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POLISH AMERICAN JOURNAL • NOVEMBER 2013 www.polamjournal.com 1 NOVEMBER 2013 • VOL. 102, NO. 11 $2.00 PERIODICAL POSTAGE PAID AT BOSTON, NEW YORK NEW BOSTON, AT PAID PERIODICAL POSTAGE POLISH AMERICAN OFFICES AND ADDITIONAL ENTRY SPECIAL-NEEDS CHILDREN JOURNALESTABLISHED 1911 www.polamjournal.com EXPERIENCE A JOURNEY OF THEIR DREAMS DEDICATED TO THE PROMOTION AND CONTINUANCE OF POLISH AMERICAN CULTURE PAGE 11 A LESSON IN FREEDOM FROM NOT-SO-LONG AGO • OUTLINE OF POLISH-STYLE CHRISTMAS • THE STORY OF GRONK KARSKI EXHIBIT IN WISCONSIN • PLANNING AHEAD FOR WIECZERZA WIGILIJNA • WARSZAWA ON THE “WUKADKA” GERMANY’S “SELECTIVE MEMORY“ • TRANSLATING RECORDS FROM POLISH AND LATIN • RECALLING HALECKI’S GENIUS NEWSMARK In Bronze from Tip to Toe Beloved RULING LACKS TEETH. The European Court of Human Native Son to Rights says Russia has failed to explain why it kept key fi les secret when it investigated the 1940 Katyn massacre Become 36th of more than 20,000 Polish war prisoners. Russia failed to comply with a human rights obligation Polish Saint to provide evidence, the Strasbourg judges ruled. But they also said the court had no authority to rule on the inquiry. April 27, 2014 Set as Soviet Russia only admitted in 1990 that its forces, and not the Nazis, had carried out the atrocity. Offi cial Canonization Date The court said it did not have competence to rule on Russia’s handling of the Katyn investigation because too by Robert Strybel much time had elapsed between the massacre and the entry WARSAW — People in into force of the Convention. this staunchly Catholic land “We are rather disappointed by this verdict,” said Po- of 38 million were happy to land’s deputy foreign minister, Artur Nowak-Far. “The learn that next April 27th ruling does not take into account all the arguments of the their favorite native son Polish side that have here a great moral and historic right.” would be elevated to the al- Andrzej Melak, president of the Association of the Fam- tar and become known as St. ilies of Katyn Victims, called the judgment “scandalous,” John Paul II. But bells did not adding that it was “inadmissible and incomprehensible.” ring out and crowds did not — Agence France-Presse BBC and NYTimes reports rush to churches in thanks- giving as they did back in FAMILY THAT SHELTERED JEWS HONORED. A October 1978 when Kraków 97-year-old Polish woman and her late husband were hon- Archbishop Karol Wojtyła ored by Israel’s Yad Vashem Institute, Oct. 25, as “righ- was elected pope. teous gentiles.” The fi rst non-Italian pope Bronislawa Golonka and her husband Jan provided in 455 years surprised Catho- shelter to a fi ve-person Jewish family on a farm near Boch- lics world-wide and the fi rst nia, southern Poland, during the German occupation of Po- pontiff from behind the iron land. Max Halpern, one of the children saved by the cou- curtain sent shock waves ple, spent many years searching for the Golonka family. He across the Soviet bloc. Ini- and family members travelled from Israel to Wroclaw, in tial disbelief, surprise and joy southwest Poland, to be reunited with his wartime savior. Surrounded by family, Boston Red Sox Hall-of-Famer Carl Yastrzemski give a glance to his also spread across our Polo- Halpern recalled how the Golonka family created a spe- image in bronze, following its dedication outside Gate B at Fenway Park. The statue “Yaz” nia like wildfi re. But his can- cial hiding place on their farm. According to Nazi German captures the legend tipping his cap after his final at-bat at Fenway in 1983. Yastrzemski played onization 36 years later had laws, those who aided Jews could be summarily executed his entire 23-year major league career with the Red Sox. Story on page 18. See “John Paul II,” page 5 along with their immediate family. A second family that helped the Halperns during the war was honored by Yad Vashem in 1989. SacredSoil Poland’s International Situation An Interview with Dr. Marek Chodakiewicz of COMPENSATION SOUGHT. Poland is determined to get Finds a Home compensation from Boeing for the glitches haunting its the Institute of World Politics, Washington 787 Dreamliner jets, which are used by the country’s state- in Minnesota r. Marek Jan Chodakie- controlled carrier LOT, its treasury minister said. wicz holds the Kościuszko LOT is one of the 13 airlines that fl y the 787, which was Chair in Polish Studies as expected to be a game-changer for the aviation industry as professor of history at the its use of lighter materials and new engines promised 20 DInstitute of World Politics (IWP) in percent savings in fuel consumption. Washington, D.C. With a Ph.D. from LOT has already said it