Polish ZEGOTA was the only one organization to save Jews, saved 50000 Jews from Holocaust
Czyj jest ten strach? część Polskie obozy koncentracyjne? "Upside Down"
Czyj jest ten strach? część 2 / 2
Polskie obozy koncentracyjne? "Upside Down"
Polish Pilots of the RAF
A real hero - Witold Pilecki - A Volunteer for Auschwitz
Encouraged by Rabbi Israel Singer's, the General Secretary of the World Jewish Congress, statements in 1996 such as " If Poland does not satisfy Jewish claims, it will be publicly attacked and humiliated in the international forum." So it is a plan to deliberately slander Poland's name and manipulate the American public's opinion against Poles. It was permitted to slander Poles now.
Very beautiful. A GREAT HERO overlooked in the post War history.
Irena Sendler
Irena Sendler, a Catholic hero
ZEGOTA saved 50000 Jews from Holocaust 2/3
Polish ZEGOTA saved 50000 Jews from Holocaust 3/3
Would you risk your own life and your family's to save another human being ? Brave people. Thanks. ZEGOTA was the cryptonym for the clandestine underground organization in German-Nazi- occupied Poland(1939-1945) that provide assistance to the Jewish people. Irena Sendler(Irena Krzyzanowska,Irena Sendlerowa),Zofia Kossak,Wanda Krahelska, Julian Grobelny, Dobrowolski, Tadeusz Rek, Ferdynand Arczynski, Ignacy Barski, Wladyslaw Bartoszewski, Ewa Brzuska,(Granny) and many others brave people.Splendid
Irena Sendler: A Tribute
enigma code breakers
ZEGOTA saved 50000 Jews from Holocaust 1/3
Polish ZEGOTA saved 50000 Jews from Holocaust 3/3
Żegota" ([ʐε'gɔt̪a] (help·info)), also known as the "Konrad Żegota Committee,"[1] was a codename for the Council to Aid Jews (Rada Pomocy Żydom), an underground organization in German-occupied Poland from 1942 to 1945. It operated under the auspices of the Polish Government in Exile through the Government Delegation for Poland, in Warsaw. Żegota's express purpose was to aid the country's Jews and find places of safety for them in occupied Poland. Poland was the only country in occupied Europe where, throughout the war, there existed such a dedicated secret organization.[2]
[edit] Composition
The Council to Aid Jews, Żegota, was the continuation of an earlier secret organization set up for this purpose, called the Provisional Committee to Aid Jews (Tymczasowy Komitet Pomocy Żydom), founded in September 1942 by Zofia Kossak-Szczucka and Wanda Krahelska-Filipowicz ("Alinka") and made up of democratic as well as Catholic activists. Its members included Władysław Bartoszewski, later Polish Foreign Minister (1995, 2000). Within a short time, the Provisional Committee had 180 persons under its care, but was dissolved for political and financial reasons.[1]
Founded soon after, in October 1942, Żegota was the brainchild of Henryk Woliński of the Home Army (AK). From its inception, the elected General Secretary of Żegota was Julian Grobelny, an activist in prewar Polish Socialist Party. Its Treasurer, Ferdynand Arczyński, was a member of the Polish Democratic Party. They were also the two of its most active workers. Żegota was the only Polish organization in World War II run jointly by Jews and non-Jews from a wide range of political movements. Politically, the organization was formed by Polish and Jewish underground political parties.
Jewish organizations were represented on the central committee by Adolf Bermann and Leon Feiner. The member organizations were the Jewish National Committee (an umbrella group representing the Zionist parties) and the socialist General Jewish Labor Union. Both Jewish parties operated independently also, using money from Jewish organizations abroad channelled to them by the Polish underground. They helped to subsidize the Polish branch of the organization, whose funding from the Polish Government-in-Exile reached significant proportions only in the spring of 1944. On the Polish side, political participation included the Polish Socialist Party as well as Democratic Party (Stronnictwo Demokratyczne) and a small rightist Front Odrodzenia Polski. Notably, the main right-wing party, the National Party (Stronnictwo Narodowe) refused to participate.
Kossack-Szczucka withdrew from participation from the onset. She had wanted Żegota to become an example of pure Christian charity and argued that the Jews had their own international charity organizations. She went on to act in the Social Self-Help Organization (Społeczna Organizacja Samopomocy - SOS) as a liaison between Żegota and Catholic convents and orphanages, where Catholic clergy hid many Jews.[3]
Żegota had around one hundred (100) sections. According to a letter by Adolf Berman, the Jewish Secretary of Żegota, dated February 26, 1977, there were other activists especially meritorious. He mentioned theatre artist Prof. Maria Grzegorzewski, psychologist Irena Solski, Janina Buchholtz-Bukolski*, educator Irena Sawicki*, scouting activist Dr. Ewa Rybicki, school principal Irena Kurowski, Prof. Stanislaw Ossowski and Prof. Maria Ossowski, zoo director Dr. Jan Zabinski* and his wife Antonina*, a writer, the unforgettable director of children's theatres Stefania Sempolowski, Jan Wesolowski*, Sylwia Rzeczycki*, Maria Laski, Maria Derwisz-Parnowski. Great merits had former Senator Zofia Rodziewicz, Zofia Latallo, Dr. Regina Fleszar and others. Beside the university educated people there were commoners like Waleria Malaczewski, Antonina Roguski, Jadwiga Leszczanin, Zofia Debicki*, tailor Stanislaw Michalski, farmers Kajszczak from Lomianki and Pawel Harmuszko, laborer Kazimierz Kuc and many others. – Those with the asterix (*) after their name have been recognized by Yad Vashem as Righteous Among the Nations up to the end of 1999.[4]
[edit] Activities
Żegota helped save some 4,000 Polish Jews by providing food, medical care, relief money and false identity documents for those hiding on the so-called "Aryan" side of German-occupied Poland. Most of its activity took place in Warsaw. The Jewish National Committee had some 5,600 Jews under its care, and the Bund an additional 1,500, but the activities of the three organizations overlapped to a considerable degree. Between them, they were able to reach some 8,500 of the 28,000 Jews hiding in Warsaw, as well as perhaps 1,000 elsewhere in Poland.
Help in the form of money, food and medicines was organised by Żegota for the Jews in several forced labour camps in Poland as well.[2] Forged identity documents were procured for those hiding on the 'Aryan side' including financial aid. The escape of Jews from ghettos, camps and deportation trains occurred mostly spontaneously through personal contacts, and most of the help that was extended to Jews in the country was similarly personal in nature. Since Jews in hiding preferred to remain well-concealed, Żegota had trouble finding them. Its activities therefore did not develop on a larger scale until late in 1943.
The German occupying forces made concealing Jews a crime punishable by death for everyone living in a house where Jews were discovered. Over 700 Poles murdered by Germans as a result of helping and sheltering their Jewish neighbors were posthumously awarded the title Righteous Among the Nations.[5] They were only a small part of several thousand Poles reportedly executed by the Nazis for aiding Jews.[6] It is estimated that some 200,000 Poles were engaged in helping Jews even though the threat of death did act as a deterrent.
Żegota did play a large part in placing Jewish children with foster families, public orphanages and church institutions (orphanages and convents). The foster families had to be told that the children were Jewish, so that they could take appropriate precautions, especially in the case of boys. (Jewish boys, unlike Poles, were circumcised.) Żegota sometimes paid for the children's care. In Warsaw, Żegota's children department, headed by Irena Sendler, cared for 2,500 of the 9,000 Jewish children smuggled from the Warsaw Ghetto.
