The democratically elected Polish government has been implementing a reform of the justice system in accordance with the will of the Polish people expressed in the parliamentary elections of 2015 and 2019. The reform aims at braking the monopoly of the self-perpetuating judiciary ‘caste’ that is not accountable to anybody for anything. This is the first real attempt since WWII to restore a sense of justice in the deeply harmed Polish society. This reform enjoys a wide public support.

Unfortunately, this fundamental right to justice of every democratic society is brutally and desperately opposed by the most influential members of the legal profession with deep roots in the injustice system of the bygone communist regime. This ‘cast,’ as they call themselves, is currently on the forefront of the political struggle against the democratically elected government of Poland, serving as an instrument of Berlin and Brussels determined to destroy the nation states of Europe.

Politicizing the Rule of Law

The US Ambassador to Poland, Hon. Mosbacher, succinctly summarized this onslaught of Brussels on the Polish government of Law and Justice Party: “the issue of the rule of law in Poland is strongly politicized and the European Union does not shy away from using this issue to achieve its goals.” Ambassador  Mosbacher pointed out that Poland is today the fastest growing economy in the European Union, so some Western countries may not like it.

– I have the impression that the West has not yet come to terms with the fact that Poland and other countries of Central and Eastern Europe are no longer the periphery of Europe.

– Poland has a well-educated society and is very good at competing with the rest of Europe. In the West, they do not necessarily feel comfortable with it. Poland is today a big player on the international arena. I know this from the first moment I came to Warsaw. The United States knows this, but it seems that in the capitals of Western Europe they do not yet understand it – she added.

Massive, brutal attacks led by the dominant European neo-Marxist left on the dominant pro-Catholic coalition led by the Law and Justice in Poland are ongoing from the moment the Law and Justice won Polish parliamentary elections in 2015, and confirmed its dominance on the Polish political scene in parliamentary elections in 2019.

Denial of Transitional Justice

The Polish society has been deeply wounded by turbulent past of the twentieth century. Justice has never been served for the massive atrocities committed on the Polish people in WWII and thereafter. Wounds from the crimes committed during the Stalinist period and 1981 Marital Law have not been healed either.

Unlike in other post-communist countries, no effective lustration or any verification of the communist judges who committed horrific crimes against the Polish freedom fighters took place in Poland after the 1989 transformation. After winning 2015 elections, the Polish government at last took upon the challenge of reforming the fossilized justice system, introduced Disciplinary Chamber of the Supreme Court, and changed rules governing National Judiciary Council in order to improve the administration of justice in the Polish society in accordance with expectations of the Polish people.

In response Małgorzata Gersdorf, the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court with her coteries on the court, in January 2020 adopted a malevolent resolution, which sought to dissolve the newly formed Disciplinary Chamber of the Supreme Court, and challenged all the judicial nominations made by President Andrzej Duda, in an attempt to bar hundreds of judges from adjudication. Furthermore, the neo-communist clique appealed to the EU Court of Justice to block the reform of the justice system in Poland, knowing very well that it is the common practice of this court to expand the scope of competencies of the European Union at the expense of nation states through court decisions. To make matters worse, some influential leaders of the European Court of Justice come from the same former communist clique as the rebelling judges in Poland.  To protect its grip on judicial power in Poland, the judicial clique relies on the protection of the highest institutions of the European Union eager to subjugate the key institutions of the Polish state by using their Polish comrades to accomplish this goal.

Asserting Supremacy of EU Law over Polish Constitution

According to the decision of the Polish Constitutional Court dated November 24, 2010, the transfer of state competencies to the European Union under the Lisbon Treaty must not violate the Polish Constitution. The principle of superiority of the Constitution over all other sources of laws must be preserved. The Constitution by its position within the legal system is superior with respect to all laws and international treaties binding the Republic of Poland. This decision of the Polish Constitutional Tribunal was signed by Judge Andrzej Rzepliński. Unfortunately, after the 2015 parliamentary election change of power, Judge Rzepliński now leads the rebellion of the Polish judges against the reform of the judiciary system that challenges this principle.

The Polish judicial “caste” conducts large-scale international smear campaign against the Polish government in order to stop the necessary reform. In particular, they beg the European Court of Justice to assert the supremacy of the European law over the Polish Constitution in order to protect their grip on power.

Clearly, Poland did not delegate the competency to organize and control the system of its judiciary to the authority of the European Union.[i] Article 4 of the Lisbon Treaty states that competences not conferred upon the Union in the Treaties remain with the member states.  The Union shall respect the equality of member states before the Treaties as well as their national identities, inherent in their fundamental structures, political and constitutional; and shall respect their essential State functions, including ensuring the territorial integrity of the State, maintaining law and order, and safeguarding national security. In particular, national security remains the sole responsibility of each member state.

Furthermore, the European Court of Justice concluded that the principle of separation of executive and judiciary powers does not impose on member states any particular model of the judiciary system. This decision acknowledges that the European Union has no authority to interfere into the structure of the judiciary system in member states. Furthermore, in its opinion, the court concluded that the decisions of the President of Poland regarding judiciary nominations to the Supreme Court are not subject to control of any courts.

