On the morning of August 18, the grounds of the National Shrine of Our Lady of Czestochowa, in Doylestown, PA, teemed with life. A throng...
Poland decorates a 102-year-old World War II veteran in Chicago
On the morning of Friday, March 8, 2024, the Polish Consul General in Chicago visited the home of local resident Zofia Biernadska. The 102-year-old veteran...
Giving a living history presentation to Polish school students in Des Plaines
On a Saturday morning, students at General Wladyslaw Anders Polish School in Des Plaines received a special treat. Visiting them was a group of Polish...
The Last Survivor: meeting Col. Cieszkowski, a Polish WWII veteran of the Battle of France
On a recent education course in Poland, I became friends with a teacher who offered me the opportunity of a lifetime. He asked if I...
Uncrating a WWII veteran’s war trophies from the Pacific
Working estate sales, I often come across military memorabilia. Most times it is simply a uniform, a photo album, or some other odds and ends....
Workplace discoveries (#6): a pennant signed by players from the All-American Girls Professional Baseball LeagueÂ
The pennant hung on the wall above the bed in a plastic sleeve. Its colors somewhat faded from exposure to the sun. Still, both the...
Workplace discoveries (#5): the tale of two wartime light devices
Two light sources sit idle side-by-side. In appearance they are dissimilar, in utility they had different functions, and in origin, produced in separate countries. What...
An unexpected surprise in the mail from a customer
This past Wednesday I came home from running errands to find a package sticking out from my mailbox. I was not expecting anything, but it...
Target Des Plaines: Local Police Hunt Down Wartime “Saboteurs,” 1943
On the dark and stormy night of August 2, 1943, the Des Plaines police department prowled the city's dimly lit streets. Their mission: stop three...
Hidden in plain sight: German prisoners buried at Fort Sheridan
Buried at Fort Sheridan National Cemetery, in Lake Forest, Illinois, are over 2,300 veterans. Their presence represents more than 150 years of American military history,...
Archaeologists uncover relics from Camp Pine, a WWII prisoner of war camp near Des Plaines
In May 2019, a team of archaeologists and volunteers met in Camp Pine Woods, near the Chicago suburb of Des Plaines. Their mission: survey a...
The time an airplane nose stuck out from a Downtown Chicago skyscraper
In July 1944, a curious sight greeted pedestrians at the corner of State and Madison streets in Downtown Chicago. Sticking out from the Mandel Brothers...
War memorial in my father’s village of Niedzieliska
Two rows of neatly trimmed hedges run alongside a gray cobblestone path leading towards the entrance. Beyond a pair of wrought iron gates lay scores...
Remembrance at the execution site of a retired soldier, Michał Gaca
The Germans took the retired Polish army officer and led him away from his house. He met his death at the edge of the village....
A Polish refugee learns the ‘GI Salute’ in 1950
Stanley Kozak, born Stanisław, was my great-uncle. As a teenager he was abducted by the Nazis during the Second World War, and he ultimately settled...
Nazi espionage in pre-war Poland: an act of terror
Found in the photo albums of several German soldiers are snapshots of the damaged Tarnów train station in Poland. They show a section of the...
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