Medical attention for the Jews in hiding was also made available through the Committee of Democratic and Socialist Physicians. Żegota had ties with many ghettos and camps. It also made numerous efforts to induce the Polish Government in Exile and the Delegatura to appeal to the Polish population to help the persecuted Jews.[7]
Postwar recognition
Many members of Żegota were memorialised in Israel in 1963 with a planting of a tree in the Avenue of the Righteous at Yad Vashem. Władysław Bartoszewski was present at the event.
Quotes
“Żegota is the story of extraordinary heroism amidst unique depravity – compelling in its human as well as historical dimensions. It is a particularly valuable addition to our understanding of the many facets of the Holocaust because Żegota as an organized effort was tantamount to ‘Schindler’s List’ multiplied a hundredfold.” ― Zbigniew Brzeziński
Polish Underground State
History of Poland
General:
^ a b Yad Vashem Shoa Resource Center, Zegota, page 4/34 of the Report.
^ a b Andrzej Sławiński, Those who helped Polish Jews during WWII. Translated from Polish by Antoni Bohdanowicz. Article on the pages of the London Branch of the Polish Home Army Ex-Servicemen Association. Last accessed on March 14 2008.
^ Gunnar S. Paulsson Secret City: The Hidden Jews of Warsaw, 1940-1945 Published 2003 Yale University Press ISBN 0300095465
^ Anna Poraj, Polish Righteous, Those Who Risked Their Lives; see: Rajszczak family, 2004.
^ Chaim Chefer, Righteous of the World: Polish citizens killed while helping Jews During the Holocaust
^ Ron Riesenbach, The Story of the Survival of the Riesenbach Family
^ Paulsson (2002)
(Polish) various authors. in Andrzej Krzysztof Kunert, Andrzej Friszke: „Żegota” Rada Pomocy Żydom 1942–1945. Warsaw: Rada Ochrony Pamięci Walk i Męczeństwa. ISBN 83-91666-6-0.
(English) various authors (2003). in Joshua D. Zimmerman: Contested Memories: Poles and Jews During the Holocaust and Its Aftermath. Rutgers University Press, 336. ISBN 0813531586.
(English) MS Nechama Tec (1986). When Light Pierced the Darkness: Christian Rescue of Jews in Nazi-occupied Poland. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0195051947.
(English) Tadeusz Piotrowski (1997). Poland's Holocaust. McFarland & Company. ISBN 0-7864-0371-3.
(English) Gunnar S. Paulsson. Secret City: The Hidden Jews of Warsaw, 1940-1945. Yale: Yale University Press, 2002. ISBN 0300095465.
(English) Irene Tomaszewski; Tecia Werbowski (1994). Zegota: The Rescue of Jews in Wartime Poland. Montreal: Price-Patterson.
(English) Irene Tomaszewski; Tecia Werbowski (1994). Zegota: The Council to Aid Jews in Occupied Poland 1942-1945. Price-Patterson. ISBN 1896881157.
Monday, June 30, 2008
To Israeli Young Tourists Please change your behavior when coming to Poland or do not come.
To Israeli Young Tourists Please change your behavior when coming to Poland or do not come.
Israeli Tourists with an angry streak
AMONGST some of Israeli Jewish tourists who come to Poland lurk a terrible bunch 'the angry ones'.
There are many 'angry ones' coming ‘back’ to Poland. I don’t have a number, but I know -– I meet them.
I hear them in their noisy groups when they flood the small peaceful streets of Kazimierz, talking as if they forgot to pack any sense of volume control and singing like drunk football fans returning from a soccer match.
I see them obnoxiously draped in Israeli flags which appear as essential to their outfit as their underwear.
Each group that comes 'back' come for its own reasons.
I met a group who, in my opinion, did not come for the right reason.
This group came in order to vent their anger they came to be angry.
One of them suggested that the Jewish community in Poland has been unfairly making money off the tourists that visit.
She further complained (to me and several non-Jewish members of the museum’s staff) of her disappointment and disgust that none of their guides had been Jewish.
When a young member of the Polish Jewish community joined the discussion, she said that she knew how the Jewish community here should be organized.
And she was dumbfounded to hear that the regular Jewish organizations which existed in her own community had not been installed here.
“But why don’t the young Jews of Poland join the lone-soldiers’ program in Israel?” she asked in shock.
“Their parents will be provided with a free ticket to visit their children at the end of the course!”
As if this incentive alone should be enough to convince these young Poles that their only option in life is to join the Israeli army.
It is most definitely important for those Jews who feel the interest to visit Poland to do so.
I urge them to come and see the traces of the vibrant prewar Jewish life in Poland which can still be found.
I wholly support that they visit as a means to pay respect to those who were murdered in the Shoah.
But I beg that each travelers asks himself first -– why am I coming?
Please don’t come as a way of releasing your anger on the Polish population.
Yes, the vast majority of Jews who were killed in the Shoah were done so on Polish soil.
But it was the Nazis who perpetrated this act, and even if some Poles supported their actions, it was not the Poles who committed the Holocaust.
Please don’t come to draw inappropriate levels of attention toward yourself as a way of proving to the Poles that the Jewish nation is still alive.
It is unfair on today’s Poles, the vast majority of whom are completely innocent.
It is also an inappropriate expression of nationalism in a foreign country.
The "angry" jews have no idea about the polish-jewish history.
They have no idea who Irena Sendler was or who Jan Karski was and how Poland looked like between 1939-45.
They have no idea how many Polish families helped Jews during the war and how many Poles were killed instantly because of that by the German nazis.
Kasia in Kazimierz asks Jewish tourists to not come to Poland “to be angry”: “Rather, come to learn about the past and perhaps about your family’s heritage. Come to learn from Poland’s diverse Jewish community, a community who really understands what it means to look after one another. Come to meet with non-Jewish Poles who really do care about restoring the memory of the Jewish community which was wiped off their map. Come to understand the true complexities of Polish-Jewish relations.”
Śmiechy i dowcipy podczas uroczystości
piątek 25 kwietnia 2008 18:20
Oburzające zachowanie młodych Żydów w getcie
» Oburzające zachowanie młodych Żydów w getcie Zamknij X
zobacz galerię fot. Michał Rozbicki Opowiadali sobie dowcipy, grali w berka, drzemali na trawie... Uczniowie z Izraela nie potrafili zachować się podczas niedawnych obchodów 65. rocznicy powstania w warszawskim getcie. Zwrócił na to uwagę izraelski portal "Ynetnews". Autor informacji nie kryje oburzenia.
Attila Somfalwi jest zażenowany zachowaniem izraelskiej młodzieży, która przyjechała na uroczystości w Warszawie. Podczas gdy setki uczestników obchodów rocznicowych, w obecności prezydentów Polski i Izraela, w wielkim skupieniu słuchało przemówień, uczniowie zorganizowali sobie coś w rodzaju równoległego "festynu" - ubolewa.
Somfalwi nie szczędzi też krytyki nauczycielom, którzy powinni byli uspokoić swoich podopiecznych. Jego zdaniem, zamiast to zrobić, obojętnie przypatrywali się ekscesom bądź nawet próbowali tłumaczyć zachowanie uczniów.