Democracy vs. Judicial Autocracy

The rebellion of the Polish judges continues with the applause and support from the neo-Marxists around the world. The rebellion judges stage protests, attack the government in the media, conduct campaigns in the foreign media and academia, lobby the European Parliament against the Polish government, openly take part in political rallies, sometimes together with those in whose favor they just ruled. They even organized a rally in their professional gowns and issued a call for help to judges from around the world. When asked whether such behavior is in compliance with law and the code of ethics of their profession, they reply that it is not in compliance with any law or code of ethics but it is in compliance with the need…

Most importantly, however, they take unimaginable revenge on the ordinary citizens of Poland by issuing grossly unjust verdicts, wreaking havoc and making a mockery of justice. Recently, they punished a policeman who was physically assaulted by one of their activists at the rally.  They routinely rule against people attacked and defamed by the opposition media in Poland, routinely rule against anybody suspected to be a sympathizer of the ruling collation, and unabashedly protect criminals connected with the political opposition in Poland. Recently they even ruled in favor of a German who assaulted a Polish woman by telling her that he is a Nazi who hates the Poles and wants to kill all of them.  Their provocative verdicts shatter any sense of justice in the Polish society and cause public outrage. The climate of hostility towards the judges generated by their brutally unjust and deeply immoral rulings is then showcased to the world as the proof of violation of democracy and rule of law in Poland.

One of the proponents of the reform recently stated that the judicial autocracy wants to take over the right of the people to decide about themselves; the rights of the Polish people to receive justice in Polish courts; the right of the sovereign. The rebelling judicial cast tells the Polish people that it is irrelevant what the sovereign says through the election process. It is irrelevant how the Polish people decide to reform their judiciary system because this system shall function according to their needs and preferences and not to the needs and expectations of the society.

The actions of the rebellion judges in Poland aim at the destruction of fundamental institutions of the Polish state in blatant violation of the Polish Constitution and the European Law. The rebellion judges reject the principle that it is the sovereign who holds the superior power in Poland. Instead, they manipulate the international public opinion by portraying themselves as victims of the regime – and not what they really are – the unethical, grossly biased, and self-perpetuating caste that puts itself above the law, makes a mockery of democracy, and wrecks havoc on the Polish society in the name of its self-interest.

[i] The European Union has exclusive competency in:

1)            Duty union
2)            Regulating competition to assure proper functioning of the markets
3)            Monetary policy with respect to states that adopted the Euro currency
4)            Regulating exploitation of the sea and fishery
5)            Joint trade policy

The post Battle over Justice System in Poland appeared first on Polonia Institute.

This report contains facts regarding the crash of the TU-154M

No. 101 (Fight PLF101) that took place near

SMOLENSK NORTH airport, Russia, on April 10^th , 2010.

This crash is being investigated by the Committee for the Re-Investigation of Air Crashes (hereby referred to as the “Committee”) which is a part of the Committee for the Investigation of National Aviation Accidents. The Committee has been tasked with the responsibility of determining the circumstances and causes of this air crash, and with the issuance of appropriate preventive recommendations. This Technical Report includes findings concerning the most important technical aspects of this crash.

According to Art. 134, Sec. 1, Item 2 of the Act of July 3, 2002, Aviation Law (Unified Journal of Laws of 2017, Item 89): “The Committee does not adjudicate blame and liability”, therefore any form of use of this Technical Report for purposes other than prevention of accidents and serious aviation incidents, should be considered as unauthorized, as it may lead to incorrect conclusions and interpretations.

WARSAW 2018

The post Committee For The Re-Investigation Of The Smolensk Air Crash appeared first on Polonia Institute.

General Wilhelm Orlik-Rückemann, was one of the few Polish commanders who decided to fight the Soviet invasion in September 1939. The

During the First World War, he joined the Polish Legions and participated in the toughest battles fought by the First Brigade. In the battle of Laski-Anielin, he was wounded in the arm by a Russian bullet. Together with his gray-uniformed colleagues he “put his life at stake”, believing that their sacrifice would bring the dawn of freedom to the Polish homeland. In July 1917, he was forcibly incorporated into the Austrian army, when, following orders from Józef Piłsudski, he refused, together with other legionnaires, to take an oath of loyalty to the German Emperor. At the same time, he was active in the secret structures of the Polish Military Organization. When Poland returned to the world map in November 1918, he immediately enlisted in the army and took part in battles with Ukrainian troops for national borders in the South-Eastern Frontiers. Near Mikulińce in Podolia, his unit was captured by the Ukrainians. “One Ukrainian unit, together with its officers, took an hour to torture the prisoners” recalled one of Rückemann’s soldiers. “The prisoners were set against the wall and after calling them to <Attention>, with shouts <You want Poland?!> they were beaten on their faces with fists and riffle butts.” Under these conditions, he stayed in captivity until April 1919. When he was freed by an offensive of the Polish army, he immediately took part in the war against the Bolsheviks. He participated in the famous Kiev expedition, which was supposed to provide armed support to the fulfillment of Piłsudski’s federation plans. He made himself famous in the Battle of Borodianka, for which he was decorated the highest military order Virtuti Militari, which, next to the three Crosses of Valor, proudly decorated his chest. Just before the Battle of Warsaw in 1920, a decisive struggle for the independence of Poland and the fate of Europe, Rückemann was promoted to the rank of lieutenant colonel and took command of the 1st Tank Regiment.

In service to the Motherland

In the interwar period, Wilhelm Orlik-Rückemann was entrusted with several command duties. After being promoted to the rank of brigadier general in December 1938, he became deputy commander, and just before the outbreak of the WWII, in August 1939, he became the commander of the Border Protection Corps. The basic task of this formation was to protect the eastern frontiers of Poland, not only against the potential Soviet aggression, but also against the Communist saboteurs. When the war broke out, General Orlik-Rückemann had under his command over 12,000 soldiers serving in three brigades and nine independent regiments.

