Kresy Family Past Events

Welcome to KRESY FAMILY

PAST EVENTS AND REVIEWS 2018

(Click on the Read more link for the full article and images)

Click here for PAST EVENTS 2019

**************

PLAY DISCUSSION: Silence The Play
Wednesday 20 June 2018 at 7:00 p.m. at Ognisko Polskie, London, UK

The story of three generations of Polish women.
What holds them together? What tears them apart?
Award-winning playwright Nicola Werenowska introduced and read extracts from her new play ‘Silence’ followed by an audience discussion on intergenerational effects of war and displacement through the lens of the UK’s postwar Polish community and their children and grandchildren.
On the panel was Dr Renee Luthra, Senior Lecturer Department of Sociology University of Essex, an academic specialist on Polish migration/integration together with our very own Mirka Wojnar, Chair of Kresy Family

The play is told from the perspective of three generations of women, the 3 protagonists, a mother, daughter and granddaughter, represent Poland’s past, present and future.

Silence spans 70 years from prewar Poland to post-Brexit UK, and questions the fabric of family. What holds families together and what tears them apart? What happens when silences break? When the unspeakable is spoken?

Silence is a play for our times as it confronts the topical subject of intergenerational effects (featured on BBC Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour) and how it affects people who have themselves (or their parents) suffered extensive psychological trauma primarily through displacement as refugees.

**************

Kresy Family Polish WWII History Group

at the Manchester Histories Festival

Central Library, St. Peter's Square

on Sunday 10 June 2018 from 12.00 to 16.00
**************

Polish Heritage Day 2018

The second edition of Polish Heritage Day saw 76 events organised across the United Kingdom

between 5th May and 4th June 2018

Kresy Family Polish WWII History Group invite to Polish Heritage Day in London, UK
Creative Workshop SILENCE
Sunday 6th May 2018 2-5pm
at POSK, 238-246 King St 1st Floor, W6 0RF London, UK
The creative WORKSHOP included

LISTENING to readings from “SILENCE” a play in progress by Nicola Werenowska
DISCUSSION with the playwright the themes of deportation and displacement
EXPLORATION of the aftermath of trauma
RECALLING of early childhood through imaginative exercises in visualisation
RETRACING of memories of people and places

**************
Kresy Family Polish WWII History Group invite to Polish Heritage Day in Manchester, UK
KRESY forever
Saturday 5 May 2018
2.00-4.00 pm
Performance Space, Manchester Central Library,
St Peter’s Square, Manchester M2 5PD

Kresy Family Polish WWII History Group presented an exhibition by Krzysztof Hoffmann from Warsaw comprising a unique collection of personal photographs and documents from families who came from the Eastern borderlands of Poland (Kresy) and settled in Manchester and the UK after WWII.

The exhibition provided an insight into Poland’s history, how Poles came to Manchester after fighting alongside their British allies during WWII, how they integrated into the British way of life and their contributions not only during the war but to British society.

A selection of books and DVDs about life in pre-war Kresy, the mass deportations to Siberia in 1940/41, personal memoirs and Poland’s WWII history were available.
WWII veterans and survivors told their personal stories.
Information how to research Polish family history ws provided.
Polish dancers in traditional costumes performed.
Polish cakes and food were available to sample.
Polish craft activity for families was enjoyed.

3 - 13 April 2018 - POSK London - Kresy forever (Kresy Nieutracone) Exhibition

This highly successful exhibition created by Krzysztof Hoffmann was organised by Kresy family. The event was covered by TV Polonia in an interview with Aneta Hoffmann to listen (in Polish) click here, and Krzysztof Hoffman to listen (in Polish) click here.

Tydzień Polski covered the event on the cover on 6 April with a further two pages inside. The following issue included a further page.

Further information about the exhibition
The exhibition “KRESY forever” has been the result of the first stage of the digitisation project of the same name, undertaken by Krzysztof Hoffmann since 2016 in partnership with Kresy Family. This project embraces the search for and digitisation of material held in private archives scattered throughout the world to save it from being lost. It aims to create a comprehensive collection of archived photos, documents and other items connected to Poland’s past eastern borderlands (Kresy) and to bring it to the attention of the widest possible audience. We wish to rescue that which is most beautiful, left behind but still remains alive in our hearts.

