Norman Davies discusses the partitions of Poland in an interview about his new book Vanished Kingdoms The History of half-forgotten Europe.
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Posts Tagged ‘Books’
Deportees, crimes, and historical recollection
From Polskie Radio: Deportee Day [September 17th] recalls forgotten WW II exodus
Saturday sees the 7th World Day of the Siberian, saluting the hundreds of thousands of Polish citizens who were deported to far-flung corners of the Soviet Union during World War II.
Following tradition, the event is held on 17 September, marking the anniversary of the Soviet invasion of Poland in 1939.
Survivors from across the world are expected in Poland. Ceremonies will take place in the northern city of Gdansk, as well as in the nearby village of Szymbark, site of the extensive Siberian House Museum.
Deportees, including the elderly and children, were dispatched from Poland’s Eastern territories following the division of Poland between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union in September 1939.
The four transports began in February 1940, primarily to Siberia and Kazakhstan. Many perished during the cramped train journeys, as more did while working in forced labour camps or on collective farms.
The deportations dealt a heavy blow to Poland’s professional elite, but the transports included citizens of all classes and ethnic backgrounds.
Historians are still divided as to the numbers of those deported. Contemporary Moscow figures cited 330,000, yet Poland’s wartime government-in-exile claimed over a million.
The matter became a source of embarrassment to the Soviet Union, after Hitler reneged on his non-aggression pact with Stalin and invaded Moscow-held territory in 1941, thus prompting Stalin to turn to Great Britain – and by default its Polish ally – for support.
An amnesty was declared, and General Wladyslaw Anders, one of the thousands of Polish internees in the Soviet Union, was allowed to raise an army from among the prisoners.
The so-called Polish Second Corps journeyed to Iran, where it regrouped and joined the fight against the Nazis, as part of the British 8th Army.However, thousands did not make it out of Soviet territory. Historian Andrzej Paczkowski puts the mortality rate at 8-10 percent.
Noted deportees included the writer Gustaw Herling-Grudzinski, whose post-war book A World Apart was cited by historian Anne Applebaum as one of the finest accounts of life in the Soviet Gulag.
Likewise, Poland’s most celebrated pre-war film star, Eugeniusz Bodo, was among those who perished in the Soviet Union.
Oscar-nominated Polish-Jewish film-maker Jerzy Hoffman survived the ordeal as a child. He is currently preparing to release Poland’s first 3D film, The Battle for Warsaw, this month.
As it was, the vast majority of Anders’ Army did not return to the Soviet-dominated Poland that emerged after the war.
Ryszard Kaczorowski (1919-2010), the last president of the government-in-exile in London, was himself a survivor of both Siberia and the Italian campaign.
Although the wartime deportations were devastating in Poland, they were by no means unique. In May 1944, Moscow launched the deportation of the entire Tatar population of the Crimea. Activists are calling for the action, known as Surgun, to be classified as genocide.
From the Libra Institute: Report from the Capitol Hill Conference, “Katyń: Unfinished Inquiry”
On the eve of the 72nd anniversary of the Soviet aggression on Poland, an important conference took place on the Capitol Hill in Washington, DC. The conference entitled “Katyń – Unfinished Inquiry” was co-sponsored by fifteen civic and academic organizations from all over the United States, including organizations representing Katyń families and Siberian deportees such as the Katyń Forest Massacre Memorial Committee of New Jersey, Kresy-Siberia Foundation USA, National Katyń Memorial Foundation of Maryland, Polish Legacy Project of Buffalo, New York, Siberian Society USA, Siberian Society of Florida, the Poles of Santa Rosa in Chicago, the Polish Army Veterans Association in America and the Polish American Congress. The conference was co-organized by Libra Institute and the Institute of World Politics with the support of Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur.
While commemorating the Polish victims of the Soviet aggression of September 17, 1939, the participants deliberated how to achieve healing of the wounds and genuine reconciliation between the people of Russia and Poland in the twenty first century. The participants acknowledged that the path to reconciliation leads through revealing the full truth.
