Portal:Poland/Did you know

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Did you know 1

Portal:Poland/Did you know/1

... that the Battle of Głębokie (now Hlybokaye, Belarus, pictured in 1900) during the Polish–Soviet War was both a tactical victory and a strategic defeat for the Soviet side?
... that The Black Book of Polish Jewry, published in the United States in 1943 during World War II, downplayed the true scale of the Holocaust?
... that the Emilia Plater Independent Women's Battalion, formed by the Soviet Union in the Second World War, was named after a Polish woman who fought against Russia?
... that Polish Jewish communist activist Eliezer Gruenbaum wrote a memoir about his experiences as a kapo in the Auschwitz concentration camp?

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Did you know 2

Portal:Poland/Did you know/2

... that Zofia Posmysz (pictured), Auschwitz inmate No. 7566, wrote an audio play based on her memories, which formed the basis for her 1962 novel Passenger, a 1963 film, and a 1968 opera?
... that the announcement of the reopening of the Embassy of Poland in Manila coincided with Poland's decision to expand its economic involvement in Asia?
... that Polish mountain climber Tomasz Mackiewicz went missing on January 27 during his seventh attempt to reach the summit of the 8,126-metre (26,660 ft) high Nanga Parbat in Pakistan?
... that Monica Gardner's life was shaped by finding out that Bonnie Prince Charlie's mother was Polish?
... that, during The Holocaust in German-occupied Poland, Cypora Zonszajn could not live without her closest family and returned to the Siedlce Ghetto to perish along with them?

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Did you know 3

Portal:Poland/Did you know/3

... that 17th-century Polish poet Anna Stanisławska (pictured) wrote about her life and three marriages in a series of 77 laments?
... that Compendium ferculorum by Stanisław Czerniecki, first published in 1682, is the first cookbook written originally in Polish?
... that most of the people seeking refugee status in Poland are citizens of post-Soviet states?
... that the death of Polish Army chaplain Ignacy Skorupka at the Battle of Warsaw was used as a political tool by Józef Piłsudski's opponents?

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Did you know 4

Portal:Poland/Did you know/4

... that the 13th-century Ulica Floriańska (Saint Florian Street, pictured) in Kraków is one of the most prestigious thoroughfares in Poland?
... that the Upper Silesian Railway was part of the first rail network connecting Berlin, Vienna, Kraków and Warsaw by the late 1840s?
... that The Dream of Jacob, a composition by Krzysztof Penderecki based on the biblical account of Jacob's Ladder, was featured in the American horror movie The Shining?
... that because of opposition by the Polish communist government, the Warsaw Uprising Monument was constructed over 40 years after the event it commemorates?

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Did you know 5

Portal:Poland/Did you know/5

... that the Jagiellonian tapestries (example pictured) became state property of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth by the testament of King Sigismund II Augustus?
... that the Tenczyn Castle was captured and pillaged because of a rumor that the Polish Crown Jewels were hidden in its walls?
... that there are several explanations of Frédéric Chopin's illness?
... that geneticist Piotr Słonimski joined with colleagues to organize support for scientists repressed during 1982–1983, the time of martial law in Poland?

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Did you know 6

Portal:Poland/Did you know/6

... that during the Battle of Yevenes, Polish lancers of the Legion of the Vistula (pictured) lost all their banners, which caused the dissolution of the regiment?
... that thanks to its well-preserved medieval fortifications, the town of Paczków is called the Polish Carcassonne?
... that light-cavalrymen of the Polish 1st Light Cavalry Regiment of the Imperial Guard saved Napoleon's life at least three times?
... that the Broadway play Irena's Vow tells the story of Irena Gut, a Polish nurse who during World War II saved twelve Jews from the Holocaust at the risk of her own life?
... that Independent Students Union was the student arm of Polish opposition movement Solidarity?

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Did you know 7

Portal:Poland/Did you know/7

... that the fossil crane fly Elephantomyia pulchella (pictured) was redescribed by Polish paleoentomologist Iwona Kania of the University of Rzeszów?
... that the writer Maria Dąbrowska reported to the Polish authorities that Poles in Bosnia and Herzegovina lived better than villagers in Poland?
... that Vietnamese people in Poland, significantly composed of illegal immigrants, are one of the country's largest ethnic minorities?
... that one of the founders of CD Projekt, publisher of The Witcher video game series, used to peddle cracked copies of PC games in a Warsaw marketplace?

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Did you know 8

Portal:Poland/Did you know/8

... that the size of its automotive industry makes Poland one of the largest producers of light vehicles in Central and Eastern Europe (Polish-manufactured Fiat Abarth 500C pictured)?
... that the Sonderkommando photographs of events around the Auschwitz gas chambers in 1944 were smuggled out of the camp in a toothpaste tube?
... that Jan Matejko, one of the most famous Polish painters, trafficked arms to the insurgents' camp during the January Uprising of 1863?
... that Fort Srebrna Góra, a rare example of a surviving 18th-century mountain stronghold, is also known as the "Gibraltar of Silesia"?

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Did you know 9

Portal:Poland/Did you know/9

... that after World War II, Polish resistance organizer and Warsaw Uprising fighter Jan Mazurkiewicz (pictured) was brutally tortured by the authorities in communist Poland?
... that the Hetman Party of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth called upon Russia to help defend their Golden Liberties?
... that the group of reformers known as Kołłątaj's Forge popularized the ideals of the French Revolution in Poland?
... that Hugo Steinhaus "discovered" Stefan Banach and helped re-establish mathematics at the University of Wrocław after World War II?

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Did you know 10

Portal:Poland/Did you know/10

... that an average of 150,000 braided ring-shaped breads, known as obwarzanki krakowskie (pictured) are sold daily from street carts in Kraków?
... that common hogweed was originally the main ingredient of borscht?
... that in 1921 more than 95% of the Czechoslovak citizens of Polish ethnicity lived in the Těšín electoral district?
... that SS officer Herbert Mehlhorn was involved in the camouflage of the mass graves of Jewish victims at the Chełmno extermination camp?
... that Bogna Burska's initial painting compositions were narratives of congealed blood forms made with red paints applied by fingers on walls, canvas, and glass?

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Did you know 11

Portal:Poland/Did you know/11

... that the fossil crane fly Elephantomyia bozenae (pictured), discovered in Baltic amber, is named after the Polish biologist Bożena Szala?
... that in 1890, Henry Lowenfeld, an immigrant from Poland, established the UK's first brewer of non-alcoholic beer, in Fulham, London?
... that between 1942 and 1944, Polish resistance fighter Antoni Koper hid Jews from the Warsaw Ghetto in his apartment?
... that, when described, at least five males of the fossil crane fly Elephantomyia irinae were known from inclusions in Baltic amber from the collection of the Polish Academy of Sciences?

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Did you know 12

Portal:Poland/Did you know/12

... that Władysław Szpilman, whose life inspired the film The Pianist, was the most famous of the Robinson Crusoes of Warsaw hiding in the ruins of the city (pictured) after its planned destruction by the Nazi Germans?
... that ORP Huragan and ORP Orkan, the first two destroyers scheduled to be constructed by domestic shipyards for the Polish Navy, were never completed due to the German invasion of Poland?
... that Rzeczpospolita Polska, the official magazine of the Polish Underground State, published 80 issues in the dangerous conditions of occupied Poland?
... that as political prisoners were released due to the fall of communism in Poland, regular prisoners rioted, demanding better conditions and an amnesty?

