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September • Wrzesień

Gdy wrzesień bez deszczów będzie w zimie wiatrów pełno wszędzie.

A September without rain will bring a windy winter.

1939. Without declaring war, Nazi Germany invades Poland, beginning World War II. This was followed by a global war, directly involving more than 100 million people from more than 30 countries. It was the deadliest conflict in the history of humanity, resulting in 70 to 85 million fatalities. In time, some 900,000 Americans of Polish descent would serve in the global counter attack.

1683. John II Sobieski leads allied forces to take on invading Turks at Vienna.

1833. Birth of Polish scientist Rudolf Weigl, who discovered the typhus microbe.

1915. Austro-German armies took Grodno, Poland.

1939. Torzeniec Massacre. Germans arrived during the night to Torzeniec in southwest Poland, and started to set fire to barns and houses using bottles with gasoline and gun fire with incendiary bullets. Villagers who tried to escape their burning homes were gunned down by the Germans who behaved as they were “making a hunt for animals.” Eight people were murdered in this way alongside Barbara Pietrzak, who tried to save her 2-year-old child. Another eight were burned alive in the cellar as their only escape route was blocked by a burning barn. The only member of the family left outside, 70-year-old Antoni Kubera, was shot dead on his backyard by the Germans just as his family was burning alive in the cellar.

1951. Captain Edward Krzyzowski of the U.S. Army’s 2nd Infantry Regiment killed in action during the Korean War. He was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor for providing cover that allowed his unit to escape Communist encirclement.

1941. Nazis make the first use of Zyclon-B gas in Auschwitz on Russian prisoners of war.

1939. Britain declares war on Germany at 11:15 a.m. GMT in radio address by Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain, two days after German invasion of Poland; France, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa quickly issue separate declarations of war.

1939. Bloody Sunday, was a name given by Nazi propaganda officials to a sequence of events that took place in Bydgoszcz, a Polish city with a sizable German minority, between 3 and 4 September 1939, immediately after the German invasion of Poland. The sequence started with an attack of German Selbstschutz snipers on retreating Polish troops and then was followed by a Polish reaction and then the final retaliatory execution of Polish hostages by the Wehrmacht and Selbstschutz, after fall of the city. All these events resulted in the deaths of both German and Polish civilians. The Polish Institute of National Remembrance found and confirmed 254 Lutheran victims, assumed to be German victims, and 86 Catholic victims, assumed to be Polish civilians, as well as 20 Polish soldiers. Approximately 600–800 Polish hostages were shot in a mass execution in the aftermath of the fall of the city. After the Germans took over the city, they killed 1200–3000 Polish and Jewish civilians, as part of Operation Tannenberg.

1939. Nazis march into Częstochowa, Poland, three days after they invaded Poland, meanwhile, more German troops storm into Gdańsk.

1956. Birth of Jazz and Pop singer Basia.

1809. Birth of Juliusz Słowacki Romantic poet. He is considered one of the “Three Bards” of Polish literature — a major figure in the Polish Romantic period, and the father of modern Polish drama.

1939. Approximately 150 Jews were shot dead by Germans in Częstochowa. The day was remembered as “Bloody Monday.”

1981. Through Sept. 10. First Solidarity Congress with 865 representatives of the nearly ten million strong union meets in Oliwia Hall in Gdańsk.

1936. Birth of 8-time Golden Glove winner Pittsburgh Pirate Bill Mazeroski, considered to be the greatest second baseman of all time.

1968. Birth of rocker Brad Wilk (Rage Against the Machine)

1897. Polish Singing Circle is established in Buffalo with 24 members, for the cultivation of Polish song in America.

1921. Birth of Korczak Ziolkowski, American sculptor best known for beginning a monumental tribute to Crazy Horse in South Dakota.

1764. Election of Stanisław II Augustus, King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania from 1764 to 1795, and the last monarch of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. A great patron of the arts and sciences, he initiated progressive reforms, but is also remembered as the king whose election was marred by foreign intervention.

NATIVITY OF MARY

In Polish custom, today’s birth of the Virgin is considered the best day for Fall planting.

1939. German panzer units launch their first attack in Warsaw but are repulsed. Poland’s 10 divisions near Kutno surprise the German Eight Army with a counterattack along the Bzura River.

1264. Issuance of Statute of Kalisz, which provided for penalties for desecration of a Jewish cemetery or a synagogue. It also contained provisions concerning blood libel directed against Jews. Confirmed by subsequent rulers, the Statute of Kalisz became a symbol of Jews' safe living in Poland.

