Further story

After reading the first edition of my memoirs “From Staszów activist to a member of the National Committee of NSZZ Solidarity,” I decided, at the request of my readers, to enrich the next edition of my memoirs with additional chapters about my emigration to the United States, return to my homeland and activities after my return. I believe that the additional chapters will supplement the knowledge of my emigration, as well as my further involvement for the benefit of Poland and the local environment of Staszów, with which I am strongly associated.

However, the main focus for me are my grandchildren, Felix and Nataniel,

with whom I want to share and dedicate these memoirs,

so that they know where they came from,

why they were born in the United States and why they live there.

 

 

 

Chapter I

EMIGRATION

I decided to begin this chapter with the following documents, as they are evidence of my political, forced emigration. These are excerpts from documents in the collection of the Institute of National Remembrance.

I was the only person in Staszów who had been investigated by the communist Security Service.

The original documents of the Security Service on me under investigation.

 

Confirmed by IPN documents on persons under investigation.

The evidence of forced emigration is the opinion expressed by an Security Service officer about me after I had rejected the proposal of cooperation with Security Service:

In his activity he became known as an activist with extreme views. He advocated the dismantling of the socialist system – a supporter of confrontation. For these activities he was interned. It is advisable for the above-mentioned person to leave the People’s Republic of Poland.

The original documents

This time the Security Service had no objections to issue me a passport, as a few days before the introduction of martial law such a passport had been denied to me, for the reasons stated in the document below.

A. Our American Existence

The basic condition for my decision to emigrate was that the entire family be given such permission. I received it and only then, after consultation with my wife, the decision to emigrate was made.

At the persuasion of my mother Janina we decided to emigrate to the United States. It was a country of freedom, democratic freedoms, opportunities for personal development, a country of emigrants, where nobody felt foreign and was not treated like a stranger. These were the most important reasons for choosing the United States as the country of emigration, because it corresponded to my personality, my democratic values and I could not imagine that someone could discriminate me (us) there on the basis of nationality. As a former internee and repressed member of Solidarity, I could easily obtain a visa promise from the American Embassy in Warsaw. However, a serious problem turned out to be the lack of any personal contact in the U.S., and thus the complete uncertainty as to our further fate. In America we had no friends or colleagues, no members of our closer or more distant family. No one. We didn’t know the English language. We had nothing. We left with our 6-year-old son Jakub totally blindfolded, with only “bags” of clothes, $200 in our pockets, because that’s all we were allowed to take. We did not even know where and to whom we would end up in the United States. We relied on fate and luck. One thing we did know was that we were to fly to Frankfurt, West Germany.

I never had any intention of leaving my place of residence, especially since we lived in the family home, which was well-equipped for the times, and we had professional positions that guaranteed a middle-class existence. Moreover, my actions were strongly emotionally tied to the political situation of the country I wanted to serve rather than be forced to leave. Leaving the family home, already on the street among family and friends with tears in my eyes I announced: “I will come back here anyway.” The announcement and the dream of returning came true, but after 28 years.

On September 29, 1982, we flew to Frankfurt in West Germany, where an elderly man speaking Polish was waiting for us. We were placed in a boarding house – a resort in Bad Soden near Frankfurt, specially prepared only for former interned Solidarity activists. We had a separate room, very well equipped. We received a modest allowance for the duration of our stay and, of course, full board on site. Only a few days later we found out that we were going to Boston, Massachusetts. And still nothing more.

Despite this rudimentary information we received it with great joy, because Massachusetts is the eastern coast of the U.S. at the height of New York, so “closest” to the homeland, with four, as in Poland, climatic seasons, one of the most developed U.S. states. Boston – the capital of Massachusetts is an academic city with the most prestigious universities: Harvard University, MIT – Massachusetts Institute of Technology (the best technical university in the world) or Boston University; the names of prestigious universities can be mentioned endlessly. It is a city of some of the best medical centers in the world, with famous hospitals such as Mass General Hospital, Boston Children’s Hospital, Brigham and Women’s Hospital and many others of world renown, where even world politicians receive medical services. It is also an important center of American culture and finance. It is the first city on the continent of North America with a European-like culture of living and being. Massachusetts is nothing but a nickname of the state “Spirit of America,” from where all American ideas came out and where the first settlers arrived, who in 1620 – also as religious and political refugees – arrived with their ship Mayflower at Plymouth on Cape Cod. It was here that the American Revolution of Independence began with the famous Boston Incident, during which cargoes of tea brought by English ships for sale within America were dumped into the ocean to the detriment of American tea importers. The tea incident of December 16, 1773 inspired the fight for the separation of America from the British Crown, and the clashes of April 19, 1775 at Lexington and Concord, Massachusetts gave rise to the War of Independence. So this state even spiritually was close to my heart.

It turned out that for each interned family in the United States, a sponsor had to be found who would voluntarily agree to take care of a family like ours. We had no information about our sponsor.

On October 21, 1982, after a 3-week stay in the above-mentioned center, with stickers showing the Amnesty International logo and our names attached to our clothes, we left for the United States. In New York, an unknown person was waiting for us at the airport and led us to the plane, which is how we landed in Boston. On our way out of the plane, full of anxiety about what to do next, we noticed a man with a woman and two girls holding a cardboard box with our name. As it turned out, they did not speak Polish.

The sponsor was an American of Irish descent named Richard Purtell. He was married to Clare and had two daughters, Jodie about our son’s age and Vicki 2 years older. An ordinary, middle-class American family. Later, we found out that Clare worked for the American-Czech Refugee Agency, which had been created in 1968 for Czechoslovakian refugees who had emigrated after the 1968 “Prague Spring” riots in Czechoslovakia, and which, unresolved, continued to deal with refugees to the U.S. At home in the presence of her husband, she lamented the lack of sponsors for the Polish internees. Richard agreed to sponsor our family and so we ended up in his hands. We had to reimburse the American-Czech Refugee Agency for our airfare, after we were already gainfully employed. Nothing for free.

Richard Purtell, only a year older than me, proved to be a wonderful sponsor and person. For the first months he was with us every day, making sure we didn’t lack anything. It was with him that we did the shopping (America – a country where without a car you can’t move), it was with him that we created a specific English-Polish jargon, which no one understood but us, and it served us well in the beginning. Unlike many other emigrants in a similar situation, we became part of his family and I jokingly called him my American father, because it was a new life for us and he took care of us. We were invited by them to every Thanksgiving, Christmas and family celebration. We still keep in close contact today. When my English was good enough to converse freely in that language, I asked Richard, “Why did you, who had nothing to do with Poland, help a Pole?” To which he modestly replied: “When my grandparents came here, someone helped them too.” He thought that this is the way to repay his debt. A beautiful deed deserving gratitude, admiration and great respect. It was an ingrained mutual aid among Americans, when as settlers they helped each other regardless of nationality or social status.

We landed in Boston and ended up in Lowell, an American Łódź from the 19th century. The textile industry moved out of Lowell a long time ago, and all that was left were empty factories where Americans of Polish and non-Polish descent still worked in the 1950s and 1960s. After 2000, they were converted into luxury apartments.

In Lowell we stayed in a typical 3-story wooden house, the condition of which left much to be desired, in a not the best neighborhood. The only thing we had in our apartment was a table with one leg in the middle, which looked like a table from a bar, three plastic chairs, two iron beds with poor bedding, a refrigerator and a gas stove. The place looked uninviting. Because of the late hour, the sponsor and his family went back to their apartment and we stayed there. Physically and mentally exhausted from the trip, we went to bed. We covered ourselves with woolen blankets brought from home. At night we were woken up by our son crying, demanding to go home. There was no return, because the passports were one-way, without the right to return. And this is what “voluntary” emigration looked like.

In the morning the sponsor brought us a typical American breakfast, which surprised us, because it was American donuts, which are donuts with icing and cups of coffee. Unheard of in our country for breakfast. It was a clear sign that we had started a new life in a completely different world that we had to learn and teach in order to live.

That’s how our American dream began.

After breakfast, the sponsor drove us to some church and called the rectory. An elderly priest and a lady stood in the doorway. They started talking in English, of which of course we understood nothing. Suddenly, after this conversation, the priest (John Abucewicz) and the woman accompanying him (Maria Dudek) spoke to us in Polish. This was the Polish Catholic parish of Holy Trinity Church in Lowell. There was a huge relief. We were at home, among our own people, and luck smiled on us.

Monsignor John Abucewicz, a descendant of Poles, is a U.S. Navy chaplain during Second World War in the Pacific. Mrs. Maria Dudek is an American of Polish descent born in Lowell, fluent in speaking and reading Polish, who passed away in 2018 at the age of 103. We are extremely grateful to her for help during our start in the United States. We always visited her in a nursing home during our stays in America. With the help of Mrs. Maria Dudek, after completing administrative formalities at the Social Security Administration office, we became American legal residents. We received the right to work, social benefits in kind and a modest amount of money for our own needs.

he Polish-American community “Polonia” immediately organized a support campaign and all the necessary appliances, furniture, equipment, bedding, towels – everything that was necessary for the functioning and for us to live in – were brought to the apartment.

These items were not new, some badly worn, but it would have been rude to refuse. We carefully went through them all and got rid of what was not usable. Right from the start we rolled up our sleeves and brought the apartment to an acceptable state. My son went to school after just one week. Thanks to the generosity of Monsignor John Abucewicz, we were exempted from paying school fees the first year. As a gift, Jakub received a school suit, in which children had to go to school every day. It was a school at St. Stanislaus Polish parish, except that they no longer taught in Polish. Some of the nuns still spoke Polish, but the rest of teachers did not. Jakub did not know English. In Poland he did not go to school yet, but in America he had to. He was completely lost and we were lost with him. He went to school by bus which we were not allowed to take with him. And so he went and came back from school under the care of the 3 year older daughter of the Portuguese neighbors, who took care of him. We were only allowed to walk him to the bus. There were only American children on the bus and at school, so both our son’s and our experiences were on a panic level. There was no coming back from “voluntary” emigration. One day we missed the school bus returning from school, hoping that a girl had brought our son to our apartment. She did, but left him alone at the door. We found him in crying and could not calm him down for a long time.

It was Jakub who paid the greatest price for emigrating. We knew the reality of our departure and somehow had to accept it, understanding the surrounding. He did not fully understand it, despite explanations. A child without language skills, without a grandmother, grandfather, aunt, cousins, Polish friends. Alone, with only us – his parents. It lasted a few years, until he got used to the situation, learning the language, making American, school friends. He experienced a huge trauma.