Professor David Crane who served as Chief Prosecutor of the Special Court for Sierra Leone presented Expert Report from the Katyń Symposium that took place at Case Western Reserve School of Law in February 2011. Referring to the Expert Report, he pointed out that genuine reconciliation must be built on truthful accountability through full disclosure, atonement, contrition and compensation. He also stated that although various experts offer different classifications of the Katyń crime, according to him Katyń qualified as genocide. Prof. Crane also stated that the United States should consider forwarding the evidence, findings and recommendations of the Madden Committee to the General Assembly of the United Nations with the recommendations that the United Nations take appropriate steps to have the case forwarded to the International Court of Justice and/or seek the establishment of an international commission that will investigate this case. The other ways in which the United States could assist in seeking justice for the Katyń crime would be the full disclosure of documents related to Katyń that are in the possession of the US Government and adopting legislation that would recognize the wrong that has been done by the United States as a result of the suppression of evidence. The United States should also consider issuing an apology to the Katyń victims and the Polish people, providing compensation to the Katyń families who are US citizens either directly or through the establishment of the Katyń Truth and Reconciliation Institute, and should sponsor an educational outreach program on the Katyń crime and the cover-up.
Dr. John Lenczowski, President of the Institute of World Politics, in his opening remarks pointed out that the Katyń crime aimed at eliminating the leadership class of Poland. He criticized the Russian anti-Katyń strategy by pointing out that the Soviet soldiers taken as prisoners of war by Poland as a result of the 1920 Polish-Russian War represented the invading army and died of communicable diseases. He also elaborated on the role of the US Government in covering up the Katyń crime and suppressing all Katyń related information, including the destruction of the key eyewitness reports by the top US Military Intelligence Officer, in order not to upset Moscow. He pointed out that the key Katyń-related documents have never been released by the US Government. Apparently, there is never a good time to do so, especially when the USA aims at resetting relations with Russia.
Frank Spula, President of the Polish-American Congress, spoke about the significance of the Katyń crime for the Polish-American community. He stated that he was honored to be in this congressional office building and participate in such a historical event, especially considering that this building was named after Sam Rayburn who initiated the original investigation into the Katyń crime sixty years ago. Back then Roman Pucinski, the Chief Investigator of the Madden Committee led the struggle for truth and justice. Today his daughter, Aurelia Pucinski, came to this congressional building to continue her father’s struggle for justice. Katyń has a special significance to the Americans of Polish heritage.
…
The closing remarks belonged to Wesley Adamczyk, Son of the Polish Officer imprisoned in Starobelsk, murdered in Kharkov and buried in the Piatichatki forest. Having searched for his father’s burial site for six decades, finally in June of 1998, while accompanied by his American-born son, Mr. Adamczyk had an opportunity to pay last respects to his father at the Piatichatki cemetery. Upon leaving, he appealed to his son never to forget that even the grinding of the bones and planting of the trees over the graves does not stop the truth from coming to the surface. Mr. Adamczyk stressed that today, nearly seventy years later, there still exist a “universal cover-up” of the Katyń crime in its entirety. He also explained that the origin of the cover-up of the Katyń crime, referred to as “conspiracy of silence”, began by the Big Four during the London meeting in the summer of 1945. The purpose of that meeting was to establish procedures for prosecution of major war criminals during the upcoming trials by the International Military Tribunal to be held in Nuremberg. It was there that the Big Four agreed that the Soviets would handle the indictment and prosecution of the Katyń crime, even though the Western Allies knew that all arrows pointed to the Soviet guilt. The Western Allies won the war against Nazi Germany but justice for the victims of the Katyń crime was never sought. In closing, Mr. Adamczyk appealed to the Government of the United States to undertake pro-active steps towards full disclosure and dissemination of all documents related to the Katyń atrocity in the possession of the US Government because without revealing full truth justice cannot be served.
More from the Case Western Reserve Journal of International Law: Katyń Conference Papers.
Kresy-Siberia Group and Foundation Resources:
Research, Remembrance and Recognition of Polish citizens’ struggles in the Eastern Borderlands and in Exile during World War 2. Kresy-Siberia is the premiere “one-stop” location on the internet providing information sources on the Kresy, the persecutions and deportations of Poles, and Polonian life in exile during and after World War II.
