Date/Time
Date(s) - 17/01/2025
7:00 pm - 8:00 pm
Categories
The number of people of Polish descent who live outside Poland (mostly in North America) is estimated at 20 million, one of the largest global diasporas. A significant driver for mass emigration was World War II, after hundreds of thousands of Polish veterans had joined with British, American, and Canadian allies to liberate Europe. When Poland fell under communist rule at the end of the war, these Polish freedom fighters faced execution or incarceration if they returned home and so lived in exile.
These veterans often refused to talk about their experiences during the war because they needed to protect their remaining family in Poland who were living under Soviet repression. The majority married women who were not Polish and who knew very little about conditions in Poland, or the Polish language and culture. As a result, many of the descendants of these men struggle to identify with their Polish heritage.
This presentation outlines the journey of the Polish military during and after the war and describes how to uncover their military records. Many had relatives who were deported to Siberia and disappeared without trace, but the stories of the survivors may help to reconstruct their stories.
Register for this event on Zoom: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/-37943WbSuOYlIcfcqYmBA
About the presenter: Nadia Rupniak is an internationally recognized neuroscientist who has published her research on psychiatric and neurological disorders in peer-reviewed journals and books. Nadia has B.A. and M.A. degrees from the University of Oxford, and a Ph.D. from the University of London. In 2002, she relocated from England to America to progress her career and currently lives in Texas.
Following a chance discovery after his death that her father was a highly decorated Polish World War II veteran, she used her analytical skills to uncover what happened to him during the war, and why he never told her about it. With exclusive access to his military records and personal correspondence, Nadia discovered why he was decorated for his heroism and how he was forced to live in exile when Poland became a communist state.
Nadia has published several articles and videos about her father and his family’s experiences during the war and has shared their story on podcasts and webinars. She has also produced guides explaining how to navigate Polish military archives online. You can visit her website for more information.
