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Notes From Poland •

Warsaw's "Robinson Crusoes" who survived in the rubble after the uprising

By Stuart Dowell
Today marks 80 years since the start of the Warsaw Uprising, the largest single resistance operation of World War Two. After 63 days, and the loss of up to 200,000 lives, the Polish forces finally succumbed to brutal repression by the German occupiers.
The Germans then expelled the hundreds of thousands of civilians remaining in Warsaw before systematically destroying the city. However, groups of survivors decided to remain among the ruins. They became known as Warsaw’s “Robinso...
The Jewish Chronicle •

Small town life: the shtetl through the eyes of an artist

When Mayer Kirshenblatt was a boy in Opatów in the 1920s his mother would send him to buy a single herring for the family dinner, which the fishmonger would wrap in just a narrow strip of newspaper, a full sheet being too valuable. On the way home, Mayer would lick the salty brine, not wasting a drop.
At home, his mother would remove the bag of semen from the fish and scoop it out adding chopped onions, vinegar, and sugar to make a tangy dipping sauce for bread. My mother was an excellent cook...
Notes From Poland •

New biography reveals remarkable life of female Polish resistance fighter

By Stuart Dowell
In the well-populated pantheon of Poland’s Second World War heroes, few figures shine as bright as Elżbieta Zawacka. She operated as an undercover courier in occupied Europe, was the sole woman in an elite Polish paratrooper group, and was only the second woman in the Polish army to achieve the rank of brigadier general.
A new biography, Agent Zo – whose title refers to Zawacka’s nom de guerre – explores her life and achievements. According to its author, Clare Mulley, one of th...
Notes From Poland •

Bergen-Belsen baby solves lifelong mystery after identifying Polish resistance dad

A Jewish woman who was born in the Bergen-Belsen camp and whose mother escaped from the Warsaw Ghetto has finally solved the life-long riddle of her father’s identity by discovering that he was a hero of the Polish Home Army resistance movement who was injured in the Warsaw Uprising.

In a remarkable quest that spans decades and continents, Elana Milman, who lives in Israel, at the end of March this year finally tracked down her Polish family through a blend of modern DNA technology and traditio
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‘They want to destroy everything’, head of the Polish Ukrainian Society in Mariupol tells TFN

The streets of Mariupol are strewn with the legs, arms and other body parts of the victims of Russian bombs; dead bodies lie unmoved covered with a jacket or are hastily buried in temporary graves in back yards.

Thousands of the city’s residents have been expelled from the city to ‘filtration’ camps before being sent deep inside Russia.

Meanwhile, traitors give the coordinates of civilian targets to Russia, whose pilots then destroy in evident war crimes.

These harrowing details from the anni
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Gun clubs see boom in business as Poles sign up to learn how to shoot

Shooting ranges across Poland have reported an increase in the number of people wanting to learn how to use a gun.

As Russia’s war against Ukraine rages just over Poland’s border, Poles are flocking to shooting ranges in unprecedented numbers to sharpen their marksmanship skills and prepare for a possible escalation.

Piotr Mioduchowski, the owner of PM Shooters in Warsaw, told TFN: “Before the war in Ukraine started, we used to receive around 35 inquiries a day from people wanting to reserve s
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Extraordinary story of hiding places used by WWII Jews revealed

The extraordinary story behind hiding places used by Jews during the Holocaust is the subject of a fascinating new exhibition.

A hollowed-out tree trunk, a wardrobe with space for a small boy, a vast system of caves in Ukraine, and a grave in Warsaw’s Jewish cemetery are just a few of the spaces revealed in the exhibition entitled ‘Hideouts. The Architecture of Survival’ at Warsaw’s Zachęta National Gallery of Art.

Each of these spaces is represented by a silver-plated sculpture cast from an e
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Govt. launches guide on how to survive Russian invasion

A new ‘guidebook’ giving Poles tips on what to do if they are captured by Russian soldiers in the event of invasion includes instructions such as ‘don’t beg’, ‘make eye contact’ and only run away ‘if you are sure you can make it’.

