquilonia student fraternity. Upon graduation,Kemnitz became a manager of his father’s indus-trial enterprises. Meanwhile, he becameinvolved with the National Party. In 1934 hebecame a leader of the National Radical Campand, as a consequence, suffered imprisonment atthe Bereza Kartuska prison camp. In September1939, he fought the Nazis, defending FortressModlin. Having avoided captivity, Kemnitzreturned to Warsaw where he joined the under-ground far-right Lizard Union and, later, theNational Armed Forces (NSZ). All the while, healso belonged to the mainstream Home Armyand, since its founding in 1942, the Council forAid to Jews (“˚egota”). Kemnitz and his familysaved several Jews and also procured arms forthe Warsaw ghetto. During the WarsawUprising of 1944, Kemnitz organized assistancefor the besieged Polish forces and the refugees.During the Soviet occupation, he remainedunderground, fighting in the NSZ the Sovietsand their Polish proxies. He was arrested in 1945and held without a trial for two years. Releasedbriefly, he was rearrested in 1949 and impris-oned until amnestied in 1956. Unable to restorehis life in Poland, Kemnitz emigrated to Canadain 1964. He worked as librarian first at LoyolaCollege in Montreal and, later, at ConcordiaUniversity. Kemnitz became involved in socialand political work of the Canadian Polonia,including veterans’ organizations. In 1983 hewas recognized as a Righteous Gentile by YadVashem. Kemnitz supported Solidarity and theindependence movement in Poland. After 1989,he reestablished links with his fellow soldiers ofthe NSZ in the Old Country.

Professor Andrzej Hubert Ruszkowski

(1910-2002) was born in Kiev and escaped withhis family from Russia to Poland following theBolshevik takeover. He graduated with a lawdegree from the University of Warsaw and laterreceived his doctorate from Lille University,France. Ruszkowski was a conservative

Catholic student activist but his life long pas-sion was film. While an assistant professor inWarsaw, he also worked as a film critic for sev-eral Polish and French papers. In 1939 heescaped to the West and joined the Polish gov-ernment-in-exile in France. Later Ruszkowskiwas active in the underground in France work-ing as a regional representative of the PolishRed Cross. Beginning in the 1940s he served aspapal advisor on media and film. A renowedVatican and UNESCO expert, Ruszkowski emi-grated first to Peru, where he lectured at thePapal University, and then to Canada, where hebecame a full professor at St. Paul University.Among hundreds of his articles and books, TheCinema of Sidney Poitier (New York and SanDiego: A.S. Barnes & Company, 1980) standsout as a brilliant contribution to the history offilm. In addition, Ruszkowski was active in theémigré cultural circles, serving on the board ofdirectors of the Polish Institute of Arts andSciences in Canada and corresponding withJerzy Giedroyç of Kultura (Paris). He supportedSolidarity and the independence movement inSoviet-occupied Poland.

Colonel Jan Jurewicz (1910-2002) entered aPolish military academy in his early teens. Astaunch Pi∏sudskite, he became a career armyofficer. Jurewicz fought the Germans in 1939 butwas taken prisoner and held in a POW camp forthe duration of the war, where he served as anaide to General Walerian Czuma. Afterward, hejoined the Free Polish Forces in the West buteventually emigrated to the US and settled inChicago, where he became a successful enterpre-neur but also found time for political and socialwork, including in the ranks of the WW2 veter-ans association. Colonel Jurewicz assisted theindependentist dissidents and Solidarity duringthe 1970s and 1980s in Poland.

Count Jan Zamoyski

(1910-2002) came fromone of the historicallymost prominent aristo-cratic families of Poland.Interested in art andmusic, he nonethelessstudied law and econom-ics in Poland and Franceto take over his familyestates and enterprises.As a reserve cavalry offi-

cer, Zamoyski fought the Germans in September1939 and joined the underground Home Army

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Fall 2002

soon after. He continued running his estates,involving himself in charity work on behalf ofPolish children. He sheltered and saved Jewsduring the Holocaust. Following the Soviet occu-pation of Poland in 1944, Zamoyski was impris-oned several times by the Communists. He wasreleased in 1956 and, completely destitute,worked hard to restore his life at home. An infor-mal head of the aristocratic milieu in Poland,Zamoyski maintained contact with the Polishémigré community in the West. Always favoringa conservative Catholic point of view, after 1989he was elected to Poland’s Senate, where he rep-resented the National Democratic Party. TheCount was buried in the family crypt in ZamoÊç.

