An
UNRRA volunteer feeding small
Polish or Czech
boy. Hundreds of thousands of women and children were abducted into
Germany to serve as slave labour during the years of WW2. The UNRRA,
together with Red Cross, was trying to find out their origin and
wehereabout of their families.
Professor
Lange who knew the malnutrition and despair from his home town
Tomashov of Mazovia, robbed by the Imperial German Army as he was young lad,
obtained massive humanitarian and recovery aid for them. The
distinguished citizen of Poland and US
was burried in the Communal Military Cemetery (or Powązki Military
Cemetery) in Warsaw in 1965 but…
(Polski: Grób
Oskara Langego, Date 23 July 2008, Source Own work. Author
GrzegorzPetka Public Domain + YouTube video America in Color The
1940s)
As
a result of historical policy or the policy of remembrance of the
governing Law and Justice party such historical figures like
Professor Lange were condemned as alleged oppressors and traitors.
Three weeks ago a new memory law was proposed by a prominent member
of the ruling political camp, under which the resting in peace of
Professor Lange should be prohibited and his remnants,
together with the remnants of all other Polish Communist leaders,
exhumed to make place for a grandiose monument of the
anti-communist partisans as well as common terrorists called
officially the cursed soldiers.
To
get right to the point...
Oscar
Richard Lange was the son of a Polish
To
get right to the point... Oscar Richard Lange was the son of a Polish
factory owner of German origin. He was sick with tuberculosis from
the age of 9. In 1914, his parents sent him to a sanatorium in
Switzerland, where medicine doctors managed to stop the progress of
this incurable disease. It was clear that he would not live to old
age, and nobody was hiding it from him. Despite this, he did not
break down, did not fall into any addictions and tried to use his
enormous abilities in the field of mental work for the benefit of his
homeland, Poland and the entire civilised world. He turned out to be
a brilliant economist who contributed to
the victory of the anti-Nazi coalition. He
also developed the theory of market socialism,
which still remains the cornerstone of neo-Marxianeconomic theory.
He
wasn’t a political fanatic but a pragmatist
Attached
(since he was 14 years old!) to the patriotic Polish left he thought
about Poland all the time, also when he lived for many years in the
Western countries. He has been for some years professor of economics
at the University of Chicago and since
the year 1943 has been a citizen of the United States,
which he relinquished to serve Poland as Ambassador at the US Federal
Government. Due to his
ardent patriotism
Oscar Lange resigned his post at the American university and returned
to Poland to acquaint himself with the real conditions in his native
land and also to become familiar with the new leftist government and
its wishes. Earlier, he made an informal diplomatic trip to the USSR,
where he met with Stalin to obtain assurances from him that Poland
would return to the world map as a
strong and nationally independent state.
On
July 5, 1945, the Provisional Government of National Unity in Warsaw
was recognized by United States but it lasted till December before
the Polish Embassy in Washington was reopened
The
“Evening Star” daily in Washington reported in its Sunday issue:
(Embassy
of Poland at 2640 16th Street, NW in Washington, D.C.
Date 19 August 2008, 13:21:45. Source; originally posted to Flickr as
Embassy of Poland, Author Josh Carolina, CC B-Y 2.0)
“The
handsome Polish Embassy on upper Sixteenth street will be opened
again early this week, when the newly appointed Ambassador, Dr, Oskar
Lange, Mrs. Lange and their
small son, Christopher,
take up their residence there. There has been much interest in the
new Ambassador, who arrived from Poland early last week and is having
a brief vacation before assuming his new role.”
(Katharine
M. Brooks, In
Diplomatic Circle. Polish Envoy Arrives Here,
Sunday Star, 9 XII 1945, p. 7 = B-3)
Oscar
Lange accepted the post of Ambassador in the USA because of a
desperate need to provide a huge international aid for his native
country — Poland was unable to avoid famine if unsupported by Great
Powers
Lange
was already famous in US as a gifted amateur diplomat who
surprisingly solved the dividing the Allies problem of international
recognition of Polish Government.
In
Poland death, desolation, malnutrition and disease have become the
common experience of the whole nation. Railways
— lifelines of supplies for everyday life during the 1940s,
and public utilities like electric
power plants
as well as water stations have been largely smashed.
