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. From the beginning it was designed as an artistic enterprise which would cater mostly to the tastes of recent Polish refugees who planned to return to Poland as soon as possible. The theater, despite some success, never achieved its objective of becoming a permanent center for the Polish performing arts in New York. When the governmental subsidies ended in 1945, the company ceased to exist. Most of the actors followed different career paths, including radio programs and individual tours to smaller communities in the country, or else returned to Poland.68
The existence of the theater during the war became an extremely important factor in the Polish exiles’ life. It enabled the survival of a group of people whose careers could not have been transferred easily into a foreign environment. For example, it gave employment to a host of Polish actresses such as Jadwiga Smosarska (one of the most popular and promising film actresses in Poland), Janina Wilczówna, Zofia Nakoneczna, Lunia Nestorówna, Karin Tiche, Stanisława Nowicka, and Maria Modzelewska, an accomplished actress of the Warsaw stage.69 But more significantly, it symbolized the efforts of the Polish people to go on despite war, exile, and terrible news from occupied Poland. In an article for Tygodnik Polski, director and playwright Antoni Cwojdziński described preparations for the performance of “Pastorałka” (Pastorale), a Christmas play based on traditional Polish folk motifs, as involving the good will and ingenuity of the entire company. The rehearsals took place in a private apartment after the regular workday, and even actors suffering from flu participated. A singer practiced in the bathroom, the only space free from interference and noise from the street. The stage designer created decorations by hand and often carried them herself to and from the car. The actors often played in small, unheated halls, to which they had to travel long distances. Still, an atmosphere of enthusiasm and ardor accompanied their work.70
This labor of love brought its own rewards. Irena Lorentowicz, who was the set designer and prepared all the costumes, noticed that “often laughter, loud calling, warnings for the characters on the stage, exclamations, and the sincere tears of the audience” came in instant response to the acting.71 After the premier of each new play, professional reviews appeared in Tygodnik Polski, written by Jan Lechoń or Józef Wittlin. In one of them, an excited Lechoń wrote: “Anyone who has lived in Warsaw and remembers the atmosphere of premiers in the Warsaw theaters could not fail to feel at the performance of the Polish Artists’ Theater . . . the rush of memories of those days and those halls.”72 During one program, “Echoes of the Polish Land,” when the actors on the stage sang, “We were happy and we did not know it,” several recent refugees, overwhelmed by their emotions, got up and left.73
The wartime exile community did not meet only during PIASA lectures or theater performances; they also created a close-knit community that was determined to recreate Polish prewar social circles in an American environment. The largest number of exiles settled in New York, and their social life centered on several key locations. One of them was the consulate of the Polish government in exile, until 1945 recognized by the United States as Poland’s legal authority. There, according to Lorentowicz, “we searched each other out[;] everybody was getting pieces of news from the homeland and sharing them with others.”74 Another place for social gatherings was the Ognisko (Campfire) restaurant located next to the consulate. As one exiled writer, Aleksander Janta, commented, every day Ognisko drew a sizable crowd of Poles, as if it was a popular place in Warsaw. “Here you could find all the gossip,” he wrote, “Here was the stock exchange for all political and social sensations and insinuations, here you could meet those that count and those that have just arrived, here you could learn everything about everybody.”75 The menu included strictly Polish