Jan M. Komski (1915-2002) was born insouthern Poland and graduated from theCracow Academy of Fine Arts in 1939 shortlybefore the German invasion of Poland. When heattempted to flee Poland to join the Free PolishForces in the West, Komski was captured by theNazis in February 1940. He became one of thefirst inmates of Auschwitz. He fled the camp in1942 but was recaptured and brought back to thecamp under a different identity, which sparedhim an imminent death. In 1945 Komski sur-vived a “death march” that led him through fourmore camps. He ended up in Dachau where hewas liberated by the Americans. Komski emi-grated to the US in 1949, settling first inElisabeth, NJ, and then in Northern Virgnia, nearWashington, DC. His artistic talent secured hima job with The Washington Post, where he workedfor nearly three decades. Serene landscapes werehis favorite but he also painted gruesome con-centration camp scenes. We had the opportunityto view Komski’s Auschwitz paintings at a con-ference organized by Dr. Aldona WoÊ at theUniversity of North Carolina, Greensboro, inSeptember 2001.

Countess Karolina Lanckoroƒska (1898-2002) was the doyenee of the Polish émigré intel-

lectual community in theWest. She graduated inart history from theUniversity of Vienna.Later, she became thefirst woman ever toreceive a doctorate and apost doctoral degreefrom the Jan KazimierzUniversity of Lwów,where she then com-menced to teach as pro-

fessor of art history. During the Second WorldWar, Lanckoroƒska joined the undergroundHome Army as lieutenant. Her duties includedassistance to political prisoners. She was arrestedfirst by the Soviets and then the Nazis, whoimprisoned her in Ravensbrück concentrationcamp in 1942. After her liberation in 1945, theCountess joined General W∏adys∏aw Anders’sPolish army in Italy. With her family fortune shefounded the Polish Historical Institute in Romeand endowed a foudation which for decades dis-pensed many a grant to needy Polish scholarsand supported many a scientific or culturalendeavor. She worked very closely with PopeJohn II and supported the struggles of their com-patriots at home against Communism. In 1994the Countess donated a mother lode of culturaltreasures to museums in Warsaw and Cracow.The gift included two paintings by Rembrandt.She wrote her war memoirs in 1946 but theyhave only recently been brought out in Poland asKarolina Lanckoroƒska, Wspomnienia wojenne(Kraków: Znak, 2001). We are seriously consid-ering translating and publishing the memoirswith Leopolis Press.

Ewa Beck (1932-2002) was the daughter of aleading Pi∏sudskite politician and educator,Wac∏aw J´drzejewicz. After the invasion of 1939,she survived the first Soviet occupation andmuch of the Nazi one in Wilno and Wasiliszki inthe Eastern Borderlands. Later, she livedthrough the calamities of the Warsaw Uprisingin 1944. Along with her mother and brother, EwaBeck escaped from Soviet-occupied Poland in1947. She moved to the US soon after and livedin New York, Welsley, Mass., and Cheshire, CT.She devoted herself to social work, mainly at thePi∏sudski Institute, which was co-founded by herfather in New York City.

Jan Kanty Miska (1907-2002) was born inSka∏a in southern Poland. He graduated from ateachers college in 1927 and studied Polish liter-ature at the Jagiellonian University in Cracowbetween 1936 and 1939. Early on Miska joinedthe scouting movement, a passion he combinedwith teaching in small village schools in Poland’ssoutheastern borderlands. He was an adherentof the National Party. In September 1939, hefought as a reserve officer against both Sovietsand Nazis. Taken prisoner by the Germans,Miska found himself in a POW camp. He tutoredhis fellow prisoners in mathematics and operat-ed a clandestine radio receiver. After his libera-tion, Miska founded and coordinated Polish

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schools and scout units composed of displacedPoles. He emigrated to the US in 1949 and firstsettled in Chicago and then in Washington, DC.While working as a civilian employee for the USNavy, he continued his involvement with theémigré scouting, politics, and social work,including in the Polish American Congress andthe Polish Parish of Our Lady Queen of Polandand St. Maximilian Kolbe, which he co-founded.Jan Kanty Miska published his inter-war mem-oirs, Od Beliny do S∏awoja: Wspomnienia (McLean,VA: By the Author, 1996), which can be pur-chased by visiting http://pacwashmetrodiv.org.

