Free Republic

Jews in Poland Speak of Shoah Remembrance as a Curse. by Jane Ulman, Contributing Writer This tale is about two visions of Poland. In one, Poland is about pain and loss. It’s the place where 3 million of a total population of 3.3 million Polish Jews perished in the Shoah, where Jews have nothing left, where indeed there are almost no Jews other than a few languishing, aged survivors who can’t even scrape together a Shabbat morning minyan. Poland is Auschwitz; it’s Never Again. Defining this Poland is the March of the Living, an annual event that lays bare Poland’s...

German public sector workers fighting plans to extend their working hours have widened their strike action to cover most of the country. An estimated 20,000 local and regional authority staff including nurses, cooks and cleaners have joined the largest public sector strike in 14 years. They are protesting against plans to extend weekly working hours by 90 minutes, from 38.5 to 40 hours a week. The industrial action...has now spread to 10 of Germany's 16 states... Leaders at Verdi - Germany's biggest union with 2.4 million members - have warned that the strikes could last for up to six weeks.

WASHINGTON, Feb. 9, 2006 – The United States and Poland are friends in liberty, President Bush said while hosting Polish President Lech Kaczynski at the White House today. "I thank the president and the Polish people for their support of the democracy movement in Iraq," Bush said. "We're strong allies and friends. We're friends in liberty, and we believe in peace." Poland has troops serving in both Iraq and Afghanistan. In September 2003, the Poles assumed command of the Multinational Division Central South in Iraq, and along with their multinational partners have helped train Iraqi forces and stabilize the south...

Celebrity maid offered jail deal A housekeeper accused of stealing from celebrities including Robert De Niro has been offered a plea deal of between one and three years jail time. The deal would mean no extra charges would be filed against Lucyna Turyk-Wawrynowicz, 35. She is alleged to have stolen jewellery belonging to De Niro's wife, Grace Hightower, and actress Candice Bergen. Polish-born Ms Turyk-Wawrynowicz is also accused of stealing the identity of an 13-year-old girl. 'Harsh treatment' Police allege they discovered a $96,000 (£53,205) necklace at her home which belonged to Ms Hightower. The judge in the case, which...

WARSAW, Poland-- The bishops of Poland issued a statement against the European Parliament resolution that labels as "homophobic" countries that do not recognize same-sex unions. The nonbinding resolution, passed Jan. 18, violates the autonomy of states and puts at risk the freedom of conscience of the citizenry, say the bishops of Poland at the end of the conference's plenary assembly. The resolution, the bishops say in their statement, published Tuesday, "rightly rejects the attitudes of discrimination, ridicule and violence against persons with homosexual orientation." "Concurrently, however, through an urge directed to the governments of member states to revise their legislation...

Commemorations to mark the Holocaust Memorial Day have begun in Poland. The UN last year passed a landmark resolution to make 27 January an annual day of remembrance for six million Jews killed during World War II. The date marks the anniversary of the liberation of the Nazi death camp in Auschwitz, southern Poland. As a mark of respect, the Archbishop of Krakow, Stanislaw Dziwisz, has called on Poles to light candles in their windows in remembrance. During the war, Poland's three million-strong Jewish community was almost completely wiped out. Survivors, government and religious leader will gather in Auschwitz later...

The Poles - a boon for me and Britain By Tom Utley (Filed: 25/11/2005) 'Vorter-pitter! Vorter-pitter!" Marek, our monoglot Slovakian painter and decorator, had just driven a nail into a pipe, and the kitchen was filling up with gas at a terrifying rate. Now he was studying his Slovak-English phrasebook, trying to tell me something, while I was frantically stubbing out my cigarette, throwing open windows and clambering over the junk in the cupboard under the stairs to find the lever to switch off the gas at the mains. I am never at my brightest first thing on a Saturday...

Why Some Riot and Some Do Not by Paul Belien, The Brussels Journal Friday, November 4, 2005 While Paris burns, Poland does not. Isn’t that strange? The Poles have an unemployment rate which is as high as the unemployment rates in French suburbs. Yet while “angry French youths” burn down their neighbourhoods, including their public transport buses and schools, Polish plumbers, construction workers and nurses are too busy to be angry. They travel abroad for several weeks at a time to work in foreign lands. One of the places they go to is France, where they work harder, often delivering...

WARSAW, Poland (AP) -- Tough-talking Warsaw Mayor Lech Kaczynski led Poland's presidential runoff Sunday after a campaign in which he stressed traditional Roman Catholic values and the need for a social safety net. An exit poll for Polish public television showed him leading with 52.8 percent to 47.2 percent over pro-market legislator Donald Tusk, and Tusk said he had lost. "Today I must tell myself I did not make it," Tusk told glum supporters at his election headquarters. An exit poll for TVN24 private television showed an even wider margin, Kaczynski with 53.5 percent and Tusk with 46.5 percent. Partial...

How many? 18.10.2005 The Institute of Strategic Studies, an NGO from Cracow, has initiated a research programme which aims to show the real number of Poles who died in the effort to support Jews during the Nazi occupation of Poland. Anna Szymañska-Klich says that this number has never actually been properly assessed. “We don't know how many Poles were murdered, only because they were decent people trying to help other people. It is our aim to prepare a publicly available list of people who were killed or punished.” Professor Daria Na³êcz, the director of the State Archives, said that the...

