[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 159 (Thursday, November 11, 1999)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E2366]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




               IN CELEBRATION OF POLISH INDEPENDENCE DAY

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. SAM GEJDENSON

                             of connecticut

                    in the house of representatives

                      Wednesday, November 10, 1999

  Mr. GEJDENSON. Mr. Speaker, tomorrow the people of Poland will 
celebrate their independence day. I rise tonight to pay tribute to them 
and people of Polish descent across the globe.
  After 123 years of occupation, the Polish people regained their 
independence and their place on the map on November 11, 1918.
  The principles laid down by Woodrow Wilson after the First World War 
helped build a moral framework for Poland's reemergence. But it was up 
to the Polish people to guarantee that this promise was fulfilled. Many 
Poles had fought on a number of fronts, by choice or conscription, in 
World War I. Particularly famous was the ``Blue Army'' of General Jozef 
Haller, and the legendary Polish Legions of Jozef Pilsudski.
  In July 1917 while resisting German control of his forces. Pilsudski 
was captured and imprisoned by the Germans at Magdeburg. Many Polish 
units subsequently refused to take an oath of allegiance to the Germans 
and then disbanded, building the ranks of the underground Polish 
Military.
  As the Central powers collapsed, Ignacy Daszynski proclaimed a Polish 
People's Government in Lublin on the November 7, 1918. On November 10, 
Pilsudski was released by the Germans and returned to Warsaw where an 
awaiting Regency Council handed over power to him. Across the country, 
Polish military and ex-Legionnaires disarmed the Germans and seized 
political control.
  Pilsudski telegrammed the allied governments that day with the 
immortal words, ``the Polish state has arisen from the will of the 
whole nation.'' From that day onward Poles everywhere celebrated 
November 11th as Independence Day.
  It is that much more painful that only two decades after throwing off 
the cloak of foreign occupation, Poland would undergo invasion and 
occupation by the Nazis followed by another invasion and forty-four 
years of domination by the Soviet Union.
  My life has intersected with the bookends of this painful period in 
Polish history. My father was serving in the Polish army in 1939 when 
World War II erupted. After my family fled tyranny in Europe to settle 
in the United States, I ended up representing a Congressional district 
in eastern Connecticut that produced the submarines which helped the 
West win the Cold War and give the Poles their second chance for 
independence and freedom.
  It was in the shipyards of Gdansk that the labor unions and Lech 
Walesa formed the Solidarity movement that rose from the underground to 
eventually negotiate communism's demise in Poland. It is my honor to 
represent shipbuilders in Groton, Connecticut--proud union members who 
stand for justice here at home and abroad. Some are Polish Americans 
who can trace their family history back to the days of November 1918 
and before. Some of them like Wayne Burgess of Uncasville, a member of 
MDA-UAW Local 571, have visited the shipyards in Gdansk to express 
their solidarity with their Polish counterparts' heroic fight for 
freedom.
  To complete the circle, it was my privilege to accompany President 
Clinton to the NATO Madrid Summit in July of 1997 when the Alliance 
invited Poland, along with Hungary and the Czech Republic to apply for 
membership. After years of occupation and oppression, the Polish people 
had finally found peace with the withdrawal of Soviet troops. When they 
joined NATO, the people of Poland achieved the only fundamental freedom 
they lacked--peace of mind.
  I therefore rise with Polonia here in the United States and across 
the globe to pay tribute to Poland on the anniversary of its 
independence. Tomorrow let the world hear again that ``the Polish state 
has arisen from the will of the whole nation.''

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