In English

Mateusz SZPYTMA: Agricultural Catholic Fellowship in the Archdiocese of Krakow 1982-1990

If our recollection is mostly limited to August 1980 and the labour protests, are we really faithful to the truth about the past?

The history of the 20th century is clear – the greatest atrocities were committed in Europe when Poland was not on the map.

Fryderyk Chopin’s true fatherland is the dream world of poetry – writes Prof. Dana GOOLEY.

By creating sacral works and presenting them in communist Poland, Krzysztof Penderecki became actively involved in the social and political movements that resulted in the overthrow of communism

Zbigniew STAWROWSKI: The Rule of Law as a European Value The Philosophical Context of the Prevailing Political Dispute

According to Gilbert Chesterton, the enemies of Poland almost always turn out to be also the enemies of magnanimity, valour and freedom. Paraphrasing this thought, we can say that the friends of Poland are almost always the enemies of tyranny, and the friends of freedom and solidarity.

This September marks the 30th anniversary of the landmark event when the post-Soviet Russian forces withdrew from Polish territory. The long period of the foreign army protecting Moscow’s interests in our country came to an end. Its continued presence on our soil resulted from the enslavement that Poles associate with the outbreak of war and the Soviet invasion of 17 September 1939.

Thirty years ago, Russia pulled over 60,000 troops, 200 aircraft, 200 tanks, 700 armoured vehicles and 20 operational-tactical missile launchers out of Poland. Nuclear missiles, including around 300 warheads, were also deployed in Poland.

As long as Russian troops stationed on the Polish territory, Poland was a country aspiring to independence, but not yet independent.

We usually treat the Prague Spring and its military suppression as an episode in the history of the Cold War. In fact, which might seem surprising from today’s perspective, the intervention of the Warsaw Pact troops did not affect the process initiated still before 1968 of détente in the relations between the East and the West.

’The myth that Poland and Poles actively and massively participated in the Holocaust should be treated in the same way as the myth of Judeo-Bolshevism – as a manipulation aimed at shifting responsibility for the crimes onto someone else,’ writes Nathaniel GARSTECKA

Poland’s early warnings to the rest of Europe on the dangers of depending on Russian gas were not believed until it was too late.

It would be difficult to determine the Ulmas’ motives for inviting Jews into their home – writes Mateusz Szpytma.

As Poles, we are proud that on 10 September 2023, the Ulma family, our compatriots, will be added to the ranks of the Blessed of the Catholic Church.

On the morning of 1 September 1939, German planes dropped bombs that obliterated the All Saints’ Hospital in Wieluń, followed by a substantial portion of the town – a place with no strategic value, whose demolition marked the initiation of World War II.

By law, every Jew in German-occupied Poland had to be handed over to the German authorities. Breaking this law meant a death sentence for the entire family.

The beatification of the Polish family of Ulmas from Markowa village in southern Poland has a symbolic dimension.

The Germans proclaimed: ‘Jews who leave their assigned district without permission are subject to the death penalty. Anyone who knowingly gives shelter to escaped Jews will be subject to the same punishment.’

The German occupation and the monstrous design of the Holocaust was a clash with a ‘civilization of death’ for everyone in Poland, especially Jews. The plan was to wipe out an entire group of people and take control of the captured lands while dividing humanity into a dominant master race and completely dependent subhumans. Thus, in those horrific times, another, even more terrifying and dark war was waged alongside the one on the frontlines – a war against humanity. Many heroes were ready to make the ultimate sacrifice to defend it, despite the prevalent degradation. A lot of them remain unnamed, their bravery known only to Providence. The sacrifice of others, such as the martyrdom of the Ulma family from Markowa, can serve as a testimony.