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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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Chilling tales from the crypt: bones of child go on display in Warsaw church

The mysterious bones of a five-year-old boy have been put on display in a newly opened crypt in Warsaw’s oldest church.

The enigmatic remains were discovered two years ago by workmen when they were renovating a small catacomb underneath the St. John the Apostle Church in the Tarchomin parish of Warsaw.

The remains of 13 adults and several unknown children were also discovered in the church.Kalbar/TFN

The bones almost certainly belong to Ignacy Ossoliński, who as a five-year-old was tipped to
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Inspiration from murder: the savage killing that links a small Polish town to a Shakespearian play

According to historians of the Duchy of Masovia in the 14th century, Siemowit III was a pretty decent duke.

Chroniclers tell us that he was “a wise and noble ruler”. He took part in the prestigious congress of European monarchs in Krakow in 1364, and maintained good relations with Kazimierz the Great, even marrying his daughter to the king's grandson.

The victim, Ludmiła. The story of her shocking murder eventually made its way to England.Kalbar/TFN

And if that were all, he would happily rema
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The music of love: the life and times of the operatic beauty who stole Chopin’s heart

She was Chopin’s muse, who inspired his beloved first piano concerto. She was also a rising soprano whose blue-eyed beauty and talent beguiled and entranced the besotted young Fryderyk. Yet, despite their intense feelings for each other, the young couple’s love was thwarted by circumstance and ambition.

Konstancja Gładkowska was impressive. In the press she was described as “a sturdy and shapely figure with a beautiful voice”. Already at the age of 16 she received a government scholarship for f
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Hitler’s FIRST death camp dubbed ‘Fort of Horror’ opened 80 years ago today in Poznań

Opened eighty years ago today, Fort VII in Poland’s western city of Poznań has several dubious accolades.

As the first concentration camp that the Germans set up on Polish territory, it became known as the Fort of Horror due to the brutal regime of torture, punishment and death metered out by the sadistic SS guards.

It was also where Germans fine-tuned what became their war-time speciality, murdering by gas.

Behind these gates emblazoned with the symbol of Hitler’s dreaded SS, psychiatric pat
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‘Kitschy’ church becomes youngest building to win privileged heritage protection status

An unusual Greek Catholic orthodox church in Western Pomerania has won a place on the prized heritage protection list because of its ‘mysterious’ sacral decoration.

Completed only 22 years ago, the Church of the Birth of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Biały Bór near Szczecin is also the youngest listed building in Poland.

This means that when the final touches were being made to the temple in 1997, Puff Daddy was riding high in the charts, Poland was voting on its new constitution and Bill Clinton
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Former SS death camp guard goes on trial

A 93-year-old man accused of being a former SS guard at the Stutthof concentration camp has gone on trial in Hamburg.

According to prosecutors, Bruno Dey was a “cog in the murderous machine” and is guilty of complicity in the murder of 5230 of the camp’s victims.

The court says that as a 17 and 18 year old in the summer of 1944 and spring 1945 he served as a guard in watchtowers and that as an SS guard with a gun in his hand he guarded the prisoners in the death camp.

Stutthof was the first N
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Art works set to smash auction records go on show in Warsaw

Two major works of art expected to send Polish art records tumbling later this month at auction have gone on display in Warsaw.

The piece was once owned by Robin Williams.Kalbar/TFN‘Caminando’ by Magdalena Abakanowicz, one of Poland’s most internationally acclaimed artists who died in 2017, is predicted to achieve a price that will sail far past the current record holder, ‘M 39’ by Wojciech Fangor which sold for PLN 4.72 million last year.

The set of 20 bronze walking sculptures, which went on
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The extraordinary story of Jewish ballerina who gunned down SS beast before being murdered

Franceska Mann was 26 years old when she arrived at Auschwitz from Bergen-Belsen on a transport with 1,800 other Jews.

Unusually, the group had travelled not in the normal sealed goods wagons but in regular passenger carriages as this was not an ordinary transport.

