(For professors, students, and teachers interested in the history of Poland and international law.) The citation for this work is: Writings (1416-1432): The Struggle for the Self-Determination of Central Europe, by Paweł Włodkowic. Rome: Angelicum University Press Fundacja Świętego Mikołaja, 2023. The Foreword of Writings is by Prof. Ewa Thompson, which provides a thorough summary…

(For professors, teachers, art historians, and students) In September 1939, at the beginning of the German invasion of Poland, German Kommando Paulsen arrived in Kraków and stole the Veit Stoss altar from St. Mary’s Basilica, transporting it to Berlin and then to Nuremberg. This priceless piece of sacred art remained in Germany until the end…

(For professors, college students, and interested adults.) This report by the Janusz Kurtyka Foundation presents Russian propaganda and disinformation based on publications in Russian and pro-Russian internet portals in 2023. The publications cited are products of the Russian Federation’s historical policy, which seeks to undermine relations between Poland and Ukraine by distorting their respective histories,…

(For historians, professors, college students, religious academics, and interested adults.) A nun from the Franciscan Sisters of the Family of Mary (RM) Congregation, Mother Matylda Getter was the founder of twenty-five educational and care institutes, honored in the fields of education and charity, decorated with the Order of Polonia Restituta (1925), the Gold Cross of…

(For historians, professors, college students, and interested adults.) The author is with the Institute of National Remembrance, Warsaw, Poland, and the War Studies University, Warsaw, Poland. It appeared in the Institute of National Remembrance’s Review in February 2020. The image above is from the first page of Dąbrowski’s article and shows the location of the…

(For psychotherapists, psychologists, psychiatrists and interested adults.) Perverse Memory and the Holocaust: A Psychoanalytic Understanding of Polish Bystanders by Jan Borowicz is a book based on his doctoral dissertation and presents the thesis that the entire Polish nation is guilty of participating in the Holocaust in one way or another. The author starts by briefly…

(For professors, college students, and interested adults.) The paragraphs below are, first, taken from the Preface, written by Blanka Rosenstiel, Founder and President of the American Institute of Polish Culture, and second, from the Introduction, written by Professor Kenneth Thompson, Director of the White Burkett Miller Center for Public Affairs, University of Virginia. “In 1568,…

(For professors, college students, and interested adults.) The paragraphs below are taken from the Foreword written by Norman Davies, one of the world’s most respected historians noted for his publications on the history of Europe, Poland, and the United Kingdom. “In the English-speaking world, it is absolutely natural that England’s parliamentary history should hold pride…

(For professors, college students, and interested adults.) Crime and Pillage presents a reality from Poland’s past that still painfully reverberates today, 80 years after it finished occurring – the German occupation of Poland from 1939 to 1945. Every Pole seems to have a story – a grandparent, aunt, or uncle that was murdered, became a…

(For professors, students, teachers, persons having basic knowledge of psychology and history of philosophy.) The Saint John Paul II Institute at the University of St. Thomas offers a Master of Arts degree in John Paul II Studies that encompasses a series of Anthropological Course Requirements, Social Teaching Course Requirements, Mission Course Requirements, and Synthesis Course…

(For professors, students, teachers, persons having basic knowledge of psychology and history of philosophy.) Karol Wojtyla, a native of Poland, lived most of his life in ominous, collectivistic, and dictatorial societies, first under Nazism and later under Communism. His lived experience under these two systems guided him to a deeper reflection on the relationship of…

(For professors, college students, high-school students and teachers, and interested adults.) This well-structured work explores the historical and intellectual connections between Poland’s Constitution of May 3, 1791, and the U.S. Constitution of 1787, and places both constitutions within the lineage of constitutional thought. Kasparek-Obst begins by situating the Polish Constitution of May 3, 1791, which…

(For young readers unfamiliar with this Polish military leader and his contributions to winning the American Revolutionary War.) Kaz: War, Love, and Betrayal is an historical novel that follows the factual exploits of General Kazimierz Pulaski, who fought the Russians in Poland and then led cavalry soldiers in the fight against the British in the…

