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Polanki, Inc.
Polish Women’s Cultural Club Newsletter
Happy Valentine’s Day!!
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
President
Ewa Barczyk-Pease
414-963-1098
1st Vice President
Diane Holytz
414-614-7454
2nd Vice President
Camille Shaw
414-510-6378
Treasurer
Recording Secretary
Corresponding Sec.
Jean Wroblewski
414-543-7753
Publicity
Marjorie Piechowski
414-963-9055
Sunshine Chair
Webmaster
Polanki Library
Polanki’s annual meeting will be held Friday, February 10, at
Villa St. Francis in the dining room at 7:30 p.m. No guests are
allowed at this meeting. There will be no speaker; the Executive
Board will be giving their annual reports and an election meeting
follows the regular meeting.
HOSTESSES:
Wanda Kosmalski
414-4830565
Julie Brzezinski
414-587-5232
Newsletter Editor
Polanki Meeting February 10
Katherine Ott
414-801-1580
Historian
Membership
February 2012
Hostesses, please bring serving dishes and utensils. Also, plan to
set up and clean up the kitchen and serving area after the
meeting.
Poland under Glass
Ewa Melenchuk
414-529-3683
Geraldine Reszel
414-541-2433
Edith Malson
414-744-9412
Lidia Sobierajski
414-481-6557
414-858-9357
Mary Ellen DeVito
Char Dzimiela
Barbara Januchowski
Pat Koronkowski
Geraldine Reszel
by Camille Shaw, Chairperson
Evidently, the people of Milwaukee are interested in Poland, even
when it is under glass. The number attending the January 14th
event was 2060. Polanki sponsored the event but not without the
help of much community effort.
Syrena Dancers along with the children’s Syrenka Dancers
entertained a packed audience in the afternoon. At 9 a.m.
attendees were asking when the food demos would begin.
Thanks to Maryellen DeVito’s demonstrations many people now
can prepare tasty cabbage rolls & beet soup. The choir from St.
Maximilian Kolbe’s Polish Saturday School captivated the
audience with their sweet voices.
Demonstrators were
very engaged
sharing their
skills and
knowledge
with participants. Polan-
ki members shared their varied folk art skills including: Jerry Moskaluk who shared his technique of
painting on leaves, Bernie Jendrzejczak who with the assistance of her mother Eleanor Jendrzejczak, Ann
Lalasz and Diane Holytz demonstrated wycinanki and jezyki, Barbara Godlewski who demonstrated
pisanki, and Kathy Wieczorek who sold out her wianki before 3 p.m. Mrs. Ryszarda Klim with her daughter
Jolanta Drake demonstrated wycinanki and had a beautiful display to delight attendees.
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New demonstrators this year were Jean Smaglik Wells with her handmade pottery which had special Polish
touches for the event, Robb Neureuther with Polish style St. Nick wood carvings and Sidonka Wadina with
her woven straw. All were happy they participated and hoped to do the same at other Polish events.
Ewa Barczyk and Urszula Tempska facilitated videos and power points on various Polish subjects in the
education room. These showings were very well attended as people took time from the other happenings
to enjoy learning new information.
The Polanki sales booth was a busy area with beautifully presented wares with the help of Judy Chattin
(thank you husband Dave), Terry Jankowski (thank you Terry’s daughters), Ewa Melenchuk, Pat
Koronkowski, Wanda Kosmalski and Jean Wroblewski (thank you daughter for bringing the charge
machine).
Children’s crafts were arranged by Valerie Lukaszewicz, while Char Dzimiela and her friend entertained
adults and children alike by finding their Polish names.
Under the tutelage of Susan Mikoś and other volunteers The Kosciuszko Restoration Project was brought
to the community’s attention.
Crocus Restaurant made everyone feel satisfied with Polish specialties.
As you can see it takes a lot of people to make up Poland under Glass. Thank you to all the demonstrators,
volunteers and Domes staff who made this such a successful event. Get ready with your ideas and energy
for Poland under Glass, February 16, 2013, 9 a.m.-4 p.m.