Their resources include:
- Research resources
- An on-line discussion site
- A Virtual Museum
- A Memorial gallery
- Information on Kresy property claims
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Maps and Shadows
A two part interview on Zita Christian’s show “Full Bloom” with Krysia Jopek. Ms. Jopek discusses her book “Maps and Shadows” and the story of two of the four survivors of the Polish deportation to Siberia in 1940, her father and aunt.
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Art for September 1st
IX.1939 - Polish History, Kasper Pochwalski, 1964
Seventy-one years ago, on September 1, 1939, the Nazis invaded Poland. In those first days and the six years that followed, more than five million Poles died.
Resources and reflections on Poland and the start of World War II:
John Guzlowski’s poem: Landscape with Dead Horses wherein he seeks to capture and describe the feelings of his parents and the Poles of their generation.
A poem: I Sing the Song of Maczkowce, by Martin Stepek commemorating his parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles and all Poles from the pre-war eastern border area who were forcible resettled in labour camps in Siberia by the Soviet Red Army in 1940 and 1941.
New Duns exhibition will focus on moving story of Polish troops: ‘For Our Freedom and Yours’ – the story of the 1st Polish armored division at the Duns library. The exhibit traces the story of the famous Polish armoured division, from their formation in Duns in 1942 to their campaigns in western Europe in 1944-1945 under the command of the esteemed General Stanislaw Maczek. Admission to the exhibition in Duns Library Exhibition Room is free from August 13th to September 24th.
The Doomed Soldiers – Polish Underground Soldiers 1944-1963 – The Untold Story: The story behind the underground armies resisting Nazi German and Russian Communist occupiers as well as collaborators.
Ułani, ułani – Archival information on the Polish Calvary and resistance during the first days of the war. Abandoned by allies, and attacked from behind by the Red Army, the documentary includes interviews with surviving cavalry from the September campaign, statements from Nazi German leaders, and the fate of the Polish cavalry after surrender.
Night Of Flames – A historical novel and winner of the 2007 “Outstanding Achievemnet Award” from the Wisconsin Library Association. The story follows Polish cavalry officer, Jan Kopernik, and his wife, Anna, through five years of war and the underground resistance in their courageous quest for freedom.
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The Katyn Order, the acclaimed historical novel/thriller set in World War II surrounding one of history’s most heinous war crimes.
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M.B.B. Biskupski’s Hollywood’s War with Poland: 1939-1945. Danuta Goska reviews the book at Writing the Polish Diaspora and states:
[The book] is a must-buy, must-read and must-keep book for several audiences. Twenty-first century American citizens seeking insight into ethnic jockeying for power will want to read this book. Conspiracy theorists fascinated by the ability of popular culture to twist human minds will find support for their most Orwellian nightmares. Polish Americans who care about the abysmal position of Polonia in the arts, politics, journalism and academia will buy, read, and reread it. Biskupski’s style is straightforward, without academic or aesthetic flourishes. The average reader will have no problem.
Hollywood’s War with Poland is an essential resource that proves, beyond any question, that powerful people, prompted by geopolitical competition and deep hostility worked hard to sully the image of Poles, Polish-Americans, and Poland. They did this during World War II, when Poland was playing a key historical role. World War II began when Nazi Germany invaded Poland…
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For book lovers – new and interesting
The Polish American Encyclopedia, edited by James S. Pula, is now available.
At least nine million Americans trace their roots to Poland, and Polish Americans have contributed greatly to American history and society. During the largest period of immigration to the United States, between 1870 and 1920, more Poles came to the United States than any other national group except Italians. Additional large-scale Polish migration occurred in the wake of World War II and during the period of Solidarity’s rise to prominence.
