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Before 1939

[edit]
  1. ... that the Brzeg Castle (courtyard pictured) in Silesia houses Poland's only preserved medieval hunting bow?
  2. ... that Polish jurist and activist Józef Wybicki wrote the national anthem of Poland while serving in the Polish Legions in Italy?
  3. ... that Józef Piłsudski's cult of personality succeeded in making him one of the most popular figures in Polish history?
  4. ... that Jan Matejko's painting Rejtan (fragment pictured) caused a scandal, won a gold medal in Paris, was purchased by Emperor Franz Joseph I, and looted by Nazis?
  5. ... that Polish advocates of Neo-Slavism, such as Roman Dmowski, believed that reconciliation with the Russians was necessary to counter the German threat?
  6. ... that Polish-Jewish publisher Samuel Orgelbrand financed the printing of his Encyklopedia Powszechna ("Universal Encyclopedia"), the first modern Polish encyclopedia, with proceeds from sales of the Babylonian Talmud?
  7. ... that Polish nationalism is more restrictive in terms of ethnicity and religion than the earlier Polish-Lithuanian identity?
  8. ... that an early 18th-century civil war in Poland gave rise to a proverb about a state of division, disorder and anarchy?
  9. ... that the Maurzyce Bridge (pictured), built in 1928 near Łowicz, was the first welded road bridge in the world?
  10. ... that neither of the major combatants won the bloody Greater Poland Civil War which terminated after the accession of ten-year old Hedwig (Jadwiga) to the Polish throne?
  11. ... that, although Piotr Skarga's political treatise Kazania sejmowe ("Sermons to the Diet") was ignored during his lifetime, he was labeled a "patriotic seer" centuries after his death?
  12. ... that the Treaty of Bytom and Będzin ended the fourteen-month long imprisonment of Maximilian III, Archduke of Austria, in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth?
  13. ... that Jan Matuszyński, who earned medical degrees in Tübingen and Paris, died of tuberculosis in the arms of Frédéric Chopin and George Sand?
  14. ... that mechanical billy goats (pictured) butting heads atop the mid-16th century Poznań city hall attract hundreds of spectators daily?
  15. ... that Żywoty świętych ("Lives of the Saints") by the Polish Jesuit Piotr Skarga contained graphic and detailed descriptions of tortures and suffering?
  16. ... that the Upper Silesian Railway was part of the first rail network connecting Berlin, Vienna, Kraków and Warsaw by the late 1840s?
  17. ... that the canvas of Skarga's Sermon (detail pictured), a painting by Jan Matejko, covers more than 8 square metres (86 sq ft)?
  18. ... that the Szombierki Heat Power Station (pictured) is considered one of the "Seven Architectural Wonders of the Silesian Voivodeship"?
  19. ... that Frédéric Chopin left his homeland in 1831 and never returned?
  20. ... that Zofia Daszyńska-Golińska (pictured) taught at Warsaw's Flying University before becoming a Polish senator?
  21. ... that K. Rudzki i S-ka, a Polish engineering company, built roughly 20 percent of all rail bridges in the Russian Empire, including the Khabarovsk and Maurzyce Bridges?
  22. ... that Fort Srebrna Góra, a rare example of a surviving 18th-century mountain stronghold, is also known as the "Gibraltar of Silesia"?
  23. ... that the Kraków Society of Friends of Fine Arts erected their own palace (pictured) in the Old Town using public donations?
  24. ... that the death of Polish Army chaplain Ignacy Skorupka at the Battle of Warsaw was used as a political tool by Józef Piłsudski's opponents?
  25. ... that Lilpop, Rau i Loewenstein (logo pictured) was the largest manufacturing company in Poland before its factory was destroyed by the Germans during World War II?
  26. ... that The Polish Peasant in Europe and America has been called a "neglected classic" of American empirical sociology?
  27. ... that Florian Znaniecki, a Polish American philosopher and sociologist, coined the terms "culturalism" and "humanistic coefficient"?
  28. ... that the trilingual 14th-century Sankt Florian Psalter (page pictured) contains one of the oldest texts in Polish?
  29. ... that the Counter-Reformation in Poland concluded successfully with the Repnin Sejm of 1768, which abolished legal discrimination against religious dissidents?
