Pytano mnie,  dlaczego akurat tę książkę podarowałem Bibliotece Szkolnej Liceum w Ustce. Za granicą, kiedyś spotkałem absolwentkę naszego LO (po studiach) jej wiedza historii była na poziomie cenzurowanej przez Moskwe historii, ze wszystkimi jej klamstwami, którch uczyła się w Liceum.

                                                                                                                                     Janusz Kolasinski, M.S.

A Question of Honor
The Kościuszko Squadron- Lynne Olson and Stanley Cloud

British Prime Minister Winston Churchill's and President Franklin D. Roosevelt's euphoria over "Uncle Joe" (Joseph Dzhgashvili ) Stalin led to the dark years of bloody Soviet occupation in Central and Eastern Europe.
The betrayal of the loyal allies in the Polish military by the British and the Americans had a great effect on those who were defending Great Britain and other ally fronts of Europe and Africa. The Polish soldiers under British command fought bravely against the German Nazis, hoping to return at the end of the war to free Poland. After the famous Yalta Agreement, they did not have a country to come back to. In 1945, Poland became free from the German occupation only to be enslaved by the Soviets.
At one time, in the1970's, not too long before I decided to escape from Communist Poland, I happened to be sitting on a bench facing an apartment
building, reading a newspaper, when I heard some children's voices from a playground. One of the girls, a first grader, or perhaps younger shouted, "I found it! "It is A Miracle on Vistula River ("Cud nad Wisla"). It was a play on words, without meaning for the children at play. But the actual miracle on the banks of Vistula River has a historic meaning; during the War of 1920, the Polish Army had won the battle on the banks of the major river in Poland called Vistula. At that time the Polish Army had won a significant victory over the Bolsheviks.
I would not have paid any attention to this whole ordeal, if it had not been for what happened later. Out of nowhere a man came and started screaming at the children. He yelled; "There was no any miracle on the "Vistula River"! He insulted the children, and they ran away. I looked at him from behind the newspaper and saw that he was dressed like a street bum, yet from his behavior I guessed that he was a member of the political secret police. Why did they have to invigilate those children? -I thought.
During the formative years of my generation, the Soviets controlled the government in Poland and manipulated the history and literature of the Polish nation; school text books were full of lies. The Soviets victimized in this way an entire generation of young Poles.
Professor J.L. of the Ustka's Lyceum, how can you undo all the lies you taught in your history classes? I quote: The Second World War never happened from the Soviet border on September 17th; Joseph Piłsudski was an evil man, a Nazi sympathizer and a dreadful politician. You never mentioned Gulags, or thousands of Polish residents from the areas of Lwów to Vilnius, who were arrested and deported to the Gulags or annihilated. Katyn was mentioned as a Nazi war crime instead of Soviet's atrocities committed against Polish  P.O.W.s in 1939. The Warsaw uprising was a crime, committed by the people of Warsaw. General Anders, according to your teachings, was a coward who didn't want to fight the Nazis, who escaped to the west because he was a Nazi sympathizer. The soldiers in the Polish Army A.K. were a bunch of criminals; you did not mention that members of  A.K. were arrested by the Soviet political police, dressed in German Nazi uniforms, and kept in many of the concentration labor camps; sentenced to death, when they were marching through the streets of the city of Jaworzno, the locals were spitting at them as if they were war criminals, not knowing that they were heroes who defended Poland between 1939 and 1945. Mr. L., you berated my entire generation. Maybe my brother Jerzy and I were an exception in your history classes because we had our private Polish History lessons taught by our father, an A.K. Soldier who participated in the Warsaw Uprising and who was a village school-teacher holding a university degree. For some people, whom you and others like you have taught Communist lies, those lies are still the truth, and those people are the victims of Soviet distortion and censorship.
Polish Scouting was a part of the Polish military during the war and I learned from my father about "Szare Szeregi". He told me about his girl cousin Girl Scout Leader 18-year old Girl Scout Leader Wanda Wysocka, who, together with 450 Girl and Boy Scouts, were killed by the Nazis in the forests of the Polish city of Skarzysko.
I become a Scouting organization leader in my Secondary school of Ustka to honor her memory. I managed to make the Scouting group a major organization in the city. Many did not know, including my beloved professor of English knew (whom the school director put in charge of our organization)--that the principles of Scouting and the ideology of Baden-Powell were part of our scouting organization; but we kept it a secret, so the communists did not become aware of it. And I thank my team leaders Cezary, Roma, and Jerzy for never discussing it with anyone, including Mr. Z. whom school administrators had put in charge of the organization.

In 1967 Our "Światowit Szczep" was well known in the district, and this caused Mr. Z. to be raised form the position of a simple English professor to the rank of the First Secretary of the Communist Party. This was yet another betrayal to us and our principles, and I never forgave him his promotion.

Some years later I found myself in a similar position to that of the numbers of the Kościuszko Squadron after the war. Nobody in the free world was waiting for Polish immigrants, the best job offered could be a janitorial position, and, on many occasions I heard as the pilots, and other military personnel from WWII shout "Go home you dirty Pollack! " But, in reality, who was I? What skills was I able to integrate to the English speaking community? How much did they know about Poland beside the Polish jokes? I tried to meet some of the former members of the Polish military, and I became a member of Polish Congress (an umbrella organization), where the leaders of the Polish Organizations would not trust me fully; I was a product of the Communist Poland, I spoke better English perhaps than most of them (thanks to my father, who spent a considerable time of my young life teaching me the language). I was involved in helping my native country, after General Jaruzelski Imposed the Marshal Law in Poland.
The Warsaw's soldier who was prosecuted by the local Communists, who were led by Comrade Władysław Stempień and sentenced in a peasant kangaroo court died, Mr. Paweł Kolasiński, a schoolmaster in the village of Wytowno became ill, died of unexplained causes in June 1984, and was buried in the Village cemetery. I was not able to attend my father's funeral because, according to Communist standards, I was an outlaw.

A Question of Honor and betrayals such as these bring to the Polish reader's mind a host of painful memories. This makes it more difficult to deal with it knowing that people who were in charge of my generation were Polish as well.
Mr. Z. and Mr. L. (and others): How did the system made you betray a whole generation of your students? Why did you become loyal to the foreign occupant's brainwashing techniques? Did you do it just because you were scared of your future, or did the Soviet agents promise you rewards or -what would be even worse-did you really believe in their ideology?
You know I still believe you had something good inside, and I hope that you might try to undo, at least, part of your wrongdoing, in any way you can. The best thing you could do would be to come forward and publish the truth. On many occasions I have met Poles who were the victims of your manipulated teaching and who did not want, or even accept the real historical truth.
Dedicated to my Lyceum professors, some of whom berated me and an entire generation of Polish students.

John P. Kolasinski, M.S.
 

<<powrot

Szkoła, Studniówka 1966 , Twarze z tamtych lat, Twarze63/67  Roma Skalska  Przyjaciele,  Matura 1967,  Wreczenie Sztandaru 1965,  Harcerze , Zjazdy 45-lecie   Tablo 1966  

A Qestion of Honor Przemowienie Janusza  Jerzy Izdebski GrupaBiednych Zygik   Jadwiga Stroinska   Grazyna GŁOS SŁUPSKI Michal Stroinski  Bozena Daszczynska Polska  Jasia Romaniak