From the President
Greetings!
We had a very successful “Poland Under Glass” two weeks ago and my thanks to Camille Shaw for
coordinating and to the great many volunteers who participated and welcomed over 2600 visitors.
February is our Members only meeting at which we will hold elections for your new Board. As I conclude
this year, I do wish to express my thanks for the support of the Board members in carrying out the agenda
as well as all of you who contribute your time, talents and energies to share your knowledge of Polish
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culture at the wonderful variety of events Polanki hosts throughout the year. It is truly amazing how much
we get done for the size of our group. I salute all of you!!!
A quick suggestion–save the date March 5, 7 p.m., UWM Union, Free film showing “Bitwa
Warszawska” or “Battle of Warsaw”
This movie has been much anticipated in Poland, and dramatizes the largely unknown story of the PolishSoviet war in 1920. Here is a trailer from the movie with English subtitles
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CsyZvdF8Aww
The Union Cinema is on the 2nd floor of the Union which is on Kenwood Blvd. Between Downer and
Maryland with public parking underneath it.
–Ewa Barczyk
What Is the Kashub “Island” or “Wedge” in Poland?
By Reverend Aloysius Rekowski, CssR
In this article let us study more closely that little wedge on Poland’s map bordering on the Baltic Sea which
we call Kaszuby or Kashubian Switzerland as it is sometimes called in Poland, not because of any high
mountains, but because of its natural scenic beauty and its hundreds of lakes and rolling meadows. Except
on its southern borders where you have the Carpathian Mountains, Poland is a very flat and agricultural
country. Kaszuby is perhaps a little more rolling than most other parts of Poland and a delightful mixture
of fields, meadows, forests, lakes, small rivers and canoe routes. The soil is generally sandy and, even
though the annual rainfall is copious because of the proximity of the Baltic Sea, still most of the area can
only grow such crops as rye, hay and potatoes. In some ways it is much more suitable for tourism than for
farming.
The region (or province) of Europe between the Oder and Vistula Rivers and bordering on the Baltic Sea
has always been called Pomerania (Pomorze in Polish; Pommern in German) meaning “by the sea.” The
Kashubs inhabited Eastern Pomerania, sometimes called Pomorze Gdańskie. The section of Pomerania
inhabited by the Kashubs was larger three, four hundred years ago but, in our times, consists of a wedge
perhaps the size of Renfrew County, Ontario, running southwest of Gdańsk down to the small city of Chojnice and then northwest close to the cities of Bytów and Slupsk and joining the Baltic Sea near the two lakes
of Leba and Gardno.
In that little wedge there would be well over a million inhabitants. The vast majority would be concentrated
in the Baltic tri-cities of Gdańsk, Sopot and Gdynia. Gdańsk, the largest, is a very old commercial port city
at the estuary of the Vistula River where it empties into the huge bay of Gdańsk. Between 1918 and 1939
Gdańsk remained a free city still mainly dominated by German commercial interests. And so Poland,
lacking any port which it could call unequivocally its own, decided to develop Gdynia. Gdynia, the port
where the Polish passenger liner Stefan Batory has a berth when it plies between Montreal and Poland
during the summer months, was originally a completely Kashub town. Along with Gdańsk, and Szczecin
further west on the Oder River, Gdynia today has developed into one of the three main ports of Poland. The
tri-cities today have a very cosmopolitan, even though thoroughly Polish character. The sailors, dockworkers and shipbuilders come from all over Poland. What percentage of their inhabitants would be of Kashub parentage is hard to say, perhaps as low as ten percent. But I feel sure that there were many “still
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stubborn” and independent-minded Kashubs among the first associates of Lech Walesa in those port cities
where Solidarity was born.
The ethnic Kashub population two, three hundred years ago has been cited as totalling approximately four
hundred thousand (400,000). Today in that wedge there may still dwell upwards of two hundred thousand
Kashubs who still preserve some of the old traditions and who may still understand or speak the dialect,
though for most of them classical Polish is today the everyday language, at least outside their own homes.