  30. ... that legend has it that a Teutonic Knight erected the Leaning Tower of Toruń (pictured) so as to atone for falling in love with a woman, the tower's tilt signifying his deviant conduct?
  31. ... that Aerolot (poster fragment pictured), the predecessor of Poland's flag carrier, LOT Polish Airlines, has common roots with Lufthansa, the flag carrier of Germany?
  32. ... that Aleksander Lesser was one of the first artists to paint scenes from modern Polish Jewish history?
  33. ... that Jan Matejko, one of the most famous Polish painters, trafficked arms to the insurgents' camp during the January Uprising of 1863?
  34. ... that "We want to be Germans and nothing but Germans" was a call sent out to the world by the Jungdeutsche Partei members of the German minority living in prewar Poland?
  35. ... that the first president of Poland, Gabriel Narutowicz, was assassinated five days after taking office, amidst a right-wing propaganda campaign accusing him of being "an atheist, a Freemason, and a Jew"?
  36. ... that Florian Znaniecki was the father of sociology in Poland?
  37. ... that Jeremi Wiśniowiecki (pictured) was one of the wealthiest Polish magnates, ruling over 200,000 subjects living on estates in what is today Ukraine?
  38. ... that the settlements of Mikuszowice and Komorowice were divided by a national border for centuries, but are now part of one city and one country?
  39. ... that the painter Bronisława Janowska rejected a marriage proposal from the man she loved because he was divorced?
  40. ... that the motto of a cookbook by Paul Tremo (pictured), a court chef to King Stanislaus Augustus of Poland, was, "not everyone thinks, but everyone eats"?
  41. ... that during the Września children strike of 1901–04, ethnic Polish schoolchildren were flogged for protesting against religious instruction in German?
  42. ... that Polish-born Joseph Conrad has been described as one of the "two great English-language writers of sea stories"?
  43. ... that six members of the Polish-Ruthenian noble Szeptycki family were bishops, some Greek Catholic and one Roman Catholic?
  44. ... that in 1890, Henry Lowenfeld, an immigrant from Poland, established the UK's first brewer of non-alcoholic beer, in Fulham, London?
  45. ... that the writer Maria Dąbrowska reported to the Polish authorities that Poles in Bosnia and Herzegovina lived better than villagers in Poland?
  46. ... that Temerl Bergson (pictured), a wealthy businesswoman and benefactress of Hasidic Jews in 19th-century Poland, "distributed money like ashes"?
  47. ... that Monica Gardner's life was shaped by finding out that Bonnie Prince Charlie's mother was Polish?
  48. ... that the Battle of Głębokie (now Hlybokaye, Belarus, pictured in 1900) during the Polish–Soviet War was both a tactical victory and a strategic defeat for the Soviet side?
  49. ... that the Kraków Fire of 1850 (pictured) destroyed approximately 10% of the city?
  50. ... that Compendium ferculorum ("A Collection of Dishes"), the oldest cookbook in Polish, inspired the description of a traditional banquet in the Polish national epic?
  51. ... that one of the reasons for the Partitions of Poland was the thousands of Russian peasants escaping from serfdom to the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth?
  52. ... that the severed head of Andrew Báthory, prince of Transylvania and a Polish king's brother, was sewn back on?
  53. ... that Izydor Borowski was born in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, but later rose to the rank of general in Qajar Iran?
  54. ... that 17th-century Polish poet Anna Stanisławska (pictured) wrote about her life and three marriages in a series of 77 laments?
  55. ... that Compendium ferculorum by Stanisław Czerniecki, first published in 1682, is the first cookbook written originally in Polish?
  56. ... that Theodore de Korwin Szymanowski (pictured), one of the earliest promoters of a Unified Europe, proposed a customs union, a central bank, and a single currency as far back as 1885?
  57. ... that common hogweed was originally the main ingredient of borscht?
  58. ... that in 1921 more than 95% of the Czechoslovak citizens of Polish ethnicity lived in the Těšín electoral district?
  59. ... that the light, crisp, smoky, and highly carbonated Grodziskie beer was once nicknamed "Polish Champagne"?
  60. ... that the German-Polish astronomer Johannes Hevelius declared that one needed the eyes of a lynx to see Lynx?