Fighting against the Soviets

The launch of Soviet aggression found General Rückemann at the command post in Dawigródek next to the Polish-Soviet border, as drawn by the Riga Treaty. Without delay, he made the decision to put up a strong resistance against the overwhelming Soviet forces. In the first line of defense he put the KOP units: Polesie Brigade, Sarny regiment and Kleck Battalion from the regiment in Baranowicze. Initially, the general commanded a section of nearly three hundred kilometers, marked out by the villages of Kleck-Dawigródek-Rokitno-Brzeźno. Despite the unparalleled bravery of Polish soldiers, the Soviet offensive was overwhelming. General Rückemann made the decision to retreat, all the while his troops undertook ad hoc fights with the Red Army, significantly hindering its “red parade” westward. The tactical goal put forward by General Rückemann was to connect with the troops of the “Polesie” Independent Operational Group commanded by general Franciszek Kleeberg and march to Warsaw. The Polish Capital, fighting despite all odds, was the symbol of resistance against the allied aggressors, drowning Poland in a sea of blood. Despite the sacrifice of the KOP soldiers, clearing – mainly at night – distances of more than 40 miles, and during the days fighting both the regular and aerial Red Army squadrons supported by the Communist subversives, General Rückemann’s army did not make it to Warsaw. On the day when the fights ended in the capital, they fought near Szack for a dozen or so hours a great and victorious battle with the 52nd Soviet Infantry Division, which was three times stronger. Three days later, on October 1, 1939, they destroyed Soviet units in the battle near Wytyczno. Both battles, Szack and Wytyczno, along with the defense of Grodno, became the most important symbols of the defense of the Eastern frontiers against the Soviet aggression.

A General and refugee

After the September campaign General Wilhelm Orlik-Rückemann managed to get to Scandinavia by the way of Lithuania. He wanted to join the Polish Armed Forces in the West. However, he was a staunch Pilsudski-ite, which did not facilitate his relationship with the Commander-in-Chief supported by France and England, General Władysław Sikorski, who prevented supporters of Marshal Piłsudski from assuming command positions. Only after Sikorski’s death did he manage to get to Great Britain, where until the end of the war he remained at the disposal of the Supreme Commander. As a determined anti-communist, and at the same time the symbol of resistance against the Soviets in 1939, he could not to return to Poland after the war. He lived in London, where he earned his living as a watchmaker and later worked at a pastry shop. He joined the group of Polish commanders, who after the war, instead of gratitude, received from the former Allies a humiliating fate leaving them to fight for survival.

Others in this group included General Stanisław Maczek who worked as a bartender, General Klemens Rudnicki who became an elevator operator, and General Kordian Zamorski who resorted to being a bookbinder. General Rückemann did not live to see a free Poland. After the death of his wife in 1972, he left for Canada and died there in 1986 as one of the oldest generals of the Second Polish Republic, for whom the service of the Motherland was always the highest order.

Jan Józef Kasprzyk

The author is a historian, the head of the Office For War Veterans and Victims of Oppression of the Republic of Poland.

from: Nasz Dziennik

The post Defender of the Eastern Frontier appeared first on Polonia Institute.

I was recently participating in a tour of the German Death Camp KL Auschwitz. The tour consisted of young people from several countries. They carried their national flags or wore scarves with their country colors. Most of the youngsters were students from Israel and from Switzerland but there were also some from other countries. The tour was escorted by a lady guide with a badge from the National Museum of Auschwitz-Birkenau in Oświecim, a Polish state institution. The group included several counsellors, who acted as translators; and also special security personnel from Israel.

The tour guide started her lecture by pointing to the barbed wire and guard posts, and speaking about camp guards, their number, living conditions, families, etc. During this lecture she kept talking about SS-men. When one of the young people asked what nationality were these guard SS-men, the guide answered that “SS was a ‘military formation‘ organised by ‘nazis‘ from among young people, who after being attracted to nazi ideology were recruited to special military schools, where they were subjected to indoctrination, or straight out brainwashing, infusing of hatred towards Jews, and thorough military training”. The young person quite consciously realized that the guide did not answer his question, and he insisted on getting a reply. The lady guide again slickly avoided the question replying that “‘nazis‘ ran their propaganda throughout Europe – addressing it especially to young people; many were tricked and attracted to this indoctrination. For this reason people from many countries of Europe served in the SS – Belgians, French, Dutch, Spanish, Hungarians, Ukrainians, Latvians,etc.” She did not mention Germans. I was disturbed by this answer, so I walked up to her and said that she left out Germans. In a very calm and respectful way I asked her to provide this very basic information to the tour, and include the fact that hatred towards other ethnic and social groups, like Poles, Gypsies, disabled people and homosexuals, was also drilled into the German SS-men.

The lady guide reacted sharply. First, she demanded that I do not interfere because she was on duty, she was a historian, and furthermore, she would say what she felt was appropriate and only when she felt like saying it – she would only tell the group that Poles served in the SS. Next, she started saying out loud to the group that this was an anti-semitic attack against the Jews on the tour. I was surrounded by the Israeli security men and separated from the students. Police were called in and the lady guide accused me of attacking and insulting the group, and delivering anti-semitic slogans. Luckily the policemen listened also to my side of the story and refused to follow-up on her report that I committed an offence. In my opinion, there is a direct connection between such incidents and the current Polish-Jewish crisis and the tidal wave of anti-Polish activity throughout the world.

