Edyta Pustuła,
Działalność oświatowa Rady Organizacyjnej Polaków z Zagranicy (1929-1934), s. 3
The Educational Activity of the Organisational Council of Poles Abroad (1929-1934)
The intention of the Organisational Council of Poles Abroad, founded in 1929 at the First Convention of Poles Abroad, was to act as a central organisation programming social activity which addressed problems of Polish emigres. Its work involved activists from domestic organisations and societies interested in the Polish emigration and (although to a lesser degree) those Poles living abroad who wished to maintain any form of contact with their native country. The tasks of the Council, defined in its statute, were rather extensive and included, i. a. collecting available information about the emigrants, attempts to reinforce contacts between the „Polonia" (this term described not only Polish emigres, but also Poles in neighbouring states who found themselves living outside Polish frontiers as a result of the Treaty of Versailles) and the Motherland, coordinating the activity of numerous organisations in Poland, which aimed to help Poles in-exile and, finally, initiating co-operation between various emigre milieus.
The article depicts the educational level of the efforts pursued by the Council. The author describes the range, methods and results of the cultural-educational campaign conducted by the Council among the „Polonia", and presents the origin and functioning of the Committee for the National Education of Polish Youth Abroad. The Committee in question was the outcome of the special concern with which patronage over „Polonia" youth was approached. Another symptom of this attitude was the establishment of the Union of Polish Academic Youth Abroad.
A further part of the article is a condensed discussion about the circumstances of the formation of the Union as well as the rules of its functioning. The author presents brief characteristics of academic life in particular neighbouring states, since the Union was composed only of students from those countries. Members of the Council were also concerned with supplying the „Polonia" with a suitably educated (professionally and culturally) intelligentsia (especially teachers), envisaged as future social leaders.
The source basis of the publications consists mainly of a report on the activity of the Council, entitled: Pięć lat pracy dla Polonii Zagranicznej (Five Years of Work for the „Polonia"), published in 1934, and archival documents from the collections of the Archive of New Acts in Warsaw. Supplementary information comes from the following periodicals: „Polacy Zagranicą", „Wychodźca" and „Kwartalnik Naukowego Instytutu Emigracyjnego".
Zygmunt Woźniczka,
Obóz pracy w Świętochłowicach-Zgodzie i jego komendant, s. 17
The Labour Camp in ˙Swiętochłowice-Zgoda and its Commander
The activity of the apparatus of repression in Poland during the years 1944-1947 encompassed both opponents of the „people’s rule" and thousands of persons uninvolved in any undertakings aimed against the new authorities. In addition, in Upper Silesia, the repressions affected the majority of the local population, regarded as German, interned in the former sub-camps of KL Auschwitz, now taken over by the Security Office. The inmates were beaten, starved and employed in mines and metallurgical works. In this way, the system of terror supported production.
One of the harshest labour camps was the one in Świętochłowice-Zgoda (February-November 1945). The camp was composed of seven wooden barracks, a brick building housing the camp authorities and economic outbuildings. The whole complex was encircled by a barbed wire fence, with guard towers situated in the corners. In July, the outbreak of a typhoid fever epidemic led to the death of more than 100 inmates daily. It is estimated that in the course of the 300 days-long existence of the camp 1 800-4 000 people perished as a result of beatings, starvation and illnesses.
The camp commander was Salomon Morel, who personally attacked and murdered the inmates, claiming that he was taking revenge on the Germans who killed his whole family in KL Auschwitz. This was not so: Morel came from a Jewish family in the village of Grabów (the Lublin region) and, together with his brother, was saved by the Poles. ( In November 1983, Józef Tkaczyk received the „Just among the Nations of the World" medal, awarded by the Yad Vashem Institute in Jerusalem, for helping the Morel family to survive the occupation). After the liquidation of the camp, Morel continued to work in the prison system, and even wrote an M. A. thesis on Inmate Labour and its Significance, presented at Wrocław University. He ended his career in May 1968 as the head of a prison in Katowice. At the beginning of the 1990s, his criminal past was recollected by the inmates of Świętochłowice-Zgoda , primarily Dorota Boreczek and the American journalist John Sack. In this situation, an inquiry was initiated by the Regional Commission for Research into Crimes against the Polish Nation in Katowice; Morel, however, managed to escape punishment and left for Israel.