1939–1945

[edit]
  1. ... that Otto Stadie, a nurse who served at Adolf Hitler's headquarters with the Nazi euthanasia program, kept the register of stolen gold and diamonds at Treblinka?
  2. ... that the Sonderkommando photographs of events around the Auschwitz gas chambers in 1944 were smuggled out of the camp in a toothpaste tube?
  3. ... that the Conversations with an Executioner were held between Jürgen Stroop, who destroyed the Warsaw Ghetto, and Kazimierz Moczarski (pictured), a resistance fighter who was supposed to kill him, while they shared a death row cell?
  4. ... that the Polish inventor and bridge designer Marian Lutosławski was killed in a mass execution by the Bolsheviks several days before his trial was supposed to take place?
  5. ... that The Black Book of Polish Jewry, published in the United States in 1943 during World War II, downplayed the true scale of the Holocaust?
  6. ... that the Emilia Plater Independent Women's Battalion, formed by the Soviet Union in the Second World War, was named after a Polish woman who fought against Russia?
  7. ... that Polish Jewish communist activist Eliezer Gruenbaum wrote a memoir about his experiences as a kapo in the Auschwitz concentration camp?
  8. ... that Zofia Posmysz (pictured), Auschwitz inmate No. 7566, wrote an audio play based on her memories, which formed the basis for her 1962 novel Passenger, a 1963 film, and a 1968 opera?
  9. ... that Zahava Burack survived the Holocaust by hiding in a crawlspace beneath the home of a sympathetic Polish family for two and a half years?
  10. ... that the Gutenberg Bible held by the Diocesan Museum in Pelplin survived World War II in Canada, kept in a vault at the Bank of Montreal until 1959?
  11. ... that, in order to disguise the V-2 missile launch site in Blizna (pictured), in what is now southeastern Poland, the Nazi Germans created a mock village with plywood cottages and barns, as well as plaster people and animals?
  12. ... that Polish Jewish writer Rokhl Auerbakh worked overtly as the director of a soup kitchen and covertly as a member of a secret group that chronicled daily life in the Warsaw Ghetto?
  13. ... that Auschwitz survivor Bat-Sheva Dagan (born Izabella Rubinsztajn in Łódź, Poland) writes Holocaust stories for children that have happy endings "in order not to rob them of their faith in mankind"?
  14. ... that Sir Joseph Rotblat, a Polish-born physicist who helped design atomic bombs for the Manhattan Project during World War II, won the Nobel Prize for Peace?
  15. ... that the council of the Free City of Danzig Government in Exile was supposedly recognised in secret as the legal successor to the Danzig Senate by ethnic German expellees from Danzig (now Gdańsk, Poland)?
  16. ... that two-year-old Ruth Schwarz was rescued from the Sambor Ghetto by Alojzy Plewa, one of many Poles recognized as Righteous Among the Nations (both pictured)?
  17. ... that 14-year-old Leon Śliwiński saved the life of 12-year-old David Friedman in the Kielce Ghetto during the Holocaust in German-occupied Poland?
  18. ... that during the Holocaust in German-occupied Poland, the Polish nine-member Król family rescued the Jewish six-member Steinlauf family from the Nowy Sącz Ghetto despite the risk of death penalty?
  19. ... that two Polish nuns harbouring Jewish fugitives who escaped from the Słonim Ghetto were beatified by Pope John Paul II among the 108 Martyrs of World War II?
  20. ... that SS officer Herbert Mehlhorn was involved in the camouflage of the mass graves of Jewish victims at the Chełmno extermination camp?
  21. ... that underground courier Frumka Płotnicka (pictured), who delivered weapons and instructions for making Molotov cocktails and hand grenades to Jews in Nazi-occupied Poland, died in the Będzin Ghetto uprising?
  22. ... that in 1939, a trans-Atlantic radio broadcast featured coloratura soprano Ewa Bandrowska-Turska (pictured) singing four songs by Karol Szymanowski from the Wawel Castle in Kraków for the U.S. audience?
  23. ... that the image of Marianna Dolińska's hanged children has been falsely used to represent victims of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army?
  24. ... that, during The Holocaust in German-occupied Poland, Cypora Zonszajn could not live without her closest family and returned to the Siedlce Ghetto to perish along with them?
  25. ... that between 1942 and 1944, Polish resistance fighter Antoni Koper hid Jews from the Warsaw Ghetto in his apartment?
  26. ... that the Smithsonian Channel documentary Treblinka: Hitler's Killing Machine was inspired by bathroom tiles made by the company now known as Opoczno S.A.?
  27. ... that during the Holocaust, Roman Gross was rescued from the Tarnopol Ghetto by Józef Regent, whom he in turn had rescued from deportation earlier in the war?
  28. ... that at the age of thirteen, Shmuel Shilo survived three roundups of Jews from the Łuck Ghetto and lived to tell the story?
  29. ... that the P-badge (pictured) for Polish forced laborers was the first official, public badge introduced by Nazi Germany, preceding the Jewish yellow star by over a year?
  30. ... that Jakub Kagan‎, one of the best known Polish-Jewish composers of popular music who formed Kagan's Jazz Band in the interwar Warsaw, died during the Holocaust?
