Jan Karski was a Polish soldier, resistance-fighter, and diplomat during World War II. He is known for having acted as a courier in 1940–1943 to the Polish government-in-exile and to Poland's Western Allies about the situation in German-occupied Poland. He reported about the state of Poland, its many competing resistance factions, and also about Germany's destruction of the Warsaw Ghetto and its operation of extermination camps on Polish soil that were murdering Jews, Poles, and others.
Susan Orlean is an American journalist, television writer, and bestselling author of The Orchid Thief and The Library Book. She has been a staff writer for The New Yorker since 1992, and has contributed articles to many magazines including Vogue, Rolling Stone, Esquire, and Outside. In 2021, Orlean joined the writing team of HBO comedy series How To with John Wilson.
Szmul Mordko Zygielbojm was a Polish socialist politician, Bund trade-union activist, and member of the National Council of the Polish government-in-exile.
Veronica's Closet is an American television sitcom created by David Crane and Marta Kauffman. It aired on NBC for three seasons, from September 25, 1997 to December 7, 2000.
LaWanda Page was an American actress, comedian and dancer whose career spanned six decades. Crowned "The Queen of Comedy" or "The Black Queen of Comedy", Page melded blue humor, signifyin' and observational comedy with jokes about sexuality, race relations, African-American culture and religion. She released five solo albums, including the 1977 gold-selling Watch It, Sucker!, and collaborated on two albums with the comedy group Skillet, Leroy & Co. As an actress, Page is best known for portraying the Bible-toting and sharp-tongued Esther Anderson on the popular television sitcom Sanford and Son, which aired from 1972 until 1977. Page reprised the role in the short-lived television shows Sanford Arms (1976–1977) and Sanford (1980–1981). She also costarred in the 1979 short-lived series Detective School. Throughout her career, Page advocated for fair pay and equal opportunities for black performers.
Wanda Hazel Gág was an American artist, author, translator, and illustrator. She is best known for writing and illustrating the children's book Millions of Cats, the oldest American picture book still in print. Gág was also a noted print-maker, receiving international recognition and awards. Growing Pains, a book of excerpts from the diaries of her teen and young adult years, received widespread critical acclaim. Two of her books were awarded Newbery Honors and two received Caldecott Honors. The New York Public Library included Millions of Cats on its 2013 list of 100 Great Children's Books.
Sophie's Choice is a 1982 psychological drama directed and written by Alan J. Pakula, adapted from William Styron's 1979 novel of the same name. The film stars Meryl Streep as Zofia "Sophie" Zawistowska, a Polish immigrant to America with a dark secret from her past who shares a boarding house in Brooklyn with her tempestuous lover Nathan, and young writer Stingo. It also features Rita Karin, Stephen D. Newman and Josh Mostel in supporting roles.
In the decades since the Holocaust, some national governments, international bodies and world leaders have been criticized for their failure to take appropriate action to save the millions of European Jews, Roma, and other victims of the Holocaust. Critics say that such intervention, particularly by the Allied governments, might have saved substantial numbers of people and could have been accomplished without the diversion of significant resources from the war effort.
Wanda Coleman was an American poet. She was known as "the L.A. Blueswoman" and "the unofficial poet laureate of Los Angeles".
Barbara Ann Loden was an American actress and director of film and theater. Richard Brody of The New Yorker described Loden as the "female counterpart to John Cassavetes".
Wanda is a 1970 American independent drama film written and directed by Barbara Loden, who also stars in the title role. Set in the anthracite coal region of eastern Pennsylvania, the film focuses on an apathetic woman with limited options who inadvertently goes on the run with a bank robber.
Irene Tomaszewski is a Canadian writer, editor and translator of Polish descent living in Montreal, Canada.
The Zookeeper's Wife is a non-fiction book written by the poet and naturalist Diane Ackerman. Drawing on the diary of Antonina Żabińska, unpublished in English, it recounts the true story of how Antonina and her husband, Jan Żabiński, director of the Warsaw Zoo, saved the lives of 300 Jews who had been imprisoned in the Warsaw Ghetto following the German invasion of Poland on September 1, 1939. The book was first published in 2007 by W. W. Norton.
Jamie D. McCourt is the former United States Ambassador to France and Monaco who served from 2017 to 2021. She was confirmed by the Senate and sworn in on November 2, 2017. Ambassador McCourt is also the United States Permanent Observer to the Council of Europe. McCourt is the founder and CEO of Jamie Enterprises and a former executive of the Los Angeles Dodgers. She became the highest-ranking woman in Major League Baseball, appointed first as vice chairman of the Dodgers in 2004, then president in 2005, and finally CEO in 2009.
Sławomir Grünberg is a Polish-born naturalized American documentary producer, director and cameraman.
Inheritance is a 2006 American documentary film about Monika Hertwig, also known as Monika Christiane Knauss, the daughter of Ruth Irene Kalder and Amon Göth, commandant of the Płaszów concentration camp. Monika Hertwig was 10 months old when her father was hanged in 1946 for war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide. She discovered the truth about him only as a young adult, because her own mother told her in childhood that he was a good man and a war hero. The film centers around her meeting a Holocaust survivor, Helen Jonas-Rosenzweig, who was interned at Płaszów and personally knew Göth.
Kay Sekimachi is an American fiber artist and weaver, best known for her three-dimensional woven monofilament hangings as well as her intricate baskets and bowls.
Barbara Bestor is an American architect based in Los Angeles, California. She is the principal of Bestor Architecture, founded in 1992. Examples of her work include the Beats Electronics Headquarters in Culver City, Blackbirds, small lot housing in Los Angeles, Intelligentsia Coffee & Tea in Los Angeles, the revitalization of Silvertop, originally designed by John Lautner and the Toro Canyon House in Santa Barbara. In 2017 she was elected to the AIA's College of Fellows.
Story of a Secret State is a 1944 book by Polish resistance Home Army courier Jan Karski. First published in the United States in 1944, it narrates Karski's experiences with the Polish Resistance, and it is also one of the first book accounts of the German occupation of Poland, including the Holocaust in Poland.
Ewa Junczyk-Ziomecka is a Polish lawyer, journalist, and former politician who served as secretary of state in the Chancellery of the President of the Republic of Poland under Lech Kaczyński between 2008 and 2010.
