Zakopane is a town in the south of Poland, in the southern part of the Podhale region at the foot of the Tatra Mountains. From 1975 to 1998, it was part of Nowy Sącz Voivodeship; since 1999, it has been part of Lesser Poland Voivodeship. As of 2017 its population was 27,266. Zakopane is a centre of Goral culture and is often referred to as "the winter capital of Poland". It is a popular destination for mountaineering, skiing, and tourism.
Nowy Targ is a town in southern Poland, in the Lesser Poland Voivodeship. It is located in the Orava-Nowy Targ Basin at the foot of the Gorce Mountains, at the confluence of the Czarny Dunajec and the Biały Dunajec. It is the seat of the Nowy Targ County and the rural Gmina Nowy Targ, as well as the Tatra Euroregion.
Border conflicts between Poland and Czechoslovakia began in 1918 between the Second Polish Republic and First Czechoslovak Republic, both freshly created states. The conflicts centered on the disputed areas of Cieszyn Silesia, Orava Territory and Spiš. After World War II they broadened to include areas around the cities of Kłodzko and Racibórz, which until 1945 had belonged to Germany. The conflicts became critical in 1919 and were finally settled in 1958 in a treaty between the Polish People's Republic and the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic.
Władysław Hasior was one of the leading Polish contemporary sculptors connected with the Podhale region. He was also a painter and theatre set designer.
Goralenvolk was a geopolitical term invented by the German Nazis in World War II in reference to the Goral highlander population of Podhale region in the south of Poland near the Slovak border. The Germans postulated a separate nationality for people of that region in an effort to extract them from the Polish citizenry during their occupation of Poland's highlands. The term Goralenvolk was a neologism derived from the Polish word Górale commonly referring to the ethnic group living in the Beskid and Tatra mountains. In an attempt to make the Gorals collaborate with the SS, the Nazis proclaimed that they were of Germanic descent, and were thus worthy of Germanisation and separate treatment from other Poles.
Witalis Karol Teodor Wieder was a German-Polish traitor, a Nazi sympathizer, a recruited Agent of the Abwehr, and a self-proclaimed leader of the Goralenvolk during World War II. Goralenvolk were pro-Nazi traitors who claimed to originate from an aryan race, and who wanted to establish their own nation in the Polish mountains in Zakopane. Wieder acted as a Reichsdeutscher, and was known as a collaborator for the Nazi occupiers even though he was formerly an officer in the Polish army. At the end of the war, he escaped to Nazi Germany.
Wacław Krzeptowski was one of the leaders of the Goralenvolk action in Podhale during World War II. Before the German occupation he was chairman of the People's Party (SL) in Nowy Targ. In the early years of the war – as self-proclaimed Goralenführer – Krzeptowski lobbied Hans Frank in favor of his plan to establish an independent state for his ethnic group in southern Poland. This project proved to be a failure due to lack of support among the local population.
Józef Cukier was one of the leaders of the Goralenvolk during World War II. Having been a president of the Highlander Union before the German invasion, he tried along with Wacław Krzeptowski to establish an independent state for his ethnic group by collaborating with the occupiers. The attempt failed due to lack of support among the local population. After the war, he was sentenced to 15 years in prison for collaboration.
The Gorals, also known as the Highlanders and historically also as Vlachs, are an ethnographic subgroup primarily found in their traditional area of southern Poland, northern Slovakia, and in the region of Cieszyn Silesia in the Czech Republic, where they are known as the Silesian Gorals. There is also a significant Goral diaspora in the area of Bukovina in western Ukraine and in northern Romania, as well as in Chicago, the seat of the Polish Highlanders Alliance of North America.
Podhale Rifles or Podhale Riflemen is the traditional name of the mountain infantry units of the Polish Army. Formed in 1918 out of volunteers of the region of Podhale, in 1919 the smaller detachments of Podhale Rifles were pressed into two mountain infantry divisions, the 21st Mountain Infantry and 22nd Mountain Infantry Divisions, as well as into three brigades of mountain infantry and were considered elite units of the Polish Army.
Kościelisko is a village in Tatra County, Lesser Poland Voivodeship, in southern Poland, close to the border with Slovakia. It is the seat of the gmina called Gmina Kościelisko. It lies approximately 5 kilometres (3 mi) west of Zakopane and 86 km (53 mi) south of the regional capital Kraków.
Władysław Orkan was a Polish Goral writer and poet from the Young Poland period. He is known as one of the greatest Goral writers. The most famous of his works portray the common people from the region and Goral history.
Józef Zubek was a Polish soldier and skier.
The Republic of Zakopane refers to an area in Galicia centered on the city of Zakopane that created its own parliament on October 13, 1918. The parliament's principal goal was to join an independent state of Poland. On October 30, the Organisation officially declared its independence from Austria-Hungary and, two days later, made itself a "National Council". This was eventually disestablished on November 16 when the Polish Liquidation Committee took control of Galicia.
Zakopane Style is an art style, most visible in architecture, but also found in furniture and related objects, inspired by the regional art of Poland's highland regions, most notably Podhale. Drawing on the motifs and traditions in the buildings of the Carpathian Mountains, this synthesis was created by Stanisław Witkiewicz who was born in the Lithuanian village of Pašiaušė, and is now considered to be one of the core traditions of the Goral people.
The Tatra Confederation, or Confederation of the Tatra Mountains, was a Polish resistance organization operating in the southernmost Podhale region during the Nazi German occupation of Poland. The Tatra Confederation was founded in May 1941 in Nowy Targ – the historical capital of Podhale, by the poet and partisan, Augustyn Suski ; with Tadeusz Popek as his deputy. The organization had its ideological roots in the peasant movement of the Goral Lands of interwar Poland.
Augustyn Suski was a Polish Goral poet, pedagogue in the interwar period, and underground activist during World War II. Under the German occupation, Suski became a founder of the Polish resistance organization called Tatra Confederation, a.k.a. Confederation of the Tatra Mountains, operating in the Nowy Targ area of Podhale. He was murdered at the Auschwitz concentration camp.
Tadeusz Popek was a Polish partisan and underground activist during World War II. During the German occupation of Podhale, Popek became the co-founder of the Polish resistance organization called the Tatra Confederation, a.k.a. Confederation of the Tatra Mountains, operating in the Nowy Targ area. He was in charge of clandestine publications including Der Freie Deutsche meant for the Wehrmacht. Popek died in Zakopane, executed by a firing squad in the courtyard of the infamous Palace Hotel.
Jadwiga Apostoł-Staniszewska was a Polish teacher in the interwar period, an underground activist during World War II, and a writer in postwar Poland.
Andrzej Krzeptowski was a Polish skier. He competed for Poland at the 1924 Winter Olympics, finishing 19th in the Nordic combined event, 21st in the ski jumping event, and 28th in the 18 km cross-country skiing event. Krzeptowski also competed for Poland at the 1924 Winter Olympics, finishing 27th in the ski jumping event.