 

Our son Jakub – 1st grate.

When we started working, Mrs. Węglarz took care of him. She was a Polish woman, who, after the Soviets invaded Poland on 17 September 1939, was sent by the Soviets to labor camps together with her husband. After a treaty was signed releasing Poles from Soviet camps, her husband joined General Anders’ army, with which he fought at Monte Cassino, and she went through India, Iran, and Mexico to the United States. After the war, the husband also reached the United States via Canada and met his wife in Lowell. They were our neighbors on Concord Street.

My son and I agreed that we would only speak Polish at home. Outside the home, he could speak the language he was learning. That’s how it remains until today. My son still speaks excellent Polish (sometimes making minor inflectional errors) and even writes and reads in Polish. During the first years of school he did not write or read in Polish, because we did not want to confuse him. When he was in the fourth grade I asked my mother to send me a Polish book and I started to teach him to read and write in his native language. It went rather slowly, but it was going well. The vacations he spent in Poland after finishing the 6th grade helped him to learn Polish. We agreed with him that every day he would have one hour of Polish lessons with a teacher. That is why I hired Mrs. Bronisława Morawska, who taught him to read and write during his vacations. The results are clearly visible, since until now we have been speaking and corresponding only in Polish. It is our great personal satisfaction with his achievements, which we strongly value and respect. Moreover, our son uses the Polish name Jakub instead of the English name Jacob, and he demonstrates his respect for Poland and pride in being Polish by correcting anyone who does not use the Polish version of his name. Staszów is still his “holy” place, which he always remembers and visits when he can, and Christmas cards to everyone in the family are a regular part of his holiday tradition.

After a few weeks, we moved to another apartment, in a house of Portuguese immigrants near the school. The three-room apartment had a drawback. It had no heating. Two rooms were adjacent to the kitchen, the third empty, unfurnished without such a connection. It was heated by a gas stove which had burners on the side and this way the heat reached those two rooms. Our room, the larger one, and our son’s, the smaller one. One Saturday in February I got up early and started boiling eggs on the stove. I stood next to the stove to warm myself up in the meantime. Suddenly I felt the stench of burning cloth and the heat on my back. The pajamas had caught fire on me. To prevent the flames from spreading to the nearby curtains I ran to the empty room, throwing myself on the floor to douse the fire. My wife was alarmed by my screaming: I’m on fire!!! She helped to put out the flame. Unfortunately, the burns turned out to be serious and Mr. Henryk Bardzik had to take me to the hospital. I spent 21 days in the hospital and I almost needed a skin graft. Fortunately, it did not happen – there was no trace left after the burn. A special ointment, vibrating baths and gentle daily trimming of the burnt skin resulted in a happy end to the treatment.

It was necessary to learn English. Courses with other emigrants of various nationalities at the International Institute were a waste of time. It was no different from learning English in a secondary school course, also among emigrants from all over the world whose knowledge of even the English alphabet was negligible. Therefore, it was necessary to look for another solution. I bought a tutorial in a Polish mail-order bookstore in New York and that’s how we started learning. Then, conversations at work with Americans quickly improved my language skills, not only in speech but also in writing. This learning was followed by everyday lessons. Different surroundings, mentality, traditions, food, tastes and preferences, different culture, everything different. And the state system was completely different from the communist system in which we lived. We had to learn all this, to change our thinking, our actions, our mentality, our habits. All of us. In “voluntary” emigration.

As it turned out, besides the Polish-American pastor, there was a priest from Poland, Czesław Szymański. He was the one who delivered me the daily “Nowy Dziennik” (New York Daily Bulletin), which was a reflection of Radio Free Europe, Voice of America, and, of course, articles and information about the life of the Polish community in Poland, and other necessary information about emigrant life. “Nowy Dziennik” became a window on the world and on Poland, without which it was hard to live. I could not imagine my situation without this daily information from the country and the world. With the first money I earned, I started to subscribe “Nowy Dziennik” which, until the Internet, accompanied me every day for years. After the ideological change of “Nowy Dziennik” in 1989 to a more liberal and politically correct paper, which contradicted my patriotic-conservative views, thanks to the Internet I was able to resign from the subscription faster. I did not take advantage of the editors’ encouragement to continue my subscription.

There were no jobs, because unemployment was high. But there was a lot of thinking, stress, fear for the future and great unknown. Emigration, despite appearances, is not a “road to paradise,” but a hard work, trauma, and experiences that completely change our world. Survival was based on values, principles, honesty, reliability, care and efforts for the family, its existence, its continuation despite adversities. Here, everything had to be tested. From entrepreneurship, resourcefulness, caring for the present, for the future, the child, and the family.

Many different families I met ended up in different ways. There were divorces, leaving the family, escaping to Poland to avoid legal consequences. There was alcoholism, escaping from themselves, from the new reality. There were premature deaths, whether from alcohol or drug abuse, or suicide from not finding their own place. An examination of life. It is something you have to experience in order to know and understand it. And to accept it.

After several months of unemployment, I got my first job. Of course, it was casual and had nothing to do with my profession. I worked for an American of Polish descent, the aforementioned Mr. Henryk Bardzik, who together with his son, was recovering gold from thin circuit boards covered with this mineral. He helped me and my wife get a job at the plant he worked with. The pay was less than our allowance, unrewarding especially since taking it involved losing health insurance after 3 months. We were used to public health care and had a small child, so it was difficult for us to adjust to this situation. We did not want to offend the sponsor who recommended me for this job. After a few months, through Henryk Brodzik, first my wife and then I got a job at the Electro Circuit plant, manufacturing motherboards for computers. Of course, we were paid the lowest wages, unrelated to our education. With our first earnings we bought a car AMC Spirit (a manufacturer no longer on the market) and a color TV set, because the one we received from Polonia was small, portable, black and white. Thanks to my acquaintance with the plant owner, Mr. Thaddeus Nawoj, who was a descendant of a Polish immigrant from the Podkarpacie region, I was able to help many Polish immigrants living in Lowell and the surrounding area. Thanks to my help, my interned friend from Sandomierz, Kazimierz, and his son, who had come to Florida from Bad Soden, found employment in this plant. I found them help from the Polish-American community, a place to live in Lowell, and equipment to start, similar to what I had received at the beginning of my emigration in the United States. At the request of my friend Andrzej from Warsaw, who had been living in Lowell for many years, I helped my colleague Ryszard and his family from Solidarity, Lower Silesia Region, whom Andrzej had met while working there on a business trip, to move from Perth Amboy, New Jersey.

As we were trying to make a living, I took advantage of Electro Circuit’s offer and switched to the second shift paid with a 10% bonus. Soon, our friend Ewa, who started working there at the same time as we did, moved to the second shift. I introduced her to the details as an operator of a computerized drilling machine for drilling holes in computer boards of electrical circuits. The boss on our shift was an American of Portuguese descent. He did not have a car, so after work I drove him and Ewa to his apartment. At our request, he would stay with us longer so that we could earn more overtime. Every dollar had its price. I was earning more, but the reflection came. I realized that my wife and I hardly saw each other except in the mornings when I drove her to work and at night when I returned from work. We felt bad about it – not only the fact that we were there alone, but we were also separated. An opportunity came along. The boss from the second shift mentioned that he worked in a similar plant, except that there it was possible to work all the time, including weekends, also on Sunday. It came to my mind to take a chance to work on the first shift, including Saturdays and Sundays (on Saturdays the hourly rate was 1.5 times higher, and on Sundays there was a double rate). I immediately applied and was accepted. After a few months it turned out that it was impossible to work like that. My body refused to obey. I was physically and mentally exhausted – I had to slow down.

In the Polish Holy Trinity Church we started to get to know the Polonia and immigrants like us. They were economic emigrants who had come to the United States from refugee camps in Austria, Germany or Italy, and had left Poland just before martial law was declared on December 13, 1981. These were also families of political refugees from Cracow, Łódź, Łask, Bolesławiec, Sosnowiec, and Podbeskidzie, with whom we quickly found a common language.

 

                                         

Kościół Świętej Trójcy – Holy Trinity Church – polskiej parafii w Lowell.

We felt a bit more comfortable. Weekend “Polish night talks” lasted until late hours, we remembered “Solidarity” and made up scenarios of further events in Poland. Wives gossiped, exchanged advice, shared their maternal joys and worries, and the children finally had Polish playmates.

For the first 2-3 years, my wife felt terrible. Physically and mentally. She had various tests done and even though the results didn’t indicate any illness, she still didn’t feel well. We kept changing doctors and her feeling did not improve at all. Finally the doctor (of Chinese origin) definitively stated that my wife was completely healthy and the only problem was homesickness, longing for her family, for Poland. That is how the “voluntary” emigration looked like.

With the help of my sponsor Richard Purtell, in October 1983 I got a job at DuPont in Billerica about 7 miles from Lowell. This was the same DuPont, whose professionals co-built the CS₂ carbon disulfide plant at the Sulphur Mine in Grzybów. E.I. du Pont de Nemours and Company, better known as DuPont, is one of the largest chemical concerns in the world. The company was founded in June 1802 and manufactured gunpowder. The company developed in Brandywine Creek, near Wilmington, Delawere. Now a little Polish curiosity related to DuPont. The founder was Eleuthere Irenee du Pont de Nemours, the son of Pierre Samuel – first the personal secretary of Polish King Stanisław Poniatowski and later the longtime secretary of the Commission of National Education.

After more than 2 years in DuPont, my wife Jolanta got a job. We worked there until our departure to Poland in July 2010. After my wife was promoted, we helped our friend Ewa to take over her position and who after many years got her son a job in this corporation, and then her husband After several years of work they left for Florida.

At DuPont, medical and technical preparations were manufactured on radioactive isotopes. I started in the radioactive waste management department, then moved to the production and quality control department, first as a technologist and then as a technical specialist. For many years I worked overtime in many other departments, which my American co-workers commented on as “where they go, they see me everywhere.” Working overtime in so many departments helped me move to another department when mine was sold to another company to California. Frank Yeschanin helped me with the transfer to his department. My wife, as a technologist and later also as a technical specialist, worked with radioactive iodine, a preparation for thyroid tests in university laboratories, which she carried out for the universities.

