PAJ FEATURE: Shh — Librarians Meet in Poland

Over 3,100 top-level library and information science and technology professionals met in Poland for the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions 83rd World Library and Information Congress. Opening ceremonies included performances by groups from the 122 participating countries. $31.1 Million Gates Grant Announced as Librarians from Around the World Unite in Poland around a Global Vision WROCŁAW, Poland — Nothing short of a unified global vision for the role of libraries around the world will satisfy the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA), and a $31.1 million grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is now about to make that vision a reality. Capping a 15-country $13.5 million investment in the foundation’s “Global Libraries” program, the grant to IFLA aims to improve the lives of 1 billion “information poor” by positioning the world’s 320,000 public libraries as “critical community assets and providers of information through relevant technologies” by 2030. The grant was announced in Wrocław, where some 330 Americans registered for IFLA’s 83rd World Library and Information Congress, August 19-26. The Congress is the world’s largest such gathering, bringing together 3,100 top-level library and information science and technology professionals from academic, public, school, medical, technical, and government libraries from 122 countries. Bringing the weeklong IFLA congress to Poland was something of a coup for the Congress organizers, providing an opportunity to showcase Poland’s blossoming economy. The abundance of consumer goods evident in post-communist Poland belies the urgent need for information professionals in government and business to harness information technology in the service of education, economic development, and democracy. “Where were you going, Poland, before you were so rudely interrupted?” asked Richard Butterwick-Pawlikowski during his keynote address. The professor of Polish-Lithuanian history at University College London summarized hundreds of years of Polish history during which the “interruptions” of war and foreign domination prevented Poland from “moving toward modernity without autocratic monarchs or violent revolution.” He reminded the international audience that the democratic Polish Constitution of 1791 was the second such document in the world, preceded only by the American Constitution that went into effect in 1789. Digitization of rare and unique library and archival material is accelerating in Poland at breakneck speed, said Krzysztof Szubert, a strategist for Poland’s Ministry of Digital Affairs, who pointed out that Poland currently has the distinction of being the fourth fastest growing economy in the European Union and is looking toward a “digital data driven future” where “data is a catalyst for economic growth.” Ensuring that information is freely accessible for public use in libraries and archives is one of IFLA’s core values, but the ministry, like the library federation, must also support equitable copyright law that is fair to those who create the data in the first place. Among the delegates from the United States were members of the Polish American Librarians Association (PALA), including President Leonard Kniffel of Chicago, Vice President and President Elect Ewa Barczyk of Milwaukee, Krystyna Matusiak of Denver, and Iwona Bozek and Krystyna Grell from the Polish Museum of America Library in Chicago. They helped staff the American Library Association exhibition booth and disseminated material from Polish libraries and cultural institutions in the United States. Marek Sroka of the University of Illinois Library delivered a paper about his research into a little-remembered Rockefeller Foundation project that funded the rehabilitation of Eastern European libraries following World War II. The congress began with country caucuses designed to give delegates an opportunity to strategize, and for seven-year-old PALA it was an opportunity to recruit members and remind American delegates that Polish people have lived in the United States for over 400 years, beginning in 1608 in the Jamestown Colony, and there are some 10 million Americans of Polish descent in the United States today, making it the largest diaspora of Poles in the world. One of the goals of PALA is to have a positive impact on library collections and services to the Polish American community and on the representation of Polish history and culture in the collections, programs, and services of our nation’s libraries. IFLA in Poland was a rare opportunity for U.S. librarians to learn from their Polish colleagues. A mere 20 years ago, a meeting of the library federation in Poland seemed like a pipe dream to many Polish and Polish American librarians, but change has been strong and steady. The library profession’s most important international organization, IFLA has held its annual congress only twice before in Poland during its 80-year history. The other conferences occurred in 1936 and 1959, both in Warsaw.  IFLA in Wrocław was also an opportunity to raise awareness outside the Polish community. Members of the American delegation began the congress by trying to learn how to pronounce Wrocław, which invariably led to laughter and then into a serious exploration of the city’s history and architecture and pre-World War II life as the German city of Breslau. A narrated interpretation of Wrocław’s checkered history through dance and music — as well as a cultural evening with a light show and an elaborate array of Polish food, from peasant to haute cuisine — made Wrocław’s historic and technologically well-equipped Centennial Hall (a UNESCO World Heritage Site), the ideal venue the Congress, which convenes annually in a different spot around the world. Next year’s congress will meet in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The exhibition boasted some 60 exhibitors — high-tech companies, university presses, and professional associations, including the Polish Library Association, which is headquartered in Warsaw. Around its periphery, 248 sessions involved the delegates in seminars, meetings, and presentations that fostered discussion of the similarities between libraries, no matter where in the world they are located. Rafał Dutkiewicz, mayor of Wrocław; Tomasz Makowski, director of the National Library; and Elżbieta Stefańczyk, president of the Polish Library Association greeted the delegates, and IFLA President Donna Scheeder of the Library of Congress in Washington D.C. presided over the general sessions. PALA members met with Stefańczyk and mapped out a strategy for cooperation that will benefit Polish and Polish American librarians and library patrons. The Polish Museum of America Library in Chicago, for example, holds many books and materials that are not available in Poland because of the destruction that occurred during World War II. The Polish Library Association, on the other hand, has Polish genealogical and historical resources and connections that American librarians could use to help their patrons with genealogical and scholarly research. At the closing session, Mayor Dutkiewicz praised the congress theme: “Libraries. Solidarity. Society.” and the national pride so evident throughout the event, but he warned that the wave of “nationalism” that seems to be sweeping over the world is quite another matter, and librarians seem to know the difference. “Nationalism is like a sweaty man who needs to take a shower,” he asserted. “Take a shower Europe. Take a shower Poland,” he said.” Having just launched the quest for a unified vision for libraries, the audience cheered Dutkiewicz with a standing ovation. Librarians and library supporters alike can learn more about the Polish American Library Association on its website at www.PALAlib.org, the American Library Association at www.ALA.org, the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions at www.IFLA.org, and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Global Libraries at www.GatesFoundation.org.