1969. Lech Walesa, 25, marries Miroslawa Danuta Golos.

1939. Ciepielów Massacre. After the Invasion of Poland, the village of Dąbrowa (near Ciepielów) was the site of a mass murder of approximately 300 Polish prisoners of war from the Polish 74th Infantry Regiment of Upper Silesia commanded by Major Józef Pelc. They were ordered to be shot as partisans by Oberst Walter Wessel, commander of the German 15th Motorized Infantry Regiment, 29th Motorized Infantry Division, after the commanding officer of the 11th Company was killed by a sniper.

1912. Vincentian Fathers open of St. John Kanty Preparatory School and College at 3002 E 38th St. in Erie, Pa. (Closed in 1980)

1881. Birth of Blessed Aniela Salawa, who served in hospitals in World War I. She was the 11th child and lived in a very religious family. She became a member of the Secular Franciscan Order and worked in hospitals throughout World War I. She later became sick due to working alongside the sick and died in 1922.

1657. Signing of the Treaty of Welawa, agreement in which John Casimir, king of Poland from 1648 to 1668, renounced the suzerainty of the Polish crown over ducal Prussia and made Frederick William, who was the duke of Prussia as well as the elector of Brandenburg (1640–88), the duchy’s sovereign ruler.

1957. Birth of Pawel Huelle in Gdansk. He worked for the press service of the Solidarity trade

union, was a teacher of philosophy and history, and served as director of Polish Television in Gdansk from 1994 to 1999. Pawel Huelle’s famous work is Weiser Dawidek, which was made into a film.

1842. Birth of Prohibition Party leader John Sobieski.

1939. Poland, under Nazi attack, urgently pleads for help from France, but the French high command replies that more than half of its divisions are “in contact” with the enemy and can do no more.

1897. Seeking collective bargaining and civil liberty, immigrant miners on strike were marched in protest from Harwood to Lattimer, Pa. They were met by armed deputy sheriffs, who fire shots, killing 19 and wounding many others. Among the dead were Poles.

1382. Jadwiga (Hedwig) d’Anjou crowned queen of Poland.

1895. Founding of the Alliance of Poles in America, in Cleveland.

1897. Birth of Irene Curie, daughter of Marie Sklodowska Curie, in Paris.

1683. Jan Sobieski III defeats Turks besieging Vienna. Led by Sobieski, a combined Austrian and Polish army defeated the Ottoman Turks at Kahlenberg and lifted the siege on Vienna, Austria. Prince Eugene of Savoy helped repel an invasion of Vienna, Austria, by Turkish forces. Marco d’Aviano, sent by Pope Innocent XI to unite the outnumbered Christian troops, spurred them to victory. The Turks left behind sacks of coffee which the Christians found too bitter, so they sweetened it with honey and milk and named the drink cappuccino after the Capuchin order of monks to which d’Aviano belonged. An Austrian baker created a crescent-shaped roll, the Kipfel, to celebrate the victory. Empress Maria Theresa later took it to France where it became the croissant.

1977. Death of musician and conductor Leopold Stokowski, first conductor of the Hollywood Bowl.

1921. Birth of science fiction write Stanislaw Lem (d. 2006).

1635. Signing of the Treaty of Sztumska Wieś, between the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth and the Swedish Empire in the village of Stuhmsdorf (now Sztumska Wieś), Poland. The treaty introduced a truce for 26 and a half years.

1964. Birth of Rafal Ziemkiewicz, social science fiction author whose works deal with future governments and the political climate in Europe.

1894. Polish poet Julian Tuwim born in Łódź. He was the co-founder of the Skamander group of experimental poets and was a major figure in Polish literature during the interwar period. He was also admired for his contribution to children’s literature.

1939. Bombing of Frampol. The town, with a population of 4,000, was bombed by the German Luftwaffe as a practice run for future missions. It is estimated that 90% of the town was completely destroyed — only two streets remained untouched, including some houses on the outskirts. Frampol was destroyed by the bombers of Luftwaffe’s 8th Air Corps, under General Wolfram Freiherr von Richthofen. According to Polish historians Pawel Puzio and Ryszard Jasinski no units of the Polish army were stationed in Frampol and the town did not have any military facilities.