The encyclopedia features three types of entries: thematic essays, topical entries, and biographical profiles. The essays synthesize existing work to provide interpretations of, and insight into, important aspects of the Polish American experience. The topical entries discuss in detail specific places, events or organizations such as the Polish National Alliance, Polish American Saturday Schools, and the Latimer Massacre, among others. The biographical entries identify Polish Americans who have made significant contributions at the regional or national level either to the history and culture of the United States, or to the development of American Polonia.
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From the Pittsburgh Post Gazette: The Next Page / Pittsburgh doctor, Polish warrior: The Jerzy Einhorn story
A proud old man died the other day and a window on history closed.
Jerzy Einhorn was 92 when he passed away at his Mt. Lebanon home on July 4.
A prominent doctor in his native Poland in the 1960s, he came to the U.S. in 1967 and became an endocrinologist at Montefiore Hospital, where he treated thousands of patients and directed the thyroid screening program. He also established health clinics in Hazelwood and Greenfield and taught at the University of Pittsburgh.
Dr. Einhorn leaves behind a wife and three children from two marriages. He also leaves behind a back story from his youth straight from the movies — a tale full of Nazis, narrow escapes and dangerous liaisons in occupied Poland during World War II.
A Polish cavalry officer, he fought the Germans in 1939 and then served with the Polish underground Home Army in the Warsaw Uprising, a battle that ended with the Nazi annihilation of the city in 1944.
He won military decorations, escaped captivity multiple times, twice crossed the Eastern Front, swam the Vistula River and ended up imprisoned and beaten by the Soviet secret police in 1945.
He lost his father — forced to dig his own grave before being shot — and a sister, sent to a concentration camp with her two children.
His story is one of millions from that time, but unlike many others, he wrote it all down in a memoir, “Recollections of the End of an Era,” published in Polish in 2000 and translated into English in 2005…
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From A Polish Son: Wesley Adamczyk Speaks the Truth about Katyń
Chicago Polish-American author Wesley Adamczyk invited me to his home on July 14, 2011, to see his exhibition. As I make my way in, he advises me to watch out for the electrical cords running to a strategically placed floor lamp in his living room. He has positioned several lamps to shine on his collection of memorabilia and publications related to the Katyń Massacre and the deportation of Poles to Siberia at the beginning of World War II.
“Some of my collection I have displayed on the walls and tables,” he says, “and some things I am going to display through multimedia. This is a display of a performance piece titled Two Christmas Eves,” he indicates, pointing to a poster, “one in Poland shortly before the war, one in Siberia in 1941, after my family and thousands of other Polish people were deported to Siberia in 1940.” The drawings contrast the cultured family life Adamczyk knew as a child with the brutality of the Soviets…
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From the Cosmopolitan Review: Radioactive: Marie and Pierre Curie, a Tale of Love and Fallout, a review by Margaret Butler
Lauren Redniss has written a very modern portrait of this celebrated couple that is a treat to read. From the custom type created by the author to the layout of the sparse text to the illustrations, the author presents a biography that captures not only the linear progression of the lives of these scientific giants, but connects their work to its effects in the world. “Radioactive” is a work of art.
One key to the success of this book is the incorporation of numerous quotes of Marie, Pierre, and others. Actual words help the reader relate to the Curies and to their time. In addition, the accounts and testimonies of other sources linked to the Curies’ work help the reader understand the magnitude of their discoveries. This is especially evident in chapter 5 “Instability of Matter” in which Marie’s thesis that radiation may inhibit malignant cell growth is followed by the 2001 testimony of a cancer patient being treated for Non-Hodgkins lymphoma with a thermoplastic radiation mask. The same chapter included the development of the atom bomb, the Manhattan Project, a copy of declassified FBI files, and the testimony of a Hiroshima survivor.
As the story of Pierre and Marie Curie progresses chronologically through the nine chapters of the book, the author mirrors the characters’ personal and professional lives with other seemingly random events…
One underlying theme of the book is the remarkable partnership of individuals who, working together, discover something new. At the turn of the century, an amazing confluence of scientific discoveries and ideas created an atmosphere where information was shared among scientists. Beginning with Pierre and Marie who never sought a patent for their discoveries, to Marie and Paul Langevin, then to Marie and her daughter Irene, then Irene and her husband Frederic Joliot, etc., these relationships clearly show the benefit of sharing ideas and how those ideas spread with a life of their own throughout the scientific community.
