Posts by Gene Sokolowski
Kaz: War, Love, and Betrayal, by Bogdan Kotnis
(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…
Read MorePolish Air Force – Hand in Hand with U.S.A., Poster by W. Guranowski
Designed in 1944 by K. Meyer and printed in London for the Polish Government Information Center and the Polish Army Education Bureau, this striking wartime poster celebrates the partnership between the Polish Air Force and the United States. Against a confident portrait of a smiling Polish pilot—one of the thousands who continued the fight for…
Read MorePoland’s Warriors of the Air, Poster by Władysław Teodor Benda
Created in 1939 by the Polish-American artist Władysław Teodor Benda, Poland’s Warriors of the Air was issued by the Polish War Relief organization to rally support for Poland at the outset of World War II. The image powerfully bridges Poland’s past and present: a winged horseman—evoking the legendary seventeenth-century Winged Hussars—charges through the sky above…
Read MoreOver 200 Concentration Camps and Ghettos in Poland, Poster by W. Guranowski
This World War II–era poster, titled “Over 200 Concentration Camps and Ghettos in Poland” was created by the artist W. Guranowski and issued in New York by the Polish Government Information Center (also known as the Polish Information Center). The large silkscreen design—depicting hands grasping barbed wire and listing grim statistics about German atrocities—formed part…
Read MorePoland – First to Fight, Poster by Marek Zulawski, ca. 1940
History and Design This powerful wartime poster was created by Marek Żuławski (1908–1985), a Polish painter and graphic artist who settled in London before World War II. Produced around late 1939 or early 1940 under the auspices of the Polish Government-in-Exile in London, it was distributed primarily through the Polish Information Centre in London and…
Read MoreKilled for Being Poles: Horrors of the “Polish Operation” conducted by the NKVD in 1937-1938, by Nikołaj Iwanow
(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…
Read MoreGermany’s Genocide Against the Polish Nation (1939-1945): A Historical-Legal Study, by Maciej Jan Mazurkiewicz
(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…
Read MoreCommunist Crimes: A Legal and Historical Study, by Wojciech Roszkowski
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…
Read MoreRather Die Than Betray the Cause: The Gestapo Detention Center at Aleja Szucha 25, by Witold Żarnowski
(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…
Read MoreThe Meaning of “Witness” in Wojtyła’s Works by Dr. John Corrigan, St. Thomas University, Houston TX, SJPII Institute.
(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…
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