New Books on Polish Emigration and Diaspora

Poles in Illinois - edited by John Radzilowski and Ann Hetzel Gunkel

Illinois boasts one of the most visible concentrations of Poles in the United States. Chicago is home to one of the largest Polish ethnic communities outside Poland itself. Yet no one has told the full story of our state’s large and varied Polish community—until now. Poles in Illinois is the first comprehensive history to trace the abundance and diversity of this ethnic group throughout the state from the 1800s to the present.

Authors John Radzilowski and Ann Hetzel Gunkel look at family life among Polish immigrants, their role in the economic development of the state, the working conditions they experienced, and the development of their labor activism. Close-knit Polish American communities were often centered on parish churches but also focused on fraternal and social groups and cultural organizations. Polish Americans, including waves of political refugees during World War II and the Cold War, helped shape the history and culture of not only Chicago, the “capital” of Polish America, but also the rest of Illinois with their music, theater, literature, food.


With forty-seven photographs and an ample number of extensive excerpts from first-person accounts and Polish newspaper articles, this captivating, highly readable book illustrates important and often overlooked stories of this ethnic group in Illinois and the changing nature of Polish ethnicity in the state over the past two hundred years. Illinoisans and Midwesterners celebrating their connections to Poland will treasure this rich and important part of the state’s history.

http://www.siupress.com/books/978-0-8093-3724-8

How Languages Saved Me: A Polish Story of Survival   

by Stefanie Nauman and Tadeusz Haska

In the growing repertoire of "post-memory" books written by children and grandchildren of Polish survivors of WWII— deportations, exile, concentration camps, persecutions—"How Languages Saved Me" (Koehler Books, 2019) takes the place of honor.  Written by Stefanie Nauman, Professor of Management at the University of the Pacific, and based on unfinished memoirs of her grandfather, Tadeusz Haska, as well as many other primary sources, documents, memoirs, letters, etc., this book is a story of survival and resilience. It would make a great mandatory reading for high school and college classes in the U.S., established to teach American students about immigrant history.

This slim volume (127 pp.) contains great lessons about responsibility, hard-work, dedication and ingenuity of an emigre to America who survived the war in German-occupied Poland, and had to escape prosecution by Soviet-run government of the Polish People's Republic in 1947. In a notable stunt, he smuggled his wife to Sweden in a coffin! They lived in Sweden for a while, but in search of a better future, they decided to emigrate to America. A talented linguist who spoke nine languages, Haska received a Ph.D. from University of California at Berkeley and taught at the Defense Language Institute in Monterey, CA.

The value of this well-researched-and-written book stems from its factual content, portraying a man of outstanding virtues and talents, an exemplar of surviving adversity, without becoming a victim, resentful and enraged at the world that treated him so unfairly. Illustrated with family photos, documents and translations of letters, this book is a valuable contribution to the fields of immigration studies, Polish-American history, and the history of Poland. 

1917-19 Documents about Polish Army Camp Gathered in a Book   

The Polish Army Camp Kosciuszko, Niagara Camp, 1917-1919: The Newspaper Columns of Elizabeth Ascher, St. Catharines Standard, 1917-1920.  Edited by Stan Skrzeszewski

     This volume presents a chronology of life at the Polish Army Camp at Niagara-on-the-Lake based on the news items and columns which appeared in the St. Catharines Standard from 1917-1920. St. Catharines is the largest city in the Niagara area on the Canadian side. The Standard was the major newspaper in the area, and Mrs. Elizabeth Ascher, was their correspondent reporting from Niagara-on-the-Lake. Ascher wrote almost daily columns which present an amazing detailed day-to-day report on what was happening at the camp and describes conditions in the camp and in the town. They provide a remarkable snapshot of the life of Polish soldiers in Niagara Camp from the establishment of the camp in 1917 to its closure in 1919 and the Polish relief efforts and pilgrimages to Niagara-on-the-Lake which followed.

