Many soldiers belonging to General Władysław Anders' Army and families rescued from Soviet Russia by the army, found a place to live in the United States. Some of these survivors became members of the Piłsudski Institute in America.
2nd Polish Corps - Italy
The Warsaw Uprising was the largest military uprising in German-occupied Europe. The unequal fight lasted 63 days from August 1 to October 2, 1944. After years of inhumane and criminal German occupation, which brought new crimes every day, the people of Warsaw took up arms. On Monday, July 31 at 7 p.m., Colonel Antoni Chruściel "Monter", commander of the Warsaw Home Army District, signed the order to begin the Uprising and sent it to his subordinate commanders. On August 1, 1944, at 5 p.m., insurgent units attacked previously designated objects in all districts of the city. The insurgents' task was to occupy strategic points and hold them until the Red Army entered Warsaw. Although the insurgents managed to take over most of the city center with the Old Town by August 4, they failed to capture important military facilities, bridges, airports, train stations, command centers, barracks and office buildings. The Home Army consisted of roughly 50,000 young soldiers in the city. They were mainly intelligentsia, graduates of underground Warsaw secondary schools and colleges, students associated with the Home Army underground during the occupation, and members of the underground scouts.
Antoni Stefan Koper
Ignacy Jan Paderewski
Ignacy Jan Paderewski (1860-1941) was a well known pianist and politician, admired by the world. He was one of the most famous artists in the USA at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. He divided his life between Switzerland and America. Paderewski used to say that the recipe for an artist is: “one percent talent, ten percent luck and 90 percent work.” This was absolutely true in America. Paderweski loved and admired the United States, where he spent many years traveling to concerts, between California and New York. America gave Paderewski fame, money and contacts as well as a platform to get involved in the fight for Poland’s independence. New York and the surrounding area were key; this is where his American adventure began, and ended. Paderweski made his debut in the United States on November 17, 1891, in New York with a solo performance at the prestigious Carnegie Hall at the age of 31.
J.Beck's official visit in Berlin, July 1935, from the left: ambassador J.Lipski, Polish minister of foreign affars Jozef Beck and his German counterpart K. von Neurath. Source - National Digital Archives of Poland
President Mościcki in Nowy Targ, Poland in 1929
I really like black and white photographs, and those from the time period of the Second Polish Republic have special charm. It was undoubtedly a very interesting, though not easy, period in the history of Poland. The process of merging the multinational and multireligious parts of the Republic, which until recently were part of three different states, was extremely challenging. Economically, the country was backward after many years of Partitions, three different currencies were used, and the existence of the state at the beginning of the 1920s was very fragile. It was a period of dramatic struggle for the shape of Poland's borders: the heroic defense of Lviv and the fights for Eastern Galicia, conflict with the Czechs over Zaolzie, the time of the Silesian uprisings, the Greater Poland Uprising, and the Polish-Bolshevik war of 1919-1921.
Rebuilding the state was a long and difficult process. Undoubtedly, despite the enormous difficulties that Poland was facing at that time, a lot was achieved. The extraordinary enthusiasm of both: intellectual elites and ordinary people, helped in the transformation process. In the 1920s, the Polish government introduced a monetary reform. The reform saved Poland from hyperinflation and a new currency - the Polish zloty was introduced. A number of new universities were opened; including, University of Science and Technology in Krakow, University of Poznań, and Stefan Batory's University in Vilnius was re-opened.
Letters wrote by polish soldiers to Stefania Bardzilowska during the World War II
The art of letter writing is becoming forgotten, and although everyone likes to receive them, letters are quickly being replaced by other forms of communication. Instead of writing a letter, we prefer to send a text message or email to the other person, and we can count on an immediate response, even if they are on the other side of the world. In the past when there were no modern inventions, letters were very important. They were not only a means of conveying information, under special circumstances, such as travel, war or exile, they became particularly meaningful.
Indeed, letters lifted the spirits of soldiers fighting in the Polish Army in the West, full of bitterness, sadness, and longing, usually exchanged between completely strangers, were often the only form of communication with the outside world. Polish soldiers, prisoners of war, wrote letters asking for help, and in response, received food packages for a long time through International Red Cross.
Many letters preserved in our collection, were written by Stefania Bardziłowska to Polish soldiers in German's captivity, as well as to soldiers of the Polish Armed Forces fighting in the West, who could not maintain contact with their families. To keep morale up, a program of letters exchange with regular civilians from Polonia was introduced. Many such letters were addressed to Stefania Bardziłowska, a social activist living in Chicago, deeply involved in providing aid to polish soldiers in the West. Ms. Bardziłowska, organized shipments of food packages and sent supporting letters for the soldiers. Although, in accordance to the Geneva Convention, correspondence with prisoners of war was restricted only to close relatives and family members, Bardziłowska managed to obtain a number of addresses of Polish prisoners of war from the International Red Cross. For quite some time, German and American censorship kept the food packages program running.
A few months ago, the Institute received an e-mail from a historical reconstruction group from Poland, in connection with the 80th anniversary of the defense of Tobruk (located in Libya, near the border with Egypt). The group wanted to see the photos of the Independent Carpathian Rifle Brigade's soldiers. We keep many photos of the Independent Brigade in our archives, thus the email was an impulse for us to digitize another part of our collection. This time, we managed to prepare an unique collection, a great source of the information about the WWII battles in North Africa. 
Anthony Eden, British Foreign Secretary with the soldiers of the Brigade, October 1941
Preparing the photos for an online presentation is a tedious process, first, we have to research the collection diligently, then make a selection of photos, next the photos have to be scanned, annotated and finally posted online. After a few weeks of work, the project was successfully completed. We have posted photos showing the soldiers' training, the construction of the Latrun camp, fortifications near Tobruk, exercises and combat operations of the Independent Carpathian Rifle Brigade's soldiers. In the black-and-white photos we see soldiers' difficult life in the desert, all the sacrifices; fight in unfavorable weather conditions, under the constant threat from the enemy.