(For professors, college and high-school students, and interested adults) Stalin’s “Polish Operation” carried out by the NKVD (Soviet Secret Police) was the first genocide committed against the Polish nation, which claimed the lives of approximately 200,000 Poles, all of whom were citizens of the USSR. Published in Polish and English text together, Professor Iwanow’s 12…

(For professors, college and high-school students, and interested adults) This work by Maciej Jan Mazurkiewicz explains step by step how one of the largest, although as yet unnamed, genocides of the 20th century took place, i.e., Germany’s genocide of Poles. It is an attempt to demonstrate and justify Germany’s international legal responsibility for the crimes…

For professors, college students, and interested adults) This work, published by the Institute of National Remembrance, describes and categorizes the crimes of the communist authorities that were committed worldwide throughout the 20th century. Wojciech Roszkowski bases his work on numerous sources, including the hearings conducted by the Commission of the House of Representatives for Communist…

(For professors, college and high-school students, and interested adults) During the occupation of Poland by the Germans, the words “Aleja Szucha” (English: Szucha Avenue) inspired terror among Warsaw’s citizens. Aleja Szucha was the place where thousands of Polish citizens were tortured. Each of them suffered severely during the interrogations, which involved brutal beatings carried out…

(For professors, college students, teachers, and adults). “Witness” plays an important role in Wojtyła’s dissertation: “Faith According to St. John of the Cross” where, it seems to demonstrate a potent but obscure philosophical meaning. In subsequent early works the term seems to recede into the background while maintaining an indirect presence through the Polish words…

The Mysterious Death of Jan “Anoda” Rodowicz, by Przemyslaw Benken (For professors, college students, and interested adults) The following are extracts of the Foreword by Pawel Kurtyka, President of the Janusz Kurtyka Foundation. This book is available free of charge as a PDF and can be downloaded at this link. The story of “Anoda” is…

(For professors, college students, and interested adults) This work is available free of charge online through Poland’s Institute of National Remembrance at this link. Foreword by Professor Emeritus Hiroaki Kuromiya Poland has long been a powerhouse of Russian/Soviet studies. Because of its historical connections (including the Russian occupation of large parts of Poland following the…

(For professors, college students, and interested adults) A PDF of this book can be read at this link. The following is the Foreword by Dr. Karol Nawrocki, President, The Institute of National Remembrance. “In May 1945, Western Europe was celebrating victory over Germany. At that time, Central and Eastern Europe was already completely controlled by…

(For professors, college students, teachers, and adults). This scholarly work by Sławomir Dębski was first published in Polish as Między Berlinem a Moskwą. Stosunki niemiecko-sowieckie, Warszawa PISM 2003, second edition 2007. It was later published in German. This English-language edition was submitted to the publisher, De Gruyter Oldenbourg, by the Janusz Kurtyka Foundation. When the…

This work is available free of charge online through Poland’s Janusz Kurtyka Foundation at this link. (For professors, college students, teachers, and adults). In this scholarly work, Professor Andrzej Nowak examines a turning point in East European history: the summer of 1920, when Lenin’s Soviet Russia decided to challenge the Versailles system and launch a…

(For professors, college students, and interested adults) This scholarly lexicon was compiled by Dariusz Iwaneczko and published in 2024 by The Institute of National Remembrance, Commission for the Prosecution of Crimes Against the Polish Nation. The following are excerpts from the Introduction by Dariusz Iwaneczko. “The issue of the camps and prisons organized by the…

(For professors, college students, high-school teachers and students, parents, and interested adults) This outstanding work was authored by Dr. Adam Pleskaczynski and published in 2024 by The Institute of National Remembrance, Commission for the Prosecution of Crimes Against the Polish Nation. The following is the Foreword by Dr. Karol Nawrocki, President, The Institute of National…

Published by the Pilecki Institute, with the Hoover Institution and Poland’s Institute of National Remembrance as partners, Outlines of Memory presents the accounts of Polish citizens who were victims of German and Soviet totalitarianism crimes during World War II. Their testimonies are supplemented with illustrations drawn by contemporary Polish artists who have utilized their distinct…