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Did you know 13

Portal:Poland/Did you know/13

... that Polish architect Stefan Kuryłowicz (one of his buildings pictured) is credited with modernizing the architecture of Warsaw in the decades following the collapse of Communism?
... that Polish-German "cotton king" Juliusz Karol Kunitzer survived a 1893 assassination attempt, but died during that of 1905?
... that bas reliefs being made by the sculptor Henryk Kuna for a public monument in Vilnius were used as cemetery pavers during the Nazi occupation of the city?
... that during World War II, the Polish Teachers' Union was mostly active through the Secret Teaching Organization?
... that the album Kayah i Bregović by Goran Bregović and Kayah was the first to receive a Diamond award by the Polish Society of the Phonographic Industry?

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Did you know 14

Portal:Poland/Did you know/14

... that with over 40,000 citations in scientific literature, Polish-American polymer chemist Krzysztof Matyjaszewski (pictured) is one of the most cited chemists in the world?
... that Polish and Italian prisoners taken by the Russians after the Battle of Krzykawka were deported to Siberia?
... that the Polish anti-Nazi Pomeranian Griffin resistance organization was persecuted by the Soviets due to its strongly Catholic character?
... that all five compositions for harpsichord by Iannis Xenakis, among them Komboï, were dedicated to the Polish-born harpsichordist Elisabeth Chojnacka?

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Did you know 15

Portal:Poland/Did you know/15

... that in the aftermath of the unsuccessful January Uprising, Polish insurgent Zygmunt Padlewski (pictured) was captured and executed by the Russian authorities?
... that several peaks of the Andean Cordillera de la Ramada, including the highest, Mercedario, were first climbed by a Polish expedition organized by the Tatra Society in 1934?
... that the murder of worshipers in Kysylyn during the massacres of Poles in Volhynia became the subject of a 2009 historical documentary for the Polish Television?
... that K. Rudzki i S-ka, a Polish engineering company, built roughly 20 percent of all rail bridges in the Russian Empire, including the Khabarovsk and Maurzyce Bridges?

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Did you know 16

Portal:Poland/Did you know/16

... that the Marie Curie Museum building (pictured) in Warsaw, in which the two-time Nobel Prize winner was born, was deliberately destroyed during WWII?
... that the PWS-4, a Polish sports aircraft built in 1928, was not developed beyond a single prototype?
... that despite great risks, the Polish Jaskółka class minesweeper ORP Rybitwa successfully towed her sister ship ORP Mewa to port after Mewa had been hit by German bombs in September 1939?
... that Zbigniew Babiński, a Polish military and sports aviator who constructed gliders before World War I, was one of the victims of the Katyn massacre?
... that Ujazdów Avenue in Warsaw was renamed after Stalin in 1953, but the traditional name was restored three years later?

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Did you know 17

Portal:Poland/Did you know/17

... that the Polish Art Nouveau sculptor Konstanty Laszczka (pictured) produced symbolic bronze statues of female nudes overwhelmed with sadness?
... that the assumption of modern historians that Elisabeth of Greater Poland is a daughter of Elisabeth of Hungary is based on them sharing the same name and both coming from Hungary?
... that the Zamojski Academy, the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in Poland, was founded in 1594 at Zamość by Royal Chancellor Jan Zamoyski?
... that the Nicolaus Copernicus Monument erected in 1853 at Thorn in Prussia (now Toruń, Poland), his home town, bears a Latin inscription drawn up by Alexander von Humboldt?

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Did you know 18

Portal:Poland/Did you know/18

... that in 2005, composer Krzysztof Penderecki (pictured) added a ciaccona for strings to his Polish Requiem, begun in 1980?
... that by the Treaty of Vilnius (1561), Gotthard Kettler exchanged his office as Grand Master of the Livonian Order for that of a duke of Courland and Semigallia?
... that of the two competing Polish kings in 1705, one was allied with Russia and the other one with Sweden?
... that Elżbieta Sieniawska was one of the most powerful women in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth during the reign of Augustus the Strong?

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Did you know 19

Portal:Poland/Did you know/19

... that the PWS-6 (pictured) was the first Polish aircraft fitted with slats – but the prototype is the only model ever produced?
... that although Princess Louise of Prussia was noble-born, her German-Polish daughter Elisabeth Radziwiłł was considered an unsuitable marriage prospect for future emperor Wilhelm I?
... that Polish lawyer Henryk Cederbaum was expelled from the bar after defending a Polish shopkeeper who accused the Russian governor-general's wife of shoplifting?
... that the anti-Nazi resistance group "Olimp", organized in 1941 by members of the Polish minority in Breslau, was named after Mount Olympus because of their remote main meeting place?

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Did you know 20

Portal:Poland/Did you know/20

... that the so-called Hungarian Crown (pictured), part of the Polish Crown Jewels, was modeled after the Holy Crown of Hungary?
... that Mikołaj Błociszewski was the Polish negotiator in the diplomatic talks whose failure led to the Polish-Lithuanian–Teutonic War of 1409–1411?
... that the Sanok Castle was the seat of Isabella Jagiellon, Queen of Hungary, after her escape from Transylvania?
... that the Heu-Aktion involved systematic kidnapping of Polish children by Nazi Germany?
... that Dawid Baziak began his professional mixed martial arts career with five consecutive technical knockout victories?

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Did you know 21

Portal:Poland/Did you know/21

... that Piotr Domaradzki (pictured) was active in the Solidarity movement before being granted asylum in the United States, where he worked as editor-in-chief of the country's largest Polish-language newspaper?
... that the video game The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt was marketed as "Skyrim in a Game of Thrones sauce"?
... that the dwarf geebung, an Australian shrub species, was first described in an unpublished manuscript by Polish traveler and naturalist John Lhotsky?
... that Metropolis Software's Tajemnica Statuetki (The Mystery of the Statuette) has the distinction of being the first Polish adventure game?

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Did you know 22

Portal:Poland/Did you know/22

... that in 1939, a trans-Atlantic radio broadcast featured coloratura soprano Ewa Bandrowska-Turska (pictured) singing four songs by Karol Szymanowski from the Wawel Castle in Kraków for the U.S. audience?
... that Magdalena Wolińska-Riedi was married by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger and had her childen baptized by him when he became Pope Benedict XVI?
... that some Roman Catholics in Poland observed a Week of the Poor that lead up to the first World Day of the Poor on 19 November 2017?
... that Alice Bota, who studied in Germany and Poland, and currently writes for Die Zeit, won the Axel-Springer award for young journalists?

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Did you know 23

Portal:Poland/Did you know/23

... that the thousand-year-old Bishop Petros with Saint Peter the Apostle (pictured) ended up in Poland after being saved from a watery grave?
... that Auschwitz survivor Bat-Sheva Dagan (born Izabella Rubinsztajn in Łódź, Poland) writes Holocaust stories for children that have happy endings "in order not to rob them of their faith in mankind"?
... that Sir Joseph Rotblat, a Polish-born physicist who helped design atomic bombs for the Manhattan Project during World War II, won the Nobel Prize for Peace?
... that the council of the Free City of Danzig Government in Exile was supposedly recognised in secret as the legal successor to the Danzig Senate by ethnic German expellees from Danzig (now Gdańsk, Poland)?