Mann was part of a small group of Jews who had been tricked by the Germans in what is known as the Hotel Polski Affair into paying huge sums to obtain foreign passports that they were told would give them safe passage to South Ameri
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Remains of Polish women slaughtered in Nazi's Ravensbrück death camp found

Researchers have discovered the remains of Poles murdered at KL Ravensbrück, the notorious German concentration camp for women.

A specialist research team from Poland’s Institute for National Remembrance uncovered the ashes of murdered women as well as metal plaques from urns with information on their identities during archaeological work at a cemetery in Fürstenberg in Germany near the SS-operated camp.

The urns had broken down in the soil over time but the metal plaques have been preserved i
 The First News •

‘Holocaust ring’ stolen by Nazis to return to survivor’s family

The family of a Holocaust survivor is on the brink of recovering a cherished ring that was confiscated from her over 80 years ago.

Following the outbreak of WWII, Janina Adach who was 20 at the time was sent to Majdanek where SS guards stripped her of all her possessions, including her white metal ring.

Surviving the horrors of the camp which saw an estimated 78,000 inmates murdered, in 1944 she was transferred to the women’s concentration camp Ravensbruck in northern Germany.

Although little
 The First News •

New film to shed light on controversial WWII history of Tatra highlanders

The controversial role of Tatra highlanders during WWII is to be examined for the first time in the history of Polish cinema.

With a budget exceeding PLN 16 million, "Biała Odwaga" [White Courage] delves into the complex World War II history of highlanders from the Tatra mountains, who found themselves on opposing sides — the heroic Tatra couriers versus adherents of the German-conceived notion of Goralenvolk.

Goralenvolk, a term coined by the Germans during World War II, referred to the mount
 The First News •

Terrifying case of Polish ‘poltergeist girl’ retold in English translation

A newly published book recounts the terrifying story of a Polish teenager possessed with the power of psychokinesis that shocked the nation during the 1980s.

Titled “The Elusive Force” and translated into English, the book describes the case of Joasia Grajewska, who through her logic-defying powers controlled an unexplainable force commonly known as a poltergeist.

According to the book’s reviewer Rosemary Pilkington, “It is one of the best-documented and well-investigated examples of Recurrent
 The First News •

First Raphael since theft of ‘Portrait of a Young Man’ arrives in Warsaw

The Royal Castle in Warsaw says it has acquired a work by the renowned Italian Renaissance artist, Raphael.

The purchase is significant as, since the wartime disappearance of Raphael's 'Portrait of a Young Man,' Poland's museum collections have been devoid of any works by the painter, who is acknowledged as one of the three most exceptional artists of the Italian Renaissance.

The drawing has not yet been shown to the public and the Royal Castle in Warsaw has also not yet revealed details of th
 The First News •

Wawel castle opens its vaults to reveal 500 years of history

Kraków’s Wawel castle is to open its cellars to the public for the first time, giving visitors unprecedented access to the vaults beneath its eastern wing.

Built by successive kings at the end of the Jagiellonian period, the construction of the cellars was completed in 1524.

Titled "Wawel Underground: The Lapidarium, the exhibits gathered in more than 500 square metres of exhibition space will tell the story of how the Jagiellonian residence was built, as well as how it was conserved over the
 The First News •

Housing district built on Warsaw Ghetto included in register of monuments

The Muranów housing district in Warsaw, constructed upon and from the rubble of the former Jewish ghetto, has been officially granted heritage protection status.

Jakub Lewicki, the Historic Preservation Officer for Mazovian Voivodeship, said on Thursday that the South Muranów housing estate has been included in the register of monuments.

Emphasising the unique significance of the district, Lewicki underscored that the structures within the housing estate collectively form a "city-monument" and
 The First News •

Warsaw city centre to transform into a 'cultural park'

Warsaw's city council has given the green light to the creation of a "culture park" that promises to shield a substantial portion of the city's historic core from the blight of advertising and unregulated street commerce.