Entitled ‘Be Ready. Guidebook for Crisis and War’, the list of dos and don’ts was written by experts from the Government Centre for Safety (RCB), who say that "it pays to be knowledgeable and prepared for different situations."

The RCB posted the advisory on its webs
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Horrors of Bucha echo Soviet’s 1940 massacre of Poles in Katyń

Pictures taken in towns recaptured by Ukrainian soldiers in the Kyiv region show murdered men, women and children who had their hands and feet bound before being put to death with a gunshot to the back of the head.

Other bodies were burnt, thrown into wells or left in the street. Many showed signs of torture. Women and children had been raped before being murdered. One mass grave contained over 300 bodies.

The famous British historian of Russian totalitarianism Simon Sebag Montefiore was quick
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Legia Warsaw prepare to meet Dynamo Kyiv in fund-raising Match for Peace

Poland and Ukraine’s most successful football club sides are set to play a Match for Peace this evening in Warsaw with the proceeds going towards charity.

The head-to-head between Legia Warsaw and Dynamo Kyiv will kick-off a series of matches played by the Ukraine side aimed at boosting awareness of the Russian invasion and raise cash for the suffering Ukrainian people.

Russia launched its war against Ukraine on 24 February, just before the restart of the Ukrainian league after the winter brea
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Polish tour guide publishes heartfelt homage to Ukraine

A book about the history, culture and cuisine of Ukraine to be published this week has taken on unintended significance after Russia's invasion of the country by offering a unique snapshot of the country on the eve of war.

What was meant to be a travel book has now become a story about what's at stake in the war, what has been lost and what the Ukrainian people are fighting for – their rich history, identity, but also a normal life.

It was written as a book that readers could throw in their ba
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Stunning war painting finds new home after being abandoned in a bog

Inspired by the war, a monumental painting created by a Mexican artist in Medyka is to be donated to a museum in Przemyśl after being left abandoned in a bog behind an aid tent at the border crossing.

Roberto Marquez painted the huge 8m x 2m cubist style painting, which features scenes from the destruction of Mariupol, at the beginning of March in Medyka as a protest against Russia's invasion and as a tribute to the refugees.

Taking Marquez more than two weeks to complete, he then left it ther
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Howl about that! Dog digs up Poland’s largest treasure haul of the last 100 years

A dog in Lower Silesia has discovered what archaeologists are saying may be the largest treasure find in Poland in the last 100 years.

The coins had been kept in a clay pot that appears to have been hidden away by its owner.Lower Silesia Heritage Protection Office/Facebook

The sensational haul of medieval bracteates (one-sided coins) was found buried in a clay pot near Wałbrzych by a dog named Kajtuś while he was on a walk with his owner.

According to the Wałbrzych heritage protection office,
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‘Silver Age’ 17th-century palace opens its doors after PLN 21 million renovation

The best preserved early Baroque palace in Poland, and one of the best in Europe, has opened fully to the public this week after an extensive five-year restoration project.

The Bishops' Palace in Kielce, which was built as a home for the wealthy Kraków bishops, was constructed in the early 17th century, a time when Poland had reached its largest geographical size and had recently occupied Moscow.

With its mix of Italian and Polish styles, it reflects the richness and grandeur of the time of th
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Wawel Castle boosts its art collection with most expensive masterpieces to date

Wawel Castle has made its most expensive ever purchase and boosted the reputation of its art collection by buying works of Dutch Golden Age masters Brueghel the Younger and Willem Claesz Heda.

The acquisition from a private French seller of The Inn at Saint Michael's by Pieter Brueghel the Younger, and Still Life by Willem Claesz Heda are set to take the castle’s already impressive collection of Dutch paintings to a new level.

The price paid for the two pieces from the start of the 17th centur
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New project aims at breathing new life into histories of WWII underground leaders

The leaders of Poland's WWII Home Army resistance organization are being brought back to life in a new project that aims to add flesh to the dry pages of history books.

Called Voices of the Home Army, the animation use actors and modern animation techniques to create a comic-book style that breathes life into the commanders of the largest underground army in World War Two.