The book spotlights Marie’s great personal strength. As the reader follows Marie’s life, one begins to understand the tremendous challenges she overcame starting with her Polish childhood in Russian-occupied Poland. Her clandestine studies through the secret “Flying University” allowed her to acquire an education so thorough that she could ably compete as one of 23 women of 1800 students attending the Sorbonne. Conducting the physically exhausting work of proving the existence of polonium and radium, and later suffering through radium toxicity did not detract from Marie’s focus on scientific study and the raising of her two daughters…
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From Mary Akers: Radical Gratitude by Andrew Bienkowski and Mary Akers was recently translated into Polish and published as Radykalna Wdzięczność.
Radical Gratitude is both narrative and inspiring practical guidance, telling the story of one family’s survival in Stalinist Siberia. That experience develops into a guide to becoming a person who can give to others. Each chapter details the ways we can achieve radical gratitude (learning to be grateful even for the difficult experiences in life). Andrew Bienkowski has spent more than 40 years as a clinical therapist. At the age of six, he and his family were forced to leave their Polish homeland for Siberia where his grandfather deliberately starved to death so that the women and children might have enough to eat. The years that followed were harrowing and influenced his entire life. After Siberia, the family spent a year in an Iranian refugee camp where Andrew nearly died from dysentery, malaria and malnutrition. Three years in Palestine followed, a year in England, before he finally immigrated to America where he went on to earn a Masters in Clinical Psychology. Mary Akers’ work has appeared in a number of international literary journals, many related to health and healing.
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Around the Polish-American writing community
2The activity at the Polish American Writers & Editors Facebook page has been wonderful. There are links to book and poetry reviews and blogs, opportunities for writers, excellent analysis and recommendations. I highly recommend that anyone who writes or loves to read, or who has an interest in writing become a member of this group.
Some recent/not-so-recent material:
Andy Golebiowski notes Rita Cosby’s book about her father’s participation in the Polish Underground during WWII is now in paperback and close to becoming a bestseller.
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Linda Ciulik Wisniewski recommends Off Kilter: A Woman’s Journey to Peace With Scoliosis, Her Mother, and Her Polish Heritage by Linda C. Wisniewski.
Even before she was diagnosed with scoliosis at thirteen, Linda C. Wisniewski felt off kilter. Born to an emotionally abusive father and long-suffering mother in the Polish Catholic community of upstate New York, Linda twisted herself into someone always trying to please. Balance would elude her until she learned to stretch her Self as well as her spine. Only by accepting her physical deformity, her emotionally unavailable mother, and her heritage would she finally find a life that fit.
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Krysia Styrna points to Polish Writing which features Polish literature in translation. Recently linked translations include Kordian by Juliusz Słowacki as translated by Gerard T. Kapolka and available on-line through Scribd, and Primeval and Other Times by Olga Tokarczuk as translated by Antonia Lloyd-Jones.
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Dr. John Guzlowski discusses the New England Review’s article by Ellen Hinsey on the plane crash that killed President Lech Kaczynski and others last year in the Katyn Forest. The article talks extensively and sympathetically about the effect of the crash on Poland. See Hinsey – Death in the Forest.
He notes Polish American writer Danusha Goska is travelling in Poland and posting Facebook and blog updates about her travels at Bieganski the Blog.
Also noted, Daiva Markelis powerful book White Field, Black Sheep: A Lithuanian-American Life published by the Univ of Chicago Press about growing up Lithuanian-American. Her experiences in many ways parallel those of people who grew up Polish-American and the children of DPs. Read her recent interview at The Smoking Poet, Talking to Daiva Markelis
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Danuta Hinc provides a preview of her newest work, a short story entitled In the Forest of Angels. The story is inspired by real events and all the characters in the story are based on real people — her grandparents, mother, and herself.