The recently-passed resolution is poised to bring an end to the long-standing presence of oversized plastic waffles and ice-cream cones that have marred the historical ambiance of the Old Town for decades.

Warsaw's most important monuments and areas associated with its histor
 The First News •

Krakow researcher says she’s ‘solved mystery’ of da Vinci portrait

Recent research into a portrait by Leonardo da Vinci that spent up to 500 years in Poland before stunning the art world when it reemerged in the 1990s has revealed it was taken from a book.

Hailed as the “Last Leonardo” and the art find of the century, the mysterious 13-inch-tall portrait of a Florentine child bride with a Mona Lisa-esque smile was part of a an album titled La Sforziada when it arrived in Poland in the early 16th century.

The image in chalk and ink on a calfskin vellum, and no
 The First News •

New WWII Netflix docuseries slammed for ‘ignoring’ Poland’s role

A new WWII Netflix documentary has been heavily criticized by historians for ‘significant oversights’ regarding Poland’s role in the global conflict.

The six-part documentary titled "World War II: From the Frontlines," boasts unique, enhanced colourized footage of World War II, offering a visceral and immersive experience. Voices from all sides contribute personal narratives, creating what is billed as an "intense visual chronicle."

Garry Kasparov, former chess champion and a prominent detract
 The First News •

Paintings found by Warsaw researchers in TOP 10 discoveries of 2023

The discovery of unique Christian paintings by archaeologists from the University of Warsaw have been named as one of the 10 most important discoveries of 2023.

The paintings dating to the fifth or sixth century were found hidden deep within ruins at the Old Dongola archaeological site which was once the capital of the Christian kingdom of Nubia in the early Middle Ages.

Under the floor of one of the ruins, the researchers from the university’s Polish Centre for Mediterranean Archaeology disco
 The First News •

Voice of a Holocaust survivor recreated by Artificial Intelligence

The harrowing account of a Jewish woman who survived the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, has been resurrected using Artificial Intelligence.

Spearheaded by the POLIN Museum in collaboration with the advertising powerhouse Saatchi & Saatchi, the initiative became possible through the use of archival recordings and the family's approval..

Stella Fidelseid was one of the few Jews in the Warsaw Ghetto who survived until the end of the war. Shortly afterwards, she wrote down her memoirs of the 1943 uprisin
 The First News •

Rare Bronze Age axe heads found in ‘sensational’ discovery

Five immaculately preserved bronze age axe heads have been unearthed in a forest near Szczecin.

Described by foresters in the Starogard Forest District as ‘sensational’, the discovery by an amateur treasure hunter date from between 1700 and 1300 BC according to Igor Strzok, the Pomeranian Provincial Conservator of Monuments.

The discovery was made by an amateur treasure hunter in the Starogard forest near Szczecin.Nadleśnictwo Stargard

He suggested a potential connection to a Baltic culture o
 The First News •

Incredible tale of hidden treasure, a blood-soaked curse, mysterious deaths and a stunning old mansion keep rumours of buried Tsarist gold alive

Could two billion dollars of lost Tsarist treasure be hidden in a palace near Warsaw?

It seems unlikely and yet rumours of such have been circulating ever since the last man who knew of its location, the pre-war Polish Indiana Jones-style adventurer and travel writer Ferdynand Ossendowski, succumbed to a curse and died after a secretive meeting with a mysterious German officer in the dying days of World War Two.

The origins of the unsolved mystery go back to the bloody days of the Russian civi
 The First News •

Polish couple awarded by UN for helping refugees

A Polish hotel chain owner and his wife have been awarded by the UN for “going beyond the call of duty” in providing over half a million nights of safe accommodation for refugees.

Businessman Władysław Grochowski and his artist wife Lena launched the Lena Grochowska Foundation in 2014 to support people of Polish origin returning to the country by offering them accommodation in their chain of 16 hotels across Poland.

Initially set up to support repatriated descendants of Poles exiled to Central
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