The heart of Kaszuby would be around the cities of Kartuzy and Koscierzyna for the central and southern
Kashubs and around the larger city of Wejherowo in the region adjacent to the peninsula of Hel for the
northern Kashubs. Our middle-aged and older generation would feel very much at home among our cousins
there, as I did during my two-week stay with them. Apart from the odd modern Polish expression, you
would soon forget you are in Poland in the villages of Lipusz, Parchowo, Rekowo, Kalisz Kaszubski, as the
Laskas, Palubickis, Peplinskis, Rekowskis, Turzynskis, Kulases, etc., started conversing with you in
everyday Kashub.
Father Aloysius Rekowski is a noted Kashubian scholar who has written over 100 articles on the subject of the Kashubs. His ancestors
are from Lipusz and neighboring parishes in Poland. After a period of 65 years of research Father Rekowski wrote the authoritative
book, The Saga of the Kaszubs. Father was born October 22, 1921, and passed away June 17, 2006.
–Reprinted from Summer, 2011, Kashubian Association of North America Newsletter, p. 14.
Kashubian National Symbols
by Stanislow Frymark
translated by Renata Stachowicz
Think of Kaszubia. Think of the griffin. Think of the Hymn. Think of ‘capital’ cities. Think of the black
and gold flag.
The Kashubian coat-of-arms is a black griffin with a crown, on a gold field. This emblem is also widely
used as a coat-of-arms for many Kashubian and Pomeranian cities.
The griffin symbolizes nimbleness and quickness of the eagle and strength of the lion. From ancient Greek
and Roman writings we know that the griffin is an animal with head, neck, claws, and wings of an eagle,
and trunk, paws, and tail of a lion. The griffin, according to ancients, used to live in Ethiopia, Arabic
countries, and India. Later on its image appeared, as a decoration, on the breast plate of the armor of
Caesar, Kaligula, Marcus Aurelius, and on the helmet of Pallas Athena.
The griffin in its many variations has been in continual use on the seals and as a coat-of-arms on shields of
the Kashubian princes since at least 1240.
Heronim Derdowski is the author of the Kashubian Anthem. The song first appeared as a march in his poem
“O Panu Czorlinskim...” In the mid-war period (between WWI and WWII), the song was proclaimed the
Kashubian Anthem, and sung ever since with respect, in a standing position. The melody to the anthem was
written by Feliks Nowowiejski.
Gdańsk was always perceived by Kashubian people as the capital of Kashuby. Kashubian and Pomeranian
Princes went to their ‘final rest’ at the Oliwa Cathedral. Gdańsk used to be a main cultural and merchant
center. However, Germanization of the free city of Gdańsk, and then, after WWII, colonization of Kashuby
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area by citizens of East territories which had been lost after the War, made Kashubs a minority (however
an active one) group in their own capital. Therefore, shortly after WWII, a beautiful and picturesquely
situated city, Kartuzy, of the “Swiss Kashubia” region, was named the capital of Kashuby. Kartuzy is one
of not many civil parishes where 100% of its citizens declare Kashubian roots, and the town exudes
Kashubian culture. Meanwhile, Gdańsk now has more of a European character with residual influence of
the Hanseatic League days, and that’s the culture the city represents.
The Kashubian national flag waves on the Kartuzy town square. Black and gold. Black on the top and gold
on the bottom. Right next to it hangs a Polish flag, and another with the coat-of-arms of the city of Kartuzy,
with a head of a griffin, designed by Aleksander Majkowski.
The borders of Kashuby are at the present time enclosed in a new Pomeranian District (wojewodztwo).
From the south Kashuby is bordered by Chojnice; Bytów on the west; and Nowa Karczma on the east. The
North border of Kashuby is formed by the Baltic Sea. In general in various parts of the Pomeranian District
Kashubian population is little less than 50% of all citizens. This is true for Słupsk farthest on the west, and
Tczew on the east.
The new Pomorski District considers its coat-of-arms for the area to be a traditional Kashubian coat-ofarms–the black griffin with a crown on a yellow-gold field.
Think of Kaszubia and these symbols will come to mind.
