A new project at Greenpoint’s Piłsudski Institute of America (138 Greenpoint Ave.) will highlight the history of Polish immigrants in Greenpoint, with a special evening commemorating the initiative today, July 2, at 6 p.m.
Professor and historian Tomasz Pudłocki from Krakow’s prestigious Jagiellonian University will introduce the evening, and the Institute’s president and executive director, Iwona Korga, will also be on hand to talk about the project.
“During the meeting the participants will learn about the history of Poland at Greenpoint and learn about the Institute’s project concerning Polish residents of Greenpoint. We invite everyone, who has lived or are living in the Polish district, have souvenirs and photos related to that district,” a translation of the event’s listing reads.
It’s especially personal for one Polish-American who will see her grandmother’s story reach a new audience. Native New Yorker and current Los Angeles resident Kathryn Kalucki has documented her grandmother’s personal history as a refugee who fled Poland during World War II. After Germany invaded in 1939, control of Poland was split between the Nazi regime and the Soviet Union. Soviet forces deported many Poles, including Kalucki’s grandmother Józefa Myćka Nida, and forced them into Siberian labor camps. Józefa lived there from 1940 to 1942, facing unbelievably brutal conditions. Once the Soviet regime switched allegiance to the western Allied forces, they released many of the deportees, who now found themselves without a land to return to. Józefa ended up in India alongside a significant contingent of Polish refugees. She lived there from 1943 to 1947. “After the war, Józefa was sent to the UK, before finally emigrating to Brooklyn, New York, where she found love, marriage and her family. Józefa lived out the rest of her days in Greenpoint; passing away in 2007, at the age of 92,” Kalucki shared with Greenpointers.
You can find more about Józefa’s story here.
I hope that the destruction of Polish communities in Greenpoint & Williamsburg by rampant gentrification will be included in this history. This, as a warning of what should not be repeated in this city. Change is inevitable, but rampant & destructive greed should not be. Who does the change benefit? After all, what is a city if not its diverse communities & the people who live & work there – the very people whose blood, sweat & tears have watered their community roots? Is the community a business, where residents are treated like disposable pawns ….or is it a home where people are retreated with both dignity & respect? The Dutch came centuries ago and evicted the Lenape native population from a truly green Greenpoint. Nowadays the gentrifiers & developers have likewise invaded, saying to the current natives: “Hey, we like this place. It has potential. Thanks for maintaining it for all these years, despite the red-lining, despitethe toxic industrial pollution & despite the city neglect. Now ….GET OUT!”. Our social & moral priorities ^ values are sadly & shamefully misplaces when we treat people in this way.
Revised: I hope that the destruction of Polish communities in Greenpoint & Williamsburg by rampant gentrification will be included in this history. This, as a warning of what should not be repeated in this city. Change is inevitable, but rampant & destructive greed should not be. Who does the change benefit? When the dazzle of dollar signs blinds the stampeding herd, who gets trampled? After all, what is a city if not its diverse communities & the people who live & work there – the very people whose blood, sweat & tears have watered their community roots? Is the community merely a business, where residents are treated like disposable pawns ….or is it a home where people are treated with dignity & respect? The Dutch came centuries ago and evicted the Lenape native population from their truly green Greenpoint. Nowadays the gentrifiers & developers have likewise invaded, saying to the current natives: “Hey, we like this place. It has potential. Thanks for maintaining it for all these years, despite the red-lining, despite the toxic industrial pollution & despite the city neglect. Now ….GET OUT!”. Our social & moral priorities & values are sorely, sadly & shamefully misplaces when we treat people in this way.