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Did you know 24

Portal:Poland/Did you know/24

... that Temerl Bergson (pictured), a wealthy businesswoman and benefactress of Hasidic Jews in 19th-century Poland, "distributed money like ashes"?
... that the Coexist symbol used on bumper stickers was first published as a 3 m × 5 m (9.8 ft × 16.4 ft) outdoor poster by a Polish artist in a juried exhibition in Jerusalem?
... that at the Valletta Summit on Migration, where European and African leaders discussed the European migrant crisis, Poland was only represented by an undersecretary of state due to a clash with the first sitting of the country's new parliament?
... that Russian victory at the Battle of Warsaw in 1831 ended the Polish November Uprising?

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Did you know 25

Portal:Poland/Did you know/25

... that the textile company Többens and Schultz (plant pictured), owned and operated by two major war profiteers in the Warsaw Ghetto, supplied the German army with uniforms, socks, and other garments?
... that the autobiographical novel A Brief Stop on the Road from Auschwitz, set partly in German-occupied Poland, ends with the suicide of the author's father?
... that the Lithuanian-Polish border is the only land border that the Baltic States share with a country that is not a member of the Russian-aligned Commonwealth of Independent States?
... that the inactive Polish A.B. Dobrowolski Polar Station is still occasionally visited by explorers of the Antarctic?

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Did you know 26

Portal:Poland/Did you know/26

... that when confronted with an ethical dilemma, Celestyn Czaplic's (pictured) contemporaries asked themselves, "what would Czaplic think of that?"
... that the Zielony Balonik ("Green Balloon") literary cabaret of Kraków was rumoured to be a place of "orgies, nude dancing and all manner of dissipation"?
... that during a decade of the interbellum, Germany and Poland fought a customs war?
... that the poem "Murzynek Bambo" ("Bambo the Little Negro") by Julian Tuwim has been criticised for its portrayal of black people?
... that before his death in 2011, Tadeusz Sawicz was believed to have been the last surviving Polish pilot to have fought in the Battle of Britain?

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Did you know 27

Portal:Poland/Did you know/27

... that one of the Easter traditions in Poland includes making and displaying of an Easter palm (example pictured), the tallest of which can reach over 30 metres (98 ft)?
... that Margaret Michaelis-Sachs took photos of the Jewish market in Kraków which "carry the weight of history, offering a visual trace of a way of life that was destroyed by fascism"?
... that welfare in Poland is covered by the constitution of Poland, which contains an article dedicated to social security as a right of all citizens?
... that the 30-year-old heiress of the Szebnie estate died of typhus contracted while caring for sick prisoners at the Szebnie concentration camp in 1942?

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Did you know 28

Portal:Poland/Did you know/28

... that the Franciscan Church (pictured) in Zamość was among the largest churches in 17th-century Poland?
... that the extinct trapdoor spider Baltocteniza was identified from a specimen preserved in Baltic amber owned by the Polish Academy of Sciences?
... that French Marshal Claude Victor-Perrin, was captured by a Prussian freikorps on his way to command the 1807 Siege of Kolberg (now Kołobrzeg)?
... that the Polish State Forests agency oversees 77.8 percent of forestland in Poland?
... that Polish anti-Communist fighter turned Stalinist informant, Edward Wasilewski, committed suicide in 1968, on the day of the Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia?

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Did you know 29

Portal:Poland/Did you know/29

... that Zakopane Style architecture (example pictured) became so popular that designs it inspired were built in Warsaw, Łódź, and even in Saldutiškis, Lithuania?
... that the Darżlubie Forest is the second largest site of Nazi mass killings of Poles and Jews in Pomerania?
... that deputy minister Roman Romkowski, charged along with Director-general Anatol Fejgin and Col. Józef Różański of the Polish Ministry of Public Security, was sentenced to 15 years in prison in 1957?
... that the Hel Fortified Area was the last place in Poland to surrender to the invading Wehrmacht in 1939, and during World War II it was used as a Kriegsmarine base?

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Did you know 30

Portal:Poland/Did you know/30

... that headstones from the New Jewish Cemetery (pictured) of Kraków were used to pave the courtyard of commandant Amon Göth's house in the Kraków-Płaszów concentration camp?
... that Teofil Lenartowicz wrote a poem about a heavenly golden cup decorated with scenes of idealized Polish countryside?
... that the plans for a popular front between communists and socialists in Poland collapsed after the Oblicze Dnia ("Face of the Day") newspaper was launched in 1936?
... that Natalia Tułasiewicz, a Polish teacher, was one of only two lay women beatified among the 108 Martyrs of World War II?

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Did you know 31

Portal:Poland/Did you know/31

...that one of the holiest symbols of Poland, the Black Madonna of Częstochowa according to a legend was painted by St. Luke the Evangelist on the table-top of the Holy Family in Nazareth?
...that Poland's largest daily, the Gazeta Wyborcza (Electoral Gazette), got its name because it was originally set up to campaign for Solidarity in the 1989 democratic elections?
...that the common word for "hi" and "bye" in Poland is "cześć", which actually means "honor"?
...that Zamoyski Code failure in Poland in 1780 was a result of an alliance between the foreign interests of the Catholic Holy See and the Orthodox Russian Empire?

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Did you know 32

Portal:Poland/Did you know/32

...that the astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus (Mikołaj Kopernik) discovered that the Earth revolves around the Sun?
... that of the ninety historic Synagogues of Kraków, Poland active before World War II, only the Remuh Synagogue still serves as a Jewish house of prayer?
...that a revolutionary semiconductor called the blue laser was constructed by a group of scientists from the Polish Academy of Sciences in 2001?
...that there is a Winnie the Pooh Street (Polish Ulica Kubusia Puchatka) in Warsaw and Bydgoszcz due to the character's popularity?
...that Polish mathematicians and cryptologists broke the Enigma cipher?

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Did you know 33

Portal:Poland/Did you know/33

...that one-fourth of the world's white storks make their home in Poland, where they are believed to bring good fortune?
...that the first extra-solar planetary system was discovered by a Polish astronomer Aleksander Wolszczan?
... that Poland's National Council of the Judiciary has been criticized for including only 6 women among its 25 members?
... that the Polish composer Krzysztof Penderecki co-wrote the German libretto of Ubu Rex, his only opera buffa, based on the French play Ubu Roi?

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Did you know 34

Portal:Poland/Did you know/34

... that the Kraków Fire of 1850 (pictured) destroyed approximately 10% of the city?
... that in January 2013, the cybercrime Virut botnet was partially taken down by NASK, the Polish domain registrar?
... that some 80,000 Poles have been waiting for over sixty years for compensation for the immovable property lost to the Soviet Union in lands east of the Bug River?
... that Filipinki was the first Polish all-girl vocal group?

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Did you know 35

Portal:Poland/Did you know/35

... that the motto of a cookbook by Paul Tremo (pictured), a court chef to King Stanislaus Augustus of Poland, was, "not everyone thinks, but everyone eats"?
... that during the Września children strike of 1901–04, ethnic Polish schoolchildren were flogged for protesting against religious instruction in German?
... that Kali, a fine art painter, was a veteran of the Polish resistance movement during World War II?
... that the Polish-born Jakub Mareczko was the most successful under-23 cyclist in Italy in 2014?

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Did you know 36

Portal:Poland/Did you know/36

... that Polish merchant Jan Dekert (pictured) was a vocal advocate for the enfranchisement of burghers during the Great Sejm in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth?
... that former Polish president, Lech Wałęsa, only won 1 percent of the vote in the 2000 presidential election?
... that the Lipka Rebellion of 1672 was the only time that the Muslim Lipka Tatars mutinied against the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth?
... that Polish Jesuit missionary Jan Mikołaj Smogulecki introduced the knowledge of logarithms to China in the mid-17th century?