was demanding compensation Columbia University in New York, for lost revenue linked to a number of Dreamliner prob- PHOTO: GILBERT J. MROS Chodakiewicz has previously taught lems and has given Boeing until the end of the year to settle at Loyola Marymount University over faults or face court action. in Los Angeles and the University The Polish fl ag carrier, which has struggled for years of Virginia. A regular contributor to with huge operating losses, has estimated the cost of popular and scholarly journals, Dr. Dreamliner problems at $32.1 million. Chodakiewicz is author of more than “Besides a loss of face, this also disrupts LOT’s coming 15 books, including Intermarium: The out of the woods in the course of restructuring,” Wlodzimi- Land Between the Black and Baltic erz Karpinski told Polish public radio in an interview. Sacred soil from Kielpin Cemetery in Lomian- ki, Poland finds its way to Columbia Heights, Seas (New Brunswick, NJ: Transac- Minnesota via the USS Intrepid. tion, 2012). He spoke with the Polish VANCOUVER TEEN ANN MAKOSINSKI won Google’s American Journal about Poland in the global science fair with her project demonstrating how a world today. fl ashlight can be powered with nothing more than the heat by Gilbert J. Mros COLUMBIA HEIGHTS, Minn. — When from the palm of your hand. 2014 is the 25th anniversary of the Makosinski, whose entry was chosen from among thou- Dolores Strand of Columbia Heights opened her email inbox on July 17, she found an un- formal end of Communism in Poland. has also not reformed itself adequate- sands to represent Canada at Google’s global fair at the What do you think of Poland’s inter- ly. Continuity is the rule; we need dis- company’s headquarters in California, created what she expected message from an unknown sender. As a result, Columbia Heights has an artifact national situation today: its position, continuity from Communism. dubbed “The Hollow Flashlight,” to show how humans can it strengths, and its weaknesses? Poland’s neighborhood is mixed. be a source of thermal energy. from its Sister City, Lomianki, Poland. The message was from Edyta Piatek, staff Communism did not end in Po- Germany is united. Former Czecho- The inspiration for her project was a friend in the Phil- land in 1989. Totalitarianism is like slovakia is, like Poland, free and in ippines who failed at school because she had no light to accountant at the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum in New York City. In it, Piatek de- a disease. Poland was not cured mi- NATO. Russia is authoritarian. Belar- study by once it got dark. Her experience left the 15-year- raculously then. The system persists us never really abandoned the worst old Makosinski determined to fi nd a way to power a light scribed how during a 2007 renovation of the museum, then curator John Zukowsky lo- chronically, having transformed itself of its old system. Lithuania is free. without batteries or electricity. as post-Communism. That’s why Po- Ukraine doesn’t seem to know where Makosinski, an 11th grade student at St. Michael’s cated some artifacts that were related to Po- land and its history. Among them was a small land’s position is not as strong as it it belongs. school in Vincent, said she has signed a confi dentiality should be. It has not taken full advan- agreement with a company to produce the light. wooden box containing earth from the Kiel- See “Sacred Soil,” page 5 tage of the implosion of the USSR. It See “Chodakiewicz ...” page 4 2 www.polamjournal.com POLISH AMERICAN JOURNAL • NOVEMBER 2013 ALMANAC VIEWPOINT / Martin Nowak Follow us on Facebook or visit us The People’s Republic on the internet at: polamjournal.com A Lesson in Freedom special scrutiny. The government knows how hide? You must be up to something terrible. The from Not-So-Long Ago often you write him or talk to him and for how mere fact of seeking privacy has become a suspi- November Q Listopad long. They even store data about your domestic cious act. In the former communist bloc countries of calls and emails to your cousin Lenny in Chi- Your DNA can reveal a lot about you. Your “Let us be honest. In war, as in East Central Europe, including Poland, one can cago. health status and history, who your relatives are, medicine, natural causes not under find museums dedicated to the preservation of ar- So they don’t listen in or read the messages? how long you’ll live. The Supreme Court recent- our control do much. In the present All that takes is for the government to get a war- ly ruled that the police can forcibly take a DNA case, the great tacticians of the cam- tifacts from life as it existed under their commu- paign were hills and forests, which nist governments.