25 medals

Three days ago, we celebrated the 100th anniversary of regaining independence. We celebrated the occasion in various ways – hanging out the Polish flag, taking part in the independence march, singing all the verses of the Dąbrowski Mazurka…

I don’t watch Polish television, so I don’t know how it was publicized, but on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of Poland regaining its independence, President Duda decided to distinguish 25 Poles who served our country with the Order of the White Eagle. Let me present them for you, with a short description of each person.

Stefan Banach – one of the greatest mathematicians of the twentieth century, the creator of the so-called Lviv school of mathematics.

Archbishop Antoni Baraniak – secretary of Primates of Poland: August Hlond and Stefan Wyszyński. Imprisoned and tortured by the communists for three years, he did not testify against Stefan Wyszyński.

Bishop Juliusz Bursche – Polish evangelical cleric of German descent. He was arrested by the Germans during the WWII and tortured – but he did not renounce his Polishness. He died of exhaustion. A martyr.

Ignacy Daszyński – socialist politician, prime minister of the Lublin Government in 1918, highly deserved in the creation of the Second Polish Republic.

Roman Dmowski – Polish independence activist, co-founder of the National Democracy and the main ideologist of Polish nationalism.

Szymon Fedorońko – Polish Orthodox priest, Orthodox chaplain of the Polish Army, victim of the Katyn Massacre.

Halina Konopacka – the winner of the first Olympic gold medal for Poland (1928), along with her husband, Ignacy Matuszewski, participated in the evacuation of Polish gold in 1939.

Hilary Koprowski – virologist, inventor of the world’s first polio vaccine that causes Heine-Medina disease.

Janusz Korczak – Polish doctor of Jewish origin. An activist for children’s rights. Founder of the Jewish orphans’ home, with whom he died in a German concentration camp.

Wojciech Kossak – Polish historical and battle painter, co-creator of Panorama Racławicka painting and creator of many famous paintings showing events from the history of Poland and the Napoleonic Wars.

Zofia Kossak-Szczucka – Wojciech Kossak’s niece. Novelist and founder of the Council to Aid Jews, Żegota. She was imprisoned in the Pawiak and took part in the Warsaw Uprising. Awarded the title of “Righteous Among the Nations”.

Leon Kryczyński – Polish historian of Tatar origin and social activist. Murdered by the Germans in 1939.

Kornel Makuszyński – writer and author of many novels, mainly for young people, including “The two who stole the moon” 😉 (O dwóch takich, co ukradli księżyc, with Jarosław and Lech Kaczyński playing the main characters).

Olga Drahonowska-Małkowska – one of the creators of Polish Scouting.

Andrzej Małkowski – one of the creators of Polish Scouting.

Stanisław Mierzwa – lawyer and activist of the agrarian movement. Sentenced in the so-called the process of sixteen (demonstrative process of the leaders of the Polish Underground State).

Jędrzej Moraczewski – soldier of Pilsudski’s Legions, socialist politician, prime minister and minister of the Government of the Second Polish Republic.

Leon Petrażycki – lawyer, philosopher and political activist.

Maciej Rataj – a people’s activist and the Speaker of the Sejm of the Republic of Poland. After the assassination of President Narutowicz, Rataj was the Acting President of the Republic of Poland for six days and for a half of a month after resignation of President Wojciechowski. He was shot by the Germans in Palmiry.

Władysław Stanisław Reymont – writer and one of the four Polish Nobel Prize laureates in the field of literature (for the novel “Chłopi” – The Peasants).

Maria Skłodowska-Curie – Polish physicist and chemist, two-time Nobel laureate – in the field of chemistry and physics.

Stanisław Sosabowski – General of the Polish Army, he organised and commanded the 1st Polish Independent Parachute Brigade, with whom he fought in the Market-Garden operation.

Baruch Steinberg – the chief rabbi of the Polish Army, the victim of the Katyń Massacre.

Karol Szymanowski – composer and pianist. The second most popular Polish composer after Chopin.

Stefan Żeromski – writer, he was nominated for the Nobel Prize four times. Due to the issues of social inequality raised in his work, he was called the “conscience of the nation”.

A beautiful cross-section of the history of the Polish nation: people from different backgrounds, nationalities and religions – this is Poland!

Order of the White Eagle