Therefore, I turn to You Mr. Prime Minister with a question — why does the Polish government continue to build and finance museums that are disseminating lies about “Polish concentration camps?“ Museums, which are visited by hundreds of thousands of tourists from around the world? In these museums the martyrdom of Poles and the crimes of Germans are concealed, instead the tourists are “informed” about alleged Polish anti-Semitism and responsibility of the Polish state and Polish nation for wiping out European Jews. It is the Polish taxpayers money that supports lies about “Polish concentration camps“ and “Polish death camps“. Most of the European Jews murdered by Germans were Polish citizens, and if it were not for the assistance of Polish government in exile and Poles in general — there would be no Jewish state, because there would be nobody to inhabit it. In the face of the current international crisis we are shocked to see the Jewish nation, prosecuted in a horrible way by Germans during the war, now talking about how the perpetrators of its tragedy were Poles. But why are we surprised? After all, Jews from around the world confront their acquired at home knowledge about Polish co-responsibility for the Holocaust during their visits in Poland, in our museums. And what do they see? The exact same thing, “Polish death camps in which our forefathers served in the SS units, and motivated by our inborn anti-Semitism, murdered our Jewish neighbors and Jews from other European countries (maybe with the modest and unwilling participation of Germans)”.

We cannot expect visitors to Auschwitz to argue with guides who present Poles as responsible for annihilation of Jews; as murderers, not victims. I toured two such facilities, financed by our state and local governments, both handed over to be run by non-governmental organisations.

The first one is the National Museum Auschwitz-Birkenau in Oswiecim. We can learn how the field trips are conducted there for the Jewish youth, for several decades now, from the movie “Defamation“ made in 2009 by Yoav Shamir. Students, who were already exposed during their history lessons to the alleged guilt of Poles for co-participation in the destruction of Jews, are forewarned, before arriving in Poland by the trip counsellors and security personnel, that they were coming into a hostile country. On location in Poland, a psychosis of fear is implemented, they are talked into believing that they are surrounded by insidious characters and moving away from the group means almost sure death at the hands of Polish neo-Nazis. They are warned that the way to survive the field trip is submission to the protection of Israeli special forces and strict observation of orders and bans issued by them. Among others, banned activities include having any individual contact with the local population, separating from the group, leaving hotel rooms, even opening hotel windows or doors. It’s because “Polish anti-Semite might barge in and assassinate all Jews as they have been doing for hundreds of years.” Under this kind of mental terror young people are brought to the camp where their ancestors were annihilated. In the camp they see on numerous displays how the giant death machine, created on Polish soil for Jewish people, functioned. Wherever they look, they find out from sine boards and their translators, that all the camp atrocities were organized by SS-men, “Nazis” or Hitlerite. Such signs almost always inform in three languages (Polish, English, and Hebrew) that:

• They are standing in a building where SS-men murdered thousands of people, so they need to respect their suffering and their memory and stay silent
• Personal items stored in barracks were stolen by SS-men from the prisoners and were found after the liberation of the camp
• The camp museum is dedicated to the memory of men, women and children victims of “Nazi” genocide, this is the place where their ashes lie, let them rest in peace.

Hundreds of displays convince the visitors that the offenders of extermination of Jews were SS-men, or in a wider context “Nazis”. The premeditated lack of naming the nationality of these SS-men (or “Nazis”) – serves the obvious implication, if only because of camp location, that they were Poles. If anybody has any doubts as to nationality of these SS-men — then, the tour guides and counsellors confirm it.

The same is happening in regards to facts concerning the victims. The number of Polish citizens imprisoned and murdered in the camp is not given at all. The museum authorities cover up the truth that:

• KL Auschwitz was created in 1940 for Poles in connection with a growing German terror and mass arrests of Polish citizens. Between 1940 and 1942 prisoners of Auschwitz were almost exclusively Polish Catholics. Only in 1942 the camp became the center for the final solution to the “Jewish question”, and Jews from German occupied Europe started to arrive.
• Among 1,100,000 of Jews deported to the camp – 300.000 were Polish citizens.
• Around 150,000 were Catholics and Orthodox Christians
• the facilitators and the security guards of the camp were German (now the word “German” has been virtually erased from museum public circulation and replaced with words like SS-men or “nazis” which implies “Polish”.
• Polish Catholics rescued their Jewish countrymen from the German death machine by hiding and providing assistance – knowing very well that help given to Jews was penalized by the Germans with death penalty administered on the spot for the “guilty” persons and their families. Such death sentences were imposed exclusively on Polish occupied territory.
• The Polish underground State throughout the entire period of war fought with Germany, organized armed combat, even coordinated a struggle inside KL Auschwitz. Polish government in exile assisted Polish and European Jews in every possible way.

I also wanted to turn Your attention, Mr. Prime Minister, to the way in which the ever-present tri-lingual signs in the museum inform visitors about the nationality of the victims. Except for the Jews, the nationality of victims is concealed with the word “others”. We are outraged that under the Communism Poland was silent about hundred of thousands Polish victims, but now in independent Poland, the information about 120,000 Poles murdered by Germans in KL Auschwitz is still concealed and removed, assigning them instead, collectively, to “non Jews” or prisoners of “other” nationality.