Pol-Am writer Oriana Ivy continues her writing (absolutely fantastic and a regular read — an inspired and inquisitive poet) with Persephone and Aphrodite. There are many levels, but in short, the process of leaving Poland and coming to America, trauma, finding, and rebirth. She begins with her poem Eurydice In Milwaukee and concludes with Persephone’s Kitchen.
This poem is not about my loss of Warsaw so much as about my loss of America. I mean the idealized, imaginary America in my mind after I arrived in real America. I was seventeen. That combination – loss of both Poland and America – was to be the first in the series of my “Persephone experiences.” (Eurydice can be seen as a version of Persephone.)
In my early teens, in Warsaw, I fell in love with Greek mythology. I thought it was possible to choose your own special goddess. A fierce young intellectual, I longed for Athena at my side – Athena the super-intelligent, with her brilliant strategies and unfailing guidance and protection of heroes. Now and then I also longed for Aphrodite to lend me her charms and help me in matters of love, but with the understanding that this was a secondary goddess. As my personal goddess, I chose Athena.
Soon enough I learned that you do not choose your god or goddess. Life (or call it fate, or circumstances), in combination with your deep self, chooses for you. Past the age of seventeen and a half, the only goddess I identified with was Persephone…
There is tons more of course… all carrying you into a world of writing set apart, yet reflecting who we are in all its rootedness, shadows, and splendor.
Last minute Christmas gifts
A Good Read, a Great Gift
Submitted by Raymond Rolak
A last minute gift idea is, 303 Squadron: The Legendary Battle of Britain Fighter Squadron
In the summer of 1940, during the Nazi occupation of most of Europe, Great Britain stood alone. 303 Squadron is the eyewitness story of the celebrated Polish fighter pilots that flew for the RAF and helped save England during its most desperate hours.
The book contains over 200 photos, maps and illustrations. The accounts of the aerial dog fights are riveting and the “Battle of Britain” is placed in its correct historical context. These aviators helped turn the tide of World War II. D-Day was the beginning of the reclaiming of Europe. It was the victory during the air “Battle of Britain” that signified that victory for the Allies could be achieved.
As Winston Churchill said 70 years ago, “Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few”.
Also known as the Kościuszko Squadron the 303 was one of 16 Polish squadrons flying in England. It was the highest scoring squadron in the RAF during the “Battle of Britain”. Aviation buffs will marvel at the performance details given about the British Hurricanes, Spitfires and American Mustangs that the 303 flew. The book contains highlights to keep any historical enthusiast thoroughly entertained.
Remembering Ś+P Eddie “Double 300″ Lubanski
He Travelled as a Polish-American Ambassador: World Famous, Native Son Passes
By Raymond Rolak
TROY, MICHIGAN– In 1992, I became acquainted with Eddie Lubanski. When I was a little boy, I would watch him on Saturday television with my father. They had cigars. When I became Chairman of the National Polish-American Sports Hall of Fame, I got associated with Eddie Lubanski. He was much older and so very gracious when I told him the parallels between our fathers and baseball and bowling. Even more attentive was he, when I started to brag about Detroit and cigars. Eddie Lubanski was an original Motor City Ambassador.
He told Mark Danielewicz and me about old time Detroit baseball. “I wanted to play baseball at Wayne State but I started to make money bowling,” he said.
Lubanski was born in Detroit, a son of the depression but tough times did not get him down. Baseball was his first love, “I got to play for my dad in American Legion Baseball and in Federation ball. He was hard on me but I knew it was for my best. My cousin Leonard was a star with the Ternstedt Post- #166 team. He was the State of Michigan MVP in 1954. He won the Kiki Cuyler Award. The factory was on Livernois Avenue.”
That was Eddie Lubanski, deflecting the attention to somebody else.
Eddie was dominant on the diamonds in his own right. “We loved it when we got to play on Diamond # 1 at Northwestern. The infield was manicured like a pool table,” he said. Lubanski signed as a pitcher with the old St. Louis Browns and bounced around in the minors. “I got my perseverance from my father, Edward. The minors were depressing. I was playing in Wisconsin and decided that I had a better future in bowling. It wasn’t a good life for Betty.”
