Pol-Shorpy Photo Thread

Your reaction tells me you care very much, I'm not sorry to hurt your feelings, you earned it by your callus and crude behavior on this forum.

Excellent!! I would have to feel sorry for you if you felt sorry for me coz I pity everybody, even azholes and nazio boys. I am so sensitive and thoughtful.


We earned it, darling. We. hahahaha

Ein wahrer Freund: 2003

Karl Dedecius (1921-2016)... born in Łódź, conscripted to Wehrmacht, wounded in Stalingrad, a prisoner of war in Soviet Union until 1950, emigrated to Germany in 1952 and started working for an insurance company Allianz in Frankfurt.

And that's when our history gets interesting. This diligent insurance agent had a peculiar hobby; in his free time - when his colleagues from the insurance company drank beer and played skat - he liked to translate Polish literature into German. I said diligent and here's why:

- he translated the works of over 300 (!) Polish writers (poetry and prose) into German;
- he wrote 7-volume Panorama der polnischen Literatur des 20. Jahrhunderts;
- he was the editor of 50-volume Polnische Bibliothek series (1982-2000) - covering Polish literature from the Middle Ages to the present day;
- in 1980 he founded Deutsches Polen-Institut in Darmstadt and was its director until 1999.

Without him, a large part of Polish literature would have remained unknown to readers in Germany, Austria and Switzerland.

A legend, a friend, a bridge builder.

He deserved his Cross with Star of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland (1995) and The Order of the White Eagle (2003) as much as Novichok and Pawian deserve to be banned permanently from Polish Forums. :)

In 2003, the Karl Dedecius Prize was created to recognize Polish translators of German literature and German translators of Polish literature.

For the love of Poland: 2005-2024

A post about Polish Forums posted on Polish forums with a photo showing the photo of the very same post? This is some real Inception level stuff right here, guys!

Can a forum without avatars, smileys, signatures or any other multitudinous modern bells and whistles survive in the vast and dangerous spaces of the Internet? Can it attract users who will create quality content? The example of Polish Forums, with its respectable Page Rank of 5 and a group of dedicated users, proves that it definitely can. The board that will celebrate its 20th anniversary next year is the best place on the net for English-speaking cybernauts to discuss all things Polish.

So, whether you're looking for information or simply want to express passionate love (or hatred) for the one-and-only Rzeczpospolita Polska, polishforums.com should become your regular virtual hang out place.

Polish diaspora members: forever

Nie zapomnij skąd tutaj przybyłem
Nie zapomnij gdzie się urodziłem
Bo w pamięci jest siła zaklęta
Więc pamiętaj synu mój
O kolorach białym i czerwonym
O symbolach orła i korony
Bo w pamięci jest siła zaklęta
Więc pamiętaj synu mój...



Never really had anything against you, lads. Forgive me this "plastic Poles" bullsh*t. Respect.

Demolition of a symbol: 1925

Golden domes of Orthodox churches and cathedrals, built in the late 19th and early 20th century, rising high above Polish cities were a clear symbol of Russian rule in overwhelmingly Roman-Catholic Poland. They were very often built in the most prestigious central locations. The cathedral of Alexander Nevsky (Александро-Невский собор) in Warsaw was no exception to this rule. It stood right in the middle of Plac Saski - a thorn in the eyes and hearts of the good citizens of Warsaw.

It is therefore rather surprising that it took seven years after Poland regained her independence for the cathedral to finally be demolished. If there is a lesson to be learnt here, it is that when a church (any church) turns itself into a tool in the hands of political power, it very often ends badly for the church in question; and this rule doesn't apply only to Russian Orthodox Church in the 1920s Poland.

Firstly, there were more urgent needs - Poland was troubled with a serious political and economic crisis at the time.
Secondly, the debate on the fate of the cathedral was long and hot. Some professionals, especially historians and architects, defended the building as a historical monument.

BTW, some parts of it were later used to decorate Polish historical monuments, eg. Wawel Castle. See the Russian columns leading to the crypt where Lech Kaczynski and his wife are buried.

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And their tomb:

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  4fc4720edb5db790eaa7.jpeg
  

Big, they certainly have room for a twin brother.

I didn't know that. Thanks! :)

What is Central Europe?: 2024

Czesław Miłosz used to describe Europe as the land of Gothic and Baroque churches. Central Europe could, I suppose, be described as the land where those churches are still frequented by Christians, like the Archcathedral Basilica of St. Peter and St. Paul in Poznań (in the photo), but that would certainly entail a measure of oversimplification. The definition of Central Europe is not an obvious one, especially not to those who stubbornly see countries of Europe as being either eastern or western.

Miłosz's description of Europe was merely saying that the borders of Europe - in cultural sense - are basically the borders of the First Rzeczpospolita, because that's how far the range of Gothic cathedrals and Baroque churches extends. Such perception of Europe has its consequences: Jerzy Giedroyc had no doubts already in 1960s that Lithuania, Belarus and Ukraine (back then parts of the Soviet Union) belonged to "our" Europe, not to the "Russian" east. Will this fundamental dispute, a centuries-old controversy, ever be resolved? An interesting question, especially with the background sound of artillery fire coming from not so great a distance.