This same practice routinely occurs during the official celebration of camp liberation. The organizers of this International Memorial totally omit Polish victims, only Jewish victims are presented to the world. The Association of Polish Prisoners of KL Auschwitz-Birkenau for many months battled for the right to attend the 2018 event for its members – former prisoners of the Auschwitz camp and their relatives. Following long struggle they were granted invitations for… 3 people. At the same time the Association chairwoman was put on notice that there was a ban on bringing in Polish flags and any kind of Polish national symbols. On the other hand the Israeli flags were carried in without any limitations. I repeat, displaying of the Polish white and red flags at an official international event is off limit by the order of the Polish national museum; and the former camp prisoners are banned from showing their Polish nationality, next to the ever-present Israeli flags. This calls for an action not only by You, Mr. Minister — but also by the Prosecutors Office.

Few years ago a former Israeli Ambassador to Poland, Szewach Weiss, proclaimed on Polish television that the former German Auschwitz camp should be transformed into a world information center about the history of WWII for the international audience; a certain kind of “University of Auschwitz.” Honorable Mr. Deputy Prime Minister, let us listen to this wise old Jew and a great Pole, who understands the world. Let the Polish, true narrative about those terrible times shape Jewish youth from all over the world, let Poland develop this one of a kind University ensuring that the curriculum that would be taught there is created by our Ministry of Culture and National Heritage.

This would not require any major financial investment – only a change of the deceptive narrative presented by the museum nowadays; exchange of misleading boards; and adding (to the new information boards) information written in language of perpetrators of the Holocaust, the German language. I also propose to change the street address — from the current Prisoners of Oswiecim Street, to Witold Pilecki Avenue; and to enable the cooperation with Polish NGOs, youth, patriotic organisations – that will help to present the truth to the world; and carry on the mission to create a digital KL Auschwitz University.

Mr. Deputy Prime Minister, the Ministry of Culture could commission a world-renowned artist to create a display which would depict the number of citizens of all European countries that were exterminated by Germans during WWII. Such an installation could be located next to, already an icon of pop culture, the infamous camp gate that reads in German “Arbeit macht frei.” Such a display would make millions of people throughout the world tracking photos of the history of WWII to find out what was the German nazism and which nation suffered the greatest sacrifice. This artistic installation could also become an icon of KL Auschwitz, and be a symbol of truth about the Holocaust, about German crimes and Jewish and Polish victims.

The second museum I visited was the Museum of Polish Jews, POLIN, located in Warsaw, where the situation is equally bad. As the crisis in Polish-Jewish relations of the last weeks shows — the Polin Museum is not fulfilling the objectives for which it was established. The mission of this Museum was to present the 1000 years of Polish Jews history in a decent and complex way, and explain facts from the history of the 20th century, which the media around the world lie about. Unfortunately as seen from the current worldwide hysteria, the Museum has not realized the hopes with which it was entrusted. Therefore it is appropriate to pose the following questions:

• Why a monument to many thousands of Polish citizens involved in rescuing Jews from extermination is not standing in front of the museum?
• Why the efforts of the Polish Underground State and Polish nation to save Jews is not exhibited in a satisfactory way? The enormous price of assistance to Jews, including lives of people murdered together with their families by the German occupiers, is not shown.
• Why doesn’t the Polin Museum advertise other Institutions dedicated to the history of Polish Jews, e.g. the Museum of Poles Rescuing Jews in Markowa or the Chapel of Remembrance in Torun?
• And a question to the City of Warsaw — why the street names surrounding the Polin museum have not been changed to honor Polish heroes, like Jan Karski, Witold Pilecki, Henryk Slawik, Irena Sendlerowa, or the Families of Ulm, Barankow, Obuchniewicz, Dec, Skoczylas, Kosior and Kowalski?

According to the media, at the time when the construction of the POLIN Museum was being completed, an apartment in Warsaw was put up for sale in which special rooms were constructed by Polish Catholic family to hide Jews. The apartment was completely preserved, with original furniture – including rooms serving as a hideout and wardrobe, which was a masked entrance to the storage room. The owner of the apartment wanted to sell it at the market price and turned to both the Polin Museum and the City of Warsaw. Neither was interested, and the apartment was sold on the open market. The new owner removed the entire installation during renovation. This led to an irretrievable loss of this priceless testimony of history. In the POLIN museum many rooms, apartments, public utility premises connected with the history of Polish Jews, and even entire streets, have been meticulously reconstructed. Why not one of the thousands of hideouts where Poles hid Jews is displayed? This small apartment, in which a Polish family of four hid a family of three of their Jewish neighbors should be displayed. And in it a table with four plates showing food rations for a 4-person family living on the Aryan side of occupied Warsaw, and next to this table another table with 7 plates showing how a Polish family shared these scraps of food with their Jewish dependents.

Such two tables in the POLIN museum would tell the true story of the Polish nation under German occupation better, fuller and stronger than thousands of letters, corrections and notes written by officials of your Ministry.

Another idea, why not add to the admission ticket to the Museum of the History of Polish Jews a daily food ration of a Polish child in occupied Poland? And write on this paquet a warning required by German law — that sharing of this food with a Jew would result in the death of the child and his or her family? Or ask each visitor — to use such ration for one day. And after that respond to the question would they find in themselves a sufficient amount of heroism to take away half of this food each day and feed others with it?

With expressions of respect and hope for a quick action,

Michal Dabrowski

from:  wpolityce.pl

The post Open Letter to the Deputy Prime Minister Piotr Glinski regarding falsifying of history in the KL Auschwitz Museum appeared first on Polonia Institute.

