„POLAND FIRST TO FIGHT” HISTORY CONFERENCE

Live-streamed direct from National Press Club, Washington, DC November 18-20, 2019

Conference live-stream schedule

DAY 1 – November 18, 2019 at 12:15 pm EST – 5:00 pm EST

(18:15 – 23:15 Warsaw time).

DAY 2 – November 19, 2019 at 8:20 am EST – 5:00 pm EST

(14:20 – 19:20 Warsaw time).

DAY 3 – November 20, 2019 at 8:00 am EST – 10:50 am EST

(14:00 – 16:50 Warsaw time).

Program of the Conference

DAY 1:

WORLD WAR II FROM A DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVE

11:30 am Registration of participants & lunch

12:15 pm Opening of the conference:

  • Prof. Marek Kornat, Chair of Program Committee
  • Dr. Marek Błażejak, Chair of Executive Committee
  • Richard Widerynski, former president of the Polish American Congress of Southern California, conference moderator

12:30 pm – Keynote speech by Prof. Mieczyslaw Biskupski – University of Connecticut

1:00 pm – Stacey Fitzgerald – Persecution and Resistance of Polish Women: KL Ravensbrück

1:20 pm – Christoph Schwarz, Kidnapping and germanization of Polish children by Nazi Germany

1:40 pm – Prof. Kazimierz Braun – Polish theatre in the time of war (1939-1945) – Fight–Losses–Will to Survive

2:00 pm – Kenneth K. Koskodan – No Greater Ally: The Untold Story of Poland’s Forces in World War II

2:20 pm – Marcin Makowski – World War II in computer games – viable educational tool or rewriting the past?

2:40 pm – Questions & Answers

3:00 pm- Break

TESTIMONIES OF WITNESSES OF HISTORY AND THEIR DESCENDANTS

3:30 pm – Tim Holden, Polish airmen in World War II

3:50 pm, Anu Radha, “A Little Poland in India” – Rescue of Polish children and women during WWII by an Indian Maharaja

4:10 pm -Krystyna Zamorska, Ph.D. – The KL system in the German war economy: KL Stutthof, the”forgotten” camp

4:30 pm – Questions & Answers

5:00 pm – End of the 1st day of the conference

6:00 pm Reception at the Indian Embassy where “A Little Poland in India” movie will be shown (invitation only)

DAY 2:

FROM THE THE RIBBENTROP-MOLOTOV PACTS TO WORLD WAR II AND THE OCCUPATION OF POLAND BY NAZI GERMANY AND SOVIET RUSSIA

8:00 am -Registration of participants & breakfast

8:20 am – Presentation of the documentary “In the footsteps of Slaughter of Wola“ about the massacre of thousands of Polish civilians during the Warsaw Uprising, directed by Grzegorz Kutermankiewicz

9:00 am – Prof. Marek Kornat – Two totalitarian powers against Poland – The Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact (August – September 1939)

9:20 am – Prof. Małgorzata Gmurczyk-Wrońska – Poland and her Allies. 1939 (presentation in Polish, simultaneously interpreted to English)

9:40 am -Dr. Ing. Bruno Wasser – Generalplan Ost (Master Plan for the East)

10:00 am, Prof. Tadeusz Wolsza – Katyn massacre and Katyn lie in the international arena (presentation in Polish, simultaneously interpreted to English)

10:20 am – Questions & Answers

10:40 am – Break

11:00 am – Prof. Mariusz Wołos – Polish-Soviet relationship during World War II – stereotypes and reality

11:20 am – Dr. Rafał Łatka – Polish Catholic Church in occupied Poland

11:40 am – Prof. Jan Stanisław Ciechanowski – Contribution of the Polish Intelligence Service to the Allied Victory over Germany in World War Two

12:00 am – Questions & Answers

12:20 am -Lunch break

INFOWARS

1:20 pm – Prof. Mieczyslaw Biskupski – Hollywood’s War with Poland, 1939-1945

1:40 pm – Prof. Norman Domeier – Collaboration between Associated Press and Nazi Germany

2:00 pm – Dan Zamoyski – Distortion of Polish World War II history by the media, academia and politicians and its consequences. Auschwitz survey

2:20 pm – Prof. Peter Paprzycki, Prof. Christine Fox & Prof. Svetlana Beltyukova – The application of a Rasch model in the study of external perceptions of the role of Poland in the World War Two; the value of a psychometric approach

2:40 pm – Questions & Answers

3:00 pm – Break

POLES AND JEWS DURING WORLD WAR TWO

3:20 pm – Prof. Grzegorz Berendt – Poles and Jews under German occupation. Gross’s thesis reconsidered

3:40 pm – Prof. Bogdan Musiał – Who will help a Jew? (presentation in Polish, simultaneously interpreted to English)

4:00 pm – Questions & answers

5:00 pm – End of the 2nd day of the conference

6.30 pm reception at the Embassy of Poland (invitation only)

DAY 3:

POLAND, A BETRAYED ALLY

8:00 am – Presentation of the documentary My Home India, a little-known story of unimaginable humanity, generosity and kindness offered by India towards thousands of Polish WW2 Siberian orphans. Directed by Anjali Bhushan based on research of Małgorzata Czausow. Skype connection with the Indian director

8:50 am – Prof. Krzysztof Kosiński – National movement in occupied Poland – negative stereotypes

9:10 am – Prof. Danusha V. Goska – Negative sterotypes of Poles in popular American culture

9:30 am – Prof. Sean McMeekin – Making Stalin Happy – Allies Betrayal of Poland

9:50 am – Alberto Trujillo – Perception of Poland in the Second World War in the Spanish speaking world

10:00 am – Panel discussion*, Distorting the history of World War II

Moderator of the discussion: Marcin Makowski, journalist

Confirmed panelists:

– Prof. Andrzej Kaminski – historian, professor emeritus Georgetown university

– Alberto Trujillo – founder and president of the Polish-Spanish Historical and Cultural Association “Poland First to Fight”

– Stefan Komar – son of a Warsaw Uprising insurgent whose Battalion Zośka was awarded the Righteous Among the Nations medal for liberating Gesiowka concentration camp in Poland’s capital, Stefan Komar has been fighting for years against historically false and offensive terms like “Polish death camps”, among others as a member of the Polish Media Issues group

10:50 End of the conference 

Sincerely,

Members of the organizing Committee:

-Marek Blazejak

-Edward Wojciech Jesman

-Stanislaw Sliwowski

-Krystyna Zamorska -Artur Zysk