BOOKS: Henry: A Polish Swimmer’s True Story of Friendship from Auschwitz to America

by Katrina Shawver

Koehlerbooks 2017, 308 pgs.

Drawing on numerous interviews, primary documents, and photographs, Katrina Shawver presents the harrowing experience of Henry Zguda, a seemingly ordinary man with an extraordinary past. Shawver first met Henry when he was eighty-five, first interviewing him in the hopes of writing an article for a newspaper. She saw that his story was far deeper than one article could ever encompass. What resulted was the book, Henry: A Polish Swimmer’s True Story of Friendship from Auschwitz to America, a true story about a survivor of the most notorious Nazi concentration camps, Auschwitz and Buchenwald.

Henry grew up in Krakow and as a young man joined the YMCA. Zguda was first drawn to basketball, but when he learned that members of the swim team had their fees waived he switched sports. In doing so he immersed himself into the world of competitive swimming and water polo. To earn a living, Henry took a job working for a seed company, doing everything from hauling seeds to supervising a team of women. This simple blissful of life came to an end September 1, 1939, with the Nazi invasion of Poland. Despite the oppressive regime Zguda was able to continue working to support his mother. For three years Henry lived like this until 1942 when he was arrested on suspicion of being part of the Polish Underground. After being interrogated and not producing any useful information, Zguda was sent to Auschwitz. Through smarts and luck, Henry managed to survive in the death camp, rising from a potato peeler to one of the camp’s cooks.

Interspersed with Henry’s stories are Shawver’s descriptions of her research and her own discovery of Polish history. On her own, she visited the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum to go through archival records and tour the former concentration camp. She also delved into the National Archives in College Park, Maryland searching the original photographs from Dauchau and Buchenwald to further Henry’s story.

Wisely, Shawver chose to not guide Henry in the interviews. This leads to interesting side stories, at times jumping through the years and touching on various topics from the boxing matches that the Germans organized in the camps and a secret murder plot.

He also described being able to send letters from Auschwitz.

“Once a month, or every six weeks, you could write a letter. These were official letters on camp paper. They gather us all in one room and give us like ten pencils for three hundred guys. You cannot write whatever you wanted to. Every letter had to begin with: I feel good. I am very glad I am here … I have to figure out what to say. How are you? How is the uncle? I had many uncles, but ‘the uncle’ was the phrase I used to refer to the underground.”

After liberation, Henry would move to the United States where he met and married his wife in New York. In 1963 he became a citizen.

Through all his hardships Henry Zguda never lost hope or his sense of humor which is present throughout the book. This is a much-needed addition to your library.

Katrina Shawver has a B.A. in English/Political Science from the University of Arizona. She has written hundreds of newspaper columns for The Arizona Republic as well as various other occupations. She lives in Phoenix with her husband.

ARTSBEAT: Indecent on Broadway (Review)

The new Broadway play Indecent takes an impressionistic look at a controversial moment in Broadway history. 