Many bridges were wrecked by retreating German soldiers who also took
away many thousands of horses — another basic mean of
transportation
in this part of Europe, used still on a large scale also in
agriculture, was temporarily lost.
Horses
whose stock was restored in the post-war period, served Polish
individual husbandmen (small private landowners), together with
tumbrels, for another more than 25 years.
(YouTube
video: Communist Poland Documentary)
Only
some richest Western countries were able to deliver food and medical
supplies to millions of men, women and children who for more than
five years have been suffering from malnutrition and ravaging
diseases. The effort to protect their health and life itself through
maintaning and increasing the UNRRA
relief deliveries was now the main goal of their Ambassador in
Washington.
Summer
1945. Left: The interior of an American bullet train car. Right:
Poles at the destroyed railway station. Waiting for hours, even days,
for the next train, made up almost entirely of freight wagons left
behind by German railroad workers.
.
(Screenshots
from feature films: Leave Her To Heaven, Prawo pięści — The Law
of the Fist)
To
put it briefly: the United Nations Agency for Relief and
Reconstruction (UNRRA) was largely the result of a shift in sentiment
in American society — first anger, then sorrow
In
the summer of 1943, the Allied forces landed in southern Italy.
Fulfilling the order of the King, Field Marshal Badoglio signed an
armistice. Most unfortunately the failure to supply the basic needs
of life in Southern Italy by Allied Military Government, divided into
many local branches and lead separately by British and American
military personnel became obvious for everybody. The
sight of despairing Italian women in the newsreel frames, who asked
in vain for bread for their children made a shocking impression on
the American public. The anger at fascist Italy disappeared under
this impression.
At
the request of the demon of work, being
a compassionate people’s leader at
the same time,
President Roosevelt, an international conference was convened to plan
relief for world’s needy in the liberated areas. As put in words by
US Senator Herbert
Lehmann,
the first Director General of the United Nations Relief and
Rehabilitation Administration: “We failed once, we dare not fail
again.”
The
principle of helping people to help themselves was adopted but, on
the other hand, medical supplies and equipment, together with food,
were of first importance
Food
including for sugar
and chocolate,
to limit the extension of epidemic diseases and illnesses resulting
from dirt, hunger and multiplied by malnutrition. The next goal of
the heroic efforts of thousands and thousands of volunteers was to
restore the agriculture in Europe.
There was desperate need also for seed for planting since seed
reserves were used for providing food during the last and worst
months of the war. Europe was indeed still able to produce the most
of its food supplies.
Along
with Oskar Lange, several other Polish diplomats came to Washington,
including Stefan Litauer from the city of Lodge (Lodz, Łódź)
He
was the new charges d'affaires (secretary and chief of staff) who
worked in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Warsaw already in the
interwar period. The same Washington newspaper wrote about him:
“He
was chief of the London bureau for the Polish News Agency for 15
years, until he disagreed with the Polish government in London, when
he resigned that post. He then became
a member of the staff of the London News Chronicle, and needless to
say he
speaks flawless English.
He was connected with the News Chronicle for sometime, until the
establishment of the present government, when he accepted the post at
the Embassy at Washington. He is a widower, in the prime of life and
his
only son Casimir is in the Polish consular service,
after serving with the Polish Army.”
At
that time, many people connected with the government in exile and
even with the sanation regime worked in diplomacy, administration, as
well as in the army and security forces of the new Poland — the
country was on the brink of ruin and in desperate need for skilled
workers
So
it was to start all over again, because a lot of things and buildings
had become destroyed and unusable. The few engineers, officers of the
army and the police as well as civil servants. teachers and
interpreters who were found and enlisted after the liberation from
the Nazi thugs were barely able to cope with their work.
The
authorities of “nationally owned” Poland initially resorted to
men who could successfully disguise themselves as simple workers, to
former prisoners of war who were usually protected by the German
Wehrmacht throughout the war, and —
especially since July 1945 —
to those who had lived in safe foreign countries during the entire
reign of terror, which is still world-famous today. Another
great contribution made by Oskar Lange to the reconstruction of
Poland was that his example encouraged many thousands of compatriots
living in the West —
and they were usually excellent specialists in at least one field —
to return home.
Taking
advantage of his excellent knowledge about the US political circles
and using his personal influence in Washington Ambassador Lange was
able to strenghten the feeling of sympathy and compassion for his
home country. There was one great acclaim throughout United States:
Poor poor heroic Poland! Let’s help the wonderful nation!