  31. ... that Polish Roman Catholic midwife Stanisława Leszczyńska delivered about 3,000 babies at the Auschwitz concentration camp?
  32. ... that a forest glade near Palmiry became "one of the most notorious places of mass executions" in Poland after Nazi war crimes were committed there?
  33. ... that some 80,000 Poles have been waiting for over sixty years for compensation for the immovable property lost to the Soviet Union in lands east of the Bug River?
  34. ... that the textile company Többens and Schultz (plant pictured), owned and operated by two major war profiteers in the Warsaw Ghetto, supplied the German army with uniforms, socks, and other garments?
  35. ... that the autobiographical novel A Brief Stop on the Road from Auschwitz, set partly in German-occupied Poland, ends with the suicide of the author's father?
  36. ... that Maximilian Kolbe volunteered to die in place of a stranger in the Auschwitz concentration camp?
  37. ... that the Bloody Sunday massacre of Jews took place in German-occupied Stanisławów two months before the Stanislau Ghetto was formally set up in December 1941?
  38. ... that the massacre of about 1,500 Jews in Józefów was committed by the men of the German Reserve Police Battalion 101, who were too old for the regular army?
  39. ... that the Polish resistance heisted over a million US dollars in młynarki, the currency of the General Government, so popularly named after the head of its central bank, Feliks Młynarski?
  40. ... that about 3,500 Jews from the Pińsk Ghetto and from nearby Kobryń were murdered at Bronna Góra in June 1942?
  41. ... that the Polish Armed Forces in the West contributed one division to Operation Overlord, the largest seaborne invasion in history?
  42. ... that, when it occurred, the mass shooting in the Pińsk Ghetto was the second largest anti-Jewish operation in a single settlement?
  43. ... that World War II resistance fighter Jerzy Zakulski, who rescued a Jewish mother and child from the Kraków Ghetto, was executed by Poland after the war?
  44. ... that Father Józef Kowalski, an Auschwitz prisoner, was one of 108 Polish Martyrs beatified in front of 600,000 people by Pope John Paul II?
  45. ... that the last murdered Jews of the Mińsk Mazowiecki Ghetto came from the iron foundry of K. Rudzki i S-ka?
  46. ... that Wacław Kopisto was one of the Silent Unseen rescuers of Home Army prisoners tortured at a Pinsk prison?
  47. ... that the Piotrków Trybunalski Ghetto (synagogue pictured), created only 38 days after the invasion of Poland in World War II, was the first Jewish ghetto in German-occupied Europe?
  48. ... that Alfreda Markowska, a Polska Roma, was awarded the Order of Polonia Restituta for saving Jewish and Roma children from death in the Holocaust and the Porajmos during World War II?
  49. ... that Szlama Ber Winer escaped the work commando at the Chełmno extermination camp and managed to write a report about his experience soon before his and his family's death in the gas chambers of Bełżec?
  50. ... that Rywka Lipszyc's diary of her life as a teenager in the Łódź Ghetto during the Holocaust in Poland was published 70 years after it was written?
  51. ... that the Monument to the Fallen and Murdered in the East in Warsaw commemorates victims of the Soviet invasion of Poland during World War II and subsequent repressions?
  52. ... that Poland is considered a founding member of the United Nations despite not having attended the first meeting?
  53. ... that Irena Jurgielewiczowa, a writer best known for the children's novel Ten obcy ("That Stranger"), was also an underground teacher and a resistance fighter in World War II?
  54. ... that Austrian tennis player Adam Baworowski, a Roland Garros semifinalist, fought in World War II, first in the Polish Army against Germany and then in the Wehrmacht on the Eastern Front?
  55. ... that a memorial to the victims of Treblinka extermination camp, created by sculptor Franciszek Duszeńko, was unveiled by the Marshal of the Sejm of the Republic of Poland in the presence of 30,000 visitors?
  56. ... that the findings of the Katyn Commission concerning the Soviet massacre of 22,000 Polish prisoners of war were denied for seventy years?
  57. ... that according to Franciszek Ząbecki, the SS-Sturmbannführer Theodor van Eupen executed prisoners of the Treblinka Arbeitslager by "taking shots at them, as if they were partridges"?
  58. ... that Berek Lajcher chose a hot summer day to launch a prisoner revolt at the Treblinka death camp while German and Ukrainian guards went swimming in the nearby Bug River?
  59. ... that station master Franciszek Ząbecki collected incriminating evidence against Holocaust perpetrators by keeping record of railway deliveries to the Treblinka extermination camp?
  60. ... that Anna Poray retold life-stories of thousands of rescuers including those who died in punishment for trying to save Jews during the Holocaust in Poland?
  61. ... that the resistance movement in Auschwitz was formed by the Polish Home Army partisan Witold Pilecki?
  62. ... that Samuel Willenberg (pictured) is the last living survivor of the prisoner uprising at the Treblinka extermination camp during the Holocaust in Poland?
  63. ... that dozens of Red Army soldiers switched sides and joined the Polish Army after several lost engagements during the Soviet invasion of Poland in 1939?