Dziennikarz wylicza: głośne śmiechy, krótkie drzemki na trawie, słuchanie muzyki, opowiadanie dowcipów, palenie, jedzenie, chichoty, krzyki, zabawy w "berka". I podsumowuje, że w Izraelu zapomniano o wpojeniu młodym ludziom zasad moralnych.
"Nie wspomnę o postawie uczniów podczas polskiego hymnu, bo mi po prostu wstyd" - dodaje Somfalwi.
The list of losses Israeli teenagers’ visits leave behind is long and costly. It begins with burned carpets in Polish hotels, and ends with Jewish teenagers’ trauma. But more and more often with local residents’ trauma too.
Roberto Lucchesini, originally from Tuscany, for several years now a resident of Krakow, hasn’t been sleeping well recently. Before he will be able to move his arms normally again, he will have to go through long rehab. All this because of how he was treated, in broad daylight in front of passers-by and several teenagers who were hermetically closed in their coach-buses. Israeli bodyguards, equipped with firearms, binded his arms behind his back over his head with handcuffs. In Krakow, in the middle of the street. A moment before, the Italian was trying to make coach drivers parking in front of his house turn their engines off. - ‘Israelis handcuffed me, threw me on the ground, my face landed in dog excrement, and then they were kicking me’. After that the perpetrators were gone. Italian had to be freed by the Polish police.
Lucchesini moved to Kazimierz, a district of Kraków, that used to be a Jewish commune of which the only things left now are synagogues and memories, often painful. He found an apartment with a view on the synagogue. - ‘Back then I had thought this was the most beautiful place on Earth’ - he says - ‘after some time I understood that the place is indeed beautiful, but not for its today’s residents’.
Kicking instead of answers
Jews search tourist
Other resident of Kazimierz, Beata W., office worker is of similar opinion. Israeli security searched her handbag on one of the streets, without telling her why.
- ‘When I asked what was this all about, they told me to shut up. I listened, I stopped talking, I was afraid they’d tell me to get undressed next’ - she says annoyed.
A young polish Jew, who as usual in Sabbath, went to pray in his synagogue couple months ago, also didn’t get his answer. He only asked, why can’t he enter the temple. Instead of an answer, he got kicked.
- ‘I saw this with my own eyes’ - says Mike Urbaniak, the editor of Forum Of Polish Jews and correspondent of European Jewish Press in Poland. - ‘I saw how my friend is being brutally attacked by security agents from Israel, without any reason.’
All this apparently in sake of Israeli childrens’ safety.
- ‘For Poles it may be difficult to understand, but security agents accompany Israelis at all times, both in Israel and abroad’ - explains Michał Sobelman, a spokesman for Israeli embassy in Poland. - ‘This is a parents’ demand, otherwise they wouldn’t agree for any kind of trip. Poland is no exception.’
But it was in Poland, as Mike Urbaniak reports, where Jews from Israel brutally kicked a Polish Jew in front of a synagogue, and then threatened him with prison. In plain view of the Israeli teenagers.
- ‘We are very sorry when we hear about such incidents’ - Sobelman admits - ‘Detailed analysis is carried out in each case. We will do everything we can, to prevent such situations in the future. Maybe we will have to change training methods of our security agents, so that they would know Poland is not like Israel, that the scale of threats here is insignificant?
Professor Moshe Zimmermann, head of German History Institute at Hebrew University in Jerusalem thinks however, that the problem is not only in the security agents’ behaviour. He thinks Israelis basically think that Poles aren’t equal partners for them. And it’s not only that they think Poles can’t ensure their children’s safety.
- ‘They are not equal partners to any kind of discussion. It applies also to our common history, contemporary history and politics. In result Israeli youth see Poles as second category people, as potential enemies’ - he explains bluntly.
An instruction on conduct with the local inhabitants given away to Israeli teenagers coming to Poland couple years ago may confirm professor’s opinion. It contained such a paragraph: ‘Everywhere we will be surrounded by Poles. We will hate them because of their participation in Holocaust’.
Jews hate Poles
- ‘Agendas of our teenagers’ trips to Poland are set in advance by the Israeli government, and are not flexible’ - says Ilona Dworak-Cousin, the chairwoman of the Polish-Israeli Friendship Association in Israel. - ‘Those trips basically come down to visiting, one by one, the places of extermination of Jews. From that perspective Poland is just a huge Jewish graveyard. And nothing more. Meeting living people, for those who organise these trips, is meaningless.’
A resident of Kraków’s Kazimierz district, who is of Jewish descent, says that there is nothing wrong with that: - ‘Israelis don’t come to Poland for holiday. Their aim is to see the sites of Shoah and listen to the terrifying history of their families, history that often is not told to them by their grandparents, because of its emotional weight. Often young people who are leaving, cry, phone their parents and say “why didn’t you tell me it was that horrible?”. To be frank, I am not surprised they have no interest in talking about Lajkonik‘.
However according to Ilona Dworak-Cousin the lack of contact with Poles, causes Israeli youth to confuse victims with the perpetrators. - ‘They start to think it were the Poles who created concentration camps for Jews, that it is the Polish who were and still are the biggest anti-Semites in the world’ - adds Dworak-Cousin, who is Jewish herself.
The above mentioned Kraków resident has a different opinion. - ‘I don’t believe anyone was telling them that the Poles had been doing this. That’s why there is no need for discussing anything with the Poles’.
Teenagers behaving badly
However, many Israelis say that although the instruction was eventually changed, the attitude to Poles has not changed at all.
- ‘Someone in Israel some day decided, that our children going to Poland have to be hermetically surrounded by security’ - says Lili Haber president of Cracovians Association in Israel. - ‘Someone decided that young Israelis cannot meet young Poles, and cannot walk the streets. Basically these visits aren’t anything else but a several-day-long voluntary prison.’
RIch brat jews
Voluntary, but also very expensive: 1400 USD per person. Not every Israeli parent can afford such a trip.
- ‘Moreover, as it turns out, the children are too young, to visit sites of mass murders’ - adds dr Ilona Dworak-Cousin. Traumatic experiences that accompany visits in death camps have its consequences. Kids become aggressive. And instead of getting to know the country of their ancestors, in which Jews and Poles lived in symbiosis for over 1000 years, Israeli teenagers cause one scandal after another.
Shitting in beds
It happens sometimes, that somewhere between Majdanek and Treblinka, young Israelis spend their time on striptease ordered via the hotel telephone. It happens sometimes, that the hotel service has to collect human excrement from hotel beds and washbasins. It happens sometimes, that hotels have to give money back to other tourists, who cannot sleep because Israeli kids decided to play football in hotel corridor. In the middle of the night.
Jews block streets
6-year-old Krzys from Kazimierz played football too. On Sunday night on 15th April, after shooting two goals, he wanted to go home, as usual. He lives near a synagogue, in front of which hundreds of young Israelis have gathered on celebrations preceding March of Living. Just before Szeroka street he was stopped by some not-so-nice men. - ‘This is a semi-private area today. There is no entry’ - he was told. It didn’t help, when he told them, his mum will get upset if he won’t be home on time.
Security officers, which is interesting, were Polish this time and accompanied by the Polish police. They also denied access to the area to a Dutch couple, who had reserved a table at one of the restaurants on Szeroka street six months ago. - ‘Is this a free country?’ - One of the tourists tried to make sure.