Now an interesting fact about our employment and first steps at DuPont. As I mentioned with the help of my sponsor and his close friend, a manager in the electrical traffic department Steve Geddes, I got a job in the radioactive waste management department where I worked for a year. After a year I started looking around for another job and applied to the distribution department. This was brought to the attention of my boss, Leo Monahan, who wanted to know why I had not approached him about transferring to another department. I was embarrassed. I thought it was inappropriate to inform supervisor that you wanted to leave him. Here it was the opposite. Apparently, he saw that by learning English over lunch, I had some potential for professional growth. He helped me get a job in quality control, for which I was and still am very grateful. The manager was Margaret Cain and the supervisor was Ruth Green, who after leaving to work in another department, took on my wife Jolanta, also under interesting circumstances. Ruth found out that I was looking for a job for my wife and invited her to a job interview. After the interview and setting the terms of transition, she hired Jola. My wife started working as an assistant technologist in the separation of radioactive iodine for tests, produced for universities, to work after promotions as a technical specialist making the above-mentioned products on the basis of radioactive iodine isotope. Surprised by this turn of events, as it was practically unprecedented, I asked Ruth why she had made her decision so quickly. She replied: “I’ve seen the way you work and I was sure there would be no difference with your wife.” She was not wrong. Hence, despite subsequent downsizing in each of our departments, we continued to work until we retired, i.e., until we returned to Poland in 2010.

The radioactivity we had to deal with was negligible, which did not mean we were not equipped with protective clothing and footwear. Occupational health and safety was at the highest level. Every week we were thoroughly examined with special equipment to rule out any contamination, and we carried sensors that were checked daily. Each time we left the laboratory, we were required to wash our hands thoroughly, change our shoes, leave our protective clothing outside the area where we left the laboratory rooms and measure our hands, clothing and already our own shoes with a special contamination detection device. This was strictly observed by the workers.

Working in such a facility brought our status to the level of a typical middle-class American. After just 3.5 years in the U.S., we were able to use the money we had accumulated to buy a newly built terraced house with a garage, equipped kitchen and bathrooms on credit, and after a month, a new Subaru passenger car.

A regular middle-class American life began – home, work, home, work… with job satisfaction that translated into stability and an optimistic view of the future. When I thanked Richard years later for his help, including getting a job, and through it achieving a good professional position, including financially, he said: “do not thank me, but yourself, I gave you the opportunity and you knew how to use it.” Such was our sponsor, our “American father,” the great man Richard Purtell.

In 1988, we became American citizens. From then on we had a basic democratic right, the right to participate in elections. And that was the most important change in our status in the United States.

However, Poland was still missing. After the political transformation in 1989, we spent every vacation in Poland, and I was in my homeland many times a year. We also visited America. New York, Niagara Falls, Florida, first invited by sponsor Richard Purtell on Thanksgiving to Sanibel Island, then alone in Daytona, Orlando at Disney Word & See World, Cape Kennedy with spaceships and the museum of cosmonautics, Las Vegas with the Hoover Dam and the Grand Canyon by 2010 are not the only places visited in the United States. Our vacation size grew year by year and finally reached 6 weeks a year.

We realized great dreams of our youth, i.e., participation in concerts of world-famous musicians. The most touching event was the concert of Paul McCartney from the legendary band The Beatles, whose performances we attended twice, with an interval of several years. There was also the concert of the second Beatle, Ringo Starr, who performed with his group of musicians Ringo Starr & His All-Starr Band, BB King, Tina Turner, John Fogerty of the now-defunct group Creedence Clearwater Revival, which reigned at the discos during our youth in the Skarbek Sulphur Mine club, Eric Clapton, Rod Steward, Budy Guy. And perhaps one of the greatest musical events of my life, the concert of Robert Planta & Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin, of whom I am a huge fan. I went to this concert with my son, as well as to a concert by Roger Waters of Pink Floyd, which my son wanted to leave because of the left-wing, ideological and anti-republican lyrics the performer gave between songs. I was similarly disgusted, but nonetheless the concert was a show of professional quality music.

As Poland was still under communism and lacked everything, we helped the family. First, we sent packages to Poland, and then we invited three brothers-in-law and a cousin to stay with us in Lowell, year after year, and work to improve their families’ situation. I also provided assistance to a young couple from Białystok, who approached to us on the advice of friends asking for help in finding work. As my sponsor Richard Purtell had set up an employment agency in the meantime, I was able to get them jobs through him. In addition, I signed an agreement for him, a master’s degree in electrical engineering, to sponsor his doctorate at Lowell University as a condition of their applying for a longer stay in the United States, since they were only in the United States on a short-term tourist visa. As a result, they were able to obtain permanent residence in the U.S. after some time.

Following the political transformation in Poland in 1989, we considered returning to Poland. Our son’s situation and his further education got in the way. He was attending an English language school, although we were working on his Polish language skills. Our search for a secondary school in Poland with English as the language of instruction, combined with Polish, ended in failure. We did not want to re-expose him to the traumatic experience of beginning his education in the U.S. and jeopardizing his studies. This situation lasted until our son completed his studies in the United States. For Jakub’s sake, even after his graduation we decided not to return to Poland. We could not just leave our only son in the United States and go away without him. He did not choose this emigration, he did not ask for it. He had been brought up in the United States, and we did not want him to have to adapt to another, completely different reality, with unknown results. Especially since he did not see such a possibility. That is why we continued to live in a different world than we wanted.

Until he met by chance his future wife Basia from Trzebnica near Wrocław. What greater happiness and joy could there be in emigration than a Polish daughter-in-law? Our son’s wedding and starting a family meant that we could seriously begin preparations to return home, to Staszów, to Poland. Only now, when our son got married, it was a chance for us to return. But without him. Again a great experience, stress, dilemma whether we should go back or stay with our only son. And the greatest drama for the mother, my wife, but also for me. The most painful thing was what my son said: “so many years we were alone, and now you leave me alone.” Tears stood in my eyes, but the desire to return to the country, fulfill my dream and decision “I will come back here anyway” was stronger, to which my wife, with great regret and sadness, complied. Leaving my son in America was painful for my wife (motherly love knows no boundaries), for me too, but the desire to return to Poland was enormous. Especially since today the possibility of free travel between Poland and the United States is incomparable to earlier times. Thanks to that, we can visit my son and his family in Lowell every year (or even more often).

My wife and I have returned to Poland after 28 years of emigration, and we visit our son and his family with two grandchildren, who by our example speak Polish at home. Jakub decided that when his sons grow up enough to feel comfortable in an American school and get used to the educational mode, he will enroll them in a Polish Saturday school in Boston. I am very proud of my son’s attitude.

We have not squandered Poland and the Polish identity in America.

I have to admit that if it were not for the dream and the certainty of returning, it would have been much more difficult for me to live in America. I lived with the hope that someday I would return to the country for which I began my Solidarity activities, and it stemmed from the dreams and goals of changing the communist system and enslavement by the Soviet Union.

Coming back to the country is not only the realization of dreams and the decision “I will come back here anyway.” It is again another adaptation, another change of system, habits, behavior, etc. The return was also a considerable financial expense, because it meant renting a container to transport the car, some of the American belongings, adapting the family house to the new living conditions, buying equipment, furniture, etc.

It was very hard for my wife again. The longing for her son, for less pressure and a more relaxed American environment, a different way of functioning, made her feel similar to that American beginning. It took her a few years to adjust to the new reality again.

 

 

B. Polish and domestic activity in the United States

As I mentioned earlier, after a few months we began to meet “Solidarity” families similar to us who lived in the area and came to Sunday Polish masses. As political refugees, we found a common language. As former interned Solidarity activists, we decided to raise money and organize aid for our repressed colleagues in Poland.

 

Declaration of former interned.

I contacted Solidarity’s foreign office in Brussels with a request to provide a list of repressed people who do not have “well-known” names and need help

                                                                                            

Letter to Brussels.

 

 Response from Brussels.

 

We received such a list; the money collected was supposed to go through the Brussels office to Father Miecznikowski in Łódź, who was the local Father Popiełuszko, and who was known to our colleague Edwin from Łódź. Through him, the money was to go to his repressed colleagues in Poland. Things turned out differently. From information in the “Nowy Dziennik” I found out that the son of my interned colleague Longin from Opatów, with whom I was imprisoned in a neighboring cell in Załęże, died at the age of 16 in Texas. At my request, after finding my friend’s address with the help of police, the money was sent to him. The second tranche of money went to the Primate Józef Glemp, through our parish priest John Abucewicz, who was on a visit to Poland, and through him to the repressed, whose list was also given by the parish priest J. Abucewicz.

Learning English was the previously mentioned course at the International Institute, whose director was Mrs. Lidia Matteii, an American of Polish descent, who in order to promote the Institute offered me an interview with the local newspaper “Lowell Sun” in which I presented my life story and the reasons for attending the International Institute. Of course, the interview was translated by Ms. Lidia Mateii.

Interview on Lowell Sun.

Participation in Polonia life included participation in “Pomost,” a Polish organization of young anti-communist emigrants in Boston. Suspicion of being infiltrated by the Secret Services of the Polish People’s Republic ended the life of this organization.

In the early 1990s, while traveling in America, Lech Wałęsa visited Boston. In a conference room at the Polish parish of Our Lady of Czestochowa in Dorchester, a suburb of Boston, a meeting with the Polish community took place in the presence of major American television stations. Lech Wałęsa’s speech was not accurately translated in order not to cause a panic with his controversial statements, including those about Polonia, Solidarity activists, and Solidarity as such. They were also met with an unfavorable reaction by the former interned Solidarity activists present at the meeting.

Jan Olszewski’s government was the first to address the issue of Poland’s permanent presence in NATO in his expose on December 21, 1991. The road was long and arduous, but finally this affiliation was finalized on March 12, 1999. In Independence, Missouri, Poland, the Czech Republic, and Hungary were officially admitted to NATO. The Polish community in America played an important role in Poland’s admission to NATO, pressuring U.S. politicians to win their favor. Already in 1993, Polish community blocked the White House with letters and faxes demanding NATO expansion. The office of every congressman meticulously counts how many letters he receives and on what issue. In the following years, bombardment with letters became the most powerful weapon of Polonia. It also attacked senators in every state, as it was the U.S. Senate that made the decision on Poland’s membership in NATO.

In Massachusetts, such senators were Democrats John Kerry and Edward Kennedy. John Kerry was favorable to the initiative, while Edward Kennedy was opposed to it.