One year has passed since the Law and Justice Party (PiS – center-right party) won the national elections in Poland in a sweeping victory. After one year, all polls place PiS far ahead of the Civic Platform (PO – left-center party) and other opposition parties. PO lost the election for being synonymous to vulgarity (Sikorski), corruption (Nowak, and many others) and being very unpatriotic (Tusk, Arabski). PO pushed Poles to the limit in all important issues. One should remember, the sweeping victory included both the presidency and both parliamentary houses.

by Chris M. Zawitkowski, National Security Policy, Director, PoloniaInstitute.net

Last May-July I visited Poland and met several key politicians of the ruling party. I interviewed them from the perspective of USA national interest. I also interviewed some opposition members of parliament (Sejm) and senators from both sides. I stayed in Poland through the Warsaw NATO Summit. I participated in several conferences and meetings, including open ones, and some dealing with classified subjects.

During my stay, I was also able to observe the ephemerid – KOD. This organization was first embraced by most of the opposition, while now nobody wants to support them. There is one opposition party (Kukiz’15) established by the former rock star, Kukiz, which even got into the parliament in the election. These people share very “American” ideas, but fail to have a broad popular support.

The Warsaw Summit Expert Forum brought about 600 experts from NATO countries, specializing in military and defense issues. They were both civilian and military persons. Some were high ranking three-four star generals. Immediately preceding the summit was the conference on military strategies, gathering about 150 military experts, including top NATO commanders from several countries. The depth and understanding of present day challenges and problems was very impressive. All participants were deeply involved with planning and delivering solutions for all tasks. All presentations and analyses were well received and discussions following them gave hope for NATO’s future. The Experts’ Forum ran simultaneously with the summit of the heads of states. Some leaders delivered the speeches to the experts’ forum.

The NATO experts enthusiastically welcomed the remarks provided by the politicians, like Antoni Macierewicz, Polish Minister of National Defense, foreign minister of Poland, Witold Waszczykowski. Our leaders were cordially welcomed in Poland. General Breedlove, the commander of US Forces in Europe received a long and standing ovation. Dr. Lenczowski from the Institute of World Politics from Washington, DC delivered two speeches, including one key note address. I saw foreign politicians and generals making extensive notes during his address.

During my visit in Poland I had lunch at the presidential palace, where I interviewed several ministers on a number of issues, of American primary interests.

The Warsaw NATO Summit was a very big success for two countries, for US and Poland. Immediately before the Summit, our troops showed how they can surgically act in the military theater, and how they can cooperate with professional forces of our allies, Polish in this case. Poland organized the whole event with incredible accuracy and professionalism. Big congratulations to Minister Macierewicz and his people.

We met different sets of people. Excellent-English speaking generals and politicians. We spoke with them without interpreters. One general (nominated by the previous regime) told me he would like to stay, because the present minister of defense is a real man, a real leader, and a true Polish patriot. “Our soldiers and commanders love him. I would love to be under his command.” – he said asking for anonymity. Many others think the same way, he assured me.

In Warsaw, I also met with some of our journalists particularly interested in political affairs of East Central Europe. To my surprise, I found a shocking lack of knowledge of them. Even those that write in-depth analysis on military issues showed a very shallow knowledge of the political climate of the region. They were often fuelled by the opposition with a one-sided picture, very un-objective. Only some individuals knew some trivial vocabulary of local languages, i.e. Polish, Czech or Russian. One popular writer, who often writes about Baltic States, depends only on translations and interpreters. One can clearly see, he is pulled into partisan local politics. What they often tell us is fairytales.

We have 13 million Americans of Polish descent. Yet we have no reliable source of information in US media about the events in Poland. Our media are fact-bending, altering information, or taking a partisan position in Poland’s politics. Once upon a time, we had a politician, who very well sensed the mainstream of Polish politics, Ronald Reagan.

President Ronald Reagan meets with legendary fighters for democracy and founders of KOR, Antoni Macierewicz and dr. Piotr Naimski to have a firsthand account on the situation in Poland. Impressed President Reagan extended the meeting from 20 minutes to two hours.

Recently, NY Times Magazine published an article about Poland. From the very beginning, the author shows where his sympathy lies. The present ruling regime is in disgrace with him. He quotes them through the words of its sworn enemies. At the same time, he shows those “critics” as nice, polite intellectuals. Any TV viewer in Poland knows Adam Michnik is able to use obscene language even on television programs. The author could dig the sources about the present situation in Poland very easily.

PoloniaInstitute.net has published the speeches of Kaczynski and Macierewicz, translated into English. James Traub from NYT Magazine should reference it. If he read the text, he wouldn’t need to listen to the balderdash of the opposition members and feed us with it. Citing Sikorski, who left Polish politics with disgrace as a vulgar, unreliable, dubious minister, and an uncertain connection in the NATO alliance, is lacking credibility to start with. Surprisingly, one commentator from a major US network told me he would be hesitant to even talk to him.

Seeing Poland one year after the 2015 elections was a real, eye-opening experience for me. The positive changes are visible with the naked eye. More people are in the department stores, more new vehicles are running on the Warsaw streets. I could see the same situation in the Gdansk-Gdynia agglomeration. I saw the welcome signs in the small town of Elk, where our troops are going to station, and people in local stores trying to help an American to buy the goods he would be interested in. I talked to the bystanders how they feel about our GIs coming to town. All were very excited and planning for it. Good spirit! Everywhere I went, ordinary people told me that a new wind is coming from America and from Warsaw. They were very proud of their President, dr Andrzej Duda, conversing fluently with Barack Obama. They keep their fingers crossed for Antoni Macierewicz, who is trying to make the Polish Armed Forces a predictable and reliable ally in NATO. One Italian general told me the Polish Army and Air Force is very predictable now.