On a normal day you can access Szeroka street from several sides. That evening from none. I tried to get through myself, without any success. Only eventually, the police helped me to pass the security line.
- ‘There are no official restrictions here’ - they were convincing me a moment later, although the “unofficial practice” was different.
- ‘We have only set certain restrictions in movement’ - Sylvia Bober-Jasnoch, a spokeswoman for Malopolska Region Police press service, explained to me later.
The police cannot say anything else. Polish law does not allow residents to be denied access to the streets they live at. Even during the so called mass events (however the celebrations on Szeroka did not have that status) residents have the right to go back to their homes and tourists have the right to dine in a restaurant. Also Israeli security agents have no right to stop or search passers-by.
I tried to find out more on the rights of Israeli security agents in Poland. First at the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, from where my question was sent to…. the Ministry of Education. I have also sent questions to the Home Office. Although I was promised, I received no answer. Only person eager to talk on that matter was Maciej Kozłowski, former ambassador in Israel, currently the Plenipotentiary of the Minister of Foreign Affairs for Polish-Israeli relations.
- ‘Regulations are imprecise’ - admits Kozłowski. ‘Basically bodyguards from a foreign country should not move around Poland armed. However for the government of Israel security matters are a priority. Any convincing that their citizens should use the services of Polish security turned unsuccessful’.
Airplane like battle field
The Polish-Italian couple, Robert Lucchesini, his wife Anna, and their two-year-old daughter, cannot understand Polish government’s attitude. Which contrary to the Israeli government, is not able to ensure the safety of its citizens. Safety is not the only thing among the pair’s priorities, but also peace and quietness. They are however being woken up every morning by the loud noises of engines, of the Polish coach-buses with groups of Israeli youth. Their Polish drivers brake driving regulations all the time. They’re allowed to park at the square near the synagogue (in front of Robert’s house) only for up to 10 minutes. They stay there much longer, even hours. With their engines turned on. Reason? Youth’s safety - they would be able to leave quicker in case of a threat. And because Israeli kids need to be served coffee. Because even though Kazimierz is full of cafes, Israeli teenagers don’t go there. They are being told: no contacts with environment, no talking to passers-by, no smiles nor gestures.
This has been going for years. Israeli groups contact with Poles only there where they have to. First in airplanes.
Slapped stewardess
- ‘A plane after such group has landed, looks like a battle field’ - admits a worker of LOT Polish Airlines asking for his name not to be published. - ‘The worst thing is these kids’ attitude to Polish staff. Recently a stewardess was slapped by a teenager in her face. Because he had been waiting for his coca-cola too long’.
Leszek Chorzewski, LOT spokesman, admits that Israeli youth is a difficult customer. - ‘They demand not only more attention then other passengers, but also more security precautions’ - he adds. These precautions are long aircraft and airport controls conducted by Israeli services. These are also the high demands of the teenagers’ security agents.
Katarzyna Łazuga, student from Poznań, could see that first hand. She participated in a tourist guides’ training on one of Polish airports. ‘Young people from Israel entered the room we were in’, she recalls. - ‘Our group was then made to stop classes and rushed out of the room. Israeli security officers told us to go out, right now and without any talking. Because… we were “staring” at their clients. Yes, we were looking at them. They were catching attention, they were good looking.’
Young Israelis see Poles also there, where they board - in Polish hotels. If any of them still wants to have them. Most of those in Kraków don’t want to any more.
- ‘We have resigned from admitting Israeli youth once and for all’ - admits Agnieszka Tomczyk, assistant manageress in a chain of hotels called System. ‘We could not afford to refund the loses after their stays any more’.
Shiting in beds
These loses being: demolished rooms, broken chairs and tables, human excrements in washbasins or trash bins, or like in Astoria, other hotel in Kraków, burned carpet. Astoria also backs out from having Israeli groups. One of the reasons is that the teenagers’ security agents were ordering other guests, whom they didn’t like, to leave.
- ‘I understand that Israeli security agents are over-sensitive to any disturbing signals. They are coming from a country where bombs explode almost daily, and young people die in terrorist attacks’ - ensures Mike Urbaniak. - ‘But Poland is one of the safest countries in Europe. Here, excluding tiny number of incidents, Jews are not being attacked, and Jewish institutions don’t need security, which is very unusual on a world scale’.
Huge business
Chasidim, travelling in great numbers from Israel, also (surprisingly) don’t need security agents. Including for example many Orthodox Jews, who came to visit our country recently, as they wanted to pray at Tzadik of Lelów’s grave. They came to the market square in Kazimierz without any security assistance and without any fear.
- ‘They chatted eagerly with tourists interested in their outfits, with passers-by who don’t see Jews with side curls every day’ - adds Urbaniak.
In Kazimierz chasidim are nothing unusual. Like groups of Israeli teenagers. This year 30,000 Israeli teenagers are coming to Poland, and they will have 800 security agents to protect them.
Roberto Lucchesini reported to the Polish police that he got beaten by Israeli security. Krakow Prosecution Office is investigating the case, and so is its counterpart in Israel.
- ‘Results of this investigation are of medium importance’ - thinks Ilona Dworak-Cousin. - ‘What matters is if the youth that visits Poland, will still treat it as hostile and completely alien country’.
Polish-Israeli Friendship Association in Israel and Cracovians Association in Israel both try to convince the government of their country, not to send any more teenagers to see only the death camps in Poland. Chances are slim.
- ‘These trips are mostly a huge business for people who organise them’ - says Lili Haber - ‘including Israeli bodyguards’.
Israeli Tourists with an angry streak
AMONGST some of Israeli Jewish tourists who come to Poland lurk a terrible bunch 'the angry ones'.
There are many 'angry ones' coming ‘back’ to Poland. I don’t have a number, but I know -– I meet them.
I hear them in their noisy groups when they flood the small peaceful streets of Kazimierz, talking as if they forgot to pack any sense of volume control and singing like drunk football fans returning from a soccer match.
I see them obnoxiously draped in Israeli flags which appear as essential to their outfit as their underwear.
Each group that comes 'back' come for its own reasons.
I met a group who, in my opinion, did not come for the right reason.
This group came in order to vent their anger they came to be angry.
One of them suggested that the Jewish community in Poland has been unfairly making money off the tourists that visit.
She further complained (to me and several non-Jewish members of the museum’s staff) of her disappointment and disgust that none of their guides had been Jewish.
When a young member of the Polish Jewish community joined the discussion, she said that she knew how the Jewish community here should be organized.
And she was dumbfounded to hear that the regular Jewish organizations which existed in her own community had not been installed here.
“But why don’t the young Jews of Poland join the lone-soldiers’ program in Israel?” she asked in shock.
“Their parents will be provided with a free ticket to visit their children at the end of the course!”
As if this incentive alone should be enough to convince these young Poles that their only option in life is to join the Israeli army.
It is most definitely important for those Jews who feel the interest to visit Poland to do so.
I urge them to come and see the traces of the vibrant prewar Jewish life in Poland which can still be found.
I wholly support that they visit as a means to pay respect to those who were murdered in the Shoah.
But I beg that each travelers asks himself first -– why am I coming?
Please don’t come as a way of releasing your anger on the Polish population.
Yes, the vast majority of Jews who were killed in the Shoah were done so on Polish soil.
