POLISH AMERICAN JOURNAL • OCTOBER 2012 www.polamjournal.com 1 OCTOBER 2012 • VOL. 101, NO. 10 $2.00 PERIOdICAL POSTAGE PAId AT BOSTON, NEW YORK NEW BOSTON, AT PAId PERIOdICAL POSTAGE POLISH AMERICAN OFFICES ANd AddITIONAL ENTRY JOURNALESTABLISHED 1911 www.polamjournal.com ŚLĄSK RETURNS WITH TWO TOURS dEdICATEd TO THE PROMOTION ANd CONTINUANCE OF POLISH AMERICAN CULTURE PAGE 18 OBAMA’S INDIFFeReNCe TO POLAND • CReATING A MODeRN POLISh IDeNTITY IN NORTh AMeRICA RIChARD NIXON IN POLAND • ŻYCIe POLSKICh ROMÓW CYGANÓW: The LIFe OF The POLISh ROMA GYPSIeS ARe We STILL “UNMeLTABLe?” • TRee-TRIMMING TReASUReS • hARVeST SOUPS • “UNSUNG heROeS” FeTeD NEWSmarK U.S. Participation in Katyn Toward a Greater majOrITy WhIP SuPPOrTS VISa WaIVEr. U.S. Massacre Cover-up Exposed Understanding Sen. Dick Durbin says he will support legislation that would allow Polish citizens to travel to the U.S. for up One Thousand Pages of Documents Released An Interview With PHOTO: STEVE FOUGHT to 90 days without a visa. by Richard Prof. James Pula Durbin is the senior United States Senator from Il- Poremski WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — linois and the Senate Majority Whip, the second high- WASHINGTON, D.C. — James S. Pula is a longtime fi xture est position in the Democratic Party leadership in the “Today we make available in the Polish American academ- Senate. to the public, and the world, ic community. His most recent Poland is among the few European Union coun- really, information that has achievement has been the success- tries left out of a U.S. waiver program. Durbin voiced been in the possession of ful publication of The Polish Ameri- his support for including Poland in the Program while the United States govern- can Encyclopedia, of which he chairing a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing ment for over half-a- century served as editor-in-chief. Currently on the nomination of Stephen Mull as the new U.S. am- about the infamous massacre Professor of History at Purdue Uni- bassador to Poland, Sept. 13 in Washington. in the Katyn Forest … and to versity, where he previously was While Poland is a key U.S. ally in many respects, the shine a light on that event Vice Chancellor country isn’t included at least partly out of concern that of more than 70 years ago,” for Academic Polish visitors will stay as illegal immigrants. U.S. Sen. said U.S. Congresswoman Affairs, Profes- Mark Kirk of Illinois and U.S. Rep. Mike Quigley of Marcy Kaptur (D-Ohio) as sor Pula earlier Chicago also support a bill to include Poland. she opened the Katyn Proj- served at The ect event in the North Con- Catholic Uni- KOmOrOWSKI VISTS WEST POINT. President gressional Meeting Room of versity of Amer- Bronislaw Komorowski of Poland visited the West U.S. Capitol Building, Sept. ica in Washing- Point Military Academy, Tues., Sept. 25, 2012. This 10, 2012. Approximately ton and Utica was the very fi rst visit of a Polish president to U.S. mili- 150 persons attended the U.S. Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D-Ohio) addresses the Katyn Project College in New tary academy on New York’s Hudson River. He took overfl owing SRO meeting, audience in the U.S. Capitol’s North Congressional Meeting York State. Dr. part in a wreath-laying ceremony at the Kościuszko along with a small army of Room. She announced the the release of formerly classi- PULA Pula’s research Monument. Polish and U.S. news media. fied U.S.-held Katyn-related documents. Kaptur hosted and focuses on Pol- coordinated the historic proceedings. The ceremony included the features of the annual The now-declassifi ed ish immigrants and their ethnic event sponsored by the U.S. Military Academy a nd the 1,000 pages of Katyn docu- communities in the United States. American Association of the Friends of Kosciuszko at regardless of the obvious to Katyn Forest in 1943 for ments released by the Na- moral consequences to the anti-Russian propaganda He is the author and editor of more West Point in the spring of each year when Kosciuszko, tional Archives and Records than a dozen books including Polish the great military engineer and hero of Poland and the contrary. purposes. Their written re- Administration (NARA), Allied leaders were de- ports of the atrocity were Americans: A Community History; United States, is honored for his dedication to the cause show the Katyn Massacre Thaddeus Kosciuszko: The Purest of freedom and independence for both those countries. pendent of Russian military suppressed and labeled was covered up and sup- strength, despite Moscow’s Classifi ed or Top Secret by Son of Liberty; United We Stand: pressed by the U.S. govern- The Role of Polish Workers in the rOmNEy crITIcIZEd fOr uSING POPE’S ImaGE. orchestrated 1940 murder high ranking U.S. Army in- ment and high ranking