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Did you know 37

Portal:Poland/Did you know/37

... that in 2013 Poland became the world's largest producer of mead made according to traditional methods (example pictured)?
... that Compendium ferculorum ("A Collection of Dishes"), the oldest cookbook in Polish, inspired the description of a traditional banquet in the Polish national epic?
... that Janina Goss has been described as the "power behind the throne" in modern Polish politics?
... that Maximilian Kolbe volunteered to die in place of a stranger in the Auschwitz concentration camp?

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Did you know 38

Portal:Poland/Did you know/38

... that kiełbasa szynkowa (pictured) is a Polish ham sausage?
... that one of the reasons for the Partitions of Poland was the thousands of Russian peasants escaping from serfdom to the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth?
... that Zahava Burack survived the Holocaust by hiding in a crawlspace beneath the home of a sympathetic Polish family for two and a half years?
... that the toxic nature of the fools webcap was discovered only after 102 people in Bydgoszcz were poisoned in 1952?
... that The Old Axolotl, an experimental electronic novel by Jacek Dukaj presenting a post-apocalyptic, cyberpunk vision of Earth, incorporates hypertext and 3D-printable models of its characters?

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Did you know 39

Portal:Poland/Did you know/39

... that Polish shogi player Karolina Styczyńska (pictured) is the first non-Japanese person to be awarded professional status by the Japan Shogi Association?
... that the severed head of Andrew Báthory, prince of Transylvania and a Polish king's brother, was sewn back on?
... that Izydor Borowski was born in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, but later rose to the rank of general in Qajar Iran?
... that the Gutenberg Bible held by the Diocesan Museum in Pelplin survived World War II in Canada, kept in a vault at the Bank of Montreal until 1959?

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Did you know 40

Portal:Poland/Did you know/40

... that, in order to disguise the V-2 missile launch site in Blizna (pictured), in what is now southeastern Poland, the Nazi Germans created a mock village with plywood cottages and barns, as well as plaster people and animals?
... that Polish Jewish writer Rokhl Auerbakh worked overtly as the director of a soup kitchen and covertly as a member of a secret group that chronicled daily life in the Warsaw Ghetto?
... that Emany Mata Likambe, Zaire's former ambassador to Poland, was discovered homeless and living in the streets of Warsaw in 1994, after his government had failed to pay him for over two years?
... that it was not illegal to possess or use cannabis in Poland until 1997?

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Did you know 41

Portal:Poland/Did you know/41

... that two-year-old Ruth Schwarz was rescued from the Sambor Ghetto by Alojzy Plewa, one of many Poles recognized as Righteous Among the Nations (both pictured)?
... that the Majdanek concentration camp trial was the longest Nazi war crimes trial in history, spanning over 30 years?
... that the unsolved shooting death of Henryk Siwiak, a Polish immigrant, is officially the only homicide that occurred in New York on the day of the September 11 attacks?
... that in a Polish study, the silver stretch spider ate an average of 3.7 mosquitoes per day in early June?

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Did you know 42

Portal:Poland/Did you know/42

... that Theodore de Korwin Szymanowski (pictured), one of the earliest promoters of a Unified Europe, proposed a customs union, a central bank, and a single currency as far back as 1885?
... that 14-year-old Leon Śliwiński saved the life of 12-year-old David Friedman in the Kielce Ghetto during the Holocaust in German-occupied Poland?
... that the light, crisp, smoky, and highly carbonated Grodziskie beer was once nicknamed "Polish Champagne"?
... that the German-Polish astronomer Johannes Hevelius declared that one needed the eyes of a lynx to see Lynx?

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Did you know 43

Portal:Poland/Did you know/43

... that Magdalena Fularczyk (pictured) was part of the first female Polish rowing team to win a world championship gold in an Olympic boat class?
... that during the Holocaust in German-occupied Poland, the Polish nine-member Król family rescued the Jewish six-member Steinlauf family from the Nowy Sącz Ghetto despite the risk of death penalty?
... that two Polish nuns harbouring Jewish fugitives who escaped from the Słonim Ghetto were beatified by Pope John Paul II among the 108 Martyrs of World War II?
... that the 2015 Polish horror film The Lure is a reimagining of The Little Mermaid set in the 1980s Poland?
... that Poland is creating a 35,000-strong volunteer military force designed to counter hybrid warfare?

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Did you know 44

Portal:Poland/Did you know/44

... that underground courier Frumka Płotnicka (pictured), who delivered weapons and instructions for making Molotov cocktails and hand grenades to Jews in Nazi-occupied Poland, died in the Będzin Ghetto uprising?
... that Polish football player Łukasz Cieślewicz was named player of the year in the Faroe Islands in 2011 and 2015?
... that the type fossil of the damselfly Electropodagrion belongs to the Museum of Amber Inclusions of the University of Gdańsk?
... that the painter Bronisława Janowska rejected a marriage proposal from the man she loved because he was divorced?

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Did you know 45

Portal:Poland/Did you know/45

... that Agnieszka Popielewicz (pictured) hosts the behind-the-scenes episodes of Taniec z gwiazdami, the Polish version of Dancing with the Stars?
... that the image of Marianna Dolińska's hanged children has been falsely used to represent victims of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army?
... that Pilot Pirx, Stanisław Lem's sci-fi character, defeats a perfect android thanks to human imperfection?
... that the 1990 Earth-grazing meteoroid above Czechoslovakia and Poland was observed from two sites, which for the first time enabled geometrical calculations of the orbit of such a body?

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Did you know 46

Portal:Poland/Did you know/46

... that slippery jacks (pictured), known in Polish as maślaki, deriving from a word meaning "buttery", are considered a delicacy in Polish cuisine?
... that the Smithsonian Channel documentary Treblinka: Hitler's Killing Machine was inspired by bathroom tiles made by the company now known as Opoczno S.A.?
... that during the Holocaust, Roman Gross was rescued from the Tarnopol Ghetto by Józef Regent, whom he in turn had rescued from deportation earlier in the war?
... that at the age of thirteen, Shmuel Shilo survived three roundups of Jews from the Łuck Ghetto and lived to tell the story?

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Did you know 47

Portal:Poland/Did you know/47

... that the P-badge (pictured) for Polish forced laborers was the first official, public badge introduced by Nazi Germany, preceding the Jewish yellow star by over a year?
... that Jakub Kagan, one of the best known Polish-Jewish composers of popular music who formed Kagan's Jazz Band in the interwar Warsaw, died during the Holocaust?
... that Polish Roman Catholic midwife Stanisława Leszczyńska delivered about 3,000 babies at the Auschwitz concentration camp?
... that Ewa Gryziecka's world record in women's javelin throw lasted 35 minutes?
... that the green-legged partridge and the Polish-bred Green-legged Partridge belong to different species?

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Did you know 48

Portal:Poland/Did you know/48

... that the Polish street food known as zapiekanka (pictured) has been described both as "Polish pizza" and "a poor relative of its distant Italian cousin"?
... that Polish-born Joseph Conrad has been described as one of the "two great English-language writers of sea stories"?
... that six members of the Polish-Ruthenian noble Szeptycki family were bishops, some Greek Catholic and one Roman Catholic?
... that a forest glade near Palmiry became "one of the most notorious places of mass executions" in Poland after Nazi war crimes were committed there?

