History

Fascinating new book of secret police surveillance photos reveals chilling Big Brother control methods

In one photo, agents spying on American military attaches from the US Embassy in Warsaw snap the officials in a car that has stopped in a forest. Dated 6 April, 1966, the photo is described as being taken during an ‘intelligence reconnaissance’ operation. Beata Bartecka and Łukasz Rusznica, from How To Look Natural in Photos

Compiled as a warning about today’s internet surveillance, the 150 never-before-seen photos cover a wide range of Poland’s communist secret police activities between 1944 and 1989 and reveal the sometimes drastic measures authorities took to keep ‘enemies of the state’ under control.

Remarkable account of British writer’s 1934 journey across Poland on a bike called George is published for first time in Polish

Appearing in Polish for the first time since its publication nearly 90 years ago, ‘Rowerem przez II RP’, ‘Pedalling Poland’ is filled with countless anecdotes, photos and personal observations of author Bernard Newman’s 3,000km journey from Gdańsk to Kraków.

Amazing Tribute to Soldier Bear!

Hear British Entrepreneur in Poland, Richard Lucas talk about the story of Wojtek the Soldier Bear and how he got involved in creating an amazing tribute to this amazing bear in Kraków’s Jordana Park.

Making hairstory! Strand of 500-year-old hair found inside 16th century book

Researchers at Warsaw’s University Library came across the strand inside Thomasinus de Ferraria’s Sermones Quadragesimales during work on the manuscript.

Extraordinary story behind discovery of 16th century Greek masterpiece in sleepy Polish village 60 years ago retold in fascinating new documentary

Through blending eye-witness commentary with cinema-style re-enactments, Katarzyna Kowalska’s documentary Polski El Greco (The Polish El Greco) which premieres Monday night, took four years to make and, says the director, “is the story of the struggle of two female inventors, unheard, unappreciated, who for many years no one wanted to take seriously. It is a story about the extraordinary passion of two young women who did not doubt for a moment what their intuition told them.”

Future of historic Konin synagogue safe after owner swaps it with city officials for investment plot

After a decade of negotiations, the city has now taken possession of the 19th century synagogue and has vowed to safeguard it as an important element of Jewish cultural heritage by restoring it to its former glory and transforming it into a Jewish Cultural Centre.

Noted intellectual, multiple world wrestling champ and later Hollywood star - Stanisław Cyganiewicz, born 140 years ago this day, was no April Fool

Billed as the ‘Mighty Son of Poland’, strongman Jan Stanisław Cyganiewicz was wrestling’s first world champion who would later die in poverty despite a glittering career.

Couple in race to save Nazi canteen where Auschwitz SS guards partied after killing

Erected at the end of March 1942, the canteen was where members of the SS garrison would go to eat, drink and be entertained after clocking off from killing shifts. Dagmar Kopijasz from the foundation that is trying to save the building, said it was an integral part of the camp as much as the red-brick buildings of the Auschwitz main camp and the wooden barracks of Birkenau.

US Holocaust columnist defends criticism despite outrage

Writing in The New Yorker last week, columnist Masha Gessen, who suggested the Polish nation had been responsible for the Holocaust, defended herself saying the Polish interpretation "ran against the rules of linguistics and logic.” 

Warsaw campaign to install plaque reveals incredible WWII story of Jewish boys known as ‘the cigarette sellers of Three Crosses Square’

Operating between 1942 and 1944, the Jewish vendors aged between six and sixteen have been described as “the little heroes of WWII who, through their own survival, defeated the enemy.”

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