Or maybe (just maybe), Poland's conflict with Russia is not the eternal war with an alien civilisation, as we tend to see it? Maybe we are stuck in an inherently faulty narration and cannot free ourselves from it, bound by history and blind fate? Maybe Poles and Russians, despite certain differences, are more similar to each other than both would like to admit? *sighs* Too many questions for the modest Pol-Shorpy thread - let's leave them to historians and philosophers, and observe what these "interesting times" will bring us.

According to Germans, Germany is Central Europe and Poland is Eastern Europe.

Definitely not all Germans. Their old concept of Mitteleuropa entailed not only Poland but also Croatia, Slovakia, The Baltics and even parts of Ukraine, Romania and Serbia!



Of course our idea of Europa Środkowa is not to be confused with German Mitteleuropa, as it entails Belarus and Ukraine as well, and doesn't necessarily entail Germany, in the old Giedroyć way.

Some people even go as far as to talk about: Western Central Europe (Germany, Austria, Switzerland), Central Central Europe (Poland, Czechia, Slovakia, Hungary) and Eastern-Central Europe (Belarus, Ukraine, the Baltics, Moldova, parts of Romania). A complicated matter. :)

The Magician of Lublin: 2018

If you happen to be an Isaac Bashevis Singer fan (like I am), then make sure you keep your head up when you are walking through Grodzka Street in Lublin. If you do, you will see the magician. ;)

Me too.

Which do you find to be his best book? I found The Family Moskat to be superb. It could almost have been written yesterday.

I love the short stories, they're simply magical (A Crown of Feathers and The Death of Methuselah are my favourite collections) but I also enjoyed Satan in Goray and The Magician of Lublin. I started reading Love and Exile last summer holidays but I lost the book somewhere :-/. I gave the English titles but I read all the books in Polish.


Thanks for the recommendation! :)

This one's on my bucket list to read, as are a few other Polish writers.

Not on the same level as Singer but Joe Alex is the most recent Polish writer I read. Great fun and of course from an interesting family.

Do you? I read one or two of his books not more, was it only one? Doesn't matter what I took out of it that he was curing his own or Jeiwsh's complexes inferiority complex and not much besides it.

I think a lot of Poles nowadays suffer from the same complex.
------
I would say that Clifford Dowdey's writings are more to my test both the subject matter as well as his use of the language.

*imagines Iron sitting in his cotton plantation, sipping whiskey and singing "The South's gonna rattle again"*

Anyways, that gives me an idea for another Pol-Shorpy post...

Howgh, kurwa!: 2002

Sat-Okh - the Long Feather, in Shawnee - was the most famous Polish Indian (well, half-Indian really), and an author autobiographical novels for children in Polish. They were translated into several European languages including Russian and were very popular in the former USSR. The books describe a boy's childhood and coming of age among the Shawnee in the Northwest Territories in the 1930s.

Born in Canada about 1922 as the son of a Polish mother, Stanislawa Okulska, and a Shawnee father Leoo-Karko-Ono-Ma (Tall Eagle), he came to Poland with his mother before the start of WW2. In 1939 he joined the Polish resistance movement. He was arrested by the Gestapo in 1940 and deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau. He escaped from the train transport on the way to the camp. He fought in Home Army (72. AK Infantry Regiment) in Częstochowa region, where he gained a nickname Kozak because of his bravery and fighting style based on making traps. Wounded several times, decorated with the Cross of Valour.

After the war he settled in Gdańsk where he died in 2003. After his death one of Gdańsk trams was named after him.

His funeral was attended by many Home Army veterans and groups of Polish indianists wearing traditional ceremonial outfits. Herbs, tobacco and eagle feathers were put on his grave.

Rest in peace, Long Feather, you feckin' legend!

By the way, how cool is that? Polish Shawnee Indian setting traps on Nazis and ambushing them! Hollywood, what the f*ck are you waiting for?

Thanks Torq, really cool.

That is why I claim you are not paying attention. What Hollywood? Was he gay or transgender was he persecuted by the evil white men? Why squabble between evil white men over which group could kill more Jews should be significant enough to make a Hollywood movie about it? He was a traitor to his race, wasn't he?

If you don't understand anything from the above it means you don't pay attention to woke, progressive BS that rules in Hollywood.

Goddamn...

Today he would be setting traps on the russians.

Exactly!

Now, that's real ecology!: 2024

While the entire world is plunged into the electric cars idiocy, Polish scientists from Cracow Polytechnic found a way to adapt old petrol/diesel engines to hydrogen, in a similar way to adapting engines to natural gas. The team of scientists under prof. Marek Brzeżański presented their invention in the Mechanics Faculty last Monday. Five-cylinder, industrial Scania engine was used for the conversion...

... professor Brzeżański's team, apart from inventing the method of engine conversion, also cooperates with Toyota in the field of hydrogen cells. Now, that's what I call real ecology - instead of producing millions upon millions of new electric cars, it makes much more sense to convert the already existing vehicles to use hydrogen cells.

Poles - do we always have to save the world? :)

P.S. Cracow Polytechnic is the main center of hydrogen engines research in Poland. They have been working on various hydrogen-related projects since 1980s.

They're the future, love them or hate them.


And there are pluses and minuses with hydrogen, mostly minuses.

They're the future, love them or hate them.


... with electric cars, mostly minuses.

I'd say that there are huge benefits to them.

They're certainly here to stay.

An even better future would be with few or no private cars at all.