–Reprinted from Spring, 2002, Kashubian Association of North America Newsletter, p. 5.
Lighthouses of Poland
translated by Stanley Frymark
The newest lighthouse in Poland is located in Gdańsk’s Nowy Port (New Port and
began working on the 18th of June 1984. On the same day, the oldest lighthouse, the
one in Wisłaoujście was retired. The oldest functioning one is in Rozewie and dates
back to the 15th of October, 1822. Inside the Rozewie lighthouse is a museum of
lighthouses. At 68 meters, (223 feet), the tallest lighthouse in Poland and all of
Europe stands in Świnoujście. The lighthouses in Stilo and Czołpino are each
located about one kilometer from the sea.
Lighthouses are known to have existed in ancient times. Descriptions of pillars
with fire on top are known from 400 BC. In Poland the oldest mention of fire on
Lighthouse on the
Peninsula in Hel
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the seashore comes from the year 1070 AD. Very often the fires were elevated on existing objects. For
example, fire burned in the tower of the church in Hel.
–Reprinted from Winter 2008 Kashubian Association of North America Newsletter, pp. 10-11.
Get Well Wishes to
Active member Elaine Posard who had knee surgery.
Coming Events
Feb. 9
Tad & Roman Concert, PCW, 7 p.m.
Feb. 21
Pączki Day, PCW
Feb. 24
Lenten Friday Fish Fries begin at the Polish Center, 4:30 - 8 p.m.
Mar. 18
An Afternoon of Polish Classical Music, 3 p.m., PCW
Mar. 25
Pierogi Fest, PCW
April 1
Syrena Swięcona
April 22
Awards Tea
May 5
Gathering by the Waters in Kosciuszko Park
June 15-16
Polish Fest
Feb. 16, ‘13
Poland Under Glass
May 11, ‘13
Polanki’s 60th Anniversary, PCW
Community Corner
Celebrate Norsk with Torsk Norway House is again serving their Fabulous Public Torsk Supper on
February 25
March 24
April 28
May 19
Adults $13.00
Children $5.00
Summer study tour at Catholic University, Lublin, Poland, July 7-August 13, 2012. This study tour
is led by Dr. Michael Mikoś, professor of Polish language and literature and leader of 30 study tours to
Poland. Trip includes lectures, films and cultural performances, language course at three levels, excursions
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to Warsaw, Sandomierz, and other places of interest, optional trip to Cracow. Contact Prof. Michael Mikoś
at 414-229-4151, e-mail: mikos@uwm.edu or www.lrc.uwm.edu/tour/
2/01
2/09
2/11
2/13
2/14
2/17
2/20
2/26
2/28
Iwona Nowak
Alina Sedlak
Geraldine Reszel
Ewa Barczyk-Pease
Jadwiga Korasz
Charlotte Dzimiela
Diane Holytz
Eleanore Jendrzejczak
Jerry Moskaluk
Anna Rogalski
Jean Sorenson
A list of the video tapes in the Polanki
Library has been put on the Polanki
website. A list of the DVDs will soon
follow.
Polanki Is About
The following active members: Diane Holytz and Bernie Jendrzejczak who inventoried the gift shop;
Geraldine Reszel who inventoried her basement; Barbara Januchowski, Pat Koronkowski, Susan Mikoś,
Roma Numrych, and Jean Wroblewski who inventoried all of Polanki’s merchandise stored in the Polish
Center basement; and finally Jean Wroblewski and her daughter Rachel who inventoried the pottery while
packing up at the end of the Holiday Bazaar.
Polish History in a Broader Context:
The Miracle on the Vistula
by Alexander Matusiak
Winner of the Copernicus Award
Following partitions by Austria, Russia, and Prussia, Poland had staged several unsuccessful uprisings
against its conquerors. After the collapse of Russia, Germany, and Austria, Poland saw its chance to
reestablish its borders in modern Europe. Josef Pilsudski, commander of the Polish Legions, used his
military power to establish control over the country and create the Second Polish Republic. As Poland tried
to establish the largest borders it could possibly hang on to, Pilsudski soon found himself dragged into the
affairs of the Soviet Union, Ukraine, Bialorus, and Lithuania (Zamoyski, Polish Way, 336). At the same
time, the Soviet Union had recently completed its victory over the White Russians, supporters of the old
Tsarist regime. The politburo now decided it was time to expand socialism into Europe, particularly to
disgruntled Germany, through armed force.