But it was the Nazis who perpetrated this act, and even if some Poles supported their actions, it was not the Poles who committed the Holocaust.
Please don’t come to draw inappropriate levels of attention toward yourself as a way of proving to the Poles that the Jewish nation is still alive.
It is unfair on today’s Poles, the vast majority of whom are completely innocent.
It is also an inappropriate expression of nationalism in a foreign country.
The "angry" jews have no idea about the polish-jewish history.
They have no idea who Irena Sendler was or who Jan Karski was and how Poland looked like between 1939-45.
They have no idea how many Polish families helped Jews during the war and how many Poles were killed instantly because of that by the German nazis.
Kasia in Kazimierz asks Jewish tourists to not come to Poland “to be angry”: “Rather, come to learn about the past and perhaps about your family’s heritage. Come to learn from Poland’s diverse Jewish community, a community who really understands what it means to look after one another. Come to meet with non-Jewish Poles who really do care about restoring the memory of the Jewish community which was wiped off their map. Come to understand the true complexities of Polish-Jewish relations.”
Śmiechy i dowcipy podczas uroczystości
piątek 25 kwietnia 2008 18:20
Oburzające zachowanie młodych Żydów w getcie
» Oburzające zachowanie młodych Żydów w getcie Zamknij X
zobacz galerię fot. Michał Rozbicki Opowiadali sobie dowcipy, grali w berka, drzemali na trawie... Uczniowie z Izraela nie potrafili zachować się podczas niedawnych obchodów 65. rocznicy powstania w warszawskim getcie. Zwrócił na to uwagę izraelski portal "Ynetnews". Autor informacji nie kryje oburzenia.
Attila Somfalwi jest zażenowany zachowaniem izraelskiej młodzieży, która przyjechała na uroczystości w Warszawie. Podczas gdy setki uczestników obchodów rocznicowych, w obecności prezydentów Polski i Izraela, w wielkim skupieniu słuchało przemówień, uczniowie zorganizowali sobie coś w rodzaju równoległego "festynu" - ubolewa.
Somfalwi nie szczędzi też krytyki nauczycielom, którzy powinni byli uspokoić swoich podopiecznych. Jego zdaniem, zamiast to zrobić, obojętnie przypatrywali się ekscesom bądź nawet próbowali tłumaczyć zachowanie uczniów.
Dziennikarz wylicza: głośne śmiechy, krótkie drzemki na trawie, słuchanie muzyki, opowiadanie dowcipów, palenie, jedzenie, chichoty, krzyki, zabawy w "berka". I podsumowuje, że w Izraelu zapomniano o wpojeniu młodym ludziom zasad moralnych.
"Nie wspomnę o postawie uczniów podczas polskiego hymnu, bo mi po prostu wstyd" - dodaje Somfalwi.
The list of losses Israeli teenagers’ visits leave behind is long and costly. It begins with burned carpets in Polish hotels, and ends with Jewish teenagers’ trauma. But more and more often with local residents’ trauma too.
Roberto Lucchesini, originally from Tuscany, for several years now a resident of Krakow, hasn’t been sleeping well recently. Before he will be able to move his arms normally again, he will have to go through long rehab. All this because of how he was treated, in broad daylight in front of passers-by and several teenagers who were hermetically closed in their coach-buses. Israeli bodyguards, equipped with firearms, binded his arms behind his back over his head with handcuffs. In Krakow, in the middle of the street. A moment before, the Italian was trying to make coach drivers parking in front of his house turn their engines off. - ‘Israelis handcuffed me, threw me on the ground, my face landed in dog excrement, and then they were kicking me’. After that the perpetrators were gone. Italian had to be freed by the Polish police.
Lucchesini moved to Kazimierz, a district of Kraków, that used to be a Jewish commune of which the only things left now are synagogues and memories, often painful. He found an apartment with a view on the synagogue. - ‘Back then I had thought this was the most beautiful place on Earth’ - he says - ‘after some time I understood that the place is indeed beautiful, but not for its today’s residents’.
Kicking instead of answers
Jews search tourist
Other resident of Kazimierz, Beata W., office worker is of similar opinion. Israeli security searched her handbag on one of the streets, without telling her why.
- ‘When I asked what was this all about, they told me to shut up. I listened, I stopped talking, I was afraid they’d tell me to get undressed next’ - she says annoyed.
A young polish Jew, who as usual in Sabbath, went to pray in his synagogue couple months ago, also didn’t get his answer. He only asked, why can’t he enter the temple. Instead of an answer, he got kicked.
- ‘I saw this with my own eyes’ - says Mike Urbaniak, the editor of Forum Of Polish Jews and correspondent of European Jewish Press in Poland. - ‘I saw how my friend is being brutally attacked by security agents from Israel, without any reason.’
All this apparently in sake of Israeli childrens’ safety.
- ‘For Poles it may be difficult to understand, but security agents accompany Israelis at all times, both in Israel and abroad’ - explains Michał Sobelman, a spokesman for Israeli embassy in Poland. - ‘This is a parents’ demand, otherwise they wouldn’t agree for any kind of trip. Poland is no exception.’
But it was in Poland, as Mike Urbaniak reports, where Jews from Israel brutally kicked a Polish Jew in front of a synagogue, and then threatened him with prison. In plain view of the Israeli teenagers.
- ‘We are very sorry when we hear about such incidents’ - Sobelman admits - ‘Detailed analysis is carried out in each case. We will do everything we can, to prevent such situations in the future. Maybe we will have to change training methods of our security agents, so that they would know Poland is not like Israel, that the scale of threats here is insignificant?
Professor Moshe Zimmermann, head of German History Institute at Hebrew University in Jerusalem thinks however, that the problem is not only in the security agents’ behaviour. He thinks Israelis basically think that Poles aren’t equal partners for them. And it’s not only that they think Poles can’t ensure their children’s safety.
- ‘They are not equal partners to any kind of discussion. It applies also to our common history, contemporary history and politics. In result Israeli youth see Poles as second category people, as potential enemies’ - he explains bluntly.
An instruction on conduct with the local inhabitants given away to Israeli teenagers coming to Poland couple years ago may confirm professor’s opinion. It contained such a paragraph: ‘Everywhere we will be surrounded by Poles. We will hate them because of their participation in Holocaust’.
Jews hate Poles
- ‘Agendas of our teenagers’ trips to Poland are set in advance by the Israeli government, and are not flexible’ - says Ilona Dworak-Cousin, the chairwoman of the Polish-Israeli Friendship Association in Israel. - ‘Those trips basically come down to visiting, one by one, the places of extermination of Jews. From that perspective Poland is just a huge Jewish graveyard. And nothing more. Meeting living people, for those who organise these trips, is meaningless.’
A resident of Kraków’s Kazimierz district, who is of Jewish descent, says that there is nothing wrong with that: - ‘Israelis don’t come to Poland for holiday. Their aim is to see the sites of Shoah and listen to the terrifying history of their families, history that often is not told to them by their grandparents, because of its emotional weight. Often young people who are leaving, cry, phone their parents and say “why didn’t you tell me it was that horrible?”. To be frank, I am not surprised they have no interest in talking about Lajkonik‘.
However according to Ilona Dworak-Cousin the lack of contact with Poles, causes Israeli youth to confuse victims with the perpetrators. - ‘They start to think it were the Poles who created concentration camps for Jews, that it is the Polish who were and still are the biggest anti-Semites in the world’ - adds Dworak-Cousin, who is Jewish herself.