 

The play is based on the events surrounding Polish-Jewish writer Sholem Asch’s groundbreaking 1907 Yiddish masterwork God of Vengeance (Got fun nekome) – from its inception in Warsaw, Poland and its evolution throughout Europe and the Lower East Side to its explosive run on the Great White Way in 1923, and beyond.  In Europe, the play was popular enough to be translated into Polish, German, Russian, Hebrew, Italian, Czech and Norwegian. 

 

It was a controversial play when it was translated into English and bowed at the Apollo Theatre on West 42nd St.  Set in a brothel, the play includes Jewish prostitutes, the first lesbian kiss on a Broadway stage, and the hurling of a Torah across the stage. The run was cut short by six weeks when the cast and producer were arrested, jailed, indicted and convicted on obscenity charges.  The conviction was successfully appealed.  Later, it was performed as an act of artistic affirmation in an attic in the Łódz Ghetto of German-occupied Poland during World War II.

 

With music and humor, Indecent explores the loss of Yiddish theater and the ever-changing mores of audiences.  Playwright Paula Vogel, also a Pulitzer winner is marking her Broadway debut and provides the voice and structure from which the story can be told. Indecent examines artistic struggles, but it is an immigrant story about a time in America when immigrants were being pushed out.

 

The superb 7-member ensemble portrays multiple roles and is accompanied by a klezmer band of 3 onstage musicians – playing a variety of instruments.  The production is enhanced by the intricate and often symbolic direction by Rebecca Taichman and choreography by David Dorfman.   Some of the characters are composites, while most are real-life figures.  Screen projections guide the audience through the constant shift in personae.

 

Based on the real-life "Ararat" Jewish Kleinkunst Theatre of Łódź, a theater troupe of actors rising from the ashes tell the story behind God of Vengeance.  The fictional Lemml, a former tailor and now stage manager, who functions as the narrator/master of ceremonies, along with the imagined company of Vera, Otto, Halina, Mendel, Chana and Avram (portrayed by Richard Topol, Mimi Lieber, Tom Nellis, Katrina Lenk, Steven Rattazzi, Adina Verson and Max Gordon Moore) propel the story – making an indelible and lingering impression.

 

The production received three Tony Award nominations, with Rebecca Taichman winning in the "Best Direction of a Play category and Christopher Akerlind for "Lighting Design."

 

Indecent will end its run at the Cort Theatre on August 6 and is sure to enjoy subsequent new stagings at regional theaters across the United States.

Polish Philosopher and Psychologist Receive Irena Sendler Award

ARTSBEAT: "The Polka King" – A Story of Redemption

NEWS REPORT: Will Fairy Tale Białowieża forest survive?

Campaigners in Poland are worried about the future of one of Europe's last primeval forests, as the Polish government defies an European Union order to stop logging there.

Primeval forest like Białowieża in Poland once covered the European plain 10,000 years ago, the forest and the rare species that call it home are nearly all that's left. It is habitat to 20,000 animal species, including 250 types of bird and hundreds of European bison, along with towering firs, oaks and ashes.

Designated a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1979, the forest blankets the border between Poland and Belarus, but on the Polish side the forest has become a battleground.  The country's Nationalist government has brought heavy-duty harvesters into Białowieża; they claim it is to tackle a bark beetle infestation, but environmentalists backed by the EU say that is a smoke screen for commercial logging.

It was Environment Minister Jan Szyszko’s decision to triple the amount of logging back in 2016.  Szyszko said the operation was aimed at protecting sites of great heritage value that are part of Natura 2000, an EU network set up to preserve Europe’s most valuable and threatened species and habitats.

In August, the European court of justice ordered Poland to stop logging.  “I didn't expect them to withdraw; I thought maybe they would try to hide their activity for maybe one week, but that didn't happen,” said Jakub Rok, an environmental researcher and activist.  “Just a few days after the decision, they were already working exactly the same way.”  An act of defiance like this by a European member state is unprecedented.

Activists have been trying to block the harvesters for months. “Our aim is to protect the forest and our tool is using nonviolent direct action,” said Rok. They thought the court ruling would stop the logging, but it makes allowances for public safety – a technicality that was used by the government.

The fact is that there is a beetle infestation in Białowieża; dead spruce trees are everywhere, it's just most scientists don't believe that's necessarily a problem. “We, as scientists don’t see any danger, any threat to the forest,” said Rafal Kowalczyk, Head of the Mammal Research Institute.