Roman Conrad Pucinski (1919-2002) wasborn in Buffalo, NY. He graduated fromNorthwestern University in Chicago in 1941and took his law degree from John MarshallLaw School in 1949. Meanwhile, he served asCaptain in the US Air Force during the SecondWorld War, flying the first B-29 raid overTokyo, and worked as a journalist for theChicago Sun Times (1939-1959). Pucinski waselected to US Congress several times and, mostnotably, became Chief Investigator for theCongressional Committee on the Katyn Forestmassacre. He was instrumental in bringing thatparticular Soviet atrocity to public attention inthe USA which was really one of the first clearand unambiguous examples of communistcrimes revealed to the American people.Serving on the city council in Chicago in the1970s and 1980s, Pucinski remained deeplyinvolved in Polonian affairs throughout his life.

Jacek Winkler (1937-2002) was educated asan art historian but his passion was mountainclimbing. In the mid-1960s he became involvedwith a group of Polish dissidents, so-called“taternicy,” who smuggled Western and émigréliterature to Poland through the Tatra moun-tains. After the Communist secret police dis-covered the ploy and arrested most of the par-ticipants, Winkler fled to Paris, where heworked for Poland’s independence. His mostfamous stunt involved hoisting a “Solidarity”banner on top of Mount Blanc to object to theimposition of martial law in Poland. In the1980s Winkler traveled several times toAfghanistan to fight the Soviets. Dubbed“Adam Khan” by the natives, he befriendedAhmed Shah Massoud and, after the Sovietwithdrawal, supported that famous command-er against the Taliban. Winkler published theAfghan Bulletin (Biuletyn Afgaƒski) in Paris. Hedied in a climbing accident in the Alps.

Alina Pieƒkowska (1952-2002) was a dissi-dent and Solidarity member. A nurse at theGdaƒsk shipyard, she became involved withthe dissident Free Trade Unions in 1977. Shecooperated with Lech Wa∏´sa and BogdanBorusiewicz, whom she later married.Pieƒkowska was instrumental in reigniting thestrike in August 1980 after other union leadershad agreed to the Communist government’sfinancial concessions and many workers beganto disperse. Following the imposition of martiallaw in December 1981, she continued independ-ent union activities in the underground in theGdaƒsk region. As a result, she was arrestedand imprisoned for a year. After her release, sheresumed her underground work. Following therestoration of Poland’s independence in 1989,Pieƒkowska was elected to the Senate to repre-sent Solidarity (1991-93). Later, she was activein the center-left Freedom Union and served onthe city council in Gdaƒsk.

�

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Dariusz To∏czyk, a graduate of theUniversity of Warsaw (MA) and HarvardUniversity (MA, PhD), has recently been tenuredand promoted to Associate Professor of SlavicLanguages and Literatures at the University ofVirginia. His 1999 book, See No Evil: LiteraryCover-Ups and Discoveries of the Soviet CampExperience (Yale University Press), was a finalistfor the 2001 Phi Beta Kappa Award. ProfessorTo∏czyk’s research is concerned with Polish,Russian, and comparative literature, especiallythe relationship between literature, ideology,and history. He has published in, among others,Partisan Review, The Polish Review, HarvardStudies in Slavic Linguistics, PrzegladHumanistyczny, Przeglàd Wschodni, Miesi´cznikLiteracki, Obóz, Tygodnik SolidarnoÊç, GazetaWyborcza. His essay on Gustaw Herling-Grudziƒski and Tadeusz Borowski appearedrecently in Literary Imagination (The Review ofthe Association of Literary Scholars and Critics).His essay on contemporary Polish literature intransition will appear in the volume (which he isco-editing with Marek Jan Chodakiewicz andJohn Radzi∏owski) of the proceedings from the2001 international conference “PolishTransformation: A Process Completed or Still inProgress?” organized by the KoÊciuszko Chair ofPolish Studies at the University of Virginia. Prof.To∏czyk’s work has been recognized with aNational Endowment for the HumanitiesFellowship, a Charlotte Newcombe Fellowship,and a series of other national and universityawards. In recent years, he has served onSelection Panels of the National Endowment forthe Humanities. He has been selected to the

United States delegation to the InternationalCongress of Slavists to be held in Ljubljana in2003. Currently, at the request of Yale UniversityPress, he is preparing an Anthology of GulagLiterature. This anthology, the largest of its typein the English-speaking world, will feature anumber of hitherto little-known Polish literarytestimonies to the Gulag (including GustawHerling-Grudziƒski, Beata Obertyƒska, JerzyGliksman, Witold Olszewski, AnatolKrakowiecki, Tadeusz Wittlin, Józef Czapski,W∏odzimierz Odojewski) alongside other Gulagwitnesses (Russian, German, Ukrainian,American, etc.).