Twenty two Poles missing in the aftermath of Katrina hurricane 06.09.2005 Over twenty Poles are still missing after hurricane Katrina struck the US southern states of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama a week ago – the Polish Foreign Ministry informed. According to the spokesperson of the ministry, Aleksander Checko families and relatives of the missing Poles as well as anyone having important information on the issue are requested to contact the Polish Consulate in Chicago. So far 24 Poles have been rescued and most of them are currently under the care of the Polish embassy staff in Washington. Several hundred people...

Plans to implement a flat rate for personal income, corporate income and value-added tax, as proposed by lead opposition party Civic Platform (PO), are feasible at a level slightly higher than the 15% proposed by the party, current deputy Finance Minister Jaroslaw Neneman told a radio audience Tuesday. "We made such estimations some time ago," Neneman said in an interview for Radio PiN. "Tax receipts levels would be sufficient with flat tax rate a little above 15%." "It could be 15.5-16%," he added. PO officials have said that its shift to a "3x15" tax system would be accompanied by the...

Russians Have Mixed Views on Poland (Angus Reid Global Scan) – Adults in Russia are divided in their assessment of a neighbouring nation, according to a poll by the All-Russian Public Opinion Research Center. 24 per cent of respondents believe Poland is a strategic and economic partner, and 18 per cent perceive it as a friendly state. Conversely, 24 per cent of Russian respondents think Poland is an economic and political rival, and 13 per cent deem it a hostile state and a potential enemy. Following the end of World War II, Poland lost some of its traditional territory to...

Poles pleaded with Hitler to free them from Stalin's grip New documents on attempts to Polish officers from Soviet POW camps have been found in the archives of the German Foreign Office. Russians continued negotiations concerning freeing a few hundreds Polish army officers even long after they had been shot death in the spring of 1940 - a Polish institute probing Nazi and Stalinist crimes has found out. Families of a few hundreds of Polish officers wrote letters to German Foreign Office pointing out their German origin or other kinds of connection to get their husbands, brothers and fathers back...

Belarus special forces storm Polish Union building 28 Jul 2005 09:45:37 GMT Source: Reuters MINSK, July 28 (Reuters) - Belarussian special forces stormed a building used by ethnic Poles in a pre-dawn raid on Thursday near the border with Poland, a witness said. It is the latest in a series of moves against ethnic Poles in the ex-Soviet state in the last three months after President Alexander Lukashenko -- described by U.S. officials as Europe's last dictator -- accused Poland of plotting an uprising. "At first, the building was encircled by police cars. Then police demanded everybody leave the building....

Here to stay? By Denise Winterman BBC News Magazine The UK's army of Polish workers have built up a reputation for reliability and fair prices. But while the nation has fallen in love with them, are they here to stay? A year on from Poland joining the European Union and much of the UK appears to be in a full-blown love affair with the nation. The country's army of Polish workers have built up a reputation for quality, reliability and fair prices since becoming officially eligible to work in the UK last May. While not everyone's happy with the idea...

Poland As Victim, Not Victimizer David Lincoln I was pleased to read recently in Haaretz that the Israeli government is considering changes in the March of the Living youth trips and concentration camp visits. Polish organizations have complained about the ignorance of youth leaders, with the result that young people (joining many Jewish adults in the United States) cannot distinguish between the German killers and Polish victims, and hold the Poles responsible for the fate of Polish Jews. The recent history of Poland is a most tragic one. During the horrors of World War II, not only was there suffering...

Poland's Jewish community questions Council of Europe report The Council of Europe has expressed concern over a number of acts of anti –Semitism in Poland. A report published this week notes that though positive steps have been taken in recent years to broaden society’s perception of Poland’s Jewish heritage, incidents of vandalism against synagogues or Jewish cemeteries still exist. But the country’s Jewish community leaders say the report doesn’t do justice to Poland’s efforts to make Polish-Jewish dialogue smoother. Poland’s Jewish community is questioning the validity of the Council of Europe report. Its leaders say that the report is based...

Back during the Presidential Election, Kerry enthusiasts were constantly gushing over the perceived intelligence of John Kerry. If it was not praises toward his “nuanced” approaches of how to creatively surrender to the United Nations and international terrorists then it was how all of his aides had to run around carrying dictionaries just so they could understand his “big words.” Well, the truth is out. Eight months after everyone quit caring about John Kerry’s records, he has finally released them to “The Boston Globe.” Chance of chances, these records show that Senator Kerry was a “C” student with a virtually...

More Poles honoured for saving Jews from Holocaust 2005-05-24, 08:52 A successive group of Poles was honoured with Righteous Among Nations medals for saving Jews from the Holocaust during World War II. Anna Niemirowska-Mikulska and her brother Jerzy as well as two Latoszynski sisters received the medals from the Israeli ambassador to Poland David Peleg. Among 19,000 Righteous all over the world there are 6,000 Poles.