Ambassador Victor Ashe

Greetings from Warsaw!

On April 23, President Obama spoke at the Holocaust Remembrance Ceremony at the U.S. Capitol and saluted those who rescued Jews from the Holocaust, including five Righteous Among the Nations from Poland visiting New York City and Washington, D.C. during the Holocaust Remembrance Days: Alicja Schnepf-Szczepaniak, Józef Walaszczyk, Tadeusz Stankiewicz, Ireneusz Rajchowski and Anna Stupnicka-Bando. These exceptional men and women were among those Poles who risked their lives to rescue others from certain death. "We are awed by your acts of courage and conscience,” President Obama told them. “And your presence today compels each of us to ask ourselves whether we would have done what you did. We can only hope that the answer is yes.” The very moving biographies of the Polish rescuers and two survivors available on our homepage are linked in the story at the bottom of the newsletter.

On Holocaust Memorial Day, April 21, Joan and I once again participated in the March of the Living at the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial in Oświęcim. The March of the Living is an international Holocaust education program established in 1988. Before the march, I met with high school students from across the United States and talked with Holocaust survivors.

In mid-April, Senator Carl Levin of Michigan, Chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC), along with fellow members of the SASC, Senator Bill Nelson of Florida and Senator Susan Collins of Maine, paid a visit to Warsaw. Their trip also included stops in Russia and the Czech Republic. While in Warsaw, the Senators met with several members of the Polish government including Radosław Sikorski, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, and representatives from leading academic institutions and think tanks. They also attended a luncheon at my residence.

On April 30, I opened a new Young Learners Resource Center in Lubartów (in eastern Poland) – the seventh YLRC we created in Poland in the past three years! The YLRCs operate in cities around Poland, providing teachers of English at the elementary level with workshops and unique teaching materials not widely available on the Polish market. Our English Language Fellow from 2006 to 2008, Margaret Cholodecki-Myers, who started the YLRC initiative, is currently back in Poland for six weeks of workshops for teachers around Poland.

Also last month the U.S. Embassy concluded the seventh edition of the valuable educational initiative, the “Know America” contest, in which high school students interested in American culture compete by answering test questions about American history, culture, and other topics. This year a record 700 students competed, and on April 20 I hosted thirty winners at a reception in Warsaw where I presented them with diplomas and books devoted to the 90th anniversary of U.S.-Polish diplomatic relations. The Rural Development Foundation (Fundacja Wspomagania Wsi), which organizes the contest, sponsored a three-day program for the winners that included cultural events and tours of the most interesting places and institutions in Warsaw, including the American School. Many of them later commented this was a unique opportunity for them to see a school “like the ones from the movies.” Some Polish students complained about the strict teachers and the old-fashioned teaching methods in Poland, provoking an animated discussion on which approach is better – a conversation that continued on the recently launched U.S. Embassy blog, an excellent discussion forum, and one of the ways we’ve embraced new media this year.

Also this month, hundreds of Poles and visitors from abroad participated in ceremonies commemorating the 66th Anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, which began on April 19, 1943. Marek Edelman, the last surviving leader of the Ghetto Uprising and 2009 recipient of the Embassy’s Jan Karski Freedom Award, and scores of high-level government officials and ordinary citizens laid wreaths and flowers at the Monument to the Heroes of the Ghetto Uprising and, later that afternoon, at the Jewish cemetery.

Last month also saw the designation of the Jan Karski Corner in Manhattan on April 16 (the southeast corner of Madison Avenue at East 37th Street in Manhattan, near the Polish Consulate). The Jan Karski Corner honors the heroic Polish Home Army (AK) courier, who brought the first eyewitness accounts of the Holocaust to Western leaders.

On April 20-22 Poland hosted the 2009 Trade Winds Europe event organized by the U.S. Department of Commerce and the U.S. Embassy. It was a unique opportunity for American and Polish companies to develop new business contacts and launch profitable partnerships with the support from the U.S. Department of Commerce. About 80 U.S. companies participated along with over 200 Polish companies from a cross-section of industries with a growing potential in Poland, including energy, defense and aerospace, telecommunications and information technology, among others.

In late April, the Embassy’s Cultural Section presented two important events: the 2009 Diversity Forum Discussion Series and the American Documentary Showcase. The Foundation Diversity Forum’s annual discussion series this year was inspired by the election of Barack Obama as the first African-American president of the United States and centered on integration of migrants in different countries, including Poland, which is gradually becoming a more diverse, multicultural society. The American Documentary Showcase, a touring program of prestigious contemporary U.S. documentaries, was presented at Warsaw’s “Rejs” Film Center on April 24. The screenings program included shorts and full-length documentaries highlighting intriguing topics from sweat shops in Los Angeles to an inspiring project at a women's prison in Oklahoma.

Columbia University in New York announced that it recently completed its $3 million fundraising effort to establish its first endowed chair in the Polish studies program at the university’s East Central European Center. The new chair in Polish studies reflects not only Poland’s historical contributions to art, literature and the sciences as the birthplace of such notable figures as Czesław Miłosz, Fryderyk Chopin, Maria Skłodowska-Curie and Pope John Paul II, but also recognizes its current prominent position as a member of the European Union.

May and June will be filled with exciting events as we continue to celebrate the 90th Anniversary of Diplomatic Relations between the United States and Poland. Among these will be my annual receptions for Polish Veterans of World War II and for the recipients of Fulbright fellowships for study and research in the U.S. The Polish American Freedom Foundation will be in town for its annual meeting in mid May, and on May 19 I will participate in the official opening of the new “North American Trail” in the arboretum in Rogów, near Łódź – featuring a wide variety of North American species. June 4 will mark the 20th anniversary of Poland’s first free elections and the fall of communism. May 1 marked the 5th anniversary of Poland’s membership in the European Union.

As always, I welcome your comments and suggestions about the newsletter and hope to continue to receive your thoughts. Please don’t forget to check our homepage for latest news, events, and updates. I will respond to all emails personally if you send me a message at: AsheVH@state.gov The U.S. Embassy website now features links to photo galleries and slide shows from many of our events, which I encourage you to visit.


Sincerely yours,

Victor Ashe

Embassy News