In New York, Tygodnik Polski (Polish Weekly) dominated the literary scene of the exile community since January 1943. It superseded Zenon Kosidowski’s Tygodniowy Przegląd Literacki Koła Pisarzy z Polski (Weekly Literary Review of the Polish Writers’ Circle), which had been published on a duplicating machine between 1941 and 1942. The very first issue of Tygodnik exemplified its orientation. Jan Lechoń’s front-page editorial was accompanied by a large drawing of Poland in its prewar borders, identifying the journal with the London government’s political position on the issue. A short story by Kazimierz Wierzyński recalled the bravery of Haller’s Army and intertwined the tradition of military sacrifice in World War I and the events of September 1939. A poem by Lechoń focused on the exile’s longing for his country, and another by Józef Wittlin related the experiences of Polish Jews under the Nazi regime. Ewa Curie, daughter of Nobel Prize winner Maria Skłodowska-Curie, described her encounters with the Polish army created in the Soviet Union. Anatol Muhlstein and Stanisław Strzetelski presented essays on international politics and the Polish question. Finally, the last page featured a review of the newly published book by Arkady Fiedler, Squadron 303, about Polish pilots’ contribution to the victory in the Battle of Britain. The issue closed with a score of announcements of lectures organized by the Polish Institute of Arts and Sciences of America.61
Almost all refugee intellectuals in the United States and many from the larger Polish war diaspora authored articles for Tygodnik, making it—next to Grydzewski’s Wiadomości Literackie in London—the best wartime publication by Polish intellectuals in exile. Among those who contributed their work was a sizable group of women. Irena Piotrowska, Felicja Lilpop-Krancowa, and Maria Werten published on art and architecture, reviewing exhibitions and books on those topics. Irena Lorentowicz and Maria Modzelewska wrote about art and theater. Wanda Landowska, a renowned Polish harpsichord player whose concerts in the United States received rave reviews, contributed material on music. Marta Wańkowicz-Erdman wrote essays and reports from her journalistic travels. Beata Obertyńska, a soldier of the Anders Army, and Zofia Bohdanowiczowa, who sent her poetry from exile in Algiers, and the Polish-American poet Wiktoria Janda reflected women’s contribution to poetry. Tygodnik Polski featured articles on women, for example, female deportees to Siberia and Pestki,62 and advertised Rój, a publishing house headed by Hanna Kister in the New York City.63 For a few months in the winter of 1944, Tygodnik Polski experimented with a separate section for women under the editorship of Pani Wanda (Ms. Wanda). The page discussed the same topics that one could find in any other women’s journal: recipes, beauty and fashion advice, sewing patterns, and savings in the domestic budget. Soon, however, Pani Wanda had to answer a letter from a female reader, who asked about the significance of such trivial concerns in times of war and suffering. After a run of just over two months, the women’s section quietly disappeared from Tygodnik’s pages.64
Exiles to the United States were among the founders of many cultural institutions: the Polish Institute of Arts and Sciences of America, the Polish American Historical Association, and the Józef Piłsudski Institute for Research in the Modern History of Poland. These cultural organizations were designed to support and facilitate the further development of Polish culture and scholarship in exile and to represent them to the larger American society.
The Józef Piłsudski Institute was established in July 1943. Its founders included new arrivals who before the war had been closely connected to the Polish government: Ignacy Matuszewski, former minister of the treasury; Wacław Jędrzejewicz, former vice-minister of education; and Henryk Floyar-Rajchman, former minister of industry and trade. Frank Januszewski of Dziennik Polski (Polish Daily) in Detroit, and Maksymilian F. Węgrzynek of Nowy Świat (New World) in New York, represented the Polish-American press. The goals of the institute included the collection, preservation, and study of documents dealing with the history of Poland since 1863. Gradually, the institute created an extensive library, archives, and a small museum for the display of historical artifacts. The institute also carried out editorial and publishing work; organized lectures, exhibits, and occasional conferences; and sponsored research projects and scholarships. Even though it failed in its attempt to create a large international membership among Polish diaspora, the institute was able to attract a devoted group of supporters. They included recent exiles from the prewar Piłsudski circles and some sympathetic intellectuals and artists, such as Jan Lechoń, Kazimierz Wierzyński, and painter Zdzisław Czermański. Other active members during the war were employees of the Polish consulate and embassy, activists of the Komitet Obrony Narodowej (KON)—or Committee of National Defense, a Polish-American organization dating back to World War I—as well as a group of supporters connected to Detroit’s Dziennik Polski. Refugees of the DP wave further strengthened the institute. In time the institute became a viable center for the study of Polish history, which attracted both Polish scholars and intellectuals and members from the older Polonia.65
The Polish Institute of Arts and Sciences of America (PIASA; in Polish the Polski Instytut Naukowy w Ameryce, or PIN) was established in New York in 1942. Polish scholars and members of the Polish Academy of Arts and Sciences (Polska Akademia Umiejętności, PAU) who found themselves outside of Poland at the outbreak of World War II were determined to continue scholarly activities disrupted by the war. They considered it their moral obligation, because the Nazis were systematically destroying Polish learning and scholarship in the homeland. Their new organization, PIASA, aimed at providing appropriate conditions for the presentation of Polish scholarship to larger American society. Among the first members and officers were such world-renowned scholars as historians Oskar Halecki, Jan Kucharzewski, and Rafał Taubenschlag, anthropologist Bronisław Malinowski, historian of Slavic literatures Wacław Lednicki, and chemist Wojciech Swiętosławski. Between 1942 and 1945 the Polish government in exile supported PIASA with a financial subsidy, enabling it to organize numerous lectures and conferences and to publish books and scientific works. From 1946 through 1951 the Polish American Congress granted PIASA a modest annual subsidy, but after that period PIASA had to look for other sources of support, mainly private gifts and volunteer work. Despite these dire financial straits, in 1953 PIASA organized the Mickiewicz Centennial, celebrating the one-hundredth anniversary of the poet’s death. The results of PIASA’s work were regularly published and publicized through the Bulletin of PIASA, replaced in 1955 by the Polish Review.
One of the most active PIASA committees focused on researching Polish immigration. It was soon transformed into a separate scholarly organization, the Polish American Historical Association (PAHA), with its own research agenda and separate publication, Polish American Studies. Both PIASA and PAHA attracted many Polish, Polish-American, and American intellectuals; and from the moment of their creation they have belonged to the most active cultural organizations within the Polish community in the United States.66
The story of Polish actors who were a part of the first wave of war refugees represents another example of an attempt to recreate the Polish artistic community in the United States. One of the most significant initiatives of the war years was the establishment in New York of Polski Teatr Narodowy (Polish National Theater) with the support of Koło Artystów Sceny Polskiej (Polish Actors’ Circle). Their performances evoked much enthusiasm, especially among the most recent arrivals from Poland. The repertoire featured classic Polish historical dramas and comedies, occasional programs (for example, for New Year’s Eve), and some new plays by Polish exile authors. By contrast, the company’s artistic tours to some of Old Polonia’s smaller centers did not meet with a great deal of success. Blamed for the failure was the supposedly high intellectual level of the repertoire, which did not appeal to a Polonian audience accustomed to lighter entertainment. Additionally, frequent references to wartime experiences in Poland were hard for the viewers to identify with, and high ticket prices and a lack of energetic management and marketing further hurt the ambitious theater company.67
In the fall of 1942 the Polish Actors’ Circle announced the establishment of Polski Teatr Artystów (Polish Artists’ Theater), subsidized by the Polish government in exile in London. The majority of actors who had participated in the Polish National Theater now transferred to the new company. Its nature was, however, very different.