1993. Lufthansa Flight 2904, an Airbus A320-200, overruns the runway at Okęcie International Airport. It was a flight from Frankfurt, Germany to Warsaw, Poland. To compensate for the crosswind, the pilots attempted to touch down with the aircraft banked slightly to the right. At the moment of touchdown, the assumed crosswind turned out to be a tailwind. The airplane hit the ground at approximately 170 knots (310 km/h) and far beyond the normal touch down point. The aircraft departed the runway and rolled before it hit the embankment and an LLZ aerial with the left wing. A fire started in the left wing-area and penetrated into the passenger cabin. Two of 70 occupants died in this accident, including the training captain (seated in the right seat) who died on impact and one passenger who was unable to escape because he lost consciousness as a result of the smoke in the cabin.

1927. Birth of Cardinal Edmund Szoka, Detroit bishop who at the request of John Paul II, was named Vatican governor until his retirement in 2006.

1951. Death of painter and illustrator Artur Szyk.

1697. Coronation of August II the Strong.

1885. Death of Polish composer Juliusz Zarebski (b. 1854).

1923. Birth of Joseph A. Jachimczyk, doctor, lawyer, permanent deacon, and chief medical officer of Harris County, Houston, Texas (1960-1995).

1926. Birth in Chicago of Edward Derwinski (d. Jan. 15, 2012) Secretary of Veteran’s Affairs.

1777. General Casimir Pułaski appointed general in the American Army as result of his role in the Battle of Brandywine.

1870. Birth of Pawel Piotr Rhode, who became the first Polish bishop in the United States.

1736. Death of Gabriel Daniel Fahrenheit, German scientist born in Gdańsk in 1686, and who identified himself as a Pole.

1658. Signing of the Treaty of Hadiach between representatives of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth (represented by S. Bieniewski and K. Jewłaszewski) and Ukrainian Cossacks (represented by Hetman Ivan Vyhovsky and starshina (sztarszyna, the elders) Yuri Nemyrych, architect of the treaty, and Pavlo Teteria). It was designed to elevate the Cossacks and Ruthenians to the position equal to that of Poland and Lithuania in the Polish–Lithuanian union, and in fact transforming the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth into a Polish–Lithuanian–Ruthenian Commonwealth (Rzeczpospolita Trojga Narodów, “Commonwealth of Three Nations”).

1668. King John Casimir II of Poland abdicates the throne.

1271. Birth of Wenceslas II, king of Bohemia and Poland from 1278-1305.

1973. Death of historian Oscar Halecki (b. 1891).

1939. Soviet invasion of Poland, a military operation that started without a formal declaration of war on 17 September 1939, during the early stages of World War II. Sixteen days after Nazi Germany invaded Poland from the west, the Soviet Union did so from the east. The invasion ended on 6 October 1939 with the division and annexing of the whole of the Second Polish Republic by Germany and the Soviet Union.

St. Stanislaus Kostka

1987. Pope John Paul II celebrates Mass at Candlestick Park Stadium of San Francisco.

1900. After a meeting in Scranton, Pa., several Roman Catholic church leaders decided to split from Rome and form the Polish National Catholic Church.

1939. Wehrmacht (German regular army) murders 100 Jews in Łuków, Poland.

1987. Pope John Paul II presides at Eucharistic celebration at Detroit’s Silverdome Stadium, and visits the Polish American enclave of Hamtramck.

1905. Birth of Leon Jaworski, Polish American lawyer known for his role as a Watergate prosecutor.

1874. Birth of social and civic leader Dr. Francis Eustace Fronczak in Buffalo’s Polish East-Side. He attended St. Stanislaus School, and upon graduation enrolled at Canisius College. In time, he earned medical and law degrees, and passed the New York State bar exam. Although proficient in law, Fronczak chose to focus on his medical career. Fronczak worked with General Jozef Haller and the Blue Army while serving as a Colonel in the U.S. forces, act as a member of the Polish National Committee in Paris, and become the City of Buffalo’s Health Commissioner. Among the dinner guests at his home were Ignacy Jan Paderewski, Wladyslaw Reymont, and General Haller.

1945. General Dwight D. Eisenhower visits Warsaw.

1918. Birth of Henryk Szeryng, violinist in Zelazowa Wola, Poland.

1980. Workers approve the charter of the Solidarity Labor Union.

1896. Start of the first Polish Catholic Congress in Buffalo, founded by Rev. John Pitass.

1981. Second Solidarity Congress convenes (through Oct. 7), elects Lech Wałęsa as head of the union and adopts Program for Self-Governing Poland.