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Did you know 49

Portal:Poland/Did you know/49

... that Kolejka ("Queue"), a popular Polish educational board game about communist shortage economy, has itself been in short supply?
... that the Bloody Sunday massacre of Jews took place in German-occupied Stanisławów two months before the Stanislau Ghetto was formally set up in December 1941?
... that the temporary removal of The Partisans, a Boston sculpture depicting Polish cursed soldiers, triggered protests by the Polish-American community?
... that the 21st-century economic migration of Poles to Western Europe is comparable in size to the migration of Poles to the United States in the 19th and 20th centuries?

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Did you know 50

Portal:Poland/Did you know/50

... that Polish philosopher Józef Kalasanty Szaniawski (pictured) began as an advocate for restoring Poland's independence but ended as a high government official in Russian Poland – and an enemy of philosophy?
... that the 1988 Polish strikes shook the country's Communist regime to such an extent that it was forced to begin talks on relegalization of Solidarity?
... that the Black Procession of Polish burghers in 1789 resulted in the passage of the belated major urban reform in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth?
... that Operation Antyk was the Polish Underground State's anti-communist propaganda department?
... that Jan Władysław Dawid was a lecturer at the Flying University in Warsaw?

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Did you know 51

Portal:Poland/Did you know/51

... that Jeremi Wiśniowiecki (pictured) was one of the wealthiest Polish magnates, ruling over 200,000 subjects living on estates in what is today Ukraine?
... that the settlements of Mikuszowice and Komorowice were divided by a national border for centuries, but are now part of one city and one country?
... that 120 Polish miners died in the rubble when the newly built train tunnel collapsed along the Poprad River Gorge (pictured) in the Beskid Mountains?
... that Lem, Poland's first scientific artificial satellite, sees blue stars while Heweliusz, its second, sees red stars?

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Did you know 52

Portal:Poland/Did you know/52

... that the Carpathian newt (pictured), native to the mountains of southern Poland, sometimes hybridises with the smooth newt?
... that Florian Znaniecki was the father of sociology in Poland?
... that the first president of Poland, Gabriel Narutowicz, was assassinated five days after taking office, amidst a right-wing propaganda campaign accusing him of being "an atheist, a Freemason, and a Jew"?
... that "We want to be Germans and nothing but Germans" was a call sent out to the world by the Jungdeutsche Partei members of the German minority living in prewar Poland?

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Did you know 53

Portal:Poland/Did you know/53

... that the Conversations with an Executioner were held between Jürgen Stroop, who destroyed the Warsaw Ghetto, and Kazimierz Moczarski (pictured), a resistance fighter who was supposed to kill him, while they shared a death row cell?
... that the Polish inventor and bridge designer Marian Lutosławski was killed in a mass execution by the Bolsheviks several days before his trial was supposed to take place?
... that the world's first monument to Wikipedia was unveiled in Słubice in late October 2014?
... that Ambassador Kazimierz Papée protested to Secretary of State Cardinal Luigi Maglione regarding the Holocaust in Poland that "when something becomes notorious, proof is not required"?

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Did you know 54

Portal:Poland/Did you know/54

... that Aerolot (poster fragment pictured), the predecessor of Poland's flag carrier, LOT Polish Airlines, has common roots with Lufthansa, the flag carrier of Germany?
... that Otto Stadie, a nurse who served at Adolf Hitler's headquarters with the Nazi euthanasia program, kept the register of stolen gold and diamonds at Treblinka?
... that Aleksander Lesser was one of the first artists to paint scenes from modern Polish Jewish history?
... that Polish general Józef Haller de Hallenburg faked his death in the 1918 Battle of Kaniów?

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Did you know 55

Portal:Poland/Did you know/55

... that legend has it that a Teutonic Knight erected the Leaning Tower of Toruń (pictured) so as to atone for falling in love with a woman, the tower's tilt signifying his deviant conduct?
... that the massacre of about 1,500 Jews in Józefów was committed by the men of the German Reserve Police Battalion 101, who were too old for the regular army?
... that the officially reported unemployment rate in Poland rose from near zero in 1989 to over 13 percent in 2012?
... that the protests of conservative Catholic groups in Poland against the play Golgota Picnic included attempted exorcisms?

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Did you know 56

Portal:Poland/Did you know/56

... that the trilingual 14th-century Sankt Florian Psalter (page pictured) contains one of the oldest texts in Polish?
... that the Counter-Reformation in Poland concluded successfully with the Repnin Sejm of 1768, which abolished legal discrimination against religious dissidents?
... that the Polish resistance heisted over a million US dollars in młynarki, the currency of the General Government, so popularly named after the head of its central bank, Feliks Młynarski?
... that many kindergartens in Poland were named after the children's television series Jacek i Agatka?

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Did you know 57

Portal:Poland/Did you know/57

... that the Equality Parade (pictured) held annually in Warsaw since 2001, is the oldest pride parade in any former Eastern bloc country?
... that about 3,500 Jews from the Pińsk Ghetto and from nearby Kobryń were murdered at Bronna Góra in June 1942?
... that Florian Znaniecki, a Polish American philosopher and sociologist, coined the terms "culturalism" and "humanistic coefficient"?
... that the Polish Armed Forces in the West contributed one division to Operation Overlord, the largest seaborne invasion in history?

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Did you know 58

Portal:Poland/Did you know/58

... that Görlitz/Zgorzelec (pictured) is one of several towns split by the postwar Germany–Poland border, which follows mostly the Oder–Neisse line?
... that, when it occurred, the mass shooting in the Pińsk Ghetto was the second largest anti-Jewish operation in a single settlement?
... that The Polish Peasant in Europe and America has been called a "neglected classic" of American empirical sociology?
... that the Zakłodzie meteorite was found in an area where a fireball had been observed a century earlier?

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Did you know 59

Portal:Poland/Did you know/59

... that Lilpop, Rau i Loewenstein (logo pictured) was the largest manufacturing company in Poland before its factory was destroyed by the Germans during World War II?
... that World War II resistance fighter Jerzy Zakulski, who rescued a Jewish mother and child from the Kraków Ghetto, was executed by Poland after the war?
... that Father Józef Kowalski, an Auschwitz prisoner, was one of 108 Polish Martyrs beatified in front of 600,000 people by Pope John Paul II?
... that the village of Borzęcin was first mentioned in historical documents by the Polish chronicler Jan Długosz in his Liber beneficiorum?

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Did you know 60

Portal:Poland/Did you know/60

... that the Poland–Ukraine border (border posts pictured), the most often crossed stretch of the European Union's eastern boundary, is also a major smuggling route?
... that the last murdered Jews of the Mińsk Mazowiecki Ghetto came from the iron foundry of K. Rudzki i S-ka?
... that Wacław Kopisto was one of the Silent Unseen rescuers of Home Army prisoners tortured at a Pinsk prison?
... that Kabaret TEY was one of the most popular Polish cabarets of the 1970s and 1980s?

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Did you know 61

Portal:Poland/Did you know/61

... that the Kraków Society of Friends of Fine Arts erected their own palace (pictured) in the Old Town using public donations?
... that the engraver Jacopo Caraglio fled to Venice from the Sack of Rome in 1527, before moving to Poland as court goldsmith?
... that the Giedroyc Doctrine, developed by émigré publicist Jerzy Giedroyc in the 1970s, shaped the eastern policy of Poland after 1989?
... that poverty in Poland is more likely to affect young than old people?