The last eight years of politics in Poland were marked by continuous and notorious problem of scandals, affairs, and dissatisfaction involving the ruling PO party. The Premier Donald Tusk and his family, Minister Radoslaw Sikorski, Minister Zbigniew Schetyna, and many others were the stars of all sorts of scandals. A lot of money was washed out by those affairs.

The Polish defense budget was far from the committed level of 2% of the GNP. Military equipment was inadequate. APCs were procured without communication means. One of our generals told me he “knew about deficiencies of the Polish Armed Forces and he finds Macierewicz’s speech as truthful and responsible. Years of negligence and lies are gone. Now we can entrust our Polish ally” – said he.

Instead of a pyramid scheme (as during Donald Tusk time), Polish Deputy Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki is responsible for the modernization of the Polish economy. He told me he wants to transform it to be a free-market economy with real freedom and with entrepreneurial ideas in mind. He has explained to me how 500+ program is stimulating consumption/production/economy. Small and mid-size business pays only 15% linear tax. He told me how under the previous regime, foreign companies could drain the economy, avoiding taxes and using permitted hidden dividends to repatriate unjust profits. Everything he said makes sense. He wants to take away the bureaucratic obstacles from Polish entrepreneurs. He was a bank president before getting into politics. Another bank president told me he hopes the government of Beata Szydlo is taking a big approach to recreate Polish capital. They invest in modernization and innovation, encouraging the entrepreneurs to pursue with more advanced businesses.

One industrialist (in consumer goods) told me he went with a Polish delegation to Arab countries, after Russia imposed sanctions painful for many Polish businesses. He told me doing business with Russian companies was very tricky. He never knew if and when he was going to be paid. Now, everything is predictable. LOCs’ are verifiable, cash flow steady. He is planning to travel to the United States to promote his products.

Two years ago I was present at the signing of the cooperation agreement between US and Poland in Los Angeles. One of the economists presented a very interesting graph of changes in Polish GDPs’ over the last 500 years. I wanted to meet the lady in Warsaw, but I learned she was arrested by the Polish police for financial commingling. This is characteristic of the previous regime.

I had a chance to interview some leading politicians in Poland. I had many questions based on opinions produced by our press, like NYT, LAT or Washington Post.

Is PiS a “far-right nationalist” party? Plain lie! We are more nationalistic in the United States, when we pledge our allegiance to the flag of the United States. Our public tender bidding process makes it almost impossible for foreign business to offer services on our soil. Yes, they are looking out for Polish interests first, before they invite foreign business. Local content is essentially important. EU regulations make it very difficult sometimes to compete by Polish businesses with foreign. Many contracts to build highways went to foreign companies, because foreign controlled banks did not want to guarantee financial standing of Polish companies. Swedish or German banks gladly supported their enterprises. The previous PO regime preferred to support foreign companies in exchange for political support expressed by German or French governments.

A classic example is the procurement by PO government of multipurpose Caracal helicopters from French Airbus Industries. Poland was going to pay twice as much as other countries had paid, and no offset arrangements were planned. Morawiecki and Macierewicz rejected such a deal as improper and insufficient. French President Hollande got upset and cancelled the trip to Poland 48 hours before it was going to take place.

For fifty years the Polish Communists (brought by Soviet bayonets) were running the country. Robbery, rape, stealing, looting by them was the “normality” of life. Let it be clear, that thugs like Stefan Michnik were sending Polish patriots that fought in WWII to the gallows, not to prison. Now, Poles like to know who is who in Polish politics. When one of the former apparatchiks died recently, the authorities put their hands on his “private archives”. They made it public. The information is shocking to society. The icon of Solidarity, Lech Walesa, was a communist mole at the organization! How truthful are his statements referring back to Solidarity times?

We all remember the phenomenal speech of Lech Walesa to the US Congress. We did not hear him, but the voice of his interpreter. I wonder how James Traub communicated with Walesa, a guy who does not know how to put three sentences together without grammatical errors in Polish. How Walesa would know Kaczynskis when they were kids. His hate towards Macierewicz may be understood since Macierewicz first disclosed the very fact of Walesa’s betrayal. Mr. Traub is putting words into Walesa’s mouth that he probably does not even understand.

Is PiS the party of farmers and blue collars, as Konstanty Gebert, the “leading Polish journalist and intellectual” (according to Traub) tells us? Another deception! How many university professors support PiS? Many of them are in Sejm and government. The Kaczynski brothers were both university professors. Something Mr. Traub “conveniently” forgot. I could endlessly point Mr. Traub’s inaccuracies and incorrectness. I can see he hates PiS and Jaroslaw Kaczynski. The truth lays somewhere else. Jaroslaw Kaczynski is an ideologist, whereas the government must be run by technocrats. It has to be run by TRUTH, not lies. (The former Prime Minister Ewa Kopacz gained the nickname “liar” for incredible number of lies). Mr. Traub should read our publication about the Constitutional Tribunal before writing for NYT. PO changed the law and nominated FIVE judges to the CT in advance, before others’ terms expired. They wanted to paralyze the PiS government for the next four years, as we see. Mr. Traub is taking a partisan position in Polish politics. He supports only leftist activists. He makes very derogatory comments about the present government and its administration. He does not mention opinions of many others, KOR founders Antoni Macierewicz and dr. Piotr Naimski, like professors Glinski, Legutko, Pawlowicz and many, many others. The most popular newspapers, like “wSieci”, Nasz Dziennik, Niedziela, etc, are not even mentioned. Mr. Traub is biased and untruthful. Recounting of the Mayor of Warsaw, Hanna Gronkiewicz-Walz sounds like a joke, when she is shook up by the multi scandal with her own and her husband’s participation. People were ripped off by her clique.