The banners in the mobile exhibition represent only a fraction of the collected material. Over the last two years, it proved possible to find and digitalise in excess of 10,000 archived items - view website here

The entire exhibition presents some four hundred unique photographs and documents from the borderlands on thirty roll-up banners that have never been previously displayed. These were found and digitised in 2016 and 2017 in Poland and UK (London, Eastbourne, Manchester, Huddersfield, Glasgow, Penrhos and elsewhere). The exhibition is arranged in thematic groups, corresponding to the subject of the presented collections. These are: “The People of Kresy”, “In Polish Uniform”, “Kresy in Documents”, “Old Postcards from Kresy”, “The Press”, “Daily Life in Kresy”, “Kresy Pearls” and “On the Frontline in the Great War”.

The project will be progressed in 2018 in the UK, as well as Canada and in the territories of the eastern borderlands - in Lithuania, Belarus and Ukraine. Towards the end of the current year - the 100th anniversary of independence - the exhibition is to be enlarged with collections which we hope to find in 2018. Together with the multimedia version, it will be presented in a public location in central Warsaw. Exhibitions are planned for other towns and cities in Poland and in the UK and, as far as is possible, on the territories of the previous eastern borderlands.

****

24 March 2018 - Manchester Airport.

Kresy Family participated in the memorial ceremony in honour of the Cursed Soldiers, the Silent and Unseen, Special Elite Operations paratroopers and 1st Independent Polish Parachute Brigade. The memorial stone is situated on the site used to train the Brigade in preparation for operations in Europe.

****

10 February 2018 - We Remembered those Deported from Kresy to Siberia

At the Lowiczanka restaurant in POSK, London, Kresy Family Polish WWII History Group commemorated the 78th anniversary of the first of four deportations of an estimated 1.7 million Polish citizens to Siberia in 1940 and 1941.

****

4 February 2018 - Bradford Remembers

Representatives from the Kresy Family Polish WWII History Group and Stowarzyszenie Husaria Manchester travelled to Bradford to commemorate the 78th anniversary of the mass deportations to Siberia which took place in 1940/41.

An estimated 1.7 million Polish citizens from the Eastern Borderlands of Poland (known as Kresy) were forcibly removed by the Soviets in four waves starting on 10 February 1940 and continuing on 12-13 April 1940, 28-29 June 1940 and 13-22 June 1941.

The commemorative event was organised by Romana Pizon, President of the Friends of Polish Veterans Association (SPPW) Kolo Nr. 451 Bradford.

At 11.15 am, mass was said at the Polish Church of Our Lady of Czestochowa followed by a commemorative lunch in the Polish Catholic Centre on Edmund Street which was attended by 120 people including Siberian survivors, WWII veterans, their families and friends. Some had travelled from Accrington, Bury, Manchester, Oldham and the surrounding areas.

Czeslaw Misiaczek spoke about the fallen and murdered in the East and the new Vice Consul Monika Rusiecka from the Consulate General of the RP in Manchester explained that the deportations are a very important part of Poland’s history and paid tribute to the Siberian survivors who are an example for the younger and future generations to learn from. Their stories and experiences, many of which have been recorded and written in books will not be forgotten.

Singing group Kabaret Piosenki from Manchester entertained the guests with traditional Polish songs including the most moving Hymn Sybiraków written by Marian Jonkajtys.

They live still because we remember them…

Click here for published article in Tydzień Polski with images

****

BBC History Magazine article about Anders Army, written by Monica Whitlock

Click here to read the article

*****

Kresy Family Polish WWII History Group

will be at the Manchester Histories Festival

Central Library, St. Peter's Square

on Sunday 10 June from 12.00 to 16.00

**************

Celebrate Polish Heritage Day near you!

The second edition of Polish Heritage Day will see 76 events organised across the United Kingdom

between 5th May and 4th June. Discover our virtual map and see what activities are planned near you!
http://londyn.msz.gov.pl/en/news/celebrate_polish_heritage_day_near_you_