Only
one example. On May 3, 1946, a special debate took place in the House
of Representatives on the fight against the threat of a humanitarian
catastrophe in the country. There were sentences like these, loudly
pronounced,
to hear: “The heroes of Poland are entitled to as much credit as
are their British allies for holding the thin and wavering line of
freedom and Christianity. Proportionally, they have done as much as
any other nation or element on the firing line. They were alwas on
the one side - the right side - never on both sides”
(CONGRESSIONAL
RECORD - HOUSE, 1946, p. 4446)
Already
during first months of the Lange's embassy activities the UNRRA
supplies became much larger than in 1945. Poland received enormous
quantities of food, medical and sanitary supplies, machines and other
goods under Western humanitarian and development aid till September
1946.
Only
through March Poland had received over 13,000 trucks and 3,200
trailers, also 28 locomotives and 600 railroad cars to facilitate the
transportation. The railroad repair carriages were
sent to help the Polish railways
personnel to regain the full net of train tracks. Whole trainloads of
American engineering and industrial equipment came to Silesia. The US
Army huge wartime railroad repair base was send from England,
together with a group
of technical advisors.
It’s
matter of fact that Poland was among the recipient nations which had
been especially hard hit by starvation, dislocation, and political
disturbances. On the other hand, however, no other country, except
for Italy, had so clever and skillful advocates of their cause in the
front the governments’ teams as well as passionate general
benefactors, including young idealistic volunteers, also clergy, as
Poland had. As a result the
largest recipients of UNRRA commodity aid,
in millions of US dollars were China,
$518; Poland – $478 and Italy – $418.
We should be also aware of enormous quantities of goods and
commodities which were bought, gifted and delivered for
the immense during the 1940s sum of money of circa half a billion
American dollars.
After
almost unbelievable amount of awful crimes and greviances the western
neighbour country of Poland influenced once again the fate of Polish
people on a positive way
The
American reconstruction aid was preferable also because there was no
huge language barrier between many
American and most Polish technicians; both sides had German
language skills. This double role of Germany in the history of Poland
can be, by the way, considered as a general rule for the difficult
ways of Polish-German relations.
The
great technical support of Polish reconstruction was accompanied by
equally generous medical supplies
During
the same month the men and women of UNRRA provided the Polish people
with $13,000,000 worth of medicaments and sanitary facilities as well
as 21 field hospitals. The relief and recovery shipments to New
Poland became fully practicable after the ports of Gdansk and Gdynia
were reopened as a result of some months of extremely hard work of
Polish workmen and engineers. The railroad connection from the Baltic
Sea coast to
the big industrial city of Lodge (the
textile industry) and
to Upper Silesia
(heavy industry, hard coal mining) was re-established on a similar
way. Another, earlier accessible route was Rotterdam – Rhine –
Bavaria – Bohemia – Upper Silesia – Lodge.
Lodge
(Lodz. Łódź) played the role of the interim capital city after
Warsaw was almost completely destroyed by the Third Reich's troops
The
almost untouched by the war city became also an important UNRRA goods
transportation hub from where, for example, the agricultural
tractors, assembled by the People of Lodge, were send to the farms in
many parts of Poland, using an also almost untouched net of overland
roads. The city was (and remained up today) located
almost exactly in the middle of Republic of Poland.
June
1945. The forefront of the long line of Farmall tractors that left
Lodz to several Polish provinces. Each tractor driver was also an
instructor of the Polish Recovery Corps. This unique city preserved
large technical staff, which during the occupation was saved from the
Gestapo by the resistance movement, strongly supported by many Polish
Germans, faithful to the country in which they were born.
(A sscreenshot from
the YouTube video: Polska Kronika Filmowa 23-1945 Przybycie do Łodzi
transportu darów UNRRA)
There
is a highly interesting story behind the agricultural tractors which
were delivered to Poland from United States. They were state of art
Farmall brand, M model.
McCormick-Deering
Farmall tractors were manufactured by International Harvester
Company, based in Chicago
and consequently probably with participation of Polish industrial
workers. In
the year 1939 engineers of the company designed a new line of farmers
tractors with more powerful power unit, greater speed and smooth, up
to date appearances. Many other improvements were introduced by the
Americans, making the small but handsome tractors leading
with speed and fuel economy for the small, medium-sized and a bit
larger farms.