Andrzej Zaćmiński,
Koncepcje i próby zachowania oraz odtworzenia Polskich SiłZbrojnych na Zachodzie (1945-1954), s. 37
The Preservation and Recreation of Polish Armed Forces in the West (1945-1954) - Conceptions and Attempts
For the emigré authorities of the Republic of Poland in Great Britain, the capitulation of Nazi Germany in May 1945 did not signify an end of the struggle. By refusing to accept the political and territorial shape of new postwar Poland, the Polish government-in-exile in London accepted a stand of „temporality" and „continuum". In its opinion, the political battle waged by the Powers for world ideological domination would, sooner or later, result in an armed conflict (the third world war) between the Western democracies and the Soviet Union. Such a scenario of future events was perceived as an opportunity for the liberation of Poland from communism and the Soviet impact. Other plans concerned, albeit with little probability, a chance for reaching the same aim by pacific means. In both instances, and predominantly in the first one, particular attention was attached to the existence of the Polish Armed Forces in the West. It was they who were to play the main role in the struggle for a free, independent and democratic Poland.
In an attempt to retain the Polish Armed Forces for as long as possible, the authorities of the Republic of Poland , primarily the military, embarked upon a number of initiatives. Already prior to the end of the hostilities in Europe, they examined chances for deploying Polish detachments in the war against Japan. Subsequent projects foresaw a role to be played by the Forces during the occupation of Germany. Once those initiatives failed, the Polish government accepted the British decision concerning the establishment of a Polish Cadet and Disposition Corps. Hopes for the retention (up to the outbreak of a global armed conflict) of at least part of the Forces were linked with this formation. The increasing reduction of the Corps personnel initiated the organisation of the secret (conspiracy) structures of the Polish Armed Forces. Special importance was attached to the Chief of Staff Union, headed by General Władysław Anders, Chief Inspector of the Armed Forces.
The British demobilisation of the Polish Armed Forces was followed by the emergence of assorted conceptions of recreating a Polish army in the West. Their fervent supporter and untiring propagator, next to the military and politicians, was General W. Anders. Taking into consideration the possibility of a new world war, he tried, during numerous unofficial meetings, to win the support of his Western interlocutors for projects of Polish armed formations in the West.
DYSKUSJE I POLEMIKI
Piotr Gontarczyk,
Uwagi o pracy Ryszarda Nazarewicza „Armii Ludowej dylematy i dramaty", s. 61
Ryszard Nazarewicz,
Odpowiedź na „Uwagi" Piotra Gontarczyka, s. 81
Rafał Wnuk,
Uwagi do artykułu Henryka Słabka dotyczącego sesji i publikacji „Wojna domowa czy nowa okupacja?", s. 99
MATERIAŁY
Jakub Tyszkiewicz,
Walka o władzę w Polskiej Zjednoczonej Partii Robotniczej (lipiec 1967-listopad 1968) w świetle relacji polskich informatorów ambasady amerykańskiej w Polsce, s. 105
Andrzej Korzon,
Pierwszy raport ambasadora PRL w Moskwie Tadeusza Gedego (1957 r.), s. 121
Zbigniew Romek,