I have twice received a letter from Senator John Kerry regarding my petition to include Poland in NATO.

Below are the texts of both of Senator John Kerry’s letters.

 

Senator John Kerry’s first letter – page 1.

 

Senator John Kerry’s first letter – page 2.

 

 

Senator Kerry’s second letter.

 

When Edward Kennedy realized a few days before the Senate vote that the Senate majority favored Poland’s membership in NATO, he joined it and also voted in favor. Personally, I was extremely disgusted and outraged by his attitude, as his favoritism for Poland was wrongly assumed in Poland.

I took an active role in handing out draft petitions and urging the local Polish community to send petitions to both Senators, which they did.

Copy of the petition – p. 1.

 

Copy of the petition – p. 2.

 

Given that Poland’s security is of paramount importance to me, I realized the importance of Poland’s membership in NATO and the resulting national security, so on the day the U.S. Senate voted on the issue (April 30, 1998), I took a day off to watch the broadcast of the event on television.

Joe Biden, Senator from Delaware (later Vice President of the United States under President Barack Obama), presided over the proceedings; he efficiently conducted the proceedings without allowing opponents of the affiliation to make demagogic speeches. Finally, a vote was taken, which I watched with bated breath. The result was positive. 66 senatorial votes were needed to pass. Voting for the affiliation were 80 senators (45 Republicans, 35 Democrats), 19 were against (10 Democrats, 9 Republicans), and 1 was absent.

Poland has become a part of NATO. I felt very excited and moved. Poland’s dream of becoming a member of NATO had come true. Something incredible. After decades of being trapped in the Soviet-dominated Warsaw Pact, we became part of a free, largest military force in the history of the world, part of NATO. Huge joy and pride in achieving such a diplomatic success.

Future presidential candidate, columnist Patrick Buchanan on Larry King’s show on CNN (an extremely liberal station) stated that after Germany attacked Poland on September 1, 1939. France and England immediately gave aid to Poland. This was inconsistent with historical truth. I sent him a letter of protest; he later apologized for the lie.

 

                                                       

Letter to Buchanan.

 

 

A card from Buchanan.

 

To my great surprise he repeated the same lie in other news. So he turned out to be an unreliable politician and publicist, on top of being a liar and a fraud. And in the U.S., that’s a disqualification; for me, too, he was no longer considered a credible source of information.

Many times the “Boston Globe” (an extremely liberal daily newspaper) articles were published that used the false, slanderous nomenclature “Polish death camps” to refer to German extermination camps on Polish territory during the German occupation of Poland in the Second World War. After reading such a slander again I wrote a letter of protest to the editorial office, to which, of course, I received no answer. It was an example of lying about the history of Second World War and Poland as well as deceiving the readers. It was not the last case of bias and hypocrisy of the liberal media in the United States and not only in the United States.

I took part in Polish cultural and educational life, also in patriotic ceremonies. These included the annual celebration of the May 3rd National Constitution Day. They were held in front of the City Hall in the presence of Lowell’s highest authorities, with the Polish-American Veterans Band playing first the American national anthem and then the Polish national anthem while raising the Polish flag to the second pole. During such a ceremony there was an official part recalling the history of the 3rd of May Constitution, all the more glorious as it was always emphasized to be the second constitution in the world and the first in Europe. This was followed by the Mayor’s address, which concluded with the proclamation of a special resolution from the City of Lowell in honor of this solemn Polish National Holiday, and then the artistic portion. In 1986, my son Jakub took part in this artistic part, reciting a Polish poem.

 

Jakub recites a poem.

 

However, in 2010 I was offered the opportunity to present the history of the May 3rd Constitution. In this presentation I did not omit Tadeusz Kościuszko and Kazimierz Puławski, heroes of both Polish and American nations, as well as I paid tribute to the late President Lech Kaczynski and other participants of the tragic flight who died in the plane crash near Smoleńsk a few weeks earlier, on their way to commemorate the murdered Polish officers by Soviet criminals in Katyn.

                                                                                 

Celebration of the Constitution on May 3, 2010.

 

My speech at the ceremony.

 

I must add that the ladies on that day were usually dressed in red skirts and white jackets or wore other white and red clothes. The veterans in blue and forage caps (like the Poles from Anders’ army), and the American veterans of Polish origin in American forage caps. The ceremony was attended by Americans of Polish descent often in 3-4 generations, Siberians, soldiers of the Anders Army from Monte Cassino (my neighbor Walter Węglarz, Tadeusz Rurak, Mr. Szymczak), repatriates from the pre-war Kresy, emigrants for economic reasons, and us “Solidarity” political emigrants. The celebrations usually ended with a meal at the Polish House – a place of numerous celebrations of the Polish community and occasional parties.

In 2003, during the winter holidays, the computer room in the Primary School No. 2 in Staszów was robbed. The children posted this sad information on an Internet forum in Staszów, despairing and lamenting the fact that computer science education cannot take place without computers. It was very sad and hurtful for them and for the school. Without revealing my identity, I began to inquire about the details, which were eagerly shared with me. After consultation with my wife, we decided to recreate this computer lab, so that the children could continue their computer lessons after the holidays. During our vacation in Poland my wife and I were invited to a nice ceremony, during which the management and teaching staff thanked the donors. In the following years, I funded free school lunches for several children from poor families. In recognition of these activities, the Town and Commune Council awarded me with the title of “Meritorious for the Town and Commune of Staszów” and a medal.

In 2004, the Archdiocese of Boston made the decision to close churches with low attendance. This included Polish churches, with the exception of Our Lady of Czestochowa Church in Boston and a church in Chelsea. Polish churches in Lawrence, Saugus, Lynn, Haverhill, and Lowell were to be closed. At that time I was approached by the new pastor of our church, Stanisław Kempa, who came from the Diocese of Tarnów, to write a letter to the Archbishop of Boston, Sean O’Malley, on behalf of the parishioners, asking him to change the decision.

Below is the letter:

 

August 03, 2004

Your Excellency Archbishop O’Malley

With great sadness, devastation and unspeakable sorrow we heard the news of Your Excellency’s decision to close our church, The Holy Trinity Parish in Lowell. The news shocked us because it was without any motives or prior warnings. In recent years we were always assured by hierarchy of Archdiocese that our church, The Holy Trinity is the mother of all Polish parishes in the Merrimack Valley and as such it will remain a Polish parish for the present and future generations of Poles. Our parish is not only frequented by parishioners from Lowell or Middlesex County area, but also by many Poles or Polish decedents from other counties or neighboring states like New Hampshire. We feel that the decision to close our parish must be some sort of miscommunication or misunderstanding since such a decision, if it were true, would be a great injustice and harm to all generations of Poles in the area.

We wish to inform Your Excellency that the Polish Catholic faith is not only a strong religious belief, but it is a great emotional and patriotic aspect of our rich history and culture. Through its long and tragic history, the Polish nation has suffered much injustice, tyranny, oppression and racism, but it has survived and emerged even stronger always taking its strength and inspiration from the depths of faith in the Catholic Church. Faith, Pride and Courage accompanied Poles in the difficult times and allowed them to believe that their faith will conquer the impossible. The last two decades are a prime example of how strong the Polish Catholic faith is and also its influence in world events. Thanks to the strong Polish faith the world received a most holy man in this world Pope John Paul II with so strong moral influence in the word, which in recent history was inspiration to so many changes for so many people in so many countries. Due to the strong Polish catholic faith and inspiration from Pope John Paul II birth was given to the “Solidarity” movement, which in turn gave spirit and courage to spectacular and most importantly peaceful downfall of the communist “Evil Empire,” the end of the Cold War and many other dictatorships around the world. The Polish people are deeply proud of what they have achieved throughout the history of their faith. By closing their church it is taking away not only their place of faith but also a place, which support their Polish heritage, which has a strong link to the catholic faith. Poles tragic history was one of the major reasons for Poles to leave their occupied homeland and to come to USA, a country of opportunity and freedom including freedom of religion. The Polish immigrants beside their love for freedom brought with them the love and loyalty of their faith and also their rich national tradition and culture so strongly connected to the catholic faith of which they are so proud. This pride and strong connection to the catholic faith was also part of the new life for Polish emigrants in Lowell. These honest, hardworking people through much personal sacrifice and their deep commitment to the catholic faith built a parish and communities which became part of their American history and the American dream. They believed that their church would serve as a symbol of their faith and pride for the future generations of Poles. We were very proud and happy to celebrate 100 Years of our parish this year and therefore cannot believe that only few months later there is a possibility of closure. It would be a great disrespect and injustice to our forefathers and our Polish heritage if we just accepted this decision. Too much work, moral and financial sacrifices have been made by many generations to allow this injustice.

We perceive this decision, lacking any financial or moral grounds, as an act of discrimination against the Polish Catholic faith and the Polish nationality as well. Our parish allows us to practice our faith in our native language and to actively participate in our tradition by organizing many spiritual and liturgics celebrations not offered by other parishes. We Poles cannot just walk to another church on a different street. Only the Polish Catholic Church has such a strong patriotic and cultural connection with its people and the only one that can provide this unique and specific Polish Catholic service. What other parish in the area relies on “pierogi and gołąbki (in eng. dumplings and stuffed cabbage)” sales as a fundraising and charity for the still sacrificing and suffering Polish people in Poland in their financial struggle of getting out the of communist system.

Our parish was always financially independent and always willing to help others. For over 100 years the parishioners of the Holy Trinity parish (which currently includes many so loyal non-Poles and offers masses in English and Polish) donated their time, effort and money to help the Archdiocese. We always answered the Cardinals appeal for help by giving generously. For what? Is closing our beloved parish a repayment for the many years of our faith and dedication? We are very sympathetic to the financial crisis of the Archdiocese and the difficult situation it is in, however, in the light of the situation we, the parishioners of The Holy Trinity Church in Lowell, feel that our loyalty and financial contributions as well as our past history and our current needs have been diminished and discriminated as a part of a purposely misled action to take away the biggest treasure as Holy Trinity Church in Lowell represent for us. We will not and cannot accept the decision to close our beloved parish we owe this to our forefathers and the future generations of practicing Polish Catholics.

