Our Polonia

A New Jersey Hero

“He lived three lives. There are the momentous years of his youth, from 1844 to 1850, when he was 21 to 26. Many times in those years he risked his life for Polish freedom. The imprisonments, his hair-breadth escapes, the disguises, the secret meetings, the frequent brushes with death, read like high romance or stirring …

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Poland’s First Iron Horse

  Ever wonder about transportation before the auto — about how people got around? Well, besides the bicycle and the horse, there was the railroad and it has an interesting history, especially in Poland.   The first railroad in the world was the Stockton-Darlington built in England in 1825 by George Stephenson. Freight cars were moved by …

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The Temples of Poland

  Sacred buildings are an important part of Polish architectural monuments. Many of them have a history more than a thousand years long. It should be remembered that Poland was converted to Christianity in 966 A.D., during the reign of its first historical ruler, Prince Mieszko I.   Everyone traveling in Poland is surprised by the richness …

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The Foreigner King

Four hundred years — sound like a long time ago? In terms of millenniums of history it really isn’t. In terms of the history of Poland, four hundred years ago, however, turns out to be a very important time. For in the year of 1575, a brave soldier and brilliant statesmen received the scepter of …

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Letters From Poland

(Letters from Poland is a three-part series — an interesting subject that I have just discovered. It is the stories of three separate authors who have focused on three different windows of Polish history through the art of Philately. Stanley Kronenberg recounts the Warsaw to Tokyo airmail run, Winston Gruszczyk discusses the aspects of concentration …

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Sikorski The Savant

He died in an air crash at Gibraltar in 1943. His death was a tragedy and a mystery that provoked worldwide reverberations. I speak of none other than GENERAL WLADYSLAW SIKORSKI — a man who belongs to the front rank of the outstanding military leaders and statesmen of World War II.   General Sikorski was 62 years old at …

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The Armenian Connection

The Armenians and the Poles — one might wonder what these two nations could possibly have in common, separated by almost a thousand miles geographically. However, despite distinct differences in ethnic, cultural and geographic areas, the Poles and the Armenians have had centuries of mutually friendly cooperation and spiritual kinship. Both nations faced similar national …

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Tradition

  If you are a playgoer, you have no doubt seen or heard the score from “Fiddler on the Roof”. One of the hit songs from the play is entitled, “Tradition”.   Thinking it an appropriate subject for this week’s column, I have decided to more thoroughly attempt to explain the Polish ethnic culture — what it …

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The Bells In The Lake

Here’s a fairy tale about the olden-time villages of Poland. Between the village of Antonje and the village of Dabrowka, between the dikes which keep back the waters of the Vistula, the San, and the Strachocka, there is a broad, wide-spreading lowland. The fields here form a chessboard, divided by boundary strips, over which run …

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