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Did you know 62

Portal:Poland/Did you know/62

... that Zofia Daszyńska-Golińska (pictured) taught at Warsaw's Flying University before becoming a Polish senator?
... that during the uprising of 1794, Tadeusz Kościuszko's army successfully defended Warsaw from forces led by King Frederick William II of Prussia?
... that, in the 1970s, the propaganda in the People's Republic of Poland exploited the technique of exaggerating political and economic successes?
... that the Central Committee of Polish Jews, formed in 1944, was instrumental in organizing and implementing the aliyah, or Jewish migration to the new State of Israel?

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Did you know 63

Portal:Poland/Did you know/63

... that the Piotrków Trybunalski Ghetto (synagogue pictured), created only 38 days after the invasion of Poland in World War II, was the first Jewish ghetto in German-occupied Europe?
... that Alfreda Markowska, a Polska Roma, was awarded the Order of Polonia Restituta for saving Jewish and Roma children from death in the Holocaust and the Porajmos during World War II?
... that Frédéric Chopin left his homeland in 1831 and never returned?
... that works of the Polish artist Dorota Nieznalska stirred a religious controversy and charges of blasphemy in Poland?

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Did you know 64

Portal:Poland/Did you know/64

... that the Szombierki Heat Power Station (pictured) is considered one of the "Seven Architectural Wonders of the Silesian Voivodeship"?
... that Szlama Ber Winer escaped the work commando at the Chełmno extermination camp and managed to write a report about his experience soon before his and his family's death in the gas chambers of Bełżec?
... that Ewa Ziarek, a Polish American philosopher, wrote the book An Ethics of Dissensus?
... that after missing the whole of 2009 through injury, mixed martial artist Jan Błachowicz returned at KSW XIII to defeat two opponents on the same night?

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Did you know 65

Portal:Poland/Did you know/65

... that the canvas of Skarga's Sermon (detail pictured), a painting by Jan Matejko, covers more than 8 square metres (86 sq ft)?
... that Rywka Lipszyc's diary of her life as a teenager in the Łódź Ghetto during the Holocaust in Poland was published 70 years after it was written?
... that the Monument to the Fallen and Murdered in the East in Warsaw commemorates victims of the Soviet invasion of Poland during World War II and subsequent repressions?
... that the Karlino oil eruption put an end to the dreams of Poland becoming a "second Kuwait"?

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Did you know 66

Portal:Poland/Did you know/66

... that Zbigniew Bródka (pictured), the first Pole to win an Olympic gold medal in men's 1500 metres speed skating, is a professional firefighter?
... that Żywoty świętych ("Lives of the Saints") by the Polish Jesuit Piotr Skarga contained graphic and detailed descriptions of tortures and suffering?
... that Stanisław Salmonowicz, once repressed by Polish communist authorities, has published over a thousand works of history?
... that Barbara Zdunk was one of tens of thousands of people executed for witchcraft in Europe and America?

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Did you know 67

Portal:Poland/Did you know/67

... that mechanical billy goats (pictured) butting heads atop the mid-16th century Poznań city hall attract hundreds of spectators daily?
... that Jan Matuszyński, who earned medical degrees in Tübingen and Paris, died of tuberculosis in the arms of Frédéric Chopin and George Sand?
... that the delay of planned restoration of the ruined Katowice historic train station, which attained monument status in 1975, has led to public protests?
... that SMS Schleswig-Holstein, one of the five Deutschland-class battleships, fired the first shots of World War II during the Battle of Westerplatte?

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Did you know 68

Portal:Poland/Did you know/68

... that Zambian-born Polish economist and MP Killion Munyama (pictured) did not originally plan to stay in Poland, but the fall of communism changed his mind?
... that Poland is considered a founding member of the United Nations despite not having attended the first meeting?
... that some historians consider a 1619 strike by Polish craftsmen in the Jamestown Settlement to be the first strike in North American history?
... that one of the international reactions to the Euromaidan was the formation of a human chain on the Polish-Ukrainian border crossing at Medyka as a sign of support for pro-EU protesters in Ukraine?

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Did you know 69

Portal:Poland/Did you know/69

... that the PL-01 (pictured) is a new tank design developed in Poland?
... that the Głos magazine was closed during the revolution of 1905 in the Congress Kingdom of Poland?
... that the Treaty of Bytom and Będzin ended the fourteen-month long imprisonment of Maximilian III, Archduke of Austria, in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth?
... that Irena Jurgielewiczowa, a writer best known for the children's novel Ten obcy ("That Stranger"), was also an underground teacher and a resistance fighter in World War II?

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Did you know 70

Portal:Poland/Did you know/70

... that the UFO-like Kielce Bus Station (pictured) has been praised as "one of the most valuable" architectural designs of the last decades of the People's Republic of Poland?
... that, although Piotr Skarga's political treatise Kazania sejmowe ("Sermons to the Diet") was ignored during his lifetime, he was labeled a "patriotic seer" centuries after his death?
... that the creation of the Warsaw Gay Movement was a counter-reaction of Polish gays against Operation Hyacinth?
... that Leon Wasilewski of the Polish Socialist Party learned Yiddish in order to be able to edit the party's Yiddish-language newspaper Der arbeyter?

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Did you know 71

Portal:Poland/Did you know/71

... that mazurek cakes (pictured) are traditionally served in Poland during Easter and Christmas?
... that Austrian tennis player Adam Baworowski, a Roland Garros semifinalist, fought in World War II, first in the Polish Army against Germany and then in the Wehrmacht on the Eastern Front?
... that a memorial to the victims of Treblinka extermination camp, created by sculptor Franciszek Duszeńko, was unveiled by the Marshal of the Sejm of the Republic of Poland in the presence of 30,000 visitors?
... that the findings of the Katyn Commission concerning the Soviet massacre of 22,000 Polish prisoners of war were denied for seventy years?

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Did you know 72

Portal:Poland/Did you know/72

... that Poland annually celebrates the defeat of Russia in the Battle of Warsaw (2008 celebration parade pictured)?
... that neither of the major combatants won the bloody Greater Poland Civil War which terminated after the accession of ten-year old Hedwig (Jadwiga) to the Polish throne?
... that according to Franciszek Ząbecki, the SS-Sturmbannführer Theodor van Eupen executed prisoners of the Treblinka Arbeitslager by "taking shots at them, as if they were partridges"?
... that while international rankings show corruption in Poland as steadily decreasing, over 80 percent of the Polish public still sees it as a significant problem for the country?

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Did you know 73

Portal:Poland/Did you know/73

... that the Maurzyce Bridge (pictured), built in 1928 near Łowicz, was the first welded road bridge in the world?
... that the 13 Ramsar sites of Poland help with the conservation and sustainable utilization of wetlands?
... that the Bródno Jewish Cemetery is one of the largest Jewish cemeteries in Europe?
... that Tadeusz Iwiński called Philippines–Poland relations a relationship "that was broken by mistake"?

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Did you know 74

Portal:Poland/Did you know/74

... that the Tęcza (pictured), a rainbow arch installation in Warsaw, has been vandalized several times due to anti-LGBT sentiments?
... that an early 18th-century civil war in Poland gave rise to a proverb about a state of division, disorder and anarchy?
... that Berek Lajcher chose a hot summer day to launch a prisoner revolt at the Treblinka death camp while German and Ukrainian guards went swimming in the nearby Bug River?
... that the Biosphere Reserves of Poland include the last and largest remaining mixed deciduous primeval forest on the North European Plain?