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The Polish-Bolshevik War began well for the Polish armed forces, with the seizure of Kiev on the southern
front. However, as the Polish forces extended themselves further into Bialorussia in the North, they faced
the same problems previous conquerors had faced. Increasingly long supply lines slowed the advance,
allowing the Soviets to reorganize and strike the Poles. As the Polish lines buckled, units fled from
Bialorussia all the way to Warsaw (Zamoyski, Warsaw 64). With imminent defeat apparent, Pilsudski
gathered all of the Polish forces around the capital. Tukhachevsky, the Soviet commanding officer, made
a crucial error when he sent a large portion of his army north and west of the capital, leaving a large gap in
his front (Zamoyski, Warsaw 70). Pilsudski seized the opportunity and struck through this gap, conquering
all opposition. This overwhelming victory came to be known as “The Battle of Warsaw 1920" or “The
Miracle on the Vistula.” With their supply lines cut, the entire Soviet force turned in a rout to Bialorus.
Polish forces raced ahead virtually unopposed, with nothing but poorly armed recruits between them and
Moscow (Zamoyski, Warsaw 129). In the end, Poland and Moscow signed the Treaty of Riga, which served
to designate the borders of the Second Republic until September 1939.
The Battle of Warsaw created a peace between Poland and the U.S.S.R. for the following 20 years, which
strengthened Poland’s presence on the map of Europe. Poland has now existed for the majority of the 20th
century, after 115 years of occupation. This in itself is an achievement, as few countries have managed to
return to the map of the world after such a long period of foreign rule (Zamoyski, Polish Way, 339). The
victory instilled a certain level of confidence in Poles, as they knew that they had faced their traditional rival
in the east and won. The most obvious effect of the Polish victory was the isolationism that had gripped
the U.S.S.R. afterwards. The ruling class of the Soviet Union, embarrassed at their defeat at the hands of
the Poles, became reclusive, allowing little interaction with the outside world. After three decades of
isolationism under Stalin, it proved hard for the Soviet government to counteract this isolationist perspective
(Zamoyski, Warsaw 133). This policy led to the downfall of the Soviet Union because it restricted trade
and the exchange of ideas, slowing the development of Soviet bloc countries as Western counterparts
surpassed them. The rest as we know, is history; slow development increased dissatisfaction among the
population, leading to the growth of Solidarity and the establishment of the Third Republic of Poland.
Record Numbers Visit Black Madonna
The Black Madonna shrine in Poland’s spiritual capital of Częstochowa attracted 3.2 million pilgrims and
tourists last year. This is almost 200,000 more than in 2010. Almost 145,000 pilgrims arrived to
Częstochowa on foot. There were also groups of pilgrims on bicycles, on horseback and on roller blades.
Foreign visitors came from all continents, including church leaders from 21 countries, from the Phillippines
and Burkina Faso to Bolivia and Peru.
The highlights of 2011 at Jasna Góra in Częstochowa included the ceremonies to mark the beatification of
Pope John Paul II and the annual farmers’ pilgrimage, which was attended by President Bronisław
Komorowski.
–http://www.thenews.pl/1/9/Artykul/81612,Record-numbers-visit-.... 1/6/2012
Scroll down for a blast from the past!
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Polanki’s 1956 Easter Tea, showing a sękacz, Mrs. Sklenarz, (?), and
Felicia Kwasieborska (pouring tea)
Polanki Newsletter published by
Polanki, Inc.
P. O. Box 341458
Milwaukee, WI 53234
www.polanki.org
414-858-9357
Editor
Geraldine Reszel
greszel@wi.rr.com
Ewa Barczyk-Pease
President
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