We hope and pray that Your Excellency will reconsider his actions and allow us to practice our faith in our native language and in our heritage parish. Our patriotic spirit so closely connected with our deep Catholic faith, which has endured so much but survived, allows us to believe in the words “Ask and it shall be granted.” Therefore, we humbly ask Your Excellency to let us keep our Polish parish, our traditions and our right to practice our faith as the part of our national identity.

On behalf of the Parishioners of “Holy Trinity” Church emigrants of recent decades to the United States.

Józef Małobęcki

Enclosures:

His Holiness Pope John Paul II – The Vatican

The Most Reverent Gabriel Montalvo, The Apostolic Nuncio, Washington, DC

The Most Reverent Richard G.Lennon, Boston, Ma – U.S.

Przemysław Grudziński Ambassador of the Republic of Poland, Washington

Marek Lasniewski – Lass Honorary Consul Of The Republic of Poland – Boston

 

The Archdiocese of Boston upheld the closure decision in the letter below.

                                                                           

Archdiocese response.

 

Following my letter and the publicity surrounding the closing of our church, I was interviewed by the local newspaper, the Lowell Sun, in which I repeated the arguments in my letter to the Archbishop, and I also told the story of Solidarity and my participation in it, which resulted in my emigration and residence in Lowell.

 

A copy of an interview with the Lowell Sun.

 

The Church of the “Holy Trinity” was not closed, but it was rather thanks to Bishop Zygmunt Zimowski, our priest’s colleague, who was a close friend of Pope John Paul II’s secretary, the current Cardinal Stanisław Dziwisz.

Our church was also visited by the Archbishop of Lublin, Józef Życiński, who was officially welcomed by Lowell officials and received the symbolic keys to the city

Unfortunately, our pastor Stanisław Kempa has passed away and the Polish parish, due to declining attendance, is to be merged with the Irish and Portuguese parishes. But it has survived another 10 years since those events and has continued to serve the Polish community in Lowell Massachusetts over the years. I would like to add that during my time in Lowell, I was the lector for the Sunday Polish Mass at 10:30 am in our church.

On the 25th anniversary of “Solidarity” in 2005, I was asked by the Staszów “Solidarity” teachers’ union and its chairman, Marek Poniewierka, to participate in this anniversary. For the whole week together with Andrzej Ptak (co-creator of “Solidarity” in 1980 at Sulphur Mine “Siarkopol” in Grzybów, also interned) we were giving daily lectures about “Solidarity” for the secondary schools in the hall of Staszów town hall.

 

Meeting with high school students.

In addition, a s cientific session on “Solidarity” was held at the Staszów Culture House.

Scientific session at the Staszów Culture House

In addition, together with the “Solidarity” of teachers, we funded a commemorative plaque for this anniversary that was placed on the external eastern wall of the Church of the Holy Spirit

Dedication of a memorial plaque.

 

                                                                             Solemn Mass at the Church of the Holy Spirit.

With great regret and astonishment, I accepted the complete lack of involvement of the mine’s “Solidarity” in this ceremony, which also did not show any activity in changing the communist names of streets in Staszów, as if these issues were not of interest, which was in contradiction with the declared ideals of “Solidarity.”

During another vacation in Poland in the early 1990s, after a conversation with Pastor Henryk Kozakiewicz, I declared that I would start a fundraising campaign in the United States for the Church of the Holy Spirit in Staszów, which was under construction. I advertised the appeal for donations in “Nowy Dziennik,” a widely read daily newspaper of the Polish American community. Only three people responded. To my satisfaction, Czesław Stopiński from Stalowa Wola, a friend from the prison cell in Załęże who lives in New Jersey, a lady from my state, a former resident of Połaniec, and Mr. Sojda from Rytwiany who lives in Chicago, offered to announce the action on the Polish radio in Chicago and to organize a meeting of Staszów residents from Chicago in the Polish Club. Unfortunately, no one answered and no one came to his meeting at the club. The action ended in failure. It’s a pity. I only made my personal donation.

However, in 2004, on my next vacation in Poland, while celebrating the presence of a statue of Our Lady of Fatima in the Church of the Holy Spirit, during a solemn mass, I donated a communion chalice to the church as a gift of gratitude.

Solemn Mass on the occasion of a statue of Our Lady of Fatima at the Church of the Holy Spirit in Staszów.

 

Chapter II

AMERICA … AMERICA

America country of opportunity …

A wonderful country… the only one outside of Poland that I could live in.

Primarily because of the political system, the longest democracy in modern times, civil liberties, freedom of speech, the ability to fulfill own dreams, aspirations, and to grow in any field. A country built on puritanical values of truth, unchanging principles, morality and hard work. A country of individualists, pursuing their needs in the way they see most right for themselves. A country where ambitions are realized, where hard work and responsibility build a future and prosperity. A republican form of government where civic virtues can be developed, because in this system love for own country and respect for equality are awakened. These qualities are closest to me.

America is a country of emigrants, where nobody feels foreign and is not discriminated because of that. America is the economic and military power of the world, defending world order, the mainstay and guarantor of world peace after Second World War. It is a wall for communist, imperial vision of Soviet Russia spreading its communist, dictatorial ideology and enslaving subordinated countries. It is a country of modern political thought and a model of democracy for the modern world. A country of modern technologies, scientific and financial power in the world. It is leading country in thought and implementation of modern technologies, a precursor of the Internet, mobile devices, large space projects. The country with the highest number of Nobel Prize winners. Multinational corporations implementing their most modern solutions all over the world. An example of economic freedom, giving every economic subject the freedom to develop and conquer economic markets.

Here in the U.S. we were in the second year of the Republican presidency of Ronald Reagan, former governor of California and former movie actor, who was initially disregarded by his political opponents, but after two terms in office was recognized as one of the best presidents of the United States and whose doctrine and way of governing every Republican candidate for this seat wants to refer to nowadays, and who is often referred to by his opponents – Democrats. President Ronald Reagan was a great supporter of Solidarity, a great friend of Poland, knowing our tragic history, greatly respecting Polish patriotism and our aspirations for freedom and independence. Next to Solidarity, St. John Paul II, he is among those who led to the dismantling of the world’s Soviet Bolshevism and imperialism. It was him that Poles in the Third Republic erected a monument in Warsaw in gratitude for helping Solidarity through secret channels, for speaking out publicly in defense of Poland and the Polish nation, for symbolically lighting a candle in the window of the White House as a sign of solidarity with the Poles who also put burning candles in their windows as a protest and a sign of solidarity with the arrested activists of the Solidarity union during martial law. He was the first world leader who had the courage to call Soviet Russia “the devil’s empire” and to impose armaments that Soviet Russia was economically unable to meet. It was he who in Berlin, speaking at the wall separating West Berlin from Communist Berlin, addressed Soviet Russia’s First Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev with the words: “Mr. Gorbachev, bring down this wall.” The Poles brought down that wall in 1989, claiming victory over communism in Poland. Then communism in all of Europe, including Soviet Russia, fell.

It was Ronald Reagan who led the massive expansion of the U.S. Army and it was he who restored Americans’ national pride after the failure of a military operation to recapture diplomats from the American embassy in Tehran, Iran, when Islamic revolutionaries overthrew the pro-Western government in Reza Pahlavi’s Iran. The military operation failed and the diplomats spent several months in captivity. This affected Americans’ self-confidence and it took the presidency of Ronald Reagan to restore their pride and faith in their own power. Not only military, but also economic, a sense of worth and development, associated with falling unemployment and opportunities for high wages.

After the illusrious President Ronald Reagan, his vice president George Herbert Walker Bush became the next president. It was during his term that Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait and the Middle East war began, with the US Army, after 43 days of air strikes and Operation Desert Storm, crushing the Iraqi army in a 100-hour final battle. However, as a result of President Bush’s political decision, the coalition ground troops stopped short of attempting to occupy the Iraqi capital. This allowed the Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, responsible for instigating the war, to retain power, while the President of the United States faced criticism. There was economic stagnation; President Bush’s promise not to impose new taxes: “Read my lips: no new taxes” was broken, contributing to his loss of the presidential election.

The era of Democratic President William Jefferson Blythe III (Bill) Clinton’s administration followed. His famous election slogan: “It’s the economy, stupid” and the creation of the image of Bill Clinton as an “ordinary guy” brought him popularity and won the election. Bill Clinton’s presidency lasted two terms with variable results. The successes include a renewed economic boom, the failures include destruction of ethical and moral values of American society with countless legal and moral scandals, including the famous sex scandal of President Clinton with a young intern Monica Lewinsky during her work in the Ovall Office, the most famous office, not only in the United States. It ended with an attempted impeachment, i.e. removal of Bill Clinton from the presidential office for perjury by Congress, the House of Representatives, and ended with his acquittal by a Senate vote on February 12, 1999.

It was a great crack in the country’s political system, where the establishment embezzled the truth in defending the President’s perjury, thus violating the legal, ethical and moral foundations on which the United States was founded.

The Clinton’s term in office and his unofficial advisor-wife Hillary, in my opinion, led to the prominence, previously unnoticed by me, of affirmative politics, with special preferences for racial, ethnic, sexual minorities, which have begun to destroy the foundations of values and equality, as well as led to the prominence of political correctness among the American public, undermining their inalienable republican right to equality and freedom, including free speech.

This caused and still causes me to object, because such actions remind me too much of the communist actions in Poland, where preferences were used based on on social status in admissions to higher education, or based on communist party membership in professional promotions. I believe that these actions have led to divisiveness and division in American society.

The Clinton era is also marked by a reduction in standards of aesthetics, culture, and morals, as well as an era of reducing behavior to the lowest instincts. It is an increased activity of extreme left-wing circles and open introduction of deviation into American life. This era is the beginning of performances by licentious, artistically unconcerned musicians, actors, and celebrities and the domination of tabloids in everyday life. News was reduced to infotainments, where serious news about national or world events was interspersed with entertainment, celebrity life, often at the expense of reporting the facts. In this way, the importance of important news and values in the lives of Americans was replaced with trivialities, often based on moral scandals of the entertainment or sports world, directing their interests to meaningless facts that served to manipulate and destroy proven values. The information thus conveyed diminished the value of journalistic professionalism, the ethics of profession, and introduced misinformation to the American public. I have waited longingly for the end of this presidency, which has caused me extreme resentment.

There has been a double term for another Bush-son of former President George Herbert Walker Bush. George Walker Bush is another Republican President who ran for election under the slogan of “returning to old values” and appealing to the presidency of Ronald Reagan. George Walker Bush’s presidency was marked by the war on terrorism and two massive military interventions: the war in Afghanistan and the war in Iraq.