He started to talk about me. We wanted his stories, but he acted interested in us. “Ray, I heard you and Tom Paciorek speak about perseverance. That is the key. I told my boys during their youth hockey, don’t give up. You two played baseball at Wayne State, I followed that. Mark, I used to watch your brother play football. I am Michigan State through and through, you know. My boys are Spartans.” We were stunned. How would Eddie Lubanski know that? Why would he know that? “Mark, you caught Doug Konieczny. He is the only baseball player from Wayne State to make the Major Leagues,” Lubanski added. Danielewicz and I looked at each other in amazement.
The astonishment of Eddie Lubanski’s sports knowledge had not worn off yet. Another former NPASHF Chairman, Buck Jerzy put it in perspective. Jerzy got to talk and travel with Lubanski extensively during the Detroit All-Star Classic days in the 60’s. Jerzy said, “Eddie was class, he was a gentlemen’s-gentleman. Classy and humble, he would focus and help the younger guys. He helped me; we would talk bowling and college hockey. He always gave me the angle.”
During our dinner at the American Polish Cultural Center in Troy, Lubanski reminisced, “My father took me to the old Chene-Trombly Recreation Lanes. Joe and John Paulus were the owners and they were instrumental in getting me started as a pin setter. I started with the Stroh Team and Fred Wolf really helped me.” Wolf had a televised Bowling show, ‘Championship Bowling’ that ran from 1954-1965. It was carried in more than 200 cities. “Wolf got me into the big time of bowling,” he added
That future was fulfilled and bowling brought Lubanski international notoriety. His television matches on ABC-TV with Johnny King were legendary. King would sport giant Churchill cigars, much bigger than Eddie’s. During the pro-ladder matches Lubanski would use body-English to coax his pin roll. It was pure theater. King was known to jump over the ball returns after a double strike. King would trash talk and play to the crowds. Eddie was more reserved and ever so watchful. It was the equivalent of Muhammad Ali versus Joe Frazier. The King-Lubanski matches always got the largest ratings, they were the heavyweight performers. Don Carter and Dick Weber were other notable and popular television foes.
Lubanski’s two-finger, five-step delivery began to show great results along his bowling tournament travels. He won the World’s Invitational Championship in Chicago in 1958, and then followed that with an amazing four titles in the 1959 at the American Bowling Congress tournament in St. Louis. He was voted Bowler of the Year in 1959 and named to the All-American Bowling Teams in 1958 and 1959. He won numerous BPAA titles.
“I loved the feel and control the two-fingered ball gave me and most especially the revolutions I was able to manufacture,” said Lubanski. He also told about the old Detroit Recreation Center on Lafayette and Shelby. “It had six floors of lanes and billiard tables, and a lot of ‘sharpies’. It was a bowler’s palace,” he said. “Eighty-eight lanes and the best cigar stand in the city. I won a lot of money there. People came there just to see the place, so much action. That was Detroit.”
He is noted in the Guinness Book of Records for carrying a 204 average for 25 years. “The fifties and sixties were so alive and exciting in Detroit,” he added.
Also, in 1959, Lubanski got to icon status when he bowled a 300 game on television. He had the “Great Double 300” in Florida at Miami’s Bowling Palace. “I was in a zone that you only find a few times in a career,” he told me about that night in 1959. “It was easily my proudest moment as an athlete. Don’t think bowlers aren’t athletes. Most times we would bowl six games and that took a toll. I advocated bowling to become a varsity sport in the NCAA.”
Lubanski has been inducted to five separate Halls of Fame. He was inducted into the NPASHF in 1978. He was very proud to advance Polonia. “Everything I earned was related to my Polish-American upbringing, he said. With a smile and a twinkle he added, “And my wife’s faith in God and family.” Betty overheard, she smiled even longer.
Most recently along with writers Kevin Allen and Del Reddy he was promoting his autobiography, “King of the Pins”. He was forthcoming about a past drinking problem and his new passion was for mentoring in Alcoholics Anonymous. “I owe my life to Betty,” he said. “I can afford to give back.”