After 1945

[edit]
  1. ... that the announcement of the reopening of the Embassy of Poland in Manila coincided with Poland's decision to expand its economic involvement in Asia?
  2. ... that Polish mountain climber Tomasz Mackiewicz went missing on January 27 during his seventh attempt to reach the summit of the 8,126-metre (26,660 ft) high Nanga Parbat in Pakistan?
  3. ... that the video game The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt was marketed as "Skyrim in a Game of Thrones sauce"?
  4. ... that Metropolis Software's Tajemnica Statuetki (The Mystery of the Statuette) has the distinction of being the first Polish adventure game?
  5. ... that Magdalena Wolińska-Riedi was married by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger and had her childen baptized by him when he became Pope Benedict XVI?
  6. ... that some Roman Catholics in Poland observed a Week of the Poor that lead up to the first World Day of the Poor on 19 November 2017?
  7. ... that Poland's National Council of the Judiciary has been criticized for including only 6 women among its 25 members?
  8. ... that the Polish composer Krzysztof Penderecki co-wrote the German libretto of Ubu Rex, his only opera buffa, based on the French play Ubu Roi?
  9. ... that in 2013 Poland became the world's largest producer of mead made according to traditional methods (example pictured)?
  10. ... that Janina Goss has been described as the "power behind the throne" in modern Polish politics?
  11. ... that kiełbasa szynkowa (pictured) is a Polish ham sausage?
  12. ... that the toxic nature of the fools webcap was discovered only after 102 people in Bydgoszcz were poisoned in 1952?
  13. ... that The Old Axolotl, an experimental electronic novel by Jacek Dukaj presenting a post-apocalyptic, cyberpunk vision of Earth, incorporates hypertext and 3D-printable models of its characters?
  14. ... that Polish shogi player Karolina Styczyńska (pictured) is the first non-Japanese person to be awarded professional status by the Japan Shogi Association?
  15. ... that most of the people seeking refugee status in Poland are citizens of post-Soviet states?
  16. ... that Emany Mata Likambe, Zaire's former ambassador to Poland, was discovered homeless and living in the streets of Warsaw in 1994, after his government had failed to pay him for over two years?
  17. ... that it was not illegal to possess or use cannabis in Poland until 1997?
  18. ... that the thousand-year-old Bishop Petros with Saint Peter the Apostle (pictured) ended up in Poland after being saved from a watery grave?
  19. ... that Alice Bota, who studied in Germany and Poland, and currently writes for Die Zeit, won the Axel-Springer award for young journalists?
  20. ... that the unsolved shooting death of Henryk Siwiak, a Polish immigrant, is officially the only homicide that occurred in New York on the day of the September 11 attacks?
  21. ... that Magdalena Fularczyk (pictured) was part of the first female Polish rowing team to win a world championship gold in an Olympic boat class?
  22. ... that the 2015 Polish horror film The Lure is a reimagining of The Little Mermaid set in the 1980s Poland?
  23. ... that Poland is creating a 35,000-strong volunteer military force designed to counter hybrid warfare?
  24. ... that an average of 150,000 braided ring-shaped breads, known as obwarzanki krakowskie (pictured) are sold daily from street carts in Kraków?
  25. ... that Bogna Burska's initial painting compositions were narratives of congealed blood forms made with red paints applied by fingers on walls, canvas, and glass?
  26. ... that Ewa Gryziecka's world record in women's javelin throw lasted 35 minutes?
  27. ... that the green-legged partridge and the Polish-bred Green-legged Partridge belong to different species?
  28. ... that Agnieszka Popielewicz (pictured) hosts the behind-the-scenes episodes of Taniec z gwiazdami, the Polish version of Dancing with the Stars?
  29. ... that Pilot Pirx, Stanisław Lem's sci-fi character, defeats a perfect android thanks to human imperfection?
  30. ... that Polish football player Łukasz Cieślewicz was named player of the year in the Faroe Islands in 2011 and 2015?
  31. ... that the type fossil of the damselfly Electropodagrion belongs to the Museum of Amber Inclusions of the University of Gdańsk?
  32. ... that Piotr Domaradzki (pictured) was active in the Solidarity movement before being granted asylum in the United States, where he worked as editor-in-chief of the country's largest Polish-language newspaper?
  33. ... that the Coexist symbol used on bumper stickers was first published as a 3 m × 5 m (9.8 ft × 16.4 ft) outdoor poster by a Polish artist in a juried exhibition in Jerusalem?
  34. ... that at the Valletta Summit on Migration, where European and African leaders discussed the European migrant crisis, Poland was only represented by an undersecretary of state due to a clash with the first sitting of the country's new parliament?
  35. ... that the fossil crane fly Elephantomyia pulchella (pictured) was redescribed by Polish paleoentomologist Iwona Kania of the University of Rzeszów?
  36. ... that Vietnamese people in Poland, significantly composed of illegal immigrants, are one of the country's largest ethnic minorities?
  37. ... that one of the founders of CD Projekt, publisher of The Witcher video game series, used to peddle cracked copies of PC games in a Warsaw marketplace?
  38. ... that the fossil crane fly Elephantomyia bozenae (pictured), discovered in Baltic amber, is named after the Polish biologist Bożena Szala?
  39. ... that, when described, at least five males of the fossil crane fly Elephantomyia irinae were known from inclusions in Baltic amber from the collection of the Polish Academy of Sciences?
  40. ... that slippery jacks (pictured), known in Polish as maślaki, deriving from a word meaning "buttery", are considered a delicacy in Polish cuisine?
  41. ... that the Polish street food known as zapiekanka (pictured) has been described both as "Polish pizza" and "a poor relative of its distant Italian cousin"?
  42. ... that the Lithuanian-Polish border is the only land border that the Baltic States share with a country that is not a member of the Russian-aligned Commonwealth of Independent States?
