Polish Award Ceremony 2018

Prize winners of the Polish History Competition 2018 | Photo: Maciej Łabudzki
Prize winners of the Polish History Competition 2018 | Photo: Maciej Łabudzki

In 2018, one hundred years after the independence of Poland, the 21st Polish history competition with the topic  "Contemporaries of Independence" added a grass-root perspective to this occasion: The competition organisers from »The KARTA Center« connected the competition to the online portal "Independence from Independent People". On 9 November 2018, the winners of the competition received their prizes in the »History Meeting House« (Dom Spotkań z Historią).

Pupils and their tutors being awarded | Photo: Maciej Łabudzki
Pupils and their tutors being awarded | Photo: Maciej Łabudzki

The online portal holds 30,000 pages of the "Polish Declaration of Admiration and Friendship for the United States", which was a Polish acknowledgement of U.S. support in Poland’s struggle for a recreation of an independent Polish state achieved in 1918. 55.5 million Polish citizens - from the highest state authorities and local authorities to teachers, students and pupils of all levels of the educational system - signed the declaration which was delivered to the U.S. in 1926 on the 150th anniversary of American independence. The youngest signatory was only 7 years old.

Participants of this history competition dove into this exceptional source material to search for signatories from their village, their families or their schools. Then, they reconstructed the fates of the signatories through additional source material. The reconstructed biographies were presented in a variety of innovative formats such as documentary films, multimedia presentations, exhibitions, books and comics, newspaper articles, radio podcasts and even field games.

Alicja Wancerz-Gluza (The KARTA Center) has been organising the Polish history competition since its beginning in 1996 | Photo: Maciej Łabudzki
Alicja Wancerz-Gluza (The KARTA Center) has been organising the Polish history competition since its beginning in 1996 | Photo: Maciej Łabudzki

The award ceremony began with the presentation of the award-winning films and was followed by a discussion round between the prize-winners and members of the jury. The President of the »The KARTA Center«, Mr Zbigniew Gluza, read the jury’s decision and officially awarded the winners. The jury stated that these works unearthed a lot of new information and made a lasting impact on local communities. In some cases, the research by the young participants was just the starting point and the "Declaration" became an object of further historical exploration.

Watching the prize-giving on the stage | Photo: Maciej Łabudzki
Watching the prize-giving on the stage | Photo: Maciej Łabudzki

A first prize went to Jakub Dzik, Maja Dzik, Michał Dziergas, Mikołaj Szostak, Nikodem Nycz, Patryk Góra, Katarzyna She and Dorota Surowiak for their work "Janowicki's Independent Peers - one hundred years in the service of a small and large homeland". Their work describes the fates of 41 people related to the authors. -> Download of the complete work

Another first prize went to Paulina Basek, Krzysztof Bogusz, Karolina Kosil, Olga Łukasiewicz, Dawid Nagadowski, Igor Pazura, Wiktoria Podstawka, Miłosz Rosa and Julia Wiśniewska for the film "Równeśnicy Independence in Stoczek Łuków". Their work is based on the fates of teachers and twelve Jewish children in the region of Stoczek Łuków.

Photogallery of the award ceremony

Short video about the award ceremony

Streaming of the complete award ceremony

Information about the award ceremony, jury statements and links to the awarded works (in Polish)


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