The first intervention in Afghanistan was a result of a huge tragedy of a terrorist attack on September 11, 2001 on the World Trade Center in New York – a symbol of the world trade domination of the United States, and on the Pentagon building – a symbol of the military domination of the United States. In these airplane terrorist acts on the above mentioned buildings died a total of 2973 people, including six Poles. The daring attack began with the hijacking of an airplane coming from Boston (one of the pilots in the hijacked plane was an American of Polish origin – John Ogonowski, who lived in Dracut near Lowell, and his uncle was formerly the pastor of our parish Holy Trinity Church in Lowell). The terrorist attack was met with immediate reaction by President Bush and the US Army by attacking terrorist positions gathered in Afghanistan and declaring war on the Taliban in power in Afghanistan, after they rejected an ultimatum to dismantle Al Qaeda terrorist bases in Afghanistan, the perpetrators of the terrorist attack in the United States. The military intervention in Afghanistan took place with the help of NATO troops, including troops from Poland. The second war in Iraq was the accusation of ruthless dictator President Saddam Hussein of having weapons of mass destruction. On the basis of this accusation, a coalition of troops led by the US Army, including Polish troops, intervened. Saddam Hussein’s regime was liquidated and he was captured and sentenced to death for the enormity of his crimes against the Iraqi people.

In both of these interventions, the role of Polish military was highly appreciated by US leaders, including the US President. The Polish army was thus highly praised for its military artistry, which made Poland a faithful ally of the US, and this translated into US support for Poland in the international arena and in the field of military cooperation between the two countries. Nothing could please me more than such relations.

The next presidential term is that of the first African-American in U.S. history, President Barack Obama. As an independent voter, but a staunch Republican anti-communist, I could never vote for the Democrats. Democrats with their electoral slogans, their left-wing worldview, too reminiscent to me of the system of inverted notions and communist values in Poland, have never been attractive to me as a party. Moreover, their overly submissive attitude towards Soviet Russia and later Putin’s Russia were unacceptable to me. Fortunately, I did not function in the Obama era for very long. Observing his actions and rhetoric completely contrary to my views on the state, on values, on civic equality, on the functioning of public and state institutions, on U.S. foreign and military policy, I knew that they were unacceptable to me in every way. Too liberal, too leftist in all spheres of life, far from the America I believed and lived in. The political correctness introduced was spoiling relations in society, spoiling relations at work. I started life in America in the Reagan era, I ended up in a very different America – Obama’s America. Two different worlds.

As I write these memoirs in 2020, the United States is under the presidency of Donald Trump with his election slogan “Make America Great Again.”

Question: Where did this slogan come from? From the desire of Americans and Trump to return to the values on which the United States was founded, which have always impressed me, and which have been destroyed by the progressive, left-wing Democrats of the Clinton and Obama terms and the supporting, similar American media, the party establishment of both dominant parties, the celebrity circles of the stage, sports and the claimant circles of racial, ethnic or sexual minorities. It is significant that Republican Donald Trump’s counter-candidate was none other than progressive, strongly left-wing Democrat Hillary Clinton, wife and informal advisor to President Bill Clinton, whom, alongside her husband, I blame for undermining American standards and values, to the detriment of the American state and society. Fortunately for America, Hillary Clinton lost and Donald Trump became president. The liberal left-wing party of America, including the extreme militias of the extreme left-wing Antifa became enraged and showed their fury by rioting in some metropolitan areas of America, destroying and burning cars, smashing storefronts, creating havoc in the streets. An unprecedented phenomenon in the US after the announcement of a winning president. It was an example of how the liberal-left circles with the help of media with anti-American values changed the image of American society and its reactions to democracy. According to them, democracy is only valid when they are the ones who win, others have no right to it.

Donald Trump has indeed begun to “Make America Great Again.” Unemployment fell to its lowest level in 30 years, the trade deficit decreased as America began to demand renegotiation of unfavorable trade agreements as well as equal treatment in trade tariffs. Tax breaks caused American business that had moved to China or other Asian or global countries to begin returning to the U.S., rebuilding the U.S. economic standing in the world and providing jobs for Americans. Following the example of liberal-left world circles waging a relentless battle against centuries-honored values, promoting neo-Marxism and intolerance of a different worldview, the battle against Trump has begun. Not a day goes by without hateful, vicious attacks on President Trump in the press, radio, television, and websites, using lies and slander based on manipulation to divide the American people.

If Donald Trump wins the next election in such an atmosphere, it will prove the strength of traditional American values. If the fight against American values is won by extreme liberal-left circles the American dream will end, the importance and influence of the United States will be reduced, to the detriment not only of the U.S. but also of other countries that have seen in America an example of the functioning of modern democracy and a guarantor of world peace since the last catastrophe of Second World War, caused by Nazi Germany or threatened by Soviet imperial Russia.

The situation in the United States fills me with immeasurable concern for the future of America and my family in the United States. It is because of the United States that my generation is the first in history to be able to live in peace for so many decades.

God Bless America.

 

 

Chapter III

CONTINUATION OF MY OPERATIONS IN POLAND

In order to present my activities in Poland after my return from emigration, let me refer to the interview with Mr. Edward Kaptur for his book Poland Seen from the Province.

 

• Already in the time of our “Solidarity” in Staszów I was astonished by your – then a very young man – accurate assessment of the surrounding reality. This ability led you, a resident of a provincial town, to the top of the “Solidarity” authorities in 1980/1981. Also now, after 36 years, despite the screams of crowds surrounding us delighted with the current authorities, your statements about the “achievements” of the so-called Third Republic are as similar as they were then and are in line with the assessments of independent economists, historians, politicians and publicists. So the question about the sources, despite the overwhelming propaganda of success, falsehood, rudeness of your ability to “discover” the truth and the resulting concern for the fate of the Fatherland, arises.

• Thank you for appreciating me, but it creates some discomfort because the question is about me, and I feel awkward talking about myself. But since I was asked it would be rude to refuse to answer.

I was born in 1952 in Staszów in a family of a “private businessman,” as it was then called in PRL (People’s Republic of Poland), so it had some reflection in my personal life, school and later years at work, period in “Solidarity,” my live in United States, including present years. What characterized this throughout?

An example is my grandmother Zofia Rutkowska, who had an iron store in the Staszów town hall after the war. Her store and she became a victim of the communist campaign “battle for trade,” which lasted from 1947 to 1949 and was aimed at limiting and eliminating the private sector, the existence of which, according to the PPR (Polish Workers’ Party), threatened the rebirth of capitalism. One day, SO (Security Office) officers drove up in carts to my grandmother’s store, confiscated and loaded all the merchandise onto the carts, and my grandmother was taken to a prison cell in the Sandomierz castle. After my father Antoni’s interventions, she was released, but she no longer received the confiscated goods and closed the store.

Another example would be the shooting of my uncle Stanisław Jagielski, my father’s close cousin, for illegally tanning leather because private tanning and trading was also forbidden by the communists. During the pursuit, my uncle was shot.

My house was also searched for leather that my father used in his craft workshop, which brought in quite a substantial income for those times, and because of this, my father often had to visit the Tax Office, where he received repressive communist tax assessments. In the last years of primary school, on my father’s orders, I would secretly, often in the early morning or late evening, bring goods made by illegally employed workers from their homes. I also delivered the goods to the stores. I remember how one of the recipients in Kielce reprimanded me for announcing publicly in his store that I had brought the goods and that he, as a private contractor, was controlled and accounted for the amount of sales and I could have endangered him by doing so. Moreover, due to the fact that I was a “private businessman’s” child, I couldn’t go to the school canteen. I remember delicious croissants with coffee at the beginning, but after a few days I was expelled from the canteen because it was subsidized, and I, as I came from a “private businessman’s” family, did not qualify for free meals. As you can see, I experienced this side of communism quite early.

My father in his boyhood, in the last years of the war, was also a liaison in underground Home Army, so I got to know this patriotic perspective, because among my father’s friends these issues were discussed. In addition, my uncle Jan Kruzel, as a Home Army soldier, was sent to Siberia after the war, from which he returned after 12 years, which was also discussed in my father’s company.

The role of Piłsudski after World War I , the massacre of Polish Officers by Soviets in Katyn forest in 1940 after Soviets Invasion of Poland together with German Nazists in 1939 was known to me from the very beginning and created a familiar attitude towards communists, the People’s Republic of Poland and Soviet Russia I still remember my grandmother Agnieszka Malobecka’s recitation of Adam Mickiewicz’s ballad Powrót taty (Dad’s Return), which touched me as a child. And my grandmother Malobecka’s father, my great-grandfather Wincenty Wojciechowski, was a January Uprising insurgent in 1863 revolt against Russia.. I also love history and reading books by Henryk Sienkiewicz, Józef Kraszewski, Karol Bunsch, poetry by Adam Mickiewicz, Juliusz Słowacki, Maria Konopnicka, which were very patriotic.

These examples explain how and where my patriotism and views on the surrounding reality were developed. Often joking about my views I say that I am an anti-communist and patriot since I was a baby. This is how it always stood with me.

I was in primary school in 1968, when the March events took place as an act of student protest against the removal from the stage of Adam Mickiewicz’s Dziady (Forefathers’ Eve), staged by Kazimierz Dejmek, which were considered anti-Soviet (anti-Russian). It was then, as a young man, that I first encountered the mass anti-communist and anti-Soviet atmosphere in society. Of course, I listened to Radio Free Europe, as well as Voice of America, broadcasting Polish news from Munich, West Germany. From them came uncensored information about what was happening in the country.

In 1970, another protest broke out, this time of shipyard workers on the Coast, bloodily suppressed by the police and the army, the orders of which were given by none other than the later creator and executor of the martial law, Wojciech Jaruzelski. The bloodily repressed protests sparked another backlash against communism and a desire for retaliation.

Years of further education were followed by professional work in the “Siarkopol” Sulfur Mine in Grzybów, and the anti-government and anti-communist workers’ riots in Radom and Ursus in June 1976, after which the participating workers were severely repressed, including the so-called “health paths,” where passing workers were beaten by a line of police armed with batons wherever they could, injuring many of them. Roman Kotlarz, a priest from the Pelagów parish in Radom, who came from Koniemłoty near Staszów, stood up in defense of the workers. He was repeatedly beaten by the Security Service thugs and died after the last beating. The Security Service decision forbade to bury him in the cemetery of his own parish and he was buried in Koniemłoty.

