The Debrief

On 21 September 1941, a group of 400 women from Lublin and Warsaw was taken to Ravensbrück, the notorious concentration camp for women near Berlin.

As TFN’s history notable Stuart Dowell tells this week’s The Debrief, the group included four Girl Guides who had been arrested for involvement with the Polish Underground. They would go on to create the secret letter writing group.

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We’ve all thrown away something by accident. But this time, a huge number of documents which once belonged to Warsaw Uprising veteran Eugeniusz Tyrajski have been rescued found from a skip.

In this episode of The Debrief we speak to TFN history buff Stuart Dowell, who gives us the background .

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When Chopin died in France at the early age of 39 his famous deathbed wish was that his heart should be cut out from his body and sent to Poland.

In this episode of The Debrief we speak to TFN history expert Stuart Dowell, who recently took a look at Chopin’s heart, its history and its current whereabouts.

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In this episode of The Debrief we speak to TFN staff writer Joanna Jasińska, who recounts the story of Valerjan Romanovski who has pushed the limits of human endurance by riding his bike through one of the most unwelcoming places on Earth.

To get ready for the endeavour, Romanovski and his colleague Piotr Marczewski took a plunge into water despite it being -50°C. Given his slower pace, the first to depart was Marczewski who was pulling a sledge containing all his equipment.

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In this episode of The Debrief we speak to TFN writer Stuart Dowell, who says that it is known that heavy fighting took place between the Home Army and the Germans in August and September 1944 in the buildings where the stains have been found.

Many of the bodies of Polish soldiers who died in battle were left to lie in the spot where they fell, sometimes for up to several months.

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In this episode of The Debrief we speak to TFN staff writer Joanna Jasińska, who explains the ins and outs of reconstructive surgery and how a Polish doctor was awarded a fellowship from the American Society for Reconstructive Microsurgery (ASRM).

The professor from the Oncology Centre in Gliwice was recognised as the first Pole in history for completely rebuilding the internal organs of a six-year-old boy’s neck by transplanting a new larynx, trachea and throat, as well as bone marrow.

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In this episode of The Debrief we speak to TFN staff writer Joanna Jasińska, who recently interviewed Slovak film-maker Matej Bobrik about his latest documentary feature ‘Our Little Poland’.

The film shows how every year, over a dozen young Japanese students begin courses in Polish studies at the Tokyo University of Foreign Studies.

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You can also find out more about the legend of Pan Twardowski here.

In this episode of The Debrief we speak to Stuart Dowell, who explains the horrors of the “Jugendverwahrlager”: a camp designed especially for ethnically Polish children but which was located inside the Łódź – or Litzmannstadt – Ghetto.

It is a camp which has been almost totally lost from collective memory, yet as much as any other exposes the cruelty of the occupation, this time towards the youngest and most vulnerable of its victims.

Though not strictly part of the vast concentration camp system, it was operated by the SS and survivors say that in some respects it was worse than other camps.

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In this episode of The Debrief we sit down with TFN’s Editor in Chief Dagmara Leszkowicz, who explains what lies ahead for Poland’s economy this year.

Will inflation cause unwanted disruption? And will Brexit have an adverse effect on the economy?

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In this episode of The Debrief we’re back in the studio with Stuart Dowell, who explains how, towards the end of his reign, Siemowit III, the Duke of Masovia, committed a murder so vile and shocking that word of it spread like wildfire around the courts of Europe.

Chroniclers tell us that he was “a wise and noble ruler”. He took part in the prestigious congress of European monarchs in Krakow in 1364, and maintained good relations with Kazimierz the Great, even marrying his daughter to the king’s grandson. That didn’t stop him from committing the fateful crime, however…

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