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Did you know 75

Portal:Poland/Did you know/75

... that during the 1950s, Communist propaganda for the war against the potato beetle alleged that the insect (pictured) was introduced into East Germany, Poland and Czechoslovakia by the United States as a form of entomological warfare?
... that Polish-Jewish publisher Samuel Orgelbrand financed the printing of his Encyklopedia Powszechna ("Universal Encyclopedia"), the first modern Polish encyclopedia, with proceeds from sales of the Babylonian Talmud?
... that Polish nationalism is more restrictive in terms of ethnicity and religion than the earlier Polish-Lithuanian identity?

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Did you know 76

Portal:Poland/Did you know/76

... that the location of the Józef Piłsudski Monument in Warsaw (pictured) has been criticized by its designer?
... that station master Franciszek Ząbecki collected incriminating evidence against Holocaust perpetrators by keeping record of railway deliveries to the Treblinka extermination camp?
... that Polish advocates of Neo-Slavism, such as Roman Dmowski, believed that reconciliation with the Russians was necessary to counter the German threat?
... that people questioned both the closure of the Philippine Embassy in Warsaw in 1993 and its re-opening in 2009?

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Did you know 77

Portal:Poland/Did you know/77

... that Jan Matejko's painting Rejtan (fragment pictured) caused a scandal, won a gold medal in Paris, was purchased by Emperor Franz Joseph I, and looted by Nazis?
... that Polish jurist and activist Józef Wybicki wrote the national anthem of Poland while serving in the Polish Legions in Italy?
... that Anna Poray retold life-stories of thousands of rescuers including those who died in punishment for trying to save Jews during the Holocaust in Poland?
... that Józef Piłsudski's cult of personality succeeded in making him one of the most popular figures in Polish history?

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Did you know 78

Portal:Poland/Did you know/78

... that the Brzeg Castle (courtyard pictured) in Silesia houses Poland's only preserved medieval hunting bow?
... that the statue of Roman Dmowski, the "father of Polish nationalism", has proven to be one of the most controversial monuments in Warsaw?
... that Ryszard Siwiec, protesting the Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia, was the first political protester to commit suicide by self-immolation in Central and Eastern Europe?
... that there were around 525 Filipinos in Poland as of September 2012, and that most of them resided in the country temporarily?

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Did you know 79

Portal:Poland/Did you know/79

... that Samuel Willenberg (pictured) is the last living survivor of the prisoner uprising at the Treblinka extermination camp during the Holocaust in Poland?
... that dozens of Red Army soldiers switched sides and joined the Polish Army after several lost engagements during the Soviet invasion of Poland in 1939?
... that Testament mój ("My Testament") was the poetical last will of Juliusz Słowacki, one of the Three Bards of Polish poetry?
... that the resistance movement in Auschwitz was formed by the Polish Home Army partisan Witold Pilecki?

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Did you know 80

Portal:Poland/Did you know/80

... that only two and a half pages survive of the Bible of Queen Sophia (pictured), a priceless artifact of the Old Polish language?
... that from 1930 through 1933, Jews constituted the majority of the Young Communist League of Poland membership?
... that Kamienie na szaniec ("Stones for the Rampant"), a novel describing the lives of three Polish underground youth paramilitary members, was published shortly after their deaths in German-occupied Poland?
... that both German soldiers and former Polish prisoners of German concentration camps were treated at a war-time hospital close to the Lärbro Church in Sweden?

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Did you know 81

Portal:Poland/Did you know/81

... that the mandatory 13 brothers moved into the Mogiła Abbey (cloister pictured) around 1225?
... that although the Mongols won the Battle of Tursko in 1241, at first the Polish forces managed to capture the enemy camp?
... that kosynierzy, a war scythe-wielding peasantry militia, became one of the symbols of the struggle for Polish independence?
... that the Polish question was a major recurring issue in European diplomacy for well over a century, following the partitions of Poland in the late 18th century?

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Did you know 82

Portal:Poland/Did you know/82

... that St. Francis' Church (pictured) in the Old Town of Kraków displays an exact replica of the Shroud of Turin, blessed by Pope John Paul II in 2003?
... that the Thorn Castle (now in Toruń), one of the first castles of the Teutonic Knights, was demolished by rebellious burghers a century or so after its construction, at the beginning of the Thirteen Years' War?
... that one of the unofficial mottos of Poland, "God, Honor, Fatherland", likely originated from the Napoleonic motto of the Order of the Legion of Honor ?
... that the National Rifle Factory, a major firearms producer in interwar Poland, also designed its own weaponry, including an anti-tank rifle?

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Did you know 83

Portal:Poland/Did you know/83

... that scholars are not sure who is portrayed in Rembrandt's painting A Polish Nobleman (pictured)?
... that the Old City of Zamość, one of the World Heritage Sites in Poland, is recognized as an "outstanding example of a Renaissance planned town"?
... that the German libretto of Boris Blacher's last opera, Yvonne, Prinzessin von Burgund was based on a Polish play by Witold Gombrowicz?
... that a photograph of the execution of Jews near Ivanhorod, Ukraine, by members of the SS Einsatzgruppe was intercepted by the Polish resistance in 1942?

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Did you know 84

Portal:Poland/Did you know/84

... that the Medieval Town of Toruń (pictured), one of the World Heritage Sites in Poland, is recognized as an excellent example of a European medieval town?
... that King Vladislaus I of Poland took advantage of the Teutonic Siege of Medvėgalis in Samogitia to attack Kulmerland?
... that the Sikorski Memorial in Gibraltar commemorates the death of General Władysław Sikorski in a 1943 air crash?
... that Krzysztof Meyer's opera Cyberiada is based on a series of humorous science fiction stories by Stanisław Lem?

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Did you know 85

Portal:Poland/Did you know/85

... that publication of one of Adam Mickiewicz's first poems, "Oda do młodości" ("Ode to Youth"; manuscript pictured), was delayed due to censorship?
... that much of the success of the Christianization of Moravia, an empire that extended into what is now southern Poland, is attributed to the work of Saints Cyril and Methodius?
... that the short story Janko Muzykant ("Johnny the Musician") was one of Henryk Sienkiewicz's works mentioned in a speech during his 1905 Nobel Prize in Literature ceremony?
... that archaeological excavations conducted in May 2013 at the Sobibór Museum unearthed an escape tunnel made by Holocaust victims in the Sobibór extermination camp?

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Did you know 86

Portal:Poland/Did you know/86

... that the Casimir Pulaski Monument (pictured) in Savannah, Georgia, the first monument to the Polish–American hero in the United States, was built over 70 years after a U.S. Congress resolution calling for it?
... that Tygodnik Ilustrowany ("Illustrated Weekly") was a major Polish magazine published from 1859 until World War II?
... that the Majdanek State Museum, with its permanent collection of evidence and rare artefacts from the Holocaut in German-occupied Poland, was the first museum of its kind in the world?
... that Poland has over 2,000 nature reserves, the first of which were created in the 19th century?

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Did you know 87

Portal:Poland/Did you know/87

... that the Wawel Dragon statue (pictured) in Kraków breathes fire?
... that the Treaty of Buda enabled Louis I of Hungary to become king of Poland because his uncle had no legitimate sons, but had to be followed by the Treaty of Kassa (Košice) because Louis himself had no sons?
... that Jerzy Żuławski's Trylogia Księżycowa ("Lunar Trilogy"), published between 1901 and 1911, was a major milestone in the history of science fiction and fantasy in Poland?
... that the inmates of Poniatowa concentration camp dug their own graves as fake air-raid trenches?

