THE BOX Since I was a child boxes have always intrigued me. I had always wondered what type of treasures and memories individuals would place in a box and keep forever. My mother had kept everything she had treasured and wanted to keep secret from the world in a particular box. I remember when my mom moved in with me she had a box filled with her paper and her stuff that she treasured. I watched her place the box methodically under the window by her bed. This box stayed there until her death. My mom being a secretive person had always intrigued me. Several months after her death I realized it was now time to clean her room. As I was cleaning her dresser, I looked into the mirror and I stared at that box for several minutes. The moment I picked up the box, I know my journey to learning about our relationship was about to begin.

This volume presents 145 primary source documents of Polish immigrants from different waves and backgrounds speaking about their lives, concerns, and viewpoints in their own voices, while they grapple with issues of identity and strive to make sense of their lives in the context of migration. Poles have come to America since the Jamestown settlement in 1608 and constituted one of the largest immigrant groups at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. As of 2020, the Census Bureau lists them as the sixth largest ethnic group in the country. The history of their experience is an integral part of the American story as well as that of the broader Polish diaspora. Each of the ten comprehensive chapters presents a specific theme illuminated by a selection of letters, press articles, fragments of memoirs and autobiographical fiction, interviews, organizational papers, and other publications, as well as visual sources such as cartoons, posters, and photographs. Brief introductions to the documents and a "Further Reading" section offer historical context and point readers to additional resources. The book provides students and scholars with a broad understanding and an incentive for future study of the Polish experience in the United States.

The author came to United States, for the first time, in 1943. He was then ten years old. A US Navy ship brought him to San Diego, California, straight from a concentration camp. Unfortunately, the United States government did not let him remain. So he went to Mexico, where he lived in a refugee camp for five years. When the camp was terminated, he was compelled to struggle. In order to survive, he held many jobs. At fifteen he worked as a roofer, a logger, and a sawmill helper, neglecting his formal education because of lack of time and opportunity. He immigrated to USA in 1951. This time he was allowed to stay. Here, because of his Polish origin, he suffered rejection, degradation, and discrimination. Here for the first time in his life, he was called a Dumb Polak and a White Nigger. Here he was subjected to the so-called offensive Polish jokes. This plus discrimination, rejection and degradation made his life a never-ending torment, a hell on earth! This autobiography was written in the form of a novel, and it is a continuation of author's first book: A Journey Into Exile-the first part of his life.

Wrocławski Rocznik Historii Mówionej jest wydawanym przez Ośrodek "Pamięć i Przyszłość" multidyscyplinarnym, jedynym w Polsce czasopismem naukowym poświęconym oral history, którego celem jest stworzenie platformy do refleksji metodologicznej nad metodą oral history oraz do wymiany doświadczeń różnych ośrodków i osób – przedstawicieli różnych dyscyplin naukowych – zajmujących się szeroko rozumianą historią mówioną. W periodyku publikowane są wyniki badań naukowych z wykorzystaniem źródeł historii mówionej oraz dyskusje nad samą metodą, a także opracowane naukowo źródla historii mówionej. Czasopismo jest również źródłem informacji o aktualnie prowadzonych badaniach, projektach, organizowanych konferencjach i nowościach wydawniczych, których tematyka dotyczy oral history. Wrocławski Rocznik Historii Mówionej znajduje się w bazach: The Central European Journal of Social Sciences and Humanities, The Central and Eastern European Online Library oraz w Bazie Czasopism Humanistycznych i Społecznych, oraz w European Reference Index for the Humanities and Social Sciences (ERIH PLUS). W 2019 r. Ministerstwo Nauki i Szkolnictwa Wyższego przyznało WRHM 20 pkt.

Though often unnoticed by scholars of literature and history, Polish American women have for decades been fighting back against the patriarchy they encountered in America and the patriarchy that followed them from Poland. Through close readings of several Polish American and Polish Canadian novels and short stories published over the last seven decades, Writing the Polish American Woman in Postwar Ethnic Fiction traces the evolution of this struggle and women’s efforts to construct gendered and classed ethnicity. Focusing predominantly on work by North American born and immigrant authors that represents the Polish American Catholic tradition, Grażyna J. Kozaczka puts texts in conversation with other American ethnic literatures. She positions ethnic gender construction and performance at an intersection of social class, race, and sex. She explores the marginalization of ethnic female characters in terms of migration studies, theories of whiteness, and the history of feminist discourse. Writing the Polish American Woman in Postwar Ethnic Fiction tells the complex story of how Polish American women writers have shown a strong awareness of their oppression and sought empowerment through resistive and transgressive behaviors.

The twentieth century was both wonderful and horrible. There were two catastrophic world wars and many ghastly smaller wars. But there were medical advances and discoveries that extended the lives of people and animals. There were many inventions that made life easier for ordinary people, inventions we take for granted. Some people were blessed with productive and peaceful lives while others suffered from events beyond their control. Each decade of the twentieth century was unique. The author has written about some she witnessed, some events told to her, and some she has made up entirely from her imagination. Even as a child, she was always ready to listen to someone's story. She wondered about her twenty cousins and many aunts and uncles, some of whom she never met. As an educator and member of several organizations, she found friends who had a unique story to tell.