(For professors, college students, and interested adults) This book is available free of charge online at this link.  The following is reprinted from “Foreword by Andrzej Duda, the President of the Republic of Poland”, page iv. Cavalry Captain Witold Pilecki was one of the greatest heroes of Poland, Europe and the entire free world in…

(For professors, college students, teachers, and interested adults) The phrase “Holocaust Industry” is one with which most Americans are unaware. It became popular after Norman Finkelstein, a former professor at DePaul University, published his book, titled The Holocaust Industry: Reflections on the Exploitation of Jewish Suffering. In it, he presents extensive evidence of Jewish extortionist…

This publication by Poland’s Institute of National Remembrance presents the preliminary results of work carried out within the “Index of Poles murdered or persecuted for helping Jews during World War II” program. The main, and at the same time, overriding aim of the activities undertaken as part of the “Index” project is to establish the…

(For college professors and students, parents, teachers, and adults). This well-researched work by British author and historian Clare Mulley presents the amazing story of Elzbieta Zawacka, a Polish World War II resistance fighter whose exploits are truly exceptional and helped restore Polish women to their rightful place in the historical record. Born in 1909, her…

(For high school students, teachers, college students, and adults). As one review of Jack Fairweather’s book notes, this is the true story of Witold Pilecki’s unprecedented heroism.  In September 1940, he volunteered for a suicidal reconnaissance mission and allowed himself to be arrested by the Germans and sent to Auschwitz. There were informal reports of…

(For professors, college students, teachers, and adults). In this scholarly work, Professor Andrzej Nowak reviews the history of Poland through the lens of its relations with Russia and presents the ideological beliefs Russia employed throughout its history to achieve its foreign policy objectives through interactions with Poland and the region’s Central and Eastern European states.…

(For high school students, teachers, and adults). In response to anti-Polish bias in Holocaust scholarship, education, and popular culture, Polish journalist Grzegorz Gorny, together with well-known photographer Janusz Rosikon, published this book to explain what it really meant to save Jews in German-occupied Poland. The Righteous! tells the story of Poles rescuing Jews during the…

Poignant novel based on an extraordinary Polish heroine who delivered 3,000 babies in the horror of the Germans’ largest death camp. (For high school students, teachers, and adults). The Midwife of Auschwitz by Anna Stuart is a poignant historical novel based on the true-life experiences of Stanislawa (Stah-nee-swahva) Leszczynska, who trained as a midwife and…

(For high school students, teachers, and adults). In My Hands: Memories of a Holocaust Rescuer by Irene Gut Opdyke is a compelling memoir of a young Polish woman’s experience as a resistance fighter, rescuer of Jews, and survivor of both the German and Soviet occupations of Poland from 1939 to 1945. When Germany invaded Poland…

(For high school students, teachers, and adults) Kosciuszko came to America one month after the signing of the Declaration of Independence, with little more than a revolutionary spirit and a genius for engineering. He quickly proved his capabilities and became the most talented engineer of the Continental Army. Kosciuszko constructed fortifications for Philadelphia, devised battle…

Young Polish Women Deported to Germany as Forced Laborers to Support Hitler’s War Effort Among the little-known tragedies of World War II was Hitler’s abduction of Poles and ordering them to work as civilian forced laborers to support Germany’s war effort. According to the Polish government’s recently-published, three-volume report on Poland’s losses under German occupation,…

(For high school students, teachers, and parents) In recounting the human suffering of World War II, Hitler’s genocide of European Jews remains the dominant narrative in popular literature, academic writing, and public school curricula. By contrast, Hitler’s genocide of Poles remains largely unknown. As Richard Lukas points out, Hitler’s planned genocide of Poles was evident…

(For high school students, teachers, and adults) Only in Poland did the Germans maintain a standing order that anyone aiding Jews would be executed together with immediate family. By defying the German death penalty, thousands of Poles saved Jewish lives. Among the most effective were the female Catholic religious orders. Without Vatican leadership, Polish nuns…

(For high school students, teachers, and adults) Imogene Salva re-constructs the emotional climate that surrounded the wartime ordeals of her mother, Jozefa (Josephine) Nowicka, who was one of almost two million Polish citizens deported by Stalin to the depths of Soviet Russia, Siberia, and Central Asia. This is not an episode that is familiar to…