The period of the last 1970s saw pushy, omnipresent propaganda of success and so-called alliance and friendship with the Soviet Union in all media and press, while reports of endless conferences, conventions, and party meetings overflowed all other important information. The economic crisis and market shortages were obscured by the lies of the propaganda of success, quasi-successes of the socialist economy, while in reality the difficulty of obtaining basic food, household and industrial supplies was beyond today’s imagination. Propaganda also prevailed in working life, where party organizations and their apologists and obedient functionaries dominated all areas of factory life, building up a caste of privileged people. The organized patriotic celebrations were contrary to the ideals and facts of historical truth, which was massively falsified in schools, and created illusory and false benefits for Poland resulting from the alliance and friendship with the Soviets. This was contrary to the country’s and society’s interests, difficult to accept by an unindoctrinated society. For me it was an unequivocal lie, the hypocrisy of a system destroying the fabric of my nation, state and their future. I remember a discussion in the office of “Sztygarówka” with my co-workers, one of whom was the chairman of the company ZMS (Union of Socialist Youth) and at the same time a member of the communist party, a beneficiary of that system. At that time, I was a “newly,” non-party supervisor, which was unprecedented in the mine’s supervisory hierarchy. The discussion was about Katyn; I quoted the facts and opinions I knew about it, to which the ZSM-man pointed out that I should be careful what I said, because his one phone call to the Communist Party committee could immediately deprive me of my post. Let this memory be an example of the atmosphere of intimidation, pressure prevailing in the country and in workplaces.

In such an atmosphere of total domination of the communists in the everyday life of the state and society, in July 1980, the communist government raised prices on basic foodstuffs, which ended with strikes in Świdnik, which already as massive occurred again, as in 1970 on the Polish Coast. The support of other industries and practically all other professions of an unindoctrinated society morally supporting the strikers, forced the communists to make concessions on price increases, and most importantly forced them to agree to the creation of a nationwide, self-governing, independent and non-subordinate trade union, Solidarity. This unprecedented fact in the history of the so-called people’s democracies controlled by Soviet Russia was the beginning of communism’s defeat in the world. At the time, no one even realized it. The news of approval of the nationwide “Solidarity” union also created a new situation in social life in the Staszów area and at the “Siarkopol” Sulfur Mine in Grzybów. In this situation, I made a successful attempt to form “Solidarity” at the mine. Together with three of my worker friends: Piotr Trych, Andrzej Ptak and Bolesław Kozłowski, we founded “Solidarity” as a breach in the plant life, dominated so far by the communist party and the trade union controlled by them.

My situation as a middle-ranking worker and the position of my wife working in the plant office building were not the worst compared to other co-workers and Staszów residents, especially as we lived in my family home and were not tempted by any goods offered to gain more communist supporters.

To the question asked, “Why are you doing this?” I had a short answer: “Someone has to,” because I was well aware that this was the next opportunity to eliminate the influence of the Communists and Soviets in Poland.

I have presented the Solidarity period in my memoirs, in the first part of my memoirs “From a Staszów activist to a member of the national committee,” my stay on emigration in the United States and my impressions of the United States, so there is nothing left for me to add to this story.

I will present my further activities in Poland, after my return from emigration in the United States to Poland.

In 2005, during another vacation in Poland, I realized that there are still street names in Staszów that are closely associated with the communist regime. This surprised me enormously. For 27 years since the fall of regime in Poland, no law has been passed unequivocally eliminating these symbols of communism. It is as if the governments of the Second Polish Republic had left the symbols of partitioners after regaining independence in 1918. The law liquidating these symbols should have been one of the first laws of the Sejm, sanctioning the collapse of communist regime and separating Soviet enslavement from independent Poland. Unfortunately, it did not until April 1, 2016, i.e. the passing of the law putting these matters in order. At the same time, in Staszów, street names were changed several years before that date, as discussed below.

The more patriotic circles in various parts of Poland locally liquidated these symbols of enslavement. Unfortunately this spirit of change was not always sufficient in our Staszów. It is incomprehensible that the leading “Solidarity” of the Sulphur Mine failed to change the names of those communist streets and did not use the function of its chairman, who at the same time was a two-term (8 years) chairman of the Town and Commune Council, to make the symbols of enslavement disappear from the street names of Staszów. As a Pole, a “Solidarity activist,” who in the 80s engaged his anti-communism and hostility to Soviet Russia in liquidating the existing state of affairs, I could not continue to accept and tolerate such symbols in my town.

So I asked myself:

1. How can other citizens of Staszów, who are, after all, also Poles, respecting their state, their country, their nation and its tragic history, tolerate such a phenomenon incompatible with the dignity of the Polish people, where a huge price for freedom and independence was paid by so many generations of previously enslaved Poles?

2. How can a citizen of the town tolerate communist street names in his own town, which tarnish the image of town and expose it to mockery and derision outside the town, when young people from Staszów schools apply to colleges outside Staszów and after looking at the street name an ironic comment is made: “Are you the ones who still have such streets in Staszów?”

3. How can a Staszów resident tolerate the sarcastic, sneering smile of a tourist visiting Staszów and walking down streets with communist names?

So it was just a matter of goodwill, respect for your own city and state – this phenomenon could not be tolerated any further.

Therefore, due to the fact that inconsistent attempts to change these names made earlier by some circles ended in failure, I, faithful to my patriotic values and views, finally made an effort to change this state of affairs and try to eliminate this phenomenon, detrimental to the image of the town and its citizens.

It was necessary to convince the opponents and the city authorities consistently and without any concessions. Due to the fact that at that time I was in the United States, I started and continued the campaign through the Internet. During my vacations in Poland I repeatedly discussed this problem with the city authorities without success, but despite this I did not give up.

Of course, the communist regime sympathizers, of whom there were many in all circles of Staszów, opposed the changes, referring to the post-war history, as well as administrative problems and costs associated with the name changes. These were deliberate efforts to block the changes. But they forgot about the very idea of naming. Streets, squares, and bridges are named to honor and pay tribute to events or meritorious people, whose activities in any field have contributed to a positive impact on history, the environment, and thus to commemorate their actions. The names of communist activists and politicians were just the opposite of this, and their activities were in the interest of the neighboring state, which was unacceptable in independent, free Poland, just as symbols of the partitioners were unacceptable in independent, free Poland after 1918.

The reason for incurring the cost of changes was also deeply shocking to me, and I asked myself, “How can you use the argument of incurring the material cost of renaming these streets when the cost of the anti-communist struggle was the cost of sacrificing the health and lives of those Poles who fought against that inhuman system?”

It was impossible to accept such arguments if the price of Polish heroes’ lives and the cost of renaming streets was at stake.

The third reason was also unreasonable, because ID cards – according to the administrative decision – are made for free. To overcome the resistance of opponents, I proposed a grace period for renaming streets so that both names would be in effect for several years. I suggested that other deliberately exaggerated costs should be spread over 3 years to make them as less onerous as possible. Address changes at offices and institutions should also have been spread over 3 years to modify addresses for free during that time. As you can see, I understood the financial and administrative reservations of the residents of streets whose names were to be corrected.

Just a few months after my return to Poland in 2010, I had already formed the Civic Initiative, which brought together several people to support my initiative. The petition to the town and municipality authorities was written by the chairman of the “Solidarity” teachers’ union, Marek Poniewierka, and the proposal to rename streets after people of merit in Staszów was written by Krystyna Semrau, a history lecturer at the Vocational School Complex in Staszów. I submitted the petition, signed by hundreds of people, to the Town and Commune Office and, after repeated pressure on the Town and Commune Council to act, the streets were renamed in 2012 and 2013. All communist street names have disappeared from the image of Staszów.

Names were changed in two stages: 3 streets were renamed in 2012 and another 4 in 2013.

That is how the streets were renamed:

• 25-lecia PRL (The 25th Anniversary of Polish People’s Republic) was changed into Niepodległości (Independence Street,)

• Marcelego Nowotki Street was changed into Spokojna Street,

• PKWN (communists Polish Committee of National Liberation) was changed into Łącznik Street,

• Karola Świerczewskiego to Józefa Piłsudskiego Street,
• Hanka Sawicka to Ignacego Raczyńskiego Street,
• Janka Krasickiego to Powstańców Styczniowych Street,
• Aleksandra Zawadzkiego to Józefa Wybickiego Street.

By the way, the southern city bypass was named “Solidarity” Street.

 

                      

Letter of the Town and Commune Office of Staszów confirming change of names of the first 3 streets.

 

Efforts, patience, consistency and the rightness of the set goal resulted in personal success as well as the success of the town and its inhabitants, proving that you should never give up fighting for the cause that serves the common good. It is only a matter of some regret that the proposal to give the streets names of patrons from the list of people of merit for Staszów was not used, although it is worth mentioning that at least the figure of the pre-war mayor of the town, anti-Russian conspirator, Siberian, legionary of Piłsudski’s legions and the Second World War victim, prisoner of the German concentration camp in Buchenwald, Ignacy Raczyński, found recognition in the eyes of councilmen and a place in the name of one of the changed streets.

My initiative and success in decommunizing the streets of Staszów was recognized by the Jan Pietrzak Patriotic Society in Warsaw, where during the annual celebration of Independence Day, I was awarded a statuette with a hussar symbol by the Society for promoting patriotism in the local community.

                                                     

Honoring the Jan Pietrzak Patriotic Society.

In the following year, at the request of Jan Pietrzak, I funded one of the prizes for young people in the Society’s historical knowledge competition.

I was asked by the district authorities of the conservative Law and Justice Party to organize an exhibition at the Market Square in Staszów, devoted to the President Lech Kaczynski, who tragically died in the plane crash in Smoleńsk.

 

                                               

Fragment of the exhibition dedicated to President Lech Kaczyński.

 

The entire exhibition at the Market Square in Staszów.

In 2017, on the occasion of Feast of the Steadfast Soldiers, who continued the fight against the Soviets after World War II, together with Andrzej Ptak – interned colleague, also a founder of “Solidarity” in the Sulphur Mine “Siarkopol” in Grzybów and current “Solidarity” of the Sulphur Mine, we funded a commemorative plaque, which was consecrated after a solemn mass in the Church of the Holy Spirit.

Funded memorial plaque in the lower church of the Holy Spirit in Staszów.