Easy
control of this new agricultural workhorse was an entirely new and
better experience for Polish repairmen and tractor drivers who made
desperate attempts to make operational the steel-wheeled tractors
abandoned by German farmers who fled in panic westwards
All
tractors gifted by the UNNRA were rubber-wheeled. The big steering
wheel which turns with amazing ease, also the great versatility of
the whole vehicle and refined, comparatively silent engine should be
emphasized. Only Massey Ferguson Model 35 was able to outmatch this
nice and safe vehicle in Northern American market circa 1950.
The
Farmalls were able, as general-purpose tractors, substitute horses
after massive losses among draught animals in Poland during last
months of WW2
When
we say about horses... Every of these smooth small tractors had
enough power to do the work of six to eight horses in the fields or
in the field of grain and straw transportation.
(A screenshot from
the YouTube video: FARMALL M H 1930s Sales video)
The
UNRRA tractors were in use with the State-Owned Machinery Centres,
where some socialist
enthusiastic youths learnt how to operate them to
save their country.
They had already assisted peasants during the first post-war harvest
in July 1945. There was above all, a pragmatic approach behind such a
solution, although some years later these Centres were additionally
used to establish the state and
cooperative
large-scale agricultural operations throughout the Polish
countryside.
The
Farmall M was designed to make possible to replace a farm owner by
his teenage son at field work if necessary. Almost everything was
miniaturised at it and the tractor's handling was simplified to make
possible replacement of conscripted adult farmers by older boys.
(YouTube
video: Farmall M, channel: Roger Miller)
The
farmers in US were allowed to purchase Farmalls only using the
lottery system during WW2 because most of the American industry
output was going on the war. It should be also mentioned that
agricultural machinery was still rationed there in the year 1946.
If an American farmer did managed to buy a Farmall model it was a big
day for his whole family because everybody knew how much hard work
can be spared for them because of the great power and reliability of
the new, versatile and multirole iron horse. It was perfectly
natural, useful and healthy that also Polish youngsters were amazed
by him. In both cases farming was in their blood.
Obtaining
light-weight American agricultural tractors and mastering the
techniques used in them were of strategic importance because UNRRA
did not supplied meat or fłour
United
States itself fought against acute meat shortages. The
situation was somehow better with pork and this sort of meat was
delivered with canned meals by UNRRA but in rather limited
quantities. In June, 1946 the
Economic Stabilizer Chester Bowles
considered the meat rationing throughout the country. In Poland, the
battle for tractors was won — thanks to the engineers who worked in
England and then helped build the Ursus Mechanical Works.
Both
UNRRA and the Lange's diplomatic team were doing a splendid work but
Polish Ambassador worked to hard and his health deteriorated even
more
“Polish
feast fοοd, which the chefs ‘worked over three days and nights
without sleeping’,
was so wonderful that it disappeared before all of the more
than 500 guests
could taste it. Even the Polish Ambassador's wife, Mme. Lange, was
left out. She later visited the kitchen. A
great day was being celebrated yesterday at the Embassy. It was the
200th anniversary of the birth of the illustrious Polish hero,
Tadeusz Kosciuszko. It
was also the first party that the new Polish Ambassador, Dr. Oskar
Lange, and his attractive wife have given since the envoy presented
his credentials to President Truman in December. Nothing was left
undone to make the affair a memorable one.”
(Ann
Cline, Feast
Food Exhausted. Hundreds Throng Embassy To Honor Noted Polish Hero,
Evening
Star, Feb. 13, 1946, p. 20, B-3)
He
left nothing undone, was present everywhere where he could present
arguments or deliver
very
emotional speech about his country’s needs
for aid and reflief. Since
early age his hearth was fulfiiled with compassion for the weak, for
the exploited, helpless and starving people and with ardent
patriotism. As
a result his tuberculosis made another progress. It forced him to use
a stick for every walking but he don’t cared much about that.
He
acted like a soldier who don’t afraid wounds or even death in fight
for his motherland’s survival
He
knew that generous humanitarian and reconstruction aid from United
States, Canada and Britain is crucial for Poland’s existence and
strong position in international affairs in future. He was able to
foresee that this window of priceless opportunity to
acquire, among other things, unique in Eastern Europe technical
skills and experience
will
close soon for his
compatriots.