The above mentioned Kraków resident has a different opinion. - ‘I don’t believe anyone was telling them that the Poles had been doing this. That’s why there is no need for discussing anything with the Poles’.
Teenagers behaving badly
However, many Israelis say that although the instruction was eventually changed, the attitude to Poles has not changed at all.
- ‘Someone in Israel some day decided, that our children going to Poland have to be hermetically surrounded by security’ - says Lili Haber president of Cracovians Association in Israel. - ‘Someone decided that young Israelis cannot meet young Poles, and cannot walk the streets. Basically these visits aren’t anything else but a several-day-long voluntary prison.’
RIch brat jews
Voluntary, but also very expensive: 1400 USD per person. Not every Israeli parent can afford such a trip.
- ‘Moreover, as it turns out, the children are too young, to visit sites of mass murders’ - adds dr Ilona Dworak-Cousin. Traumatic experiences that accompany visits in death camps have its consequences. Kids become aggressive. And instead of getting to know the country of their ancestors, in which Jews and Poles lived in symbiosis for over 1000 years, Israeli teenagers cause one scandal after another.
Shitting in beds
It happens sometimes, that somewhere between Majdanek and Treblinka, young Israelis spend their time on striptease ordered via the hotel telephone. It happens sometimes, that the hotel service has to collect human excrement from hotel beds and washbasins. It happens sometimes, that hotels have to give money back to other tourists, who cannot sleep because Israeli kids decided to play football in hotel corridor. In the middle of the night.
Jews block streets
6-year-old Krzys from Kazimierz played football too. On Sunday night on 15th April, after shooting two goals, he wanted to go home, as usual. He lives near a synagogue, in front of which hundreds of young Israelis have gathered on celebrations preceding March of Living. Just before Szeroka street he was stopped by some not-so-nice men. - ‘This is a semi-private area today. There is no entry’ - he was told. It didn’t help, when he told them, his mum will get upset if he won’t be home on time.
Security officers, which is interesting, were Polish this time and accompanied by the Polish police. They also denied access to the area to a Dutch couple, who had reserved a table at one of the restaurants on Szeroka street six months ago. - ‘Is this a free country?’ - One of the tourists tried to make sure.
On a normal day you can access Szeroka street from several sides. That evening from none. I tried to get through myself, without any success. Only eventually, the police helped me to pass the security line.
- ‘There are no official restrictions here’ - they were convincing me a moment later, although the “unofficial practice” was different.
- ‘We have only set certain restrictions in movement’ - Sylvia Bober-Jasnoch, a spokeswoman for Malopolska Region Police press service, explained to me later.
The police cannot say anything else. Polish law does not allow residents to be denied access to the streets they live at. Even during the so called mass events (however the celebrations on Szeroka did not have that status) residents have the right to go back to their homes and tourists have the right to dine in a restaurant. Also Israeli security agents have no right to stop or search passers-by.
I tried to find out more on the rights of Israeli security agents in Poland. First at the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, from where my question was sent to…. the Ministry of Education. I have also sent questions to the Home Office. Although I was promised, I received no answer. Only person eager to talk on that matter was Maciej Kozłowski, former ambassador in Israel, currently the Plenipotentiary of the Minister of Foreign Affairs for Polish-Israeli relations.
- ‘Regulations are imprecise’ - admits Kozłowski. ‘Basically bodyguards from a foreign country should not move around Poland armed. However for the government of Israel security matters are a priority. Any convincing that their citizens should use the services of Polish security turned unsuccessful’.
Airplane like battle field
The Polish-Italian couple, Robert Lucchesini, his wife Anna, and their two-year-old daughter, cannot understand Polish government’s attitude. Which contrary to the Israeli government, is not able to ensure the safety of its citizens. Safety is not the only thing among the pair’s priorities, but also peace and quietness. They are however being woken up every morning by the loud noises of engines, of the Polish coach-buses with groups of Israeli youth. Their Polish drivers brake driving regulations all the time. They’re allowed to park at the square near the synagogue (in front of Robert’s house) only for up to 10 minutes. They stay there much longer, even hours. With their engines turned on. Reason? Youth’s safety - they would be able to leave quicker in case of a threat. And because Israeli kids need to be served coffee. Because even though Kazimierz is full of cafes, Israeli teenagers don’t go there. They are being told: no contacts with environment, no talking to passers-by, no smiles nor gestures.
This has been going for years. Israeli groups contact with Poles only there where they have to. First in airplanes.
Slapped stewardess
- ‘A plane after such group has landed, looks like a battle field’ - admits a worker of LOT Polish Airlines asking for his name not to be published. - ‘The worst thing is these kids’ attitude to Polish staff. Recently a stewardess was slapped by a teenager in her face. Because he had been waiting for his coca-cola too long’.
Leszek Chorzewski, LOT spokesman, admits that Israeli youth is a difficult customer. - ‘They demand not only more attention then other passengers, but also more security precautions’ - he adds. These precautions are long aircraft and airport controls conducted by Israeli services. These are also the high demands of the teenagers’ security agents.
Katarzyna Łazuga, student from Poznań, could see that first hand. She participated in a tourist guides’ training on one of Polish airports. ‘Young people from Israel entered the room we were in’, she recalls. - ‘Our group was then made to stop classes and rushed out of the room. Israeli security officers told us to go out, right now and without any talking. Because… we were “staring” at their clients. Yes, we were looking at them. They were catching attention, they were good looking.’
Young Israelis see Poles also there, where they board - in Polish hotels. If any of them still wants to have them. Most of those in Kraków don’t want to any more.
- ‘We have resigned from admitting Israeli youth once and for all’ - admits Agnieszka Tomczyk, assistant manageress in a chain of hotels called System. ‘We could not afford to refund the loses after their stays any more’.
Shiting in beds
These loses being: demolished rooms, broken chairs and tables, human excrements in washbasins or trash bins, or like in Astoria, other hotel in Kraków, burned carpet. Astoria also backs out from having Israeli groups. One of the reasons is that the teenagers’ security agents were ordering other guests, whom they didn’t like, to leave.
- ‘I understand that Israeli security agents are over-sensitive to any disturbing signals. They are coming from a country where bombs explode almost daily, and young people die in terrorist attacks’ - ensures Mike Urbaniak. - ‘But Poland is one of the safest countries in Europe. Here, excluding tiny number of incidents, Jews are not being attacked, and Jewish institutions don’t need security, which is very unusual on a world scale’.
Huge business
Chasidim, travelling in great numbers from Israel, also (surprisingly) don’t need security agents. Including for example many Orthodox Jews, who came to visit our country recently, as they wanted to pray at Tzadik of Lelów’s grave. They came to the market square in Kazimierz without any security assistance and without any fear.
- ‘They chatted eagerly with tourists interested in their outfits, with passers-by who don’t see Jews with side curls every day’ - adds Urbaniak.
In Kazimierz chasidim are nothing unusual. Like groups of Israeli teenagers. This year 30,000 Israeli teenagers are coming to Poland, and they will have 800 security agents to protect them.
Roberto Lucchesini reported to the Polish police that he got beaten by Israeli security. Krakow Prosecution Office is investigating the case, and so is its counterpart in Israel.