A member of the Slavic Department at theUniversity of Virginia, Professor To∏czyk teachesthe Polish language as well as a variety of grad-uate and undergraduate courses, many of whichexplore Polish literature and culture in a varietyof international contexts.

Maria K. Pospieszalska received her M.Sc. inTheoretical Mathematics from the JagiellonianUniversity in Cracow, and her Ph.D. inVariational Calculus from Warsaw TechnicalUniversity. She was Assistant Professor atWarsaw Technical University, and then becamea Scientist and Senior Scientist at the Universityof Virginia’s Departments of NuclearEngineering and Physics. Her primary researchinterest is computer modeling and Monte-Carlosimulation of various physical processes.Professor Pospieszalska is a faculty member inthe Department of Statistics, UVA.

University of Virginia Associates of the K.C.

Prof. Dariusz To∏czyk

Prof. Maria Pospieszalska

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Nihil Novi

We’d like to thank cordially our donors:

Mr. Thaddeus Buczko

Mr. Eugene Bak

Mr. John A. Cetner

Ms. Julie Czujko

Mrs. Harriet Irsay

Mr. and Mrs. Frank Filipek

Mr. Kazimierz Kramczyƒski

Mr. Julian E. Kulski

Mr. Izydor Modelski

Mr. Walter J. Morris

Mr. Arthur S. Parks

The Rosenstiel FoundationLady Blanka A. Rosenstiel

Urgent Action

Dear Friends of the KoÊciuszko Chair,

Thanks to your generosity we have been involved in

• publishing

• research

• scholarship granting

• guest speaking

Thus, the results of our research and writing will be made public. We have also been able to complement theactivities of all other departments and institutes at the University of Virginia by inviting exciting guests who focuson Polish studies. In addition, we have provided scholarships to a few brilliant minds who interned with theKoÊciuszko Chair of Polish Studies.

The KoÊciuszko Chair already enjoys the support of the Harriet Irsay Lecture Series Fund and the BlankaRosenstiel Lecture Fund. With a generous donation you can establish your own fund to support the KC or you cansimply contribute to the existing funds. Please send your tax deductible gifts payable to:

The Miller Center Foundation (for KoÊciuszko Chair support)

The KoÊciuszko Chair of Polish StudiesMiller Center of Public Affairs

University of Virginia2201 Old Ivy Road

PO Box 400406Charlottesville, VA 22904-4406

Ph.# (434) 982-2752Fax# (434) 982-2739

http://www.virginia.edu/~millerhttp://www.millercenter.virginia.edu

Thank you for your generosity which has made our work possible. Your donation could not be more timely, as thedifficult stock market has impacted our endowment funds and other resources.

Thank you very much,

The KoÊciuszko Chair of Polish Studies

While we live she is existing,

Poland is not fallen;

We will win with swords resisting,

What the foe has stolen.

March, March, Dàbrowski,

From Italy’s plain;

Our Brethren shall meet us

In Poland again.

We’ll cross where Warta’s surging

Gloomily it’s waters,

With each blade from sheath emerging

Poland’s foes to slaughter!

March, March, Dàbrowski, etc.

Hence unto the field of glory,

Where the life’s blood streaming;

Where with talons red and gory,

Poland’s eagle’s screaming.

March, March, Dàbrowski, etc.

Poland! shall the foe enslave thee

Sadly and forever;

And we hesitate to save thee?

Never, Poland, never!

March, March, Dàbrowski, etc.

Translation of PAUL SOBOLESKI

(from: All About Poland: Facts, Figures, Documents,

edited by J. H. Retinger, London: Minerva Publishing Co. Ltd 1941)

The Miller Center of Public Affairs

University of Virginia