The series of four films starts with the Home Army commander-in-chief during the Warsaw Uprising, Tadeusz Bór-Komorowski.G
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World Cup qualifying clash under threat after Russian troops enter Ukraine

Originally scheduled to take place on March 24th, Poland's World Cup play-off match against Russia is now hanging by a thread following the dramatic events that have unfolded this week in Ukraine.

Doubts over the match have been raised after Vladimir Putin recognised the breakaway Donetsk and Luhansk republics, sent Russian troops pouring into the self-styled statelets and asked the State Duma to allow Russian forces to operate abroad.

Concerned about the safety of players and fans, the Polish
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Warsaw train crew cross border to rescue 600 from war-torn Ukraine

A newly fitted-out medical rescue train arrived in Warsaw from Ukraine Sunday with 600 refugees after its crew abandoned a training simulation when it saw the scale of need inside the war-torn country.

Setting off on Saturday with humanitarian aid, food, medicines and medical equipment as part of a practice run for evacuating Ukraine’s wounded, when the crew arrived in Mostyska just a few kilometres from the Medyka border they were horrified by what they found.

The newly fitted-out medical res
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Zambian students arrive in Poland from war-torn Ukraine

Students from Zambia studying in Ukraine have found safety in Poland after Territorial Defence Force soldiers ensured their evacuation from Ukraine.

The volunteer soldiers collected the students from the crossing in Hrebenne, which lies on the border between Lublin and Lviv.

The volunteer soldiers collected the students from the crossing in Hrebenne, which lies on the border between Lublin and Lviv.DWOT

Soldiers from the 6th Mazovian Territorial Defence Brigade guided the group from the borde
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Hollywood star Sean Penn abandons his car in Ukraine and walks to Poland

Oscar-winning actor and filmmaker Sean Penn reached the Polish border with Ukraine on foot last night after abandoning his car in a huge tailback made up of refugees fleeing the war zone.

At 22.00 he posted on Twitter from his iPhone: "Myself & two colleagues walked miles to the Polish border after abandoning our car on the side of the road."

The Oscar-winning actor and filmmaker had travelled to Ukraine on the first day of the Russian invasion to meet Ukrainian officials as part of a film he
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Convoy of animals escapes from Ukraine into Poland after six-day odyssey of danger

An Ark of exotic animals from a rescue shelter in Kyiv is finally in the safe hands of Poznań Zoo after a small convoy made a six-day odyssey across the war-stricken country.

After surviving close encounters with Russian tanks and coming under rocket attack, the vulnerable animals and their Ukrainian carers had to endure an eight-hour wait at the border before handing over the precious cargo to zoo staff, who were waiting on the Polish side.

Though exhausted and hungry, the animals, which incl
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Museums unite to save Ukraine's cultural treasures

As Vladimir Putin sets about eliminating the very idea of Ukrainian nationhood, there are fears that he will try to achieve this by looting and destroying Ukrainian culture, including treasures housed in the nation's museums.

With the obvious parallels of Nazi and Soviet looting of Polish culture and art in World War Two, leading Polish museums have now joined together to set up the Committee for Assistance to Museums of Ukraine to offer help and practical support to their Ukrainian museum coll
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EXCLUSIVE: Son of British POW on quest to find six rings of Auschwitz

When former British POW James Archer passed away in 1969, among his possessions was a mysterious, beautifully crafted and engraved ring.

The war-time memento was one of a set of six rings made by a Jewish engraver, a prisoner in Auschwitz, for Archer and five Polish men he worked with as slave labourers.

The rings were fashioned from a piece of stainless steel they had stolen as an act of sabotage and resistance working at Hitler’s huge I.G. Farben chemical works.

James Archer was a soldier i
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Ukrainian artist whose work has become symbol of peace is honoured in Warsaw

Maria Prymachenko’s artwork has become a global symbol of peace in the war in Ukraine.

Her dazzlingly colourful renderings of life in the Ukrainian countryside showcase a world that is gradually being destroyed by Russian bombs.

An icon of Ukrainian national identity, she was lionised by Picasso, given a year-long celebration by UNESCO and even has a planet named after her.

However, on one of the first days of the war, the museum in Ivankiv near Kyiv which housed much of Maria Prymachenko's o
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