- ‘Results of this investigation are of medium importance’ - thinks Ilona Dworak-Cousin. - ‘What matters is if the youth that visits Poland, will still treat it as hostile and completely alien country’.
Polish-Israeli Friendship Association in Israel and Cracovians Association in Israel both try to convince the government of their country, not to send any more teenagers to see only the death camps in Poland. Chances are slim.
- ‘These trips are mostly a huge business for people who organise them’ - says Lili Haber - ‘including Israeli bodyguards’.
Thursday, June 5, 2008
"Myśląc Ojczyzna" prof. dr hab. Piotr Jaroszyński
"Myśląc Ojczyzna" prof. dr hab. Piotr Jaroszyński
"Myśląc Ojczyzna"
prof. dr hab. Piotr Jaroszyński (2008-06-03)
Felieton
słuchajzapisz
Władysław Konopczyński, pseud. Dantyszek, Korzonek (ur. 26 listopada 1880 w Warszawie, zm. 12 lipca 1952 w Młyniku koło Ojcowa), historyk polski, profesor Uniwersytetu Jagiellońskiego, członek Towarzystwa Naukowego Warszawskiego i Polskiej Akademii Umiejętności, współtwórca i pierwszy redaktor naczelny Polskiego Słownika Biograficznego.
Był synem Ignacego (inżyniera komunikacji, uczestnika powstania styczniowego) i Ludwiki z Obrąpalskich, bratankiem Emiliana (pedagoga, dyrektora IV Gimnazjum w Warszawie). Szwagrem Władysława Konopczyńskiego został prawnik, profesor Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego Karol Lutostański.
Uczęszczał do Gimnazjum W. Górskiego i IV Gimnazjum w Warszawie (1891-1899), działając aktywnie w młodzieżowych kółkach politycznych i samokształceniowych. Studiował prawo na Uniwersytecie Warszawskim (1899-1904, kończąc studia ze stopniem kandydata nauk prawnych i politycznych na podstawie pracy Przyczynki do kwestyi powstania liberi veto) oraz historię na Uniwersytecie Lwowskim (1907-1908, 1908 doktorat pod kierunkiem Szymona Askenazego). Był nauczycielem historii w IV Gimnazjum w Warszawie, wykładał także w Towarzystwie Kursów Naukowych tamże. Na podstawie pracy Polska w dobie wojny siedmioletniej (przygotowanej pod kierunkiem Wacława Tokarza) habilitował się w 1911 na Uniwersytecie Jagiellońskim.
W 1913 został docentem w Katedrze Historii Powszechnej Uniwersytetu Jagiellońskiego; lata 1914-1916 spędził w Szwecji. W 1917 mianowany profesorem nadzwyczajnym i kierownikiem Katedry Historii Polski Nowożytnej i Najnowszej, profesorem zwyczajnym został w 1921. W 1939 objął funkcję dziekana Wydziału Filozoficznego, zachowując ją formalnie przez cały okres wojny. Znalazł się w gronie pracowników Uniwersytetu Jagiellońskiego, zatrzymanych w ramach Sonderaktion Krakau; był więziony w Krakowie, Wrocławiu i obozie koncentracyjnym Sachsenhausen, gdzie organizował wykłady i dyskusje naukowe. Po zwolnieniu w lutym 1940 brał udział w tajnym nauczaniu, wykładając historię nowożytną na Tajnym Uniwersytecie Jagiellońskim. Po wojnie powrócił do pracy na uniwersytecie; w 1948, oskarżany o publikacje "szowinistycznie obciążone" i przepojone "furią rasistowską", został zmuszony do rezygnacji z pracy. Ostatnie lata życia spędził w posiadłości w Młyniku, chorując na niewydolność serca.
W 1908 został członkiem rzeczywistym, a w 1929 członkiem czynnym Towarzystwa Naukowego Warszawskiego; w latach 1925-1926 wchodził w skład Zarządu towarzystwa. W 1922 został członkiem-korespondentem, w 1933 członkiem czynnym Polskiej Akademii Umiejętności. Pełnił funkcję sekretarza (1917-1921), później przewodniczącego (1945-1949) Komisji Historycznej PAU, w latach 1931-1949 przewodniczył Komitetowi Redakcyjnemu Polskiego Słownika Biograficznego, wydawanego przez PAU. Należał również do Towarzystwa Historycznego we Lwowie (1913 członek-założyciel Oddziału Krakowskiego), Polskiego Towarzystwa Historycznego (1946-1952 przewodniczący Oddziału Krakowskiego, 1947 prezes Zarządu Głównego), Towarzystwa Naukowego w Toruniu, Związku Inteligencji Polskiej, Szwedzkiej Akademii Literatury, Historii i Archeologii, Towarzystwa Naukowego w Lund, Królewskiego Towarzystwa dla Wydawania Źródeł do Dziejów Skandynawii w Sztokholmie, Towarzystwa Żeglugi Polskiej.
Był także aktywny politycznie. W 1918 był członkiem Organizacji Narodowej, w latach 1922-1927 pełnił mandat poselski z ramienia Związku Ludowo-Narodowego. Krytykował politykę Józefa Piłsudskiego (m.in. na łamach "Trybuny Narodu"). W czasie wojny polsko-bolszewickiej był instruktorem artylerii. Został odznaczony m.in. Krzyżem Oficerskim szwedzkiego Orderu Gwiazdy Polarnej oraz Krzyżem Oficerskim francuskiej Legii Honorowej.
Zainteresowania naukowe Władysława Konopczyńskiego obejmowały historię Polski XVI i XVII wieku, historię państwa i prawa polskiego, historię parlamentaryzmu europejskiego, edytorstwo i biografistykę. Jest uważany za współtwórcę (obok Wacława Sobieskiego) tzw. nowej historycznej szkoły krakowskiej. Prowadził wieloletnie badania archiwalne (w Wiedniu, Dreźnie, Paryżu, Londynie. Kopenhadze, Berlinie), gromadząc liczne materiały do dziejów politycznych Polski w połowie XVIII wieku. Badał genezę i znaczenie konfederacji barskiej. Zainicjował prace nad utworzeniem polskiego ośrodka dokumentacyjno-informacyjnego. Przygotował do wydania m.in. Dyaryusze sejmowe z wieku XVIII (1911-1937, 3 tomy), Pamiętniki Stanisława Augusta Poniatowskiego (1915, ze Stanisławem Ptaszyckim), Materiały do dziejów wojny konfederackiej 1768-1774r. (1931), Reforma elekcji czy naprawa Rzeczypospolitej (1949, wybór tekstów politycznych z XVIII wieku). Współpracował z Wielką Encyklopedią Powszechną Ilustrowaną (1902-1914), "Biblioteką Warszawską", "Gazetą Polską", "Kwartalnikiem Historycznym", "Przeglądem Historycznym", "Przeglądem Polskim".
W 1921 zgłosił projekt wydania Polskiego Słownika Biograficznego. Po dziesięciu latach idea doczekała się realizacji i Konopczyński został pierwszym redaktorem naczelnym wydawnictwa (1931), publikując do wybuchu wojny cztery tomy (do początku litery "D"); po przerwie wojennej słownik wznowiono i pod redakcją Konopczyńskiego ukazały się kolejne dwa tomy (do połowy litery "F"). W 1948, wraz z przymusową emeryturą redaktora, nastąpiła kolejna przerwa w wydawaniu; tom VII ukazał się już po śmierci Konopczyńskiego w 1958. W gronie studentów Konopczyńskiego byli przyszli redaktorzy Polskiego Słownika Biograficznego - Kazimierz Lepszy i Emanuel Rostworowski, a także m.in. Józef Feldman.
