Stuart Dowell Profile picture
Journalist, your source for news from Poland. Also editor, content writer, translator
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Feb 8 15 tweets 3 min read
Thomas Rose, Trump’s new man in Warsaw, isn’t a career diplomat. He’s a right-wing media figure, political operator, and staunch nationalist. His arrival marks a shift in US-Poland relations. What does it mean? 🧵 Image 2/ Rose built his career attacking liberal bias in US universities, defending Israel’s hardline security policies, and pushing for a foreign policy that prioritises sovereignty over alliances. Now, he’s Washington’s top man in Warsaw.
Feb 4 11 tweets 2 min read
Israel refuses to compensate the family of Polish volunteer Damian Soból, killed in an airstrike on a humanitarian convoy in Gaza. An independent investigation into the attack remains secret. 1/ Image On 1 April 2024, Israeli forces bombed a World Central Kitchen convoy in Deir al-Balah, Gaza. Seven people died, including Soból and citizens of Australia, the UK, and the US 2/
Jan 25 18 tweets 4 min read
Auschwitz was liberated in January 1945, but for thousands of Poles, the nightmare didn’t end.

Stalin’s NKVD turned the camp into a prison, where lice-ridden mattresses, starvation, and brutality replaced the promise of freedom.

This is the story few know. 🧵 (1/) Image Weeks after liberation, the Soviets established three camps at Auschwitz. One held German POWs, another housed civilians—mostly Poles—and the third was infamous for its cruelty, run first by the NKVD and later by Poland’s secret police. (2/)
Jan 4 16 tweets 4 min read
Did you know Poland’s earliest Christian relic is largely ignored in Poznań and overshadowed by later relics in Kraków?

The Sword of Saint Peter, tied to Mieszko I's reign, is a mystery of history.

Let’s explore this fascinating artifact. 🧵 Image The Sword of Saint Peter, believed to have been gifted to Poland in the 10th century by the Pope, now resides in Poznań's Archdiocesan Museum. Few know about it, yet it may be one of Poland’s most significant Christian relics. Image
Dec 14, 2024 14 tweets 4 min read
Only two years old, they were starved, beaten, and worked to death.

KL Kinder in Łódź was Germany's only concentration camp for children. A place of unimaginable cruelty where Polish kids froze in urine-soaked clothes.

Their story is barely known, but it must be told 🧵👇 Image Opened on December 1, 1942, in the Polish city of Łódź, renamed Litzmannstadt by the Nazis, the camp was intended to isolate Polish children arrested for petty crimes or orphaned by war. A ‘ghetto within a ghetto,’ it became a site of unimaginable cruelty. Image
Nov 30, 2024 15 tweets 3 min read
"Hitler stole my mum!" Dariusz Dziekan grew up calling a German woman “Granny.” Only later did he learn she was the one who raised his mum after the SS stole her from Poland and erased her identity. This is Halina’s extraordinary story 1/ Image During WW2, the Nazis kidnapped up to 200,000 Polish children deemed “racially suitable” and sent them to Germany. Most were raised as Germans, their identities erased. Dziekan’s mother, Halina, was one of them.
Aug 20, 2024 17 tweets 3 min read
The Gutenberg Bible in Pelplin, Poland, is considered the most expensive book in the country. Despite its value, many people are unaware of its existence. 1/17 Image This rare and valuable book is housed in the Diocesan Museum in Pelplin, a small town in northern Poland. The museum is part of the Pelplin Abbey complex. 2/17 Image
Aug 13, 2024 20 tweets 4 min read
During WWII, the Germans released the most disturbing travel book ever published: a 1943 tourist guide to the General Government, the Nazi-controlled pseudo-state in occupied Poland. (1/20) Image Published by Baedeker, a prestigious travel guide publisher, the book lured German tourists to visit lands where atrocities were being committed. (2/20) Image