Publishing, in English, the Polish experience of WWII. First-hand accounts, memoirs, photographs, artwork. For review copies, email info@aquilapolonica.com
Los Angeles, CA
Joined October 2009
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Aquila Polonica retweeted
Edward Okuń - Portret Marszałka Józefa Piłsudskiego* (kredka, olej na płótnie, 33 x 52 cm), 1919, fot. Polswiss Art. #PolishMastersofArt
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* Ledwo rok po odzyskaniu przez Polskę niepodległości Edward Okuń stworzył niezwykły portret Józefa Piłsudskiego, przedstawiając Marszałka w mundurze Legionów Polskich, z dłonią zaciśniętą na rękojeści wyszczerbionego miecza, pod rozpostartymi skrzydłami Orła Białego. Kompozycja obrazu nawiązuje do wcześniejszego projektu ilustracji do "Faraona" Bolesława Prusa, nad którym artysta pracował po swojej podróży do Egiptu w 1914 roku. Portret Piłsudskiego doczekał się również wersji litograficznej, wykorzystanej w kampanii przed wyborami parlamentarnymi w 1928 roku 🇵🇱
Jeszcze ciekawsza wydaje się jednak historia związana z pociskiem, który utkwił w lewym górnym rogu płótna. 24 września 1939 roku, podczas niemieckiego bombardowania Warszawy, pocisk trafił w obraz znajdujący się w kamienicy artysty na Starym Mieście. Okuń udokumentował to wydarzenie odręcznym napisem na odwrociu płótna, pozostawiając niezwykłe świadectwo wojennej historii stolicy. W 1944 roku Okuń wraz z żoną opuścił Warszawę i schronił się w pobliskich Skierniewicach. To właśnie w tym mieście, w styczniu 1945 roku, artysta zginął na ulicy, trafiony przypadkową, zabłąkaną kulą 😔
Aquila Polonica retweeted
11 Nov 1918: #Germany signs an #armistice ending World War I in a railcar in Compiègne, France. The war ended on the 11th hour on the 11th day of the 11th month. Germany uses the same railcar in #Compiegne in 1940 to have the #French sign an armistice during World War II. #History #OTD #ad amzn.to/2Il2wkf
Visit our new website at: urdailyhistory.com/
Aquila Polonica retweeted
Marie Skłodowska-Curie’s name is returning to the map of Manhattan! 🇵🇱🇺🇸 Today, 105 years after the Polish Nobel laureate first visited New York, we’re unveiling the sign for Marie Sklodowska-Curie Way at East 66th Street and York Avenue, beside Rockefeller University.
Aquila Polonica retweeted
On this night in 1940, 21 Swordfish torpedo bombers from the British carrier Illustrious strike the Italian fleet anchored at Taranto. A half-dozen warships are damaged, including three battleships. Japan studies the raid when planning the following year's attack on Pearl Harbor.
Aquila Polonica retweeted
On November 11, 1918, the guns of World War I fell silent.
For nearly 2 million American Soldiers still in France, the fighting was finally over.
But their journey home would help shape a tradition that continues more than a century later: Veterans Day. (1/6)🧵
ALT A black-and-white, vintage street-level photograph shows a dense crowd of men and women wearing hats. One man in military uniform stands near the center, raising a hat in celebration. The background features buildings and a street scene.
Aquila Polonica retweeted
In Buzuluk on November 11, 1941, Poland's National Independence Day was celebrated by former prisoners. Some British coats had arrived for the army that was forming but Russian hats were warmer
Aquila Polonica retweeted
🇵🇱NIECH ŻYJE NIEPODLEGŁA POLSKA!🇵🇱
Uroczystości Święta Niepodległości na placu Saskim w Warszawie, 11 listopada 1926 lub 1927 roku.
fot. NAC
Aquila Polonica retweeted
'One minute after the hour. All guns silent.'
At 11am on 11 November 1918, the guns fell silent on the Western Front. This document from IWM's collections visualises the silence, showing artillery activity for one minute before and one minute after the Armistice.
#OnThisDay in 1918 Marshal Józef Piłsudski was empowered by the Regency Council to reclaim #Poland's🇵🇱 independence. The defeat of Germany, Austria-Hungary and Russia in WW1 ended 123 years of occupation. Today is still celebrated as National Independence Day in modern Poland.
