Posts from September 2008

The Mysterious Ways of Polish Surnames, part 2

Posted by Anna 6 Comments
Sep 12 2008

As David pointed out in the comment section to the previous post, we still have one more group of Polish last names to discuss. Actually, come to think of it, TWO more.
But let’s start with the easier one of the two:

4. Surnames ending in vowels OTHER than “a”, “i” and “y”. And yes, “y” is considered a vowel in Polish. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find any Polish Nobel Prize Winners in this category.

But there is a guy that no doubt will be familiar to my Polish readers, and whose name makes a fine example here: Aleksander Fredro.
He was a playwright, poet and author who lived a while back (19th century). One of his famous comedies “The Revenge” (Zemsta in Polish) was made into a film by Andrzej Wajda in 2002, and as I remember it, it was quite decent.

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The Mysterious Ways of Polish Surnames

Posted by Anna No Comments
Sep 9 2008

My friend called me today and that should be good news, right? But it wasn’t. The poor woman was very stressed and urgently requested my help. You see, she was applying for a visa to one of those countries that still require a woman to provide information about her male guardian, either a father or a husband. So my friend dutifully filled out the visa application form, included her photos, paid the fees and waited. And then waited some more. Finally today she got a letter stating that her visa application was rejected due to her name (as printed in her passport) not matching with the name of her male guardian (father).

She doesn’t live in Poland, and apparently, the officials at the Embassy of The Very Strange Country over there were not familiar with the peculiarities of Polish surnames. And I don’t blame them. Even in the not so strange countries, it’s sometimes hard for the administrative automatons to comprehend the fact that some Polish last names can have both a feminine and a masculine form and some don’t. And that some last names decline (grammatically speaking, of course) and on certain documents they can be printed in different grammatical cases. And that with some last names it’s only the guys’ forms that decline, but not the girls’. Really.

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Westerplatte Film Controversy

Posted by Anna No Comments
Sep 4 2008

So, continuing on the subject of Westerplatte, I don’t know if you’ve heard about this new Polish movie “Tajemnica Westerplatte” (The Secret of Westerplatte). The movie is not even made yet, the script has barely been written, and it’s already a huge scandal in Poland. For those who don’t know, here’s a quick recap:
Paweł Chochlew is a relative newbie of a writer and director, he used to be an actor actually, and his first directing project was “Takie Życie” (That’s Life) in 2004 and, at least according to me, it was a total flop. The fact that it’s not even included in the International Movie Database seems to confirm my opinion.

Anyway, for his second directing project Mr. Chochlew decided to re-tell the story of Westerplatte. He also wrote the script and applied for funding from the government, which is normal for filmmakers in Poland. And it all went downhill from there.

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September 1st in Polish History

Posted by Anna 8 Comments
Sep 1 2008

Today is September 1st and if you ask any Polish kid about its significance, they will give you a blank stare as an answer. I’ve just tried it.
It was a bit different in my days. Now, I don’t know what they teach you about the starting date of WW2 (druga wojna światowa) in your countries, but in Poland it’s generally understood that the war started on September 1, 1939.

Unfortunately, when I was a high school student this sad anniversary was normally overshadowed by a more immediate, also sad event, which was the beginning of a school year. Which, incidentally, also took place on September 1st.

And this is what I remember from my high school history classes:
Something something Czechoslovakia, Hitler, something something… stuff happened, blah blah.
On September 1st, 1939 at 4:45AM the German battleship “Schleswig Holstein” started to shell the Polish garrison on Westerplatte. It was the beginning of Hitler’s invasion of Poland and the beginning of WW2.
Westerplatte, despite its very German-sounding name, was the location of a Polish Military Transit Depot (WST), sanctioned within the territory of the Free City of Danzig (now Gdańsk). 180 Polish soldiers under the command of Major Henryk Sucharski defended their position for seven days against overwhelming odds. When they finally surrendered, Maj. Sucharski, as a sign of respect from the German dude in charge, was allowed to keep his officer’s sword while being taken prisoner.
Blah blah blah, France blah blah blah England… the Soviet Army… blah… more stuff happened. WW2 was gaining momentum.

I’m ashamed to admit that even though I lived quite nearby Gdańsk and Westerplatte, I never visited the site. These days it’s a touristy place with a museum and monuments, and that sort of thing.

One September 1st my high school organized a field trip to Westerplatte to participate in the memorial ceremonies, which were held there annually. And here, I’m again ashamed to admit that instead of going there like all good students should, together with a friend we decided to skip it. We went to a musical instrument store instead, where we played guitars and drums for most of the day. And then of course, we lied about it. What can I say? It was the 80s. We wanted to be rock stars.

photo: Wikipedia. Major Sucharski surrenders.

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