  43. ... that Kali, a fine art painter, was a veteran of the Polish resistance movement during World War II?
  44. ... that Filipinki was the first Polish all-girl vocal group?
  45. ... that the Polish-born Jakub Mareczko was the most successful under-23 cyclist in Italy in 2014?
  46. ... that the 1990 Earth-grazing meteoroid above Czechoslovakia and Poland was observed from two sites, which for the first time enabled geometrical calculations of the orbit of such a body?
  47. ... that Kolejka ("Queue"), a popular Polish educational board game about communist shortage economy, has itself been in short supply?
  48. ... that the temporary removal of The Partisans, a Boston sculpture depicting Polish cursed soldiers, triggered protests by the Polish-American community?
  49. ... that the 21st-century economic migration of Poles to Western Europe is comparable in size to the migration of Poles to the United States in the 19th and 20th centuries?
  50. ... that Lem, Poland's first scientific artificial satellite, sees blue stars while Heweliusz, its second, sees red stars?
  51. ... that the Carpathian newt (pictured), native to the mountains of southern Poland, sometimes hybridises with the smooth newt?
  52. ... that the world's first monument to Wikipedia was unveiled in Słubice in late October 2014?
  53. ... that the size of its automotive industry makes Poland one of the largest producers of light vehicles in Central and Eastern Europe (Polish-manufactured Fiat Abarth 500C pictured)?
  54. ... that the officially reported unemployment rate in Poland rose from near zero in 1989 to over 13 percent in 2012?
  55. ... that the protests of conservative Catholic groups in Poland against the play Golgota Picnic included attempted exorcisms?
  56. ... that many kindergartens in Poland were named after the children's television series Jacek i Agatka?
  57. ... that the Equality Parade (pictured) held annually in Warsaw since 2001, is the oldest pride parade in any former Eastern bloc country?
  58. ... that Görlitz/Zgorzelec (pictured) is one of several towns split by the postwar Germany–Poland border, which follows mostly the Oder–Neisse line?
  59. ... that the Poland–Ukraine border (border posts pictured), the most often crossed stretch of the European Union's eastern boundary, is also a major smuggling route?
  60. ... that because of opposition by the Polish communist government, the Warsaw Uprising Monument was constructed over 40 years after the event it commemorates?
  61. ... that Ewa Ziarek, a Polish American philosopher, wrote the book An Ethics of Dissensus?
  62. ... that the 13th-century Ulica Floriańska (Saint Florian Street, pictured) in Kraków is one of the most prestigious thoroughfares in Poland?
  63. ... that The Dream of Jacob, a composition by Krzysztof Penderecki based on the biblical account of Jacob's Ladder, was featured in the American horror movie The Shining?
  64. ... that Zbigniew Bródka (pictured), the first Pole to win an Olympic gold medal in men's 1500 metres speed skating, is a professional firefighter?
  65. ... that Stanisław Salmonowicz, once repressed by Polish communist authorities, has published over a thousand works of history?
  66. ... that the delay of planned restoration of the ruined Katowice historic train station, which attained monument status in 1975, has led to public protests?
  67. ... that Zambian-born Polish economist and MP Killion Munyama (pictured) did not originally plan to stay in Poland, but the fall of communism changed his mind?
  68. ... that one of the international reactions to the Euromaidan was the formation of a human chain on the Polish-Ukrainian border crossing at Medyka as a sign of support for pro-EU protesters in Ukraine?
  69. ... that the PL-01 (pictured) is a new tank design developed in Poland?
  70. ... that the UFO-like Kielce Bus Station (pictured) has been praised as "one of the most valuable" architectural designs of the last decades of the People's Republic of Poland?
  71. ... that the creation of the Warsaw Gay Movement was a counter-reaction of Polish gays against Operation Hyacinth?
  72. ... that mazurek cakes (pictured) are traditionally served in Poland during Easter and Christmas?
  73. ... that Poland annually celebrates the defeat of Russia in the Battle of Warsaw (2008 celebration parade pictured)?
  74. ... that while international rankings show corruption in Poland as steadily decreasing, over 80 percent of the Polish public still sees it as a significant problem for the country?
  75. ... that the 13 Ramsar sites of Poland help with the conservation and sustainable utilization of wetlands?
  76. ... that the Bródno Jewish Cemetery is one of the largest Jewish cemeteries in Europe?
  77. ... that Tadeusz Iwiński called Philippines–Poland relations a relationship "that was broken by mistake"?
  78. ... that the Tęcza (pictured), a rainbow arch installation in Warsaw, was vandalized several times due to anti-LGBT sentiments?
  79. ... that the Biosphere Reserves of Poland include the last and largest remaining mixed deciduous primeval forest on the North European Plain?
  80. ... that during the 1950s, Communist propaganda for the war against the potato beetle alleged that the insect (pictured) was introduced into East Germany, Poland and Czechoslovakia by the United States as a form of entomological warfare?
  81. ... that the location of the Józef Piłsudski Monument in Warsaw (pictured) has been criticized by its designer?
  82. ... that people questioned both the closure of the Philippine Embassy in Warsaw in 1993 and its re-opening in 2009?
  83. ... that the statue of Roman Dmowski, the "father of Polish nationalism", has proven to be one of the most controversial monuments in Warsaw?
  84. ... that Ryszard Siwiec, protesting the Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia, was the first political protester to commit suicide by self-immolation in Central and Eastern Europe?
  85. ... that there were around 525 Filipinos in Poland as of September 2012, and that most of them resided in the country temporarily?
  86. ... that Testament mój ("My Testament") was the poetical last will of Juliusz Słowacki, one of the Three Bards of Polish poetry?
  87. ... that, in the 1970s, the propaganda in the People's Republic of Poland exploited the technique of exaggerating political and economic successes?




