May 2015 1 Polish American Postageperiodical Paid at Boston, New York and Additional Entry Offices
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ACPC ANNOUNCES SCHOLARSHIP WINNERSPOLISH AMERICAN JOURNAL • MAY 2015 www.polamjournal.com 1 POLISH AMERICAN YORK NEW BOSTON, AT PAID PERIODICAL POSTAGE AND ADDITIONAL ENTRY OFFICES AND ADDITIONAL ENTRY DEDICATED TO THE PROMOTION AND CONTINUANCE OF POLISH AMERICAN CULTURE JOURNAL CIESLA HONORED FOR VOLUNTEER SERVICE ESTABLISHED 1911 MAY 2015 • VOL. 104, NO. 5 | $2.00 www.polamjournal.com PAGE 7 YAD VASHEM AND THE JEWS VS. “POLISH CONCENTRATION CAMPS” • POLAND’S ECONOMY KEEPS ROLLING ALONG THE DÉJÀ VU OF RUSSIA’S ROUGH JUSTICE • HALF-NA-PÓŁ OR “GROSERNIA NA KORNERZE” • THE YEAR OF KANTOR HOW POLAND’S NOBILITY CAME INTO BEING • THE ANCIENT HEART OF THE WARSAW • POLES UNDER ATTACK IN DUBLIN NEWSMARK The Best of the Best FBI Director PHOTO: FOX SPORTS INCUMBENT KOMOROWSKI A PRESIDENTIAL Pens Letter SHOO-IN. Incumbent Bronisław Komorowski is more than certain to be re-elected to another fi ve-year term in Poland’s May presidential election. However, most likely of Regret he will not win more than 50% of the vote, so a run-off between the top two candidates will determine the winner. Accused Poland of The election campaign has been an exercise in classic po- Nazi Collaboration litical mud-slinging. Komorowski’s camp has accused his opponents of involvement in a savings and loan scandal, WASHINGTON — After while challenger Andrzej Duda’s backers have dredged up creating international contro- the incumbent’s unfulfi lled promises. Both sides have ex- versy for comments made at ploited the fi fth anniversary of the Smolensk air tragedy to the U.S. Holocaust Museum, score political points. A total of 11 hopefuls have collected FBI Director James Comey the 100,000 signatures required to register as a candidate gave a letter of regret to Pol- including a comely blonde with a Ph.D. in history, a mon- ish Ambassador Richard Sch- archist and a rock star. PolAms holding Polish citizenship nepf. are eligible to vote, but only in a very close race could their Comey accused Poles of ballots make a difference. being collaborators in the Ho- locaust. SAD REMINDER. Poland marked the 75th anniversary In a column in the Wash- COACH K, Mike Krzyzewski, led Duke to its fifth national championship.The 68-year-old of the Katyn Massacre, the mass murder of over 22,000 ington Post, adapted from a Krzyzewski is now second to only the great John Wooden in national championships. Coach Polish offi cers and other war prisoners in western Russia’s speech he gave April 15 at K leads in all-time wins with 1,018, the most in NCAA history. Story on page 10. Katyn forest by Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin’s secret po- the U.S. Holocaust Memo- lice. The massacre, perpetrated by the Stalin Regime, was rial Museum’s 2015 National designed to eliminate Poland’s elite after the Soviet Union Tribute Dinner, Comey said: overtook part of Poland in September of 1939. Smolensk Continues to Divide Poles “In their minds, the mur- “The 20th century did not see any crime like the one Polarization Serves had lived and worked. The the Polish president. derers and accomplices of committed in Katyn,” said Poland’s President Bronislaw Putin’s Interests demonstrators have accused As the fi fth anniversary of Germany, and Poland, and Komorowski during the anniversary commemoration cer- Poland’s ruling camp of a Smolensk was approaching, Hungary, and so many, many emony at the tomb of the Unknown Soldier. cover-up and called for the several new developments other places didn’t do some- For decades, Russia refused to acknowledge that Stalin by Robert Strybel thing evil. They convinced WARSAW–The fi fth an- “full truth” about Smolensk. came to light. Transcripts had ordered the killings, placing blame instead on the Na- Some of the placards bran- from one of the plane’s black themselves it was the right zis. It was only in 1990 that Mikhail Gorbachev, General niversary of the 2010 Polish thing to do, the thing they had presidential plane crash, Po- dished during the rallies boxes leaked by a Polish ra- Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union ad- have even accused President dio station seem to indicate to do.” mitted Soviet guilt in the atrocity. land’s worst civilian disas- This was part of a speech ter since World War II, was Bronisław Komorowski and that Polish air force com- Prime Minister Donald Tusk mander General Andrzej he gave, telling every new MATTEL UNDER FIRE FOR “NAZI POLAND” GAME. marked in Poland with me- FBI agent to get acquainted morial assemblies, masses, of having blood on their Błasik had been in the Tu- (Onet) One of the world’s largest toymakers has angered hands