U.S. of over 22,000 Polish mili- telligence offi cers after mak- New York Mills Textile Strikes, 1912 (CNS) — Poland’s Solidarity trade union criticized U.S. Army intelligence offi cers. and 1916; and For Liberty and Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney for us- tary offi cers and prominent ing their way west by a cir- Their motive was to gain Poles, on Stalin’s orders in cuitous route via the POW Justice: A Biography of Brig. Gen. ing images of the country and Blessed John Paul II in the cooperation of the then- Włodzimierz B. Krzyżanowski. He is his campaign. the Katyn Forest, outside of Swiss Protecting Power. nominal allied Russia. Smolensk. After World War II, the two editor of the biannual journal, Pol- “Every election campaigner uses various methods ish American Studies, published by The offi cial stand of Russian guilt was es- offi cers were ordered to re- and devices,” said Marek Lewandowski, the union the Polish American Historical As- the United States, as early tablished early on by two main silent regarding their spokesman. An August TV ad for Romney said Presi- sociation (PAHA). Three time recip- as 1943, was that of non- U.S. Army offi cers, who reports. dent Barack Obama had declared “war on religion.” ient of the Oskar Halecki Prize for involvement in the matter, were German POWs taken See “Cover up ...” page 4 Romney visited Poland July 30-31 at the invitation outstanding books on Polonia, Pula of former Polish President Lech Walesa. A spokesman also earned PAHA’s Mieczysław said the former Solidarity leader had had not “given ON hErITaGE mONTh / Robert Strybel Haiman Award. He spoke about support directly” to his campaign. the Encyclopedia and Polonia with The spokesman for the Polish bishops’ conference, John Grondelski: Father Jozef Kloch, told CNS Romney had not met The Virtues of Poles, Polonians and Polishness church representatives during his Polish visit, adding Are there such things as national traits? In fact, on several occasions the valor of PAJ. The Polish American His- that the Republican’s references to Blessed John Paul torical Association (PAHA) just and religious freedom were “a purely American matter.” If so, are they genetic, historically condi- Polish fi ghting men actually altered the tioned, or a little of both? course of European history. At the Battle published a magnum opus, The Polish American Encyclopedia, of machaLESKI NamEd rEVErENd mONSIGNOr. Without getting involved in that par- of Legnica in 1241, the armies of Bolesław ticular debate, let us consider some typi- the Pious (the same prince who gave Jews which you were the general editor. The Orchard Lake Schools announce that Chancellor- cal Polish virtues and vices. Among the their fi rst bill of rights in Europe) stopped Is this the fi rst attempt to publish Rector Thomas C. Machalski, Jr. has been appointed virtues there is that high-powered, can’t- the Mongolian invasion of Europe. In an encyclopedia of American Polo- Chaplain to His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI with the do-enough-for-you, bend-over-backwards 1683, forces under the command of Po- nia? How would you describe this title Reverend Monsignor. Msgr. Machalski received even arm-twisting gościnność (hospital- land’s King Jan Sobieski turned by the work’s signifi cance? a call from his Bishop, The Most Reverend Nicholas ity). Poles are probably the only nation to invading Turkish hordes at the gates of PULA. There was an attempt DiMarzio, Bishop of Brooklyn announcing his appoint- have actually deifi ed any of their visitors, Vienna. In 1920, Polish armies under Mar- in the 1940s to publish a Polish ment. as refl ected by the saying: “Gość w dom, shal Józef Piłsudski rolled back the Soviet American encyclopedia, but it went On August 27, 2011, Machalski was offi cially in- Bóg w dom” (“When a guest enters the attempt to infect Europe with the Bolshe- defunct after completing the letter stalled as the Rector of Ss. Cyril & Methodius Semi- home, God enters the home”). Another ad- vik revolution. “A.” The work today is the only ref- nary. On January 1, 2012, Msgr. Machalski became the age offers the guest everything the best of Polish cavalrymen amazed Napoleon at erence encyclopedia in existence on Third Chancellor of the Orchard Lake Schools in Or- what the house has to offer: “Czym chata Somosierra, Spain, and impressed the Al- American Polonia. To make it more chard Lake, outside Detroit, Mich.. bogata, tym rada,” or “What’s ours is lies at Monte Cassino during World War II. useful as a research tool, each entry Machalski said he is humbled by his appointment yours.” At times, the Poles’ readiness to stand up contains one or more bibliographic and asks for continued prayers for his future work at the Polish bravery has become proverbial.