Selection 2

[edit]
  1. ... that only two and a half pages survive of the Bible of Queen Sophia (pictured), a priceless artifact of the Old Polish language?
  2. ... that from 1930 through 1933, Jews constituted the majority of the Young Communist League of Poland membership?
  3. ... that Kamienie na szaniec ("Stones for the Rampant"), a novel describing the lives of three Polish underground youth paramilitary members, was published shortly after their deaths in German-occupied Poland?
  4. ... that the inactive Polish A.B. Dobrowolski Polar Station is still occasionally visited by explorers of the Antarctic?
  5. ... that both German soldiers and former Polish prisoners of German concentration camps were treated at a war-time hospital close to the Lärbro Church in Sweden?

September 2013

[edit]

Selection 1

[edit]
  1. ... that the Polish question was a major recurring issue in European diplomacy for well over a century, following the partitions of Poland in the late 18th century?
  2. ... that Russian victory at the Battle of Warsaw in 1831 ended the Polish November Uprising?

Selection 2

[edit]
  1. ... that one of the unofficial mottos of Poland, "God, Honor, Fatherland", likely originated from the Napoleonic motto of the Order of the Legion of Honor ?
  2. ... that the National Rifle Factory, a major firearms producer in interwar Poland, also designed its own weaponry, including an anti-tank rifle?

August 2013

[edit]

Selection 1

[edit]

Selection 2

[edit]

July 2013

[edit]

June 2013

[edit]

Selection 1

[edit]

Selection 2

[edit]

Selection 3

[edit]

May 2013

[edit]

Selection 1

[edit]

Selection 2

[edit]

April 2013

[edit]

Selection 1

[edit]
  • ... that one of the Easter traditions in Poland includes making and displaying of an Easter palm (example pictured), the tallest of which can reach over 30 metres (98 ft)?
  • ... that Margaret Michaelis-Sachs took photos of the Jewish market in Kraków which "carry the weight of history, offering a visual trace of a way of life that was destroyed by fascism"?
  • ... that welfare in Poland is covered by the constitution of Poland, which contains an article dedicated to social security as a right of all citizens?