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Did you know 88

Portal:Poland/Did you know/88

... that Maria Konopnicka's (pictured) poem Rota ("Oath") became so popular, it was seen as an unofficial anthem of Poland?
... that the personal union of Hungary and Poland fell apart due to the regent Elizabeth of Bosnia's reluctance to give up her grip on power by moving from Buda to Kraków, where she had no supporters?
... that the soldiers who enlisted in the Polish Armed Forces in the West during World War II were known as "Sikorski's tourists"?
... that the final conviction in the Chełmno Trials of the Chełmno extermination camp personnel was imposed in Poland 56 years after the war ended?

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Did you know 89

Portal:Poland/Did you know/89

... that the last Polish red zlotys (example pictured) were known as "insurgent ducats", produced at the Warsaw mint in 1831, on the eve of the November Uprising?
... that one of the leaders of the Kraków Uprising in 1846 was killed while leading a religious procession?
... that the statue of General Casimir Pulaski in Washington, D.C., was sculpted by Kazimierz Chodziński?
... that Polish postmodernism met with severe impediments not so much from the communist establishment as from Solidarity and the Catholic Church?

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Did you know 90

Portal:Poland/Did you know/90

... that Polish girls (pictured) get wet and spanked on Easter Monday, but have their revenge on the following day?
... that a series of mostly pagan uprisings in the 1030s threw the fledgling Kingdom of Poland into chaos?
... that Grand Duke Leszek the White and a number of other Polish Piast dukes were ambushed in their baths during the 13th-century Gąsawa massacre?
... that Frédéric Chopin, Juliusz Słowacki, and Napoleon III were all in love with Maria Wodzińska?

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Did you know 91

Portal:Poland/Did you know/91

... that the magnates of Poland and Lithuania (pictured) often had private armies and exerted significant political influence on the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth?
... that the Oświęcim Chapel in Krosno is associated with a legend of romantic love between Stanisław Oświęcim and his sister Anna?
... that the humanistic coefficient is a major element in Florian Znaniecki's sociological theory?
... that Capella Cracoviensis, a chamber music ensemble, received enthusiastic reviews after it switched to period instruments?

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Did you know 92

Portal:Poland/Did you know/92

... that one of the critical or endangered ecoregions in Poland is home to the wisent (pictured), the heaviest wild land animal in Europe?
... that Rebbetzin Vichna Kaplan, the prize pupil of Sarah Schenirer and founder of the first Bais Yaakov high school in America, was initially rejected from joining Schenirer's teachers seminary in Kraków?
... that August Agbola O'Browne was the only black participant in the Warsaw Uprising of 1944?
... that the Italian-Polish film September Eleven 1683 used over 10,000 extras and 3,000 horses in its battle scenes?

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Did you know 93

Portal:Poland/Did you know/93

... that the Gorce Mountains (pictured) are home to the brown bear, black stork and fire salamander?
... that many of King Stephen Báthory's captains in the Livonian War had served in Obrona Potoczna ("Current Defense"), a military formation which defended Polish-Lithuanian borders from Tatar raids in the sixteenth century?
... that during the Siege of Zbarazh, the Polish-Lithuanian army withstood assaults of the Cossack and Tatar armies about twenty times its own size?
... that the Krkonoše / Karkonosze Biosphere Reserve (MaB) is one of only two successful UNESCO transboundary management structures in existence?

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Did you know 94

Portal:Poland/Did you know/94

... that an exact replica of Our Lady of Lourdes from the Grotto of Apparitions in France adorns the high altar of the Church of the Holy Virgin Mary of Lourdes (pictured) in Kraków?
... that during the Battle of Żownin, Cossack forces constructed a bridge under the cover of darkness to relocate their camp?
... that the death of General Władysław Sikorski, Polish wartime prime minister-in-exile, in the 1943 Gibraltar B-24 crash, led to a number of conspiracy theories?
... that at the Battle of Dubienka, Tadeusz Kościuszko repulsed an attack from Imperial Russian Army forces five times the size of his own?

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Did you know 95

Portal:Poland/Did you know/95

... that Mikołaj Zyblikiewicz (pictured), the City President of Kraków, obtained Emperor Franz Joseph's approval for saving the royal Wawel Castle from further decay by proposing to make it an imperial residence in Poland's former capital?
... that Polish Jewish resistance fighter Vladka Meed was a primary source for the 2001 television movie Uprising?
... that the Christmas Midnight Mass is known in Polish as pasterka, or "shepherds' mass"?

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Did you know 96

Portal:Poland/Did you know/96

... that the Monument to the Ghetto Heroes (pictured), site of Willy Brandt's Kniefall von Warschau in 1970, was made from labradorite intended to be used in Nazi German monuments?
... that award-winning realist artist Zygmunt Ajdukiewicz illustrated the Austro-Hungarian 24-volume encyclopedia initiated and sponsored by Crown Prince Rudolf?
... that following the death of Pope John Paul II, some 40,000 Catholics gathered in front of the Episcopal Palace in Kraków for a night vigil and prayer?

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Did you know 97

Portal:Poland/Did you know/97

... that painter Franciszek Ksawery Lampi specialized in Romantic depictions of attractive women (example pictured)?
... that Jacek Malczewski, a Symbolist painter, drew his inspiration from exotic and Biblical sources, but inadvertently translated them back into Polish folklore in his own art?
... that in the 1946 Wimbledon Championships Polish tennis champion Ignacy Tłoczyński was declared stateless by the Communist government of Poland because of his Allied affiliations in World War II?
... that Warsaw-born Canadian skier Karolina Wisniewska was the first Canadian to win four para-alpine medals at a single Paralympic Games?

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Did you know 98

Portal:Poland/Did you know/98

... that Baroness Maria Bal (pictured as Angel of Death) served as a live model for a series of Symbolist portraits of women, as well as nude studies and mythological creatures, by Jacek Malczewski?
... that Ruthenian nobility became increasingly Polonized with time?
... that the Legislative Sejm of 1919–21 was the first national parliament of the Second Republic of Poland?
... that Marcel Déat, the French author of the World War II anti-war slogan Why Die for Danzig?, later became a Nazi collaborator?

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Did you know 99

Portal:Poland/Did you know/99

... that Henryk Chmielewski (pictured) was the first comic book author to be awarded with the Medal for Merit to Culture, Gold Class, the highest Polish order given for artistic achievement?
... that during the partitions of Poland, Polish parliamentary tradition was continued in the Austrian partition, first by the Sejm of the Estates and later by the Sejm of the Land?
... that the immediate inspiration for the founding of the "Sztuka" Society of Polish Artists came from the ground-breaking fin-de-siècle art exhibition at the Cloth Hall of Kraków?
... that Augustyn Łukosz, a Polish minority politician in Czechoslovakia, was a member of the autonomous Silesian Parliament in Poland before his death at the Mauthausen Concentration Camp?

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Did you know 100

Portal:Poland/Did you know/100

... that the National Museum of Wrocław (pictured) holds one of the largest collections of contemporary art in Poland, extending even to the museum's remodelled attic?
... that hundreds of thousands of art pieces were looted from Poland during World War II by Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union?
... that Solidarity trade union leader Lech Wałęsa was a target of fake police reports produced by the Communist secret service in the People's Republic of Poland?
... that the Keret House in Warsaw is the world's narrowest residential building?