So he was in hurry.
In
the summer of 1946 he was seriously ill once again. Stefan
Litauer and
another clerk of the Polish embassy had to replace him during the
second international UNRRA conference in
September, 1946.
In
this conference
the
decision
to
cease most of aid deliveries to Europe and increase them for Asia was
made.
Oskar
Lange won one of the biggest victories in the history of Polish
diplomacy
If
you coonsider it In more general terms there were, of course, many
factors which produced a common belief that Poles were victims and
heroes of World War II during his lifetime. For example there was no
such a political concept like Holocaust in the year 1946. The Zionist
movement was still engaged in the fight for the Hebrew State against
Arabs and Great Britain. There were many terror attacks in the
British mandate territory in Palestine and to assert the Jews were
only the victims of crimes was quite impossible.
Regarding
the international background, the deadly outbreak of violence against
the Jews on July 4th, 1946 in one of the big cities in Poland wasn't
received and condemned as particularly shocking in United States or
in United Nations. The Polish State judged and condemned to death
nine men accused of the killing. The
Polish antisemitism narrative was still absent in international
affairs. Mainly
because of the common knowledge about great role which the Polish
dogfight aces played in the victorious for the Allies outcome of the
Battle of England, the right-wing as well as the left-wing American
politicians focused on positive aspects of Polish history.
But
as the old saying goes, 'All that glitters is not gold'
During
the first years after the Second World War only United States,
Canada, Argentina and — in a rather limited extent — also the
British Commonwealth, the Soviet Union as well had reserves of food,
medical supplies and machinery at their disposal. By
delivering aid to the nations in need the great powers mentioned
(except for Argentina,
blamed with collaboration with Axis powers) gained
huge capital of sympathy and admiration
throughout the world.
Especially
United
States and Soviet Union took
advantage of this capital to develop
some notions of political philosophy;
we are the good guys, we are the chosen men ad women who withholds
the
ideology of fascism where the whole apocalypse begun. The world can,
however, ill afford two katechons
at the same time.
“The
United States has more than 68 per cent of the world's registered
vehicles, according to Encyclopaedia Britannica. Other American
countries account for 5,12 per cent; Europe for 20,9 per cent.” The
Free-Lance Star, June 3, 1946, p. 2. Additionally, almost all the
motorcars being in use in roads and streets of US in that time were
home made, except for few luxury cars from Britain and Germany. This
Buick Century, Model 1942, was frequently used by high ranking
government an diplomatic corps members, probably also by Oscar Lange
as Polish Ambassador.
(photo source:
flickr.com, 2017, slightly dimmed)
During
the years 1944-47 many strenous
efforts were made to build the American economic and technological
development zone on
worldwide scale.
The UNRRA deliveries (the
United States was the leading donor)
was a good way to encourage many nations to become the part of such a
zone. The strong man of Soviet Union Joseph
Stalin considered
thoroughly advantages and disadvantages of such a solution, but
finally
made
the decision to build own socialist States zone, based
on
Soviet, German and Bohemian technologies.
According to famous Russian economist Mikhail Khazin the failure of
United States Government efforts
in this
field
trigerred
the Cold
War.
The
buildings of an American research and development institute, a
screenshot from YouTube video: The Crimson Ghost 1946 Full Movie
Colorized
A
concept where
Anglo-Saxon nations alone would make plans for the post-war future of
the world was
hardly to be judged as an expression
of the determination of United Nations to lay down the foundation of
the post-war life cooperatively and internationally. As
a result, the cold war was about to outbreak. Unfortunately for
Poland, receiving UNRRA aid and Soviet fuel, vehicles and grain
supplies at the same time.
There
is no such thing as unselfish development aid. The rules of
international affairs big game are hard.
Therefore Poland
was lucky country that had some statesmen like Professor Lange who
were able face reality and try to keep up with the times.
The
good deeds remain often unrewarded
The
German-American press reproduced
one of the first voices condemning Lange as an alleged careerist and
traitor:
“In
The New York Sun, the well-known journalist George
E. Sokolsky
advocates tightening the laws of naturalization. To justify his
demand,
he cites the example of the Polish ambassador Oskar Lange
who gave up his American citizenship when Poland became a vassal
state of Russia, and offered him the post of ambassador in
Washington.