Droga Leszka Kołakowskiego ku antykomunistycznej opozycji. Od ortodoksyjnej ideologii ku wolności myślenia, s. 139
AUTOREFERATY
Jan J. Bruski,
Centrum Państwowe Ukraińskiej Republiki Ludowej na wychodźstwie w latach 1919-1924, s. 161
Jacek Legieć,
Armia Ukraińskiej Republiki Ludowej w kampanii polsko-bolszewickiej 1920 r., s. 167
Łukasz Kamiński,
Formy pozainstytucjonalnego, żywiołowego oporu społecznego w Polsce w latach 1944-1948, s. 171
Rafał Wnuk,
Zorganizowany opór wobec państwa komunistycznego na przykładzie Okręgu Lublin AK-DSZ-WiN (1944-1945), s. 175
Jacek Pietrzak,
Wojciech Stpiczyński 1896-1936. Biografia polityczna, s. 185
ARTYKUŁY RECENZYJNE I RECENZJE
Roman Wapiński,
Współczesność i niedawna przeszłość. (O książce Zygmunta Zielińskiego „Polska dwudziestego wieku. Kościół - naród - mniejszości"), s. 191
Jerzy Kozeński,
Czechosłowacja w polityce USA w dwudziestoleciu międzywojennym, s. 195
Sławomir Dębski,
Wojna i polityka 1939-1941. Związek Sowiecki na arenie międzynarodowej w latach 1939-1941, s. 200
Aleksander Srebrakowski,
O Polakach na Litwie kowieńskiej, s. 209
M. Malia,
Sowiecka tragedia. Historia komunistycznego imperium rosyjskiego 1917-1991 - Stanisław Ciesielski, 220
Z. Karpus,
Wschodni sojusznicy Polski w wojnie 1920 r. Oddziały wojskowe ukraińskie, rosyjskie, kozackie i białoruskie w Polsce w latach 1919-1920 - Wojciech Materski, s. 227
E. C. Król, Propaganda i indoktrynacja narodowego socjalizmu w Niemczech 1919-1945. Studium organizacji, treści, metod i technik masowego oddziaływania - Czesław Madajczyk, s. 231
M. Stażewski, Exodus. Migracja ludności niemieckiej z Pomorza do Rzeszy po I wojnie światowej - Dariusz Matelski, s. 234
H. Stroiński,
Represje stalinizmu wobec ludności polskiej na Ukrainie w latach 1929-1939 - Bogumił Grott, s. 237
K. Badziak, G. Matwiejew, P. Samuś, „Powstanie" na Zaolziu w 1938 r. Polska akcja specjalna w świetle dokumentów Oddziału II Sztabu Głównego WP; P. Samuś, K. Badziak, G. Matwiejew, Akcja „Łom". Polskie działania dywersyjne na Rusi
A. Kosidło, Dekolonizacja Afryki. Kryzys formalnego imperium Wielkiej Brytanii, 1939-1951 - Michał Leśniewski, s. 242
E. Duraczyński, R. Turkowski, O Polsce na uchodźstwie. Rada Narodowa Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej 1939-1945 - Rafał Habielski, s. 245
Generał Kazimierz Glabisz (1893-1981). Służba wojskowa, działalność sportowa i publicystyczna w kraju i na obczyźnie - Tadeusz Wolsza, s. 247
Stan i perspektywy rozwoju biografistyki polskiej. Materiały z ogólnopolskiej konferencji naukowej zorganizowanej przez Instytut Historii Uniwersytetu Opolskiego w dniach 23-25 września 1997 r. - Czesław Madajczyk, s. 250
ŻYCIE NAUKOWE
Konferencje na temat roli kobiet w dziejach powszechnych - Zofia Sokół, s. 251
Współczesne tendencje przemian w oświacie polonijnej Europy i świata - Wiesław Krużyński, Paweł Malendowicz, s. 265
Polityka zagraniczna Polski w latach 1944-1990 w ocenie emigracji - Tadeusz Wolsza, s. 267
Unikatowe fotografie i pamiątki z okresu zagłady. Wystawa przy nekropolii żydowskie - Stanisława Lewandowska, s. 271
IN MEMORIAM
Spotkanie poświęcone pamięci Teresy Prekerowej - Maria Wiśniewska, s. 273
Jerzy Janusz Terej (1934-1979). Sprzed i po dwudziestu latach - Henryk Słabek, s. 281
LISTY DO REDAKCJI
List do redakcji „Dziejów Najnowszych" - Zbigniew Romek, s. 285