The prizes were awarded in two categories: foreign language publications about Poland’s history, and Polish works on the history of Polish diplomacy.

“We believe that it is of primary importance that by understanding our past, our contemporaries should better understand us. When experiencing not only the collapse of the security architecture in our part of Europe but also the general undermining of the rules-based international order, it is crucial to understand the identity of the states that participate in creating a new order,” said Minister Rau. 

The prizes and honourable mentions were awarded by the Foreign Minister at the request of the Historical Diplomacy Council. The winners included Roger Moorhouse for his book First to Fight. The Polish War 1939, and Professors Marek Kornat and Mariusz Wołos for Józef Beck. Biography. The following publications received honourable mentions in the competition: The Volunteer. One Man, an Underground Army, and the Secret Mission to Destroy Auschwitz by Jack Fairweather; Socioeconomic history of Poland in the 19th century – shaping the entrepreneur and modern society in Lodz by Kazuo Fujii; Communists and the Vatican. The policy of communist Poland towards the Holy See in 1945-1974 by Professor Wojciech Kucharski; The Polish legation in Bern. The unspoken history by Danuta Drywa, PhD; and Barskie konfederaty v Zapadnoj Sibiri: biografičeskij slovar by Adam Danilczyk, PhD. A diploma of appreciation was awarded to a model source edition of Listy Milenijne edited by Professor Wojciech Kucharski.

The ceremony was attended by Vice-Rector for Research at the University of Łódź Professor Zbigniew Kmieciak, Governor of the Łódź Province Tobiasz Bocheński, Deputy Marshal of the Łódź Province Zbigniew Zięba, Chief Education Officer of the Łódź Province Waldemar Flajszer, and Professor Karol Polejowski – a representative of the Historical Diplomacy Council to the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Deputy President of the Institute of National Remembrance.

By courtesy of the management of the Central Archives of Modern Records and thanks to the hospitality of the University of Łódź, the exhibition titled Mom, I don’t want war! was presented in front of Alfred Biederemann’s Palace. The exhibition presents the tragedy of war as seen through the eyes of its most innocent victims. It shows their infinite suffering by juxtaposing the point of view of the children who survived World War II with the point of view of those who are now experiencing fear and pain beyond our eastern border.

 “In Poland we perceive our identity as a legacy of freedom, equality, and solidarity, in both domestic and foreign policy. Thus, looking for our identity shaped by our history, we turn to, among others, the principles of the Union of Lublin that was rooted in the concept of “the free with the free, the equal with the equal,” stressed Foreign Minister Rau. 

 

Łukasz Jasina

MFA Spokesperson