“The larger part of the natural section of the forest was never planted by humans. In this forest, there are also spruce trees dying.  The large amount is very important in a natural forest, because there is a lot of biological diversity linked to the dead wood.  They [the ministry] are using the bark beetle outbreak as a reason for the logging, which is not true.”

 “We need to halt this [bark beetle] disease in its tracks,” said Poland’s environment minister Jan Szyszko. “We need to ensure that there is a healthy logging of trees, something that is planned. We want to protect priority habitats for the EU. We are trying to improve and correct the situation.”

The only published inventory shows that nearly half of the trees earmarked for logging may be non-spruce varieties, which have been unaffected by the beetle outbreak. Environmental campaigners warn that the tree chopping will destroy an ecosystem unspoiled for more than 10,000 years.

The protection of the Białowieża Forest dates back to the 14th century. It is now protected by several Polish, European and international protected area systems such as UNESCO World Heritage List and Natura 2000. 17% of the Polish side of the Forest is also a national park, although for more than 20 years scientists and experts have recommended the protection of the entire Bialowieza Forest as a national park.

“I'm really frustrated that I'm a witness of something which is irreversible,” said Arkadiusz Smyk, a local anti-logging group member.  “If you convert a natural forest into a regular managed forest, you make this forest exactly the same as other forests in Europe.”

The real tragedy is that somewhere amidst the politics. a unique forest is being destroyed and its value remains the one thing all sides can agree on.  Will this unique forest survive the fight for its future?  It's about the forest; the forest must win.

To show your support of the Białowieża Forest in Poland, log onto: www.ilovebialowieza.com

-- Based on recent reports by the BBC and other sources

Helpful Books on Polish Genealogy

by Stephen M. Szabados

Books on Polish genealogy are another important element in developing your genealogy research skills. Polish Roots 2nd Edition by Rosemary Chorzempa and Going Home: A Guide to Polish American Family History Research by Jonathan Shea have proven to be reference volumes explaining many of the Polish documents that are available. Sto Lat: A Modern Guide To Polish Genealogy by Cecile Wendt Jensen and my book Polish Genealogy: Four Steps to Success present plans to logically do Polish genealogically research.

The challenges of translating your Polish records can be reduced by using the glossaries found in Jonathan Shea’s book Going Home: A Guide to Polish American Family History Research and the series he wrote with William Hoffman In Their Words – Polish, Latin, and Russian. If you find Polish records in the narrative format, you will find A Translation Guide to 19th Century Polish-Language Civil-Registration Documents by Judith R. Frazin is an excellent user-friendly and practical resource.

Basic Research
Polish Genealogy: Four Steps to Success by Stephen Szabados: Offers a logical process to approach Polish genealogical research. This book is designed to give the researcher the tools needed to research their Polish ancestors and find possible answers to the origins of their Polish heritage. The book also lists many sources of information that will add to their family history; identify where their ancestors were born and where to find their Polish records.

A Modern Guide to Polish Genealogy by Cecile (Ceil) Wendt Jensen: The author offers a plan for researching at least one hundred years of family records, and is a compilation of the author’s techniques. Common research questions are answered and suggestions are offered to help novice and advanced researchers find ancestors in both North America and Poland.

Long-term Reference
Going Home: A Guide to Polish American Family History Research by Jonathan Shea: An indispensable reference book that covers every possible topic on Polish genealogy: history, gazetteers, maps, vocabulary lists, Polish surnames, archives.

Polish Roots 2nd Edition by Rosemary A. Chorzempa: This book examines Polish American resources such as family papers and standard records employed in genealogical research. Also, lists libraries and archives where information can be found.

Translations
In Their Words by Jonathan D. Shea and William F. Hoffman: This is a three book series covering the three of the languages used to created Polish records (Polish, Latin, and Russian). The records reviewed are not just birth, marriage and death records but also passports, obituaries, population registers, and military service records. Also includes information on the different alphabets, spelling, pronunciation, and standard handwriting for the three languages.

A Translation Guide to 19th Century Polish-Language Civil-Registration Documents by Judith R. Frazin: The 472-page book includes a step-by-step guide on how to divide each narrative document into a series of “mini-documents”; seven sample documents with important words and the information which follows these words highlighted; and fifteen topical vocabulary lists.