This work speaks to topics ranging from accommodations, special visitors, dances and to baseball. Many of the volunteers at the camp were having the time of their lives. Mrs. Ascher was nicknamed the "Godmother of the Polish Army" and was awarded the Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta in 1922, the Haller Medal in 1923, Miecze Hallerowskie in 1926 and a life time membership in the Polish Army Veteran's Association. The book (219 pages) is available for $25.00 plus shipping. Order by sending an email to Stan Skrzeszewski, stan874@gmail.com.

Polish War Veterans in Alberta by Aldona Jaworska     

In the aftermath of World War II, over 250,000 Polish soldiers and their families ended up in Great Britain – these were the troops fighting alongside the Allies and led by Gen. Władysław Anders. In 1947, the British government decided to disperse them among the Common-wealth countries and passed The Resettlement Act. More than 4,500 Polish veterans were resettled in Canada as farm workers; 750 of these men were accepted by the province of Alberta. They were paid 25% less than the prevailing wages, but managed to rebuild their lives, and create a lively émigré community. Polish War Veterans in Alberta examines how these former soldiers came to experience their new country and its sometimes-harsh postwar realities.

This compelling work of social history is brought to life through the words and stories of four veterans, whose remembrances provide an intimate first-hand look at a moment of Canada’s past that is at risk of being forgotten. Published by the University of Alberta Press in 2019, the book was based on oral histories of veterans, such as Władysław Niewinski, Zbigniew Rogowski, and Anatol Nieumierzycki. It was written by Aldona Jaworska who was born and raised in Poland and came to Canada as a refugee in 1990, to settle in Calgary.

https://www.uap.ualberta.ca/titles/913-9781772123739-polish-war-veterans-in-alberta

These notices about new books are from PAHA Newsletter Vol. 77 No. 1, Spring 2020

Who was Tadeusz Wittlin? An Introduction by Peter Obst

Wittlin in Anders' Army, 1942

Tadeusz Wittlin (1909-1998) is probably one of the least known Polish writers who have had an outstanding career in the United States. Born in 1909, he attended the University of Warsaw earning separate masters degrees in law (1932) and the arts(1933). Soon he gave up the practice of law in favor of a position as an editor on the staff of a satirical magazine, Cyrulik Warszawski (Warsaw Barber). By then he had already published volume of poetry and a novel. When World War II began in 1939 he joined the Polish armed forces and soon found himself in Russian captivity. 

Freed under an agreement worked out by Gen. Sikorski when Germany turned on its former Soviet ally, Wittlin travelled across Russia to join the Polish Army being formed at Buzuluk in the Southern Ural Mountains.He served as a Public Relations Officer and an editor of Parada, a news magazine published for the Polish Armed Forces. After the war he briefly worked in Paris before emigrating to the United States where initially he was a translator and writer for Radio Free Europe and Voice of America. In 1959, he became editor at the United States Information agency’s Polish language publication Ameryka which enjoyed a large circulation in Poland. In 1961 he brought Genia Galewska, his pre-war fiancée,to the United States from Poland an they were married in Washington, DC.

Wittlin and wife in Washington, D.C., 1958

Wittlin published 16 books that include Time Stopped at 6:30 (about Katyn), Commissar: The Life and Death of Lavrenty Pavlovich Beria, and a set of sketches about his time in Russia, entitled A Reluctant Traveler in Russia. 

His last book was Szabla i Kon (The Saber and the Horse), a biography of Gen. Boleslaw Wieniawa-Dlugoszowski in which he included some of his own experiences from the inter-war period in Poland. He died in 1998,followed by his wife Genia in 2012.During their time in Washington, D.C., they kept an open house for Polish writers, artists and intellectuals. 

Among photographs and papers that were left as a part of his archive is a fascinating study of the passing of the Beat Generation in the early 1960s. This book was at first entitled Tales from the White Horse Tavern and later renamed Left Bank, New York. It still awaits publication. 

Additional information about Tadeusz Wittlin may be found at: www.poles.org/DB/W_names/Wittlin_T/Wittlin_T.html

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Reprinted from PAHA Newsletter, vol. 69, no. 1 (Spring 2012)

www.polishamericanstudies.org/newsletters.html