by allegedly conspir- polev cockpit alongside the with the museum. authorities in Poland for using the term “Nazi Poland” in wreath-layings and extensive “Naturally, I want them to media coverage – all par for ing with Russian President pilots urging them to land one of its family games. Vladimir Putin to assassinate See “Smolensk...,” page 3 See “FBI Director,” page 2 The “Apples to Apples” game is a party game where the course. Also typical of the Polish political scene was the people have to guess a word from the description. INTERVIEW One of the “Red Apples” cards entitled “Schindler’s fact that separate memorial List” reads “1993 Steven Spielberg fi lm. Powerful, real-life events were. The government 50 Years After an Appeal To Forgive and Be Forgiven story of a Catholic business- memorialized the crash vic- man who eventually saved tims at the Smolensk monu- Father Zygmunt Zieliński on the over a 1000 Jews in Nazi Po- ment in Warsaw’s Powązki land.” Cemetery, while later in the Polish Letter to the German Episcopate It is estimated that this day across town the opposi- At the close of the Second Vatican Council signifi cance of that Declaration. game has already sold more tion marched to the Presiden- a half century ago, the Polish Bishops reached than 3 million copies. It is tial Palace for a commemora- across the aisle to their German counterparts, Fifty years have passed since, at the end of available on the United States tive rally. sending an appeal that declared “we forgive Vatican II, the Polish bishops reached out to and other markets. The air disaster in Smo- and ask for- their German A spokesperson for the Pol- lensk, Russia, which claimed giveness” for counterparts ish Embassy in New York said the lives of 96 high-profi le the past. The to “forgive that the embassy was alerted Poles, including President declaration and ask for- to this issue by the Polish-lan- Lech and First Lady Maria was not only g i v e n e s s . ” guage Nowy Dziennik daily, publishd in New York. Kaczyński, has polarized Pol- intended as From the per- “The Embassy immediately intervened with the Presi- ish society unlike any other a Christian spective of a dent of the company, calling on the company to correct the issue. About the only point close to Vati- half century, mistake made by Mattel – which is completely untrue from of common agreement was can II, but also what has been a historical perspective, and detrimental to the good name that a greatly used Soviet- to prepare the signifi - of our country. We hope that it will be effective,” the Em- built Tupolev Tu-154 air- Poland as it cance of that bassy spokesperson said. liner was taking a high-level entered 1966, act? Polish delegation to the 50th marking the BULLET-PROOF VEST BREAKTHROUGH. Poland’s anniversary commemoration M i l l e n n i u m The dec- Moratex Company has developed a revolutionary new sub- of the Katyń massacre when of Poland’s laration “we it crashed in heavy fog at at SUDETEN GERMANS cheering the arrival of the German stance that will make protective body armor safer to use. origins as a Army into the Sudetenland in October 1938. Following forgive and Known as Shear-Thickening Fluid (STF), it hardens on edge of disused, rundown country when ask forgive- Russian military airport. World War II, the Potsdam Conference called for redrawn impact and disperses massive gunshot energy away from Mieszko I was borders and the resettlement of Germans living in areas in ness” from the wearer’s internal organs. When struck by a high-pow- There the agreement ends. baptized. Fa- the Polish side A whole Smolensk ide- present-day Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, ered projectile, Kevlar-based body armor can penetrate the ther Zygmunt Kaliningrad Oblast, and other East European countries. generated, as wearer’s body to a depth of 1.5 inches causing damage to ology has arisen, including Zieliński, pro- we know, con- the sternum, heart and spleen. Kevlar is a synthetic fi ber monthly torchlight marches fessor emeritus of Church History at the John troversy not just among the Communist rulers Developed by Polish American Stephanie Kwolek at Du- and anti-government rallies Paul II Catholic University of Lublin (KUL) spoke but among many average Poles who reme- Pont in 1965. outside the Presidential Pal- with the Polish American Journal about the See “Letter to German Episcopate,” page 4 ace, where Lech Kaczyński 2 www.polamjournal.com POLISH AMERICAN JOURNAL • MAY 2015 ALMANAC FBI Director Pens Letter of Regret to Ambassador continued from cover PRESSURE BRINGS REGRET. and where entire families were ex- Follow us on learn about abuse of authority on a Comey met with Polish Ambas- terminated if caught hiding Jews, Facebook or visit us breathtaking scale.