Selection 2

[edit]

Selection 3

[edit]

March 2013

[edit]

Selection 1

[edit]

Selection 2

[edit]

February 2013

[edit]

Selection 1

[edit]

Selection 2

[edit]

January 2013

[edit]

Selection 1

[edit]
  1. ... that the Christmas Midnight Mass is known in Polish as pasterka, or "shepherds' mass"?

Selection 2

[edit]

2012

[edit]

December 2012

[edit]

Selection 1

[edit]

Selection 2

[edit]

Selection 3

[edit]

November 2012

[edit]

Selection 1

[edit]

Selection 2

[edit]

Selection 3

[edit]

October 2012

[edit]

Selection 1

[edit]

Selection 2

[edit]

Selection 3

[edit]

September 2012

[edit]

Selection 1

[edit]

Selection 2

[edit]

Selection 3

[edit]

August 2012

[edit]

Selection 1

[edit]

Selection 2

[edit]

Selection 3

[edit]

Selection 4

[edit]

July 2012

[edit]

Selection 1

[edit]

Selection 2

[edit]

Selection 3

[edit]

June 2012

[edit]

Selection 1

[edit]

Selection 2

[edit]

Selection 3

[edit]

Selection 4

[edit]

May 2012

[edit]

Selection 1

[edit]

Selection 2

[edit]

April 2012

[edit]

Selection 1

[edit]

Selection 2

[edit]

March 2012

[edit]

February 2012

[edit]

Selection 1

[edit]

Selection 2

[edit]

Selection 3

[edit]

January 2012

[edit]

Selection 1

[edit]

Selection 2

[edit]

Selection 3

[edit]

2011

[edit]

December 2011

[edit]

Selection 1

[edit]
  • ... that when confronted with an ethical dilemma, Celestyn Czaplic's (pictured) contemporaries asked themselves, "what would Czaplic think of that?"
  • ... that the Zielony Balonik ("Green Baloon") literary cabaret of Kraków was rumoured to be a place of "orgies, nude dancing and all manner of dissipation"?
  • ... that during a decade of the interbellum, Germany and Poland fought a customs war?
  • ... that the poem "Murzynek Bambo" ("Bambo the Little Negro") by Julian Tuwim has been criticised for its portrayal of black people?
  • ... that before his death in 2011, Tadeusz Sawicz was believed to have been the last surviving Polish pilot to have fought in the Battle of Britain?

Selection 2

[edit]

Selection 3

[edit]

October − November 2011

[edit]

Selection 1

[edit]

Selection 2

[edit]

September 2011

[edit]

Selection 1

[edit]

Selection 2

[edit]

Selection 3

[edit]

August 2011

[edit]

Selection 1

[edit]

Selection 2

[edit]

Selection 3

[edit]

July 2011

[edit]

Selection 1

[edit]

Selection 2

[edit]

Selection 3

[edit]

June 2011

[edit]

Selection 1

[edit]

Selection 2

[edit]

May 2011

[edit]

Selection 1

[edit]

Selection 2

[edit]

April 2011

[edit]

Selection 1

[edit]

Selection 2

[edit]

March 2011

[edit]

Selection 1

[edit]

Selection 2

[edit]

February 2011

[edit]

Selection 1

[edit]

Selection 2

[edit]

January 2011

[edit]

2010

[edit]

December 2010

[edit]

Selection 1

[edit]

Selection 2

[edit]

November 2010

[edit]

Selection 1

[edit]

Selection 2

[edit]

October 2010

[edit]

Selection 1

[edit]

Selection 2

[edit]

September 2010

[edit]

Selection 1

[edit]

Selection 2

[edit]

Selection 3

[edit]

August 2010

[edit]

Selection 1

[edit]

Selection 2

[edit]

Selection 3

[edit]

Selection 4

[edit]

July 2010

[edit]

Selection 1

[edit]

Selection 2

[edit]

June 2010

[edit]

May 2010

[edit]

April 2010

[edit]

Selection 1

[edit]

Selection 2

[edit]

March 2010

[edit]

February 2010

[edit]

Selection 1

[edit]

Selection 2

[edit]

January 2010

[edit]

Selection 1

[edit]

Selection 2

[edit]

2009

[edit]

December 2009

[edit]

Selection 1

[edit]

Selection 2

[edit]

Selection 3

[edit]

Selection 4

[edit]

November 2009

[edit]

Selection 1

[edit]

Selection 2

[edit]

Selection 3

[edit]

Selection 4

[edit]

October 2009

[edit]

Selection 1

[edit]

Selection 2

[edit]

September 2009

[edit]

Selection 1

[edit]

Selection 2

[edit]

Selection 3

[edit]

August 2009

[edit]

July 2009

[edit]

June 2009

[edit]

May 2009

[edit]