Maurycy beniowski biography of abraham

80 years ago, in 1941 in the Swiss capital of Bern, Polish diplomats began the so-called passport operation in cooperation with Jewish circles, the aim of which was to rescue Jews from the Holocaust. Aleksander Ładoś, Konstanty Rokicki, Abraham Silberschein, Chaim Eiss, Stefan Ryniewicz and Juliusz Kühl, otherwise known as the Ładoś Group, issued false passports and citizenship certificates of Latin American states to Jews under the threat of the Shoah. Their bearers would then be interned and later exchanged for German prisoners of war – they had a chance to avoid transportation to death camps and thus to save their lives.

For several years now the Pilecki Institute, in cooperation with Polish and foreign partners, has been conducting archival research and scientific studies into the activities of the Ładoś Group. One of the results is the 2019 publication of Lista Ładosia (The Ładoś List, English ed. 2020), which contains the names of more than 3,000 people to whom the passports were issued. Today we know that the operation of the Ładoś Group was not an isolated case, but formed part of broader activities of the Polish diplomacy both before and during the Second World War. Other Polish diplomats also offered assistance to Jews, for example in Leipzig, Istanbul and Tokyo. New archival findings and testimonies, discovered years after the fact, both inspire historical research and resonate with the public. The activities of Polish diplomats have recently been described among others in the “Daily Mail”, “Israel Hayom” and “The Jerusalem Post”.

Webinar (to register for the event, please click here) inaugurates the Year of the Ładoś Group established by the Polish Parliament, and is also part of the celebration of the National Day of Remembrance of Poles Rescuing Jews under German Occupation. On this occasion, we will present our trilingual Polish-English-Germa

Sztafeta (English: Relay Race) is a 1939 compendium of literary reportage written by Melchior Wańkowicz. It was published in the year of the German-Soviet invasion of Poland. Popular demand caused it to be reprinted four times by the Biblioteka Polska before the outbreak of hostilities. The book was never published in Communist Poland because it praised the democratic achievements of the prewar Second Polish Republic.

It gives an account of one of the biggest economic projects of the newly resurgent interwar Poland, its Central Industrial Area. The work has been described as a "colourful reporter's panorama, telling the story of the recovery of the Second Polish Republic". Ryszard Kapuściński wrote that Sztafeta "was the first grand reportage of its kind in Poland's history – written about Polish production effort". To write the book, Wańkowicz collected a great amount of background information, and he carried out dozens of interviews, starting with President Ignacy Mościcki and ending with sailors, coal miners and primary school teachers.

The book begins with an analysis of the situation of Poland in 1918, right after World War I. The country was in ruins, with two million houses destroyed; industry devastated; poverty, hunger and the threat of a cholera epidemic, all left behind by the Partitions of Poland. It goes on to describe the achievements of the Second Polish Republic, not only about the Central Industrial Area but also about the construction of Gdynia seaport, and of the political scandals such as the annexation of Trans-Olza.

The book was disliked by some members of the military establishment in Poland in 1939. Wańkowicz, they claimed, too frequently criticised the poverty and backwardness of Poland after over a century of foreign occupation.

Wańkowicz, who was one of the first modern Polish reporters to write about the economy, had authored a series of reports about the Central Indust

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Kanhoji Angria
Maratha Pirate
Active 1710 - 1729

African Muslim Kanhoji captured and fortified two islands near Bombay to use as his base in 1710 and was first to extort money from Indian and British shipping in that area. In 1712 he held for ransom the armed yacht of the East India Company's governor. Several years later he fought the British at Gheriah and Deoghur using specially built gun ships, and by the 1720's, he was a wealthy man whose captains commanded hundreds of well-armed vessels. When he died in 1729, he left his pirate kingdom to his son Sumbhaji Angria.

Thomas Anstis
British Pirate
Active 1718 - 1723

Captain Anstis sailed with Captain Howell Davis until Davis was murdered in June of 1719. Anstis then signed on with Captain Bartholomew Robert's crew and after Captain Roberts captured a Brigantine in the West Indies, Anstis was made Captain of the Good Fortune and shortly thereafter stole the ship.

Captain Anstis sailed to the Caribbean where he plundered merchant ships and eventually seized a large ship called the Morning Star. John Fenn was put in charge as Captain.

Anstis and Fenn decided to quit pirating and petitioned the king for pardons stating they were forced into piracy by Captain Roberts. Many pirates signed documents stating they were forced into piracy with the understanding that if they got caught, they could claim innocence. While awaiting a response, they camped on an uninhabited island off Cuba. After nine months without word from the king, they returned to a life of piracy.

At sea, a storm came upon them, and the Morning Star was wrecked on Grand Cayman Island. While Captain Anstis was saving Captain Fenn and his crew, two British warships arrived on the scene. Fortunately, the savage winds died down and the pirates were able to row the Good Fortune to safety.

Setting sail again, they went in