In all, Lubanski posted 11 sanctioned 300 games. He captained the Detroit Thunderbirds in the team National Bowling League in 1961 and 1962. They won the championship.
Son Paul said, “My father was a hero, a true hero and he inspired. He defeated his alcoholism and he anonymously helped save the lives of others.”
A Memorial Mass will be held on Friday at 10:00 A.M. at Our Lady of Fatima Catholic Church in Oak Park. Lubanski is survived by his wife Betty. They were married for 62 years and travelled the world together because of bowling. Children, Janis, Edward, Paul and Robert survive their father. A daughter, Denise, predeceased him and he will be cremated and interred with her. All the Lubanski children graduated from Oak Park High School in Michigan. Edward and Paul played hockey at Michigan State.
Science challenges “received wisdom” on Christianity
From Christian Newswire: What is Really Happening in the Church — A Sociologist Shatters Myths from the Secular and Christian Media
You’ve probably heard the many negative media reports about the evangelical church, such as:
- Christian young people are leaving the Christian faith in record numbers
- The divorce rate among Christians is as high as those of nonbelievers
- Christians today are watered down in their beliefs and actions
But are these truly accurate?
In “Christians Are Hate-Filled Hypocrites…and Other Lies You’ve Been Told: A Sociologist Shatters Myths From the Secular and Christian Media
” (Bethany House), sociologist Bradley R.E. Wright, PhD, shatters these popular myths, along with many others. Using the best available data, he reveals to readers why and how many of the commonly shared statistics are incomplete and inaccurate.
He discusses the different dynamics of how statistics are often misquoted as they get passed on and how even Christian leaders will pick statistics for their usefulness rather than for accuracy.
And he highlights the problems caused for the church by the continuing emphasis on negatively slanted statistics.
“My goal is not to show the Church in a particular light but rather to let the data speak for itself,” he says. His book describes how Christians are doing in six areas: church growth, what Christians believe, their participation in church activities, family and sexual issues, how Christians treat others, and how others perceive Christians.
As Wright has examined the data, he finds a richer, more nuanced story about what’s happening with religion in America. Though Wright focuses on Evangelical Christians (because that is his vantage point as one himself), he also analyzes Mainline Protestants and Catholics. As a result, many of the ideas in this book apply to American Christianity more generally.
And the result is some surprisingly good news for Christians….
On Russian history
1From the NY Times: A History of 20th-Century Russia, Warts and All
A new two-volume history of Russia’s turbulent 20th century is being hailed inside and outside the country as a landmark contribution to the swirling debate over Russia’s past and national identity.
Written by 45 historians led by Andrei Zubov, a professor at the institute that serves as university to the Russian Foreign Ministry, the weighty history —” almost 1,000 pages per volume —” was published this year by AST Publishers and is already in its second printing of 10,000 copies.
Retailing at the rough equivalent of $20 a volume and titled —History of Russia. XX Century,— the books try to rise above ideologically charged clashes over Russia’s historical memory. They are critical both of czarist and Communist Russia, and incorporate the history of Russian emigration and the Russian Orthodox Church into the big picture of a chaotic, violent century. While written from a clearly Christian perspective —” one author is a Russian Orthodox priest…
Eminent historians in the United States and Poland who often take a critical view of Russia’s passionate, partisan discussion of history lauded its balance.
—Nothing like it has ever been published in Russia,— Richard Pipes, the Harvard University Sovietologist, wrote in an e-mail message, noting that he was trying to raise money for a translation and publication in English. —It is a remarkable work: remarkable not only for Russia but also for Western readers. For one, it has gotten away from the nationalism so common in Russian history books, according to which the Russians were always the victims of aggression, never aggressors.—
Mr. Pipes noted that it made extensive use of Western sources —” rare in Russia —” and praised its attention to often overlooked questions of the role of morals and religious beliefs…
How the Resurrection Changes Everything
Facebook and longtime on-line friend Adrian Warnock on his new book: Raised with Christ: How the Resurrection Changes Everything
Raised With Christ: How The Resurrection Changes Everything from Adrian Warnock on Vimeo.
