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May this Christmas season brings you nothing but fond memories, happiness and joy.
As always thank you all supporters, friends and volunteers of the Pilsudski Institute of America.
Merry Christmas and all the best in New Year.
The Pilsudski Institute Board od Directors is very thankful to the institutions that supported the activity of the Institute in 2018:
From Poland: thanks to the Józef Piłsudski National Heritage Foundation, grants were obtained from the Senate of the Republic of Poland and the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage:
- From the Senate of the Republic of Poland:
- Support for the statutory activity of the Piłsudski Institute in America
- Digitalization of archival resources of the Piłsudski Institute in America
- From the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage:
- Digitization of the archives of the Piłsudski Institute. Collection No. 5: Proceedings of Courts of Honor and other judicial matters concerning generals and senior commanders
- Digitizing and Publishing archival photos and archival video cassette recordings from the Piłsudski Institute in America collection.
The Pilsudski Institute would like to thank Polish institutions:
- The Head Office of the State Archives – dr Bartosz Nowożycki (two vistis) and a visit of the conservator Anna Czajka
- The National Library – the intership of two librarians: Małgorzata Kurowska i Urszula Stasiak
- The Institute of National Remembrance: six month-long internships of archivists: Grzegorz Mroczkowski, Łukasz Kasza, Paweł Popławski, Radosław Szumilo, Hanna Nowacka, Anna Badura; founding of an exhibition about the Institute in Polish and English versions.
In the United States, the following institutions supported the Pilsudski Institute:
- Consulate General of the Republic of Poland in New York - grant for the Institute Awards Gala and grants for education in Polish
- Polish-Slavic Federal Credit Union - grants for celebrating the 100th anniversary of regaining independence by Poland and digitization
- New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with The City Council – funding for programs in Polish for children and adults.
Pierwsze roczniki nowojorskiego dziennika polonijnego “Nowy Świat” są już dostępne online.The first volumes of the Polish language New York daily news "Nowy Świat - The Polish Morning World" are now available online. The newspaper was founded in 1919 and from 1920 it appeared regularly every day, including Saturdays and Sundays. In 1922 it was joined by the future co-founder of the Piłsudski Institute in America, Maksymilian Węgrzynek. At that time, it was the only magazine in Polish in the New York metropolitan area and other states of the eastern part of the United States. "Nowy Świat" considered himself the heir of "Tygodnik Powszechny" published since 1886, and the first (1920) issue carry the number 23.
In the issues online one can read about the events in Poland and in Europe as well as the reactions of the US and other countries to these events, starting from January 1, 1920. In addition, there are news about New York and Polish American diaspora, as well as the Polish and Polish-American institutions in the USA. The ads from this period, as well as novels printed in episodes (such as "Atlantida" by Pierre Benoit) are also a fascinating read.
The publication of this newspaper is possible thanks to the National Endowment for the Humanities grant received in 1977 by the Piłsudski Institute, which allowed this newspaper, threatened with the disintegration of paper to be microfilmed. In recent years, microfilms have been digitized by the Institute of National Remembrance; further processing and indexing took place at the Piłsudski Institute.
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| Polish president Raczkiewicz in the 1st Armored Division, year 1943, |
This collection of photographs displays Polish Armed Forces in the West with a focus on the Polish Armed Forces in the United Kingdom (1940-1944), the formation of the Polish Army in the USSR (under the command of General Władysław Anders), and the life of soldiers of the Polish Independent Carpathian Rifle Brigade in Africa (1940-1942).
The formation of the Polish Armed Forces in the West took place at the outbreak of WWII when, on September 1, 1939, German troops crossed the Polish border. The Polish Army, alone in combat, could not effectively resist Germany's aggression in addition to the Soviet invasion on Eastern Polish territories on September 17, 1939. As a result, Poland was partitioned for the fourth time by Hitler and Stalin, and its government fled into exile to France and later on to Great Britain. At the same time, in the autumn of 1939, the formation of regular troops was ordered by the Polish authorities in exile. This was possible due to prior war agreements with France and Great Britain. Polish Armed Forces in the West were initially formed in France and Syria and later in Great Britain and Palestine. Land army units, the Polish Navy and Polish pilots were organized and sent to function under British forces, and participated in various Allied military operations, including the Battle of Britain, the Norwegian campaign in Narvik, the Siege of Tobruk, and D-Day in France.
Read more: Photographs of Polish Soldiers and Civilians During WWII (1939-1945)
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| From National Defense Committe collection |
Thanks to the support of the Polish Senate, the Pilsudski Institute digitized eight volumes of documents from the time period of 1912-1930. The collection includes documentation of the headquarters of the National Defense Committee in Chicago: legal and incorporation acts, the committee correspondence, minutes of meetings, notes and reports on activities, resolutions, reports of volunteers leaving America to join the Polish Legions during World War I.
The collection is available: http://archiwa.pilsudski.org/teczka.php?nonav=0&nrar=701&nrzesp=15&sygn=1
The archival materials document efforts of the Polish diaspora during World War I during the fight for Poland's independence.
We strongly encourage you to learn unknown facts about the history of the Polish community in the USA.