 Additional books that I have found useful in my Polish genealogical research and writing my family histories include:

• The Study of Obituaries as a Source for Polish Genealogical Research by Thomas E Golembiewski
• Polish Customs, Traditions and Folklore by Sophie Hodorowicz Knab
• Polish Immigrants and Industrial Chicago: Workers on The South Side, 1880-1922 (1991) by Pacyga, Dominic A
• Forgotten Doors, The Other Ports of Entry to the United States edited by M. Mark Stolarik
• Daily Life in Immigrant America 1870-1920 by June Granatir Alexander, Ivan R Dee
• God’s Playground: A History of Poland by Norman Davies

Also, do not forget books on Polish communities and neighborhoods:

• Detroit’s Polonia (Mich.) (Images of America) by Cecile Wendt Jensen
• A History of Polish-Americans in Pittsfield, Mass., 1862-1945 by Florence Waszkelewicz Clowes
• Chicago’s Polish Downtown (Images of America) by Victoria Granacki
• Avondale and Chicago’s Polish Village by Jacob Kaplan, Daniel Pogorzelski, Rob Reid, Elisa Addlesperger, Dominic Pacyga.
• Polish Community of New Britain (Images of America) by Jonathan Shea and Barbara Proko
• Toledo’s Polonia (Ohio) (Images of America) by Rev. Richard Philiposki and Toledo Polish Genealogical Society

Now sit back, read, and enjoy your Polish heritage.

Stephen M. Szabados is a prominent genealogist, and the author of four books, “Finding Grandma’s European Ancestors,” “Find Your Family History,” “Polish Genealogy,” and “Memories of Dziadka.”

BOOK REVIEW: SEPTEMBER 2017 A Minor Apocalypse: Warsaw during the First World War by Robert Blobaum

Cornell University Press, 2017, 320 pgs.

During World War II, Warsaw was decimated by the Germans and the Soviets. Around 84% of the city was destroyed. It is estimated that between 150,000 and 250,000 were killed in the Warsaw Uprising. Before that, however, Warsaw also experienced another tragedy. During the First World War, it suffered hardships that caused mass starvation and outbreaks of diseases that devastated the city. Robert Blobaum calls what Warsaw went through, “a minor apocalypse.”

After the outbreak of what was then known as the Great War, Warsaw was put under extreme military restriction. Warsaw was not yet part of a free and independent Poland; before the war it was known as the third city of the Russian Empire. At the beginning of the war, Warsaw’s supplies were often requisitioned by the Russian military. Its population was also under stress. It ebbed and flowed due to deportations, evacuations, men leaving the city for work, arrival of refugees and injured soldiers. In 1915 the population began to stabilize somewhat. The Russian authorities were forced out of the city and the citizens of Warsaw were put under a new regime: the German military. However, the fleeing Russians continued to take supplies from the city. The Germans instituted rationing of food and other supplies such as coal and soap. The city’s population was able to acquire some food despite inflation caused by the war. However, the Germans started banning certain kinds of food that could be sold on the free market which restricted the food supply even more and the threat of starvation loomed again.

“In February 1916, sales of meat and meat by-products, poultry, and fish were specifically prohibited in eleven Warsaw bazaars ‘in the interest of public health,’” he writes. “A week later the transport of livestock and meat from Warsaw County, even to the city of Warsaw, was prohibited.”

All of this restriction caused very long lines stores, growing poverty, and ever-increasing inflation. Some of Warsaw’s citizens grew so desperate that they started begging. There were even begging rings established who put young children in all of the busiest streets of Warsaw to beg for the group.

Blobaum analyzes the economic and cultural impact the Great War had upon Warsaw in great detail. He explains the extent of the devastation that it saw, as well as how it used such a tragedy to innovate — the expansion of the urban welfare system by the Warsaw Citizens Committee, is a good example of this. He used numerous sources for his in-depth analyses including primary sources, newspapers and other periodicals, and books which he lists in the bibliography. The book also contains a comprehensive index.

Robert Blobaum is Eberly Family distinguished professor of History at West Virginia Univerisity. He holds a Ph.D. from the University of Nebraska and has authored two other books: Rewolucja: Russian Poland, 1904-1907, Antisemitism and Its Opponents in Modern Poland, and many articles.

This review is based on an advanced reader copy.

Pioneers of Polish Culture

THEATER: Natasha, Pierre and Pierogi

And all that Jazz

FILM: The Innocents

Pioneers of Polsh Culture

POLSH WINTER DRINKS

OPERA - The Passenger

Poland's Olympic Team in Sochi

Concert of Polish violin music in Chicago and live broadcast on WFMT 98.7 FM

A Polish American's Christmas in Poland

CD Review: Polish Music with a Polish Soul

CD Review: Polish Music with a Polish Soul