 

The time has come for further physical decommunization of the image of Staszów. The occasion was the need to liquidate the monument of gratitude to the Soviet Red Army, which stood in Staszów’s Legion Park at Parkowa Street. The existence of this monument in the Legion Park was an absurdity that nobody wanted to liquidate.

Before the Second World War, the 1st Battalion of the 2nd Infantry Regiment of the Legions was stationed in Staszów. Its presence contributed to the life of the town, its culture, customs, traditions and economy, and thus influenced its development. The 1st Battalion of the 2nd Infantry Regiment of the Legions left Staszów to take part in the September Campaign against Nazi Germany on August 22, 1939 and never returned to Staszów. Since then, there has been no trace of it in Staszów, except for the naming of the park after the Legions not until December 2016. The absurdity was that a monument to the Soviet Red Army was still left there. This should have been stopped. The 2nd Infantry Regiment of the Legions took an active part in fighting during the Polish-Soviet War in the 1920 campaign and defending Warsaw against the Bolsheviks. It took an active part in the September Campaign, i.e. the German attack on Poland on September 1, 1939 from the west and the Soviet Russian attack on Poland on September 17, 1939 from the east. The Soviet attack was the imprisonment of tens of thousands of Polish soldiers and the genocide committed against Polish officers in Katyn, Kharkov, Miednoye by order of the criminal, Bolshevik regime of Stalin. It is assumed that, in addition to the deliberate extermination of the Polish elite, it was also Stalin’s revenge for the Bolshevik defeats, his personal ineptitude and defeat during the Polish-Soviet war in 1920. Under such circumstances, the existence of a monument of gratitude to the Soviet Red Army in Staszów’s Legion Park is an affront to the memory and truth of the victims – bestially murdered Polish officers and soldiers sent to the gulags by the Soviet regime.

Therefore, I asked the town and commune authorities to liquidate this monument in the Staszów park and replace it with a monument commemorating the 1st Battalion of the 2nd Infantry Regiment of the Legions, which was stationed in Staszów before the Second World War.

Letter to the Town and Commune Office of Staszów to commemorate the 1st Battalion of the 2nd Infantry Regiment of the Legions.

 

As in the case of renaming streets, we had to be patient. First, there was a change of local authorities, then the tardiness of a new government, and finally, after numerous reminders and pressure, the removal of the monument took place on December 29, 2017.

In 2018, on the site of dismantled monument of gratitude to the Soviet Red Army, a monument to a Polish Soldier was erected with a statue of a legionnaire of the 1st Battalion of the 2nd Infantry Regiment of the Legions and a plaque commemorating his stay in Staszów before Second World War.

.

Ceremony of the unveiling of the Polish Soldier Monument with the statue of the 1st Battalion of the 2nd Infantry Regiment of the Legions and a plaque commemorating his stay in Staszów before Second World War.

 

Thus, by removing the communist street names and the Soviet monument of gratitude to the Red Army, I decommunized Staszów physically. This was part of my continuation with the fight against communism that began in the autumn of 1980, which included the relocation by the Staszów Solidarity of the Tadeusz Kościuszko monument hidden by the communists in the old St Bartholomew’s cemetery to the Staszów Market Square, in front of which all state ceremonies are now held, as well as the taking back by Staszów Solidarity of part of the PZPR municipal building for the benefit of School No. 1 in Staszów in order to improve teaching conditions for the children of that school.

As a continuation of my patriotic commitment, I co-sponsored a performance of patriotic repertoire by rapper Tadek, who gave a great performance at the Zalew nad Czarna River in Staszów.

In the same spirit, on March 6, 2020, on my initiative and in cooperation with Mrs. Katarzyna Ciepiela, the director of the Staszów Cultural Center, a ceremony was organized in the Staszów Cultural Center to honor and glorify the Stalwart Soldiers.

                               

Ceremony in memory of Stalwart Soldiers in Staszów Culture Center.

 

The ceremony was attended by the bard of the III Republic of Poland, Mr. Paweł Piekarczyk, who presented the audience with touching, patriotic songs, reflecting the tragedy of the fate of Stalwart Soldiers.

 

Recital Pawła Piekarczyka.

The year 2020 is the 100th anniversary of the Battle of Warsaw – Miracle on the Vistula, the anniversary of the victory of the Polish Army and the Polish Nation against the Soviet invasion, in defense of regained independence after 123 years of captivity, also saving Europe from Soviet rule. The situation was similar to defending Europe against Turkish domination and relieving Vienna in 1683, when Polish troops under the command of King Jan Sobieski defeated Turkish troops and stopped their march to Europe. Therefore, I sent a letter to the City and Commune Office in order to honor this event and fund a commemorative plaque on the Monument of the Polish Soldier in the Legion Park.

 

           

Letter to the Town and Commune Office regarding the commemorative plaque for the 100th anniversary of the Warsaw Battle.  

 

The Office of the City and Municipality by letter confirmed its willingness to install such a plaque, which is to be dedicated in 2020, the year of the Warsaw Battle established by resolutions of the Sejm and Senate in 2019.

 

    

Response of the Town and Commune Office in the matter of funding the plaque for the 100th anniversary of the Warsaw Battle.

During many patriotic ceremonies, I gave speeches on the historical truth about the communist regime, and they were politically incorrect in relation to the prevailing spirit of the Round Table agreement between the conformist Solidarity leaders and the communist regime of 1989.

 

                                          

My public speech during one of many patriotic celebrations.

 

Other aspects of my activity were meetings with high school students from Staszów at the Staszów House of Culture on the occasion of the anniversary of the introduction of martial law on December 13, 1981. In consultation with the Starosta in the Staszów poviat, I also met graduates of all high schools in the Staszów poviat, during which I presented the history of Solidarity and its role in the change of the communist system, not only in Poland, but also in the countries of Central and Eastern Europe and its homeland – Russia.

In the future I plan to focus my public activities on such meetings.

These meetings also have an additional aspect and purpose, namely to promote patriotic values among young generation, according to still valid maxim of XVI century Chacellor Jan Zamojski

„The Republic of Poland will always be as it is its educated youth”

 

Meeting with students of high school graduation classes in schools in the Staszów poviat.

 

Chapter IV

DISTINCTIONS AND AWARDS

My actions for the benefit of Poland, for the benefit of local community, were appreciated by many environments – local authorities as well as national authorities, including the President of the Republic of Poland. I have been honored for them with distinctions or national awards.

The first such award was the resolution of the Town and Commune Council of Staszów, which granted me the title with a commemorative medal for my activities benefiting the Jan Paderewski School No. 2 (I funded a computer lab and paid for lunches for school children from poor families).

 

 

Resolution of the Town and Commune Council on awarding a title “Meritorious for the Town” with a commemorative medal.

 

On December 22, 2016, by the decision of the Head of the Department for Veterans and Victims of Repression, I received the status of a person repressed for political reasons

Document confirming receipt of the status of a person repressed for political reasons.

 

Obverse and reverse of the status

 

 

 

Honorary Medal accompanying the status of a person repressed for political reasons.

 

For my union activity in the creation and operation of the NSZZ “Solidarity,” by the decision of the President of the Republic of Poland Andrzej Duda, I was honored with the Cross of Freedom and Solidarity by the Deputy President of the Institute of National Remembrance Mateusz Szpyma, PhD.

The Cross of Freedom and Solidarity was awarded by the order of the President of the Republic of Poland no. 108/2017.

 

Cross of Freedom and Solidarity

 

The ceremony of awarding the Cross of Freedom and Solidarity.

 

                    

Józef Małobęcki (born in 1952 in Staszów)…

The biography was prepared on the basis of archival materials of the Institute of National Remembrance.

Pursuant to Article 138 of the Constitution of the Republic of Poland of 2 April 1997 and the Act of 16 October 1992 on Orders and Distinctions (Journal of Laws of 2015, item 475 and 1266, and of 2016, item 1948), I was awarded the Knight’s Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta by the decision of the President of the Republic of Poland of 14 August 2017:

For outstanding merits in activities for democratic changes in Poland, for achievements in professional and social work undertaken for the benefit of the country.

 

Ceremony of awarding the Knight’s Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta by the Secretary of State in the Chancellery of the President of the Republic of Poland Andrzej Dera (the President of the Republic of Poland was at that time in the Sejm during the inauguration of the new government).

 

 

Knight’s Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta.

 

Decorated during the award ceremony at the Presidential Palace.

At the request of the chairman of the Association of the Independence Opposition and Repressed 1956-1989 in Oświęcim, Janusz Januszewski, addressed to the Head of the Department for Veterans and Victims of Repression, I was awarded with the Pro Patria medal

“for special merits in cultivating the memory of the struggle for independence of the Republic of Poland.”

 

Decorading  the Prio Patria Medal by the Head of the Department for Veterans and Voctoms of Opresion Jan Józef Kasprzak

Medal Pro Patria.

On the occasion of the 100th anniversary of Poland’s regaining independence after 123 years of captivity, by the decision of the Prime Minister of the Republic of Poland, Mateusz Morawiecki, I was awarded the Medal of the 100th Anniversary of Regaining Independence.

Ceremony of awarding the Medal of 100 Years of Regaining Independence in the Voivodeship Office in Kielce in the presence of the Voivode of Świętokrzyskie Agata Wojtyczek and the Marshal of Świętokrzyskie Andrzej Będkowski.

 

Diploma of awarding the Medal of the 100th Anniversary of Regaining Independence.

 

By the decision of the Principal of Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński Secondary School in Staszów, Anna Karasinska, I was awarded the medal for the 100th anniversary of Junior High School and Secondary School in Staszów.

                     

Medal of the 100th Anniversary of Junior High School and Secondary School in Staszów.

 

On September 10, 2020, by the decision of the President of the Republic of Poland Andrzej Duda, I was awarded the Medal of the Centenary of Regaining Independence.

                                                

Act of awarding the Medal of the Centenary of Regaining Independence.

 

Among the co-awardees.

 

                     

Medal of the Centenary of Regaining Independence – Polish commemorative state civilian distinction which was officially awarded on June 15, 2018 as a proof of gratitude and an expression of respect for people who have made special contributions in the service of the State and society.

FURTHER HISTORY to the memoir about my activities in Solidarity in 1980-1981 and an extended interview for Edward Kaptur’s book were written in 2020, the 40th Anniversary of Solidarity.