1942. At Auschwitz, Nazis began experimental gassing executions.

1947. Birth of Fr. Jerzy Popieluszko, pro-Solidarity priest murdered by Communist police in October 1984.

1706. Treaty of Altranstädt was signed between Charles XII of Sweden and Joseph I, Holy Roman Emperor on 31 August 1707. It settled the rights of Protestants in Silesia.

1963. John Gronouski (d. 1996) appointed Postmaster General by President Kennedy—the first Polish-American to serve in the Cabinet position.
1821. Birth of author, poet and painter Cyprian Kamil Norwid.

1944. Polish paratroopers cover the retreat of British units from Arnhem.

1956. Birth of basketball superstar Carol Blazejowski.

1912. Polish National Alliance opens Alliance College in Cambridge Springs, Pa. Alliance was an independent, liberal arts college offering a special program in Polish and Slavic languages. It was originally an academy at the high school level. In the 1920s it added a junior college degree. The school closed in 1988.

1605. Jan Karol Chodkiewicz (1560-1621), Lithuanian hetman, led Lithuanian and Polish forces to victory against a Swedish army at Kircholm, Latvia. Chodkiewicz carried the day in a victory that, taking into account the disparity of power and strategic result, was huge. It is estimated that 6000 Swedes died. Sweden’s King Charles IX was wounded.

1942. Zegota, an underground organization for rescuing Jews from the Nazis, formed in occupied Poland.

1651. Signing of the Treaty of Bila Tserkva, a peace treaty between the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and the Ukrainian Cossacks in the aftermath of the Battle of Bila Tserkva.

1939. Warsaw falls to Nazis. This marked the beginning of the Polish underground resistance, active throughout the war.

1920. Birth of RCA Victor, Columbia, Harmonia and Dana recording artist and showman Walter Solek. Inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1974, he is the author of “Julida,” “Papaga” (“Green Parrot”), and countless other polka hits.

SAINT MICHAEL

Św. Michał, wszystko z pola spychał.

St. Michał pushed everything off the field.

1669. Coronation of Michael Korybut Wiśniowiecki (Michael I), the ruler of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth as King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania until his death in 1673 ⁋. He was chosen partly because of the merit of his father, prince Jeremi Wiśniowiecki, a powerful border magnate who had helped suppress the Cossacks in eastern Poland during the Khmelnytsky Uprising. After Michael's early death, these setbacks were reversed at the Battle of Khotyn in 1673 by his successor, John III Sobieski, who defeated an Austrian candidate in the election. ⁋ In 1670 Michael I was married to Eleonora Maria of Austria (1653–1697), daughter of Ferdinand III, Holy Roman Emperor, by his third wife Eleonora Gonzaga.

1856. Founding of St. Mary’s, the first Polish church in America in Panna Maria, Texas.

1943. Birth of Polish labor leader, Nobel prize winner, and president Lech Walesa.

1849. Birth of Lt. Frederick Schwatka (d. 1892), Polish American author, soldier and explorer of Alaska.

1938. British, French, German and Italian leaders sign the Munich Agreement, aimed at appeasing Adolf Hitler by allowing Nazi annexation of Czechoslovakia’s Sudetenland, inhabited by a German-speaking minority. The treaty ceded three areas of Czechoslovakia to other powers: the Sudetenland was annexed into Germany, the Teschen district was given to Poland, and parts of Slovakia went to Hungary. British PM Neville Chamberlain gained a brief peace agreement from Hitler at Munich and without consulting the Czechs agreed that Nazi forces could occupy Sudetenland. Some mark this “appeasement policy” as the decisive event of the century. Chamberlain predicted “peace in our time.” French PM Edouard Daladier was very depressed from the meeting. In 1980 Telford Taylor published “Munich: The Price of Peace.” It is a detailed political and diplomatic history of the 1930’s in Europe, culminating in the Munich conference. Taylor later helped write the rules for Nuremberg Trials. In 2008 David Vaughan authored “Battle for the Airwaves: Radio and the 1938 Munich Crises.”

1288. Death of Leszek II the Black.

1831. A committee led by James Fennimore Cooper and General Lafayette was set up to provide aid for the Poles during the Polish Insurrection of 1830-31.

1881. Birth of Henryk Moscicki, Polish historian from the Second Republic period.

1918. Austrian Forces are removed from Krakow.