"Myśląc Ojczyzna"
prof. dr hab. Piotr Jaroszyński (2008-06-03)
Felieton
słuchajzapisz
Władysław Konopczyński, pseud. Dantyszek, Korzonek (ur. 26 listopada 1880 w Warszawie, zm. 12 lipca 1952 w Młyniku koło Ojcowa), historyk polski, profesor Uniwersytetu Jagiellońskiego, członek Towarzystwa Naukowego Warszawskiego i Polskiej Akademii Umiejętności, współtwórca i pierwszy redaktor naczelny Polskiego Słownika Biograficznego.
Był synem Ignacego (inżyniera komunikacji, uczestnika powstania styczniowego) i Ludwiki z Obrąpalskich, bratankiem Emiliana (pedagoga, dyrektora IV Gimnazjum w Warszawie). Szwagrem Władysława Konopczyńskiego został prawnik, profesor Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego Karol Lutostański.
Uczęszczał do Gimnazjum W. Górskiego i IV Gimnazjum w Warszawie (1891-1899), działając aktywnie w młodzieżowych kółkach politycznych i samokształceniowych. Studiował prawo na Uniwersytecie Warszawskim (1899-1904, kończąc studia ze stopniem kandydata nauk prawnych i politycznych na podstawie pracy Przyczynki do kwestyi powstania liberi veto) oraz historię na Uniwersytecie Lwowskim (1907-1908, 1908 doktorat pod kierunkiem Szymona Askenazego). Był nauczycielem historii w IV Gimnazjum w Warszawie, wykładał także w Towarzystwie Kursów Naukowych tamże. Na podstawie pracy Polska w dobie wojny siedmioletniej (przygotowanej pod kierunkiem Wacława Tokarza) habilitował się w 1911 na Uniwersytecie Jagiellońskim.
W 1913 został docentem w Katedrze Historii Powszechnej Uniwersytetu Jagiellońskiego; lata 1914-1916 spędził w Szwecji. W 1917 mianowany profesorem nadzwyczajnym i kierownikiem Katedry Historii Polski Nowożytnej i Najnowszej, profesorem zwyczajnym został w 1921. W 1939 objął funkcję dziekana Wydziału Filozoficznego, zachowując ją formalnie przez cały okres wojny. Znalazł się w gronie pracowników Uniwersytetu Jagiellońskiego, zatrzymanych w ramach Sonderaktion Krakau; był więziony w Krakowie, Wrocławiu i obozie koncentracyjnym Sachsenhausen, gdzie organizował wykłady i dyskusje naukowe. Po zwolnieniu w lutym 1940 brał udział w tajnym nauczaniu, wykładając historię nowożytną na Tajnym Uniwersytecie Jagiellońskim. Po wojnie powrócił do pracy na uniwersytecie; w 1948, oskarżany o publikacje "szowinistycznie obciążone" i przepojone "furią rasistowską", został zmuszony do rezygnacji z pracy. Ostatnie lata życia spędził w posiadłości w Młyniku, chorując na niewydolność serca.
W 1908 został członkiem rzeczywistym, a w 1929 członkiem czynnym Towarzystwa Naukowego Warszawskiego; w latach 1925-1926 wchodził w skład Zarządu towarzystwa. W 1922 został członkiem-korespondentem, w 1933 członkiem czynnym Polskiej Akademii Umiejętności. Pełnił funkcję sekretarza (1917-1921), później przewodniczącego (1945-1949) Komisji Historycznej PAU, w latach 1931-1949 przewodniczył Komitetowi Redakcyjnemu Polskiego Słownika Biograficznego, wydawanego przez PAU. Należał również do Towarzystwa Historycznego we Lwowie (1913 członek-założyciel Oddziału Krakowskiego), Polskiego Towarzystwa Historycznego (1946-1952 przewodniczący Oddziału Krakowskiego, 1947 prezes Zarządu Głównego), Towarzystwa Naukowego w Toruniu, Związku Inteligencji Polskiej, Szwedzkiej Akademii Literatury, Historii i Archeologii, Towarzystwa Naukowego w Lund, Królewskiego Towarzystwa dla Wydawania Źródeł do Dziejów Skandynawii w Sztokholmie, Towarzystwa Żeglugi Polskiej.
Był także aktywny politycznie. W 1918 był członkiem Organizacji Narodowej, w latach 1922-1927 pełnił mandat poselski z ramienia Związku Ludowo-Narodowego. Krytykował politykę Józefa Piłsudskiego (m.in. na łamach "Trybuny Narodu"). W czasie wojny polsko-bolszewickiej był instruktorem artylerii. Został odznaczony m.in. Krzyżem Oficerskim szwedzkiego Orderu Gwiazdy Polarnej oraz Krzyżem Oficerskim francuskiej Legii Honorowej.
Zainteresowania naukowe Władysława Konopczyńskiego obejmowały historię Polski XVI i XVII wieku, historię państwa i prawa polskiego, historię parlamentaryzmu europejskiego, edytorstwo i biografistykę. Jest uważany za współtwórcę (obok Wacława Sobieskiego) tzw. nowej historycznej szkoły krakowskiej. Prowadził wieloletnie badania archiwalne (w Wiedniu, Dreźnie, Paryżu, Londynie. Kopenhadze, Berlinie), gromadząc liczne materiały do dziejów politycznych Polski w połowie XVIII wieku. Badał genezę i znaczenie konfederacji barskiej. Zainicjował prace nad utworzeniem polskiego ośrodka dokumentacyjno-informacyjnego. Przygotował do wydania m.in. Dyaryusze sejmowe z wieku XVIII (1911-1937, 3 tomy), Pamiętniki Stanisława Augusta Poniatowskiego (1915, ze Stanisławem Ptaszyckim), Materiały do dziejów wojny konfederackiej 1768-1774r. (1931), Reforma elekcji czy naprawa Rzeczypospolitej (1949, wybór tekstów politycznych z XVIII wieku). Współpracował z Wielką Encyklopedią Powszechną Ilustrowaną (1902-1914), "Biblioteką Warszawską", "Gazetą Polską", "Kwartalnikiem Historycznym", "Przeglądem Historycznym", "Przeglądem Polskim".
W 1921 zgłosił projekt wydania Polskiego Słownika Biograficznego. Po dziesięciu latach idea doczekała się realizacji i Konopczyński został pierwszym redaktorem naczelnym wydawnictwa (1931), publikując do wybuchu wojny cztery tomy (do początku litery "D"); po przerwie wojennej słownik wznowiono i pod redakcją Konopczyńskiego ukazały się kolejne dwa tomy (do połowy litery "F"). W 1948, wraz z przymusową emeryturą redaktora, nastąpiła kolejna przerwa w wydawaniu; tom VII ukazał się już po śmierci Konopczyńskiego w 1958. W gronie studentów Konopczyńskiego byli przyszli redaktorzy Polskiego Słownika Biograficznego - Kazimierz Lepszy i Emanuel Rostworowski, a także m.in. Józef Feldman.
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