Piotr F

Under Hans Frank, occupied Poland became a killing ground. Poles were dragged from their homes, tortured in prisons, shot in forests, and publicly hanged as warnings to others. Teachers, priests, professors, and ordinary civilians were systematically targeted. Entire families were destroyed. Frank chillingly contrasted German repression in the Czech lands with Poland, boasting that if he announced every seven Poles executed, there would not be enough paper in Poland’s forests to print the notices. In occupied Poland, the gallows were not merely instruments of execution. They were instruments of government. Frank was convicted at Nuremberg and hanged in 1946. There is something particularly obscene about a German mass murderer ruling from the castle of Polish kings while his regime systematically destroyed the people, culture, and civilization it represented. He occupied the castle of kings - he governed through murder and in the end, he met the very gallows he had inflicted upon countless innocent Poles.

On this day, 159 years ago, Maria Skłodowska-Curie was born in Warsaw, at a time when Poland had been erased from the map of Europe by foreign powers. Despite growing up under Russian rule and facing the limitations imposed on women seeking higher education, she rose to become one of the most remarkable scientists in human history. Her groundbreaking research transformed our understanding of radioactivity and opened new possibilities in medicine and science. In 1898, together with her husband Pierre Curie, she discovered two chemical elements, polonium and radium. She deliberately named polonium in honor of her beloved Poland, ensuring that the name of her homeland would be recognized by the scientific world even while Poland remained deprived of its independence. In 1903, she became the first woman to receive a Nobel Prize, sharing the Nobel Prize in Physics with Pierre Curie and Henri Becquerel. In 1911, she received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry, becoming the first person in history to win two Nobel Prizes and remaining the only person to have received Nobel Prizes in two different scientific disciplines. Her pioneering discoveries helped lay the foundations for modern radiation-based cancer treatments and advanced scientific understanding of the atom. Her dedication to humanity extended far beyond the laboratory. During the First World War, she helped develop and operate mobile X-ray units that allowed doctors to examine wounded soldiers near the front lines, improving medical care and saving lives - she understood that scientific knowledge carried a responsibility to serve others, and she devoted much of her life to putting that belief into practice. Although she spent much of her professional life in France, Maria Skłodowska-Curie never forgot her Polish heritage. Her achievements were not only triumphs of scientific discovery but also powerful examples of perseverance, courage, and intellectual independence in a world that placed enormous obstacles before women. She reminds us that Poland’s contribution to world history extends far beyond its struggles for freedom and independence. It lives in the minds, discoveries, and accomplishments of Polish people whose work has shaped humanity. Maria Skłodowska-Curie demonstrated that even when a nation is denied its sovereignty, its spirit, identity, and contributions to civilization cannot be erased. We remember not only a brilliant scientist and a two-time Nobel Prize laureate, but also a remarkable Polish woman who carried the name of her homeland into the history of science and left a legacy that continues to benefit generations around the world.

On this day, 87 years ago, one of the darkest chapters in the history of Polish education unfolded in Kraków. On November 6, 1939, just two months after Germany invaded Poland, the occupation authorities carried out an operation known as Sonderaktion Krakau (Special Operation Kraków). Professors and academics from the prestigious Jagiellonian University and other Kraków institutions were summoned to what they believed would be an academic lecture at the university’s Collegium Novum. Instead, they walked into a carefully prepared trap. SS officer Bruno Müller announced that the university was acting against German interests. The assembled academics were arrested. In total, 183 people were detained, including some of Poland’s most distinguished scholars, scientists, and intellectuals. Many were subsequently transported to Sachsenhausen concentration camp, where they endured brutal conditions, hunger, humiliation, and forced confinement. Some died as a result of their imprisonment. The operation was not simply an attack on a university. It formed part of Germany’s broader campaign to destroy Poland’s educated leadership, suppress its cultural institutions, and weaken the nation’s capacity to resist occupation. Yet the attempt to extinguish Polish intellectual life ultimately failed. Despite the closure of universities and the persecution of teachers, clandestine education continued throughout occupied Poland. Professors and students risked imprisonment and death to preserve knowledge and learning. November 6, 1939, reminds us that the destruction of a nation does not begin only with the destruction of its cities. It can also begin with the silencing of its teachers, historians, scientists, and thinkers.

It was a tremendous honor to stand alongside my fellow recipients of the 2026 Ambassador of Polish History Award in Warsaw. Though we come from different countries, we share a commitment to preserving historical truth, honoring those who came before us, and ensuring Poland’s their remarkable and unbreakable history is never forgotten. My heartfelt congratulations to my fellow laureates. I am truly humbled to be among them.

November 5, 1939 - When the Germans Tried to Silence Poland, the Underground Press Began to Speak. 87 years ago today, only weeks after Poland’s courageous defense against overwhelming odds, the first issue of Biuletyn Informacyjny appeared. While German occupation authorities sought to control information, suppress Polish identity, and destroy the nation’s institutions, ordinary Poles were already organizing an exceptional underground press. The publication would become one of the most important voices of the Polish resistance, bringing news, information, and encouragement to a population living under terror. Every issue represented an act of defiance. Behind the printed words were people risking imprisonment, torture, and death to ensure that the Polish nation would not be silenced. The Germans could occupy Poland’s cities, close its institutions, and imprison its citizens, but they could not extinguish the determination of those who believed that truth itself was worth defending. Sometimes resistance begins not with a rifle, but with a printed page.