Aquila Polonica retweeted
The two police officers who were seriously injured in a shootout with the Kraków terrorist have recovered enough to be able to speak to one another in a video call for the first time since the incident
Both remain under medical care in different hospitals wydarzenia.interia.pl/malopo…
Aquila Polonica retweeted
French novelist Marcel Proust died on this day in 1922.
The madeleine biscuits he made immortal were born at an exiled Polish king's ball in 1755: the cook fell ill, and a maid named Madeleine saved the dessert with her grandmother's recipe 🍪
culture.pl/en/article/the-po…
Aquila Polonica retweeted
Phänomobil three-wheeled car, one of the various vehicles donated to the Polish Legions by their owners (who usually joined the Legions themselves).
Intendancy of the Legions, Main Square, Kraków, November 1914
Aquila Polonica retweeted
The Polish Independent Carpathian Rifle Brigade (Samodzielna Brygada Strzelców Karpackich) defended Tobruk from 21 August to 10 December 1941.
Aquila Polonica retweeted
General August Emil Fieldorf “Nil” was a hero who survived German occupation, commanded the Home Army’s legendary Kedyw sabotage operations, and endured Soviet forced labor camps, only to be arrested, tortured, and murdered by Poland’s lackeys, the communist rulers.
His interrogators subjected him to brutal physical and psychological abuse, attempting to force him into false confessions. He refused to betray his comrades or surrender his honor.
Condemned in a Stalinist show trial, Fieldorf was hanged on February 24, 1953, at Warsaw’s Mokotów Prison. His body was secretly buried, and his remains have never been identified.
The cruelty was deliberate: a Polish patriot who had fought German tyranny was destroyed by another totalitarian regime claiming to have liberated his country.
The Germans failed to break him. The Soviets imprisoned him. Poland’s communist executioners murdered him.
His crime was loyalty to a free and independent Poland.
Honor to General Fieldorf and shame upon his murderers.
#OTD in 1950, Gen. August Emil Fieldorf "Nil," former commander of Kedyw, the Polish Home Army's sabotage and combat operations branch during WW2, was arrested by the communist secret police in Łódź. Having survived Soviet labor camps, he was later sentenced to death in a sham trial and executed in 1953.
Aquila Polonica retweeted
The Voluntary Legion of Women (Ochotnicza Legia Kobiet, OLK) was Poland's first regular military formation composed of women. It was established in late 1918, during the struggle to secure the borders of the newly re-established Polish Republic. Its activities marked a turning point in the history of Polish women's participation in military service, demonstrating that women were capable not only of performing auxiliary duties but also of serving under arms: women could effectively carry out military duties, undergo military training, handle weapons and serve within the structures of a regular army.
The establishment and activities of the Voluntary Legion of Women between 1918 and 1922 represented the realisation of the idea of involving women in armed struggle, an idea that had already been advocated during the Polish national uprisings. The experience gained by the formation highlighted the need to prepare women for national defence within the regular armed forces, including in peacetime.
ALT Women soldiers of the Voluntary Legion of Women manning an anti-aircraft gun on High Castle Hill; Lwów, 1919–1920. (IPN Archives, colorized by the IPN using AI)
Aquila Polonica retweeted
10 November 1941 | A 15-year-old Polish boy, Zbigniew Terlikowski, was released from #Auschwitz.
He was incarcerated in the camp on 6 April 1941. Camp no. 13671.
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The preserved documents of the German Auschwitz camp SS administration show that a total number of nearly 1,600 Polish political prisoners, over 200 Czechs and a few prisoners of other nationalities, including Germans and Dutch were released. Approximately 9,000 Poles, so-called educational prisoners (Erziehungshäftlinge) were also released: about 7,500 male prisoners and up to 1,200 female prisoners of this category - who the Germans imprisoned in the camp for two or three months.
More: auschwitz.org/en/history/lif…
ALT A mugshot registration photograph from Auschwitz. A man with a shaved head wearing a striped uniform photographed in three positions (profile and front with bare head and a photo with a slightly turned head with a hat on). The prisoner number is visible on a marking board on the left.