I wonder when the NYT will stop telling us half-truths of half-stories?

The post This Party Wants to Make Poland Great Again appeared first on Polonia Institute.

Anna Chodakiewicz Wellisz

January 26, 2016

Poland has been showered with what seems like excessive and surprisingly negative media attention of late. True, the Poles elected a new president in the summer, and a new parliament in the fall, but time has passed, and power changed hands without invasions, riots, or revolutions; both the winners and the losers are members of mainstream political parties, and the new, democratically elected conservative government was formed relatively quickly. That should all be good news for Poland and Europe—indeed, for the entire free world—though one could never tell judging by the shrill headlines that continue to claim prominent spots on news networks, magazine covers, editorial pages, and Twitter feeds on both sides of the Atlantic.

The media’s reaction to the Polish voters’ decision to bring to power the country’s anti-Communist opposition has been relentless in volume and surprisingly hysterical in tone. Just to pick a few examples: Even before the new government was formed, the Financial Times reported that Poland returned the “most rightwing parliament in Europe”; The Economist fretted on its cover about the “perils of Polish populism” and offered a tendentious leader on “Europe’s new headache.” CNN aired its own “Poland swings to the right,” and The Washington Post weighed in on “Poland’s disturbing tilt to the right”; the reliably biased New York Times explained “Why Poland Is Turning Away From the West,” while the Daily Beast cut to the chase with a crude “WTF Is Wrong With Poland.” Even The Wall Street Journal finally joined the pack, adding “Poland’s Bad Turn” to the mix.

The articles continue to appear unabated, almost as though they were writing themselves. Goebbels must be having a good day in hell: A lie becomes the truth just because it is being repeated often enough.

Given the “truth” so established, it is almost no wonder that Standard & Poor’s responded to the political siren’s call and announced its cut in Poland’s sovereign debt rating without warning. Unlike Fitch or Moody’s, which kept their ratings unchanged, S&P seemed to be making a purely political decision and openly taking sides in recent Polish elections. Given the country’s positive economic outlook and Poland’s GDP growth that’s the envy of stagnant Europe, the move seems designed to punish the winning conservative Law and Justice (PiS) party for its presumed politics with a rating cut. S&P’s downgrade is a victory for the well-connected, ideologically fashionable coalition of the losing party politicians and their friends in NGOs and the media, who have been whipping up a remarkably prolific and effective disinformation campaign against the new Polish government.

Clearly, the losers of the elections in Poland are determined to fight their way back to power, if not through the democratic process, in which they failed, then through manufacturing a crisis. S&P’s unexpected action shows that the campaign to discredit the new government is working. To explain the sovereign debt rating cut, S&P does not cite facts or numbers, but simply echoes the vague rhetoric deployed by the coalition just booted out of power, claiming that “Poland’s new government has initiated various legislative measures that we consider weaken the independence and effectiveness of key institutions.”

Before accepting the claims about the new government’s undemocratic behavior, a fact-check is in order.

Before accepting the claims about the new government’s undemocratic behavior, a fact-check is in order. First of all, few outside of Poland understand that the dividing line in Polish politics is not left and right, but the commitment to the country’s independence—be it from invaders or meddlesome neighbors. To most Polish voters, Russian-empire nostalgia and perceived German willingness to accommodate it are not abstract global issues but local existential threats. It is at least partly in this context that the Polish voters unseated an incumbent in the presidential elections and chose Andrzej Duda, a former EU parliamentarian strongly committed to Poland’s sovereignty. Soon after, the voters handed an unprecedented landslide victory to the center-right Law and Justice party, giving it a parliamentary supermajority. With that election, for the first time since the fall of Communism in Poland, one party was given the mandate to form the government alone. Even more remarkably, PiS’ victory marks the coming to power of the same staunchly anti-Communist, straight-talking political class that toppled the Soviet-sponsored regime 26 years earlier and inspired other Warsaw Pact countries to stand up, bring down the Iron Curtain, and send the occupying Soviet troops back to Moscow. How exactly would their win be a “disturbing” outcome? And why, in S&P’s eyes, would that “weaken the independence and effectiveness of key institutions”? How is that a “bad turn,” except, of course, for the Civic Platform, its Peasant Party coalition partners, and the former Communists, now known by their Orwellian moniker Democratic Left Alliance, all of whom, for the first time since the fall of the Soviet Union, find themselves nowhere near the trough of political spoils and are starting to panic?

And there is much to panic about. After all, it’s not just the Polish taxpayer largesse that was at stake in the elections they lost, but access to EU and NATO appointments, the crony capitalists’ government contracts granted outside the procurement process, the sinecures, the lucrative seats on state-owned companies’ management boards with stratospheric compensations that even well-paid Poles could only dream of. In other words, there are real losses for the defeated politicians to grieve.

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