‘There
are thousands of Oskar Langes here in the country,’ says Sokolsky,
‘to
whom naturalization means nothing more than a safe haven and a
protective pass. For them naturalization is not an emotional but a
practical matter. Stricter procedures should
be introduced to
protect the country from those who doesn’t love any country, and
therefore neither do America.”
Ein
„Bürger zweier Welten", Ohio Waisenfreund, 22 VI 1946, p. 5
Who
was an author of this strong moral condemnation of the seriously
sick and despite
of that workaholic in
saving his motherland Polish envoy at US Federal Government?
George
Ephraim Sokolsky
was born in 1893 in New York state. His father was a Russian-born
rabbi.
His career as an international journalist and, most probably, also an
American secret service agent begun in the year 1917 in Russia. Since
1918 he
begun his multi-role
activities in China. According to English language Wikipedia: “He
acted as an informant and propagandist for sundry conflicting Asian
and Western clients, including Cen Chunxuan. He
became ‘China's official intermediary between foreign bankers and
Chinese ministries.’”
Another
eloquent opponent of Lange, trying to tear to shreds Lange’s
reputation, a former member of the colonels group under the Sanation
regime - Ignacy Matuszewski
was an arrant liar, falsifying also the 20th century history. A small
example of his spreading
false national proud
arguments journalistic essays that he wrote as emigre in US:
“Are
there too few arrogants in England and America, ready to lecture us
in such magazines as the New York Post P.M. [Post Meridium -
afternoon edition], Time or Life, that Poles, Latvians, Lithuanians,
Estonians, Finns, Bulgarians, Yugoslavs etc. etc. should submit
without resistance to the benefit of Stalin's rule? Are they not
those arrogant chickens who groped at home when
General Sosnkowski first smashed German armored divisions
near Lemberg [Leopolis, now Lviv] - are they not yelling on the radio
today that the Supreme Commander of the Polish Army is pro-Nazi?”
(Ignacy
Matuszewski, English language Wikipedia, References, Ref. number
4.)
Colonels
Matuszewski and Rajchman, who oppressed the Polish nation with rogue
taxes, did not forget to take the gold bullion of the Polish treasury
to Canada, and then told fairy tales, persuading the doomed to lose
in advance one and then another uprising. Years after
their death, their remains were brought to the motherland and buried
in the same cemetery where Oskar Lange should rest in peace.
Currently, Prime Minister Morawiecki lined up that there are
"scoundrels" in this cemetery. The head of the Polish
government has no doubts that "they were scoundrels themselves,
or they were the ones who served scoundrels".
(Trwa
walka o ekshumację komunistów z Wojskowych Powązek, onet.pl, 1 IV
2021.
The picture from
Wikimedia Commons: Groby pułkownika Ignacego Matuszewskiego i
majora Henryka Floyar-Rajchmana na Cmentarzu Wojskowym na Powązkach
Data 11 grudnia
2016, 14:21:18
Źródło Praca
własna
Autor Mateusz
Opasiński)
Unfortunately,
not one Polish general vanquished so much as a single German armoured
division during Poland's 1939 defensive war. Additionally, the
afore-mentioned General did not coordinate the defence of
Lemberg/Leopolis,
it was one of many Polish Army and Air Force officers of German
origin, Ladislau Langner. The
colonel’s essays were full of such errors and distortions,
and the nations he mentioned… Were not able or obliged to wage not
only a war on two fronts, but also a civil war at the same time.
This
would only lead them to the eventual loss of both independence and
the most important basics of life. Polish non-communist opponents of
the Sanation regarded
this line of thinking in political terms as a form of national
suicide in the name of poetic struggle.
Thankfully after the year 1944, the Polish nation proved to be wise
enough not to take the words of dead poets too seriously anymore.
Man
who gave up his life for the motherland
For
three more years, Professor
Lange
represented Poland in Washington and New York (simultaneously as an
ambassador and delegate to the United Nations). He
looked at international affairs and the situation in the country
according
to principles of polical realism.
He
tried to inform the American public opinion about the first great
achievements of the People's Republic of Poland.
As
a result of Stalin's erroneous policy of boycotting the United
Nations his
diplomacy days were numbered.
He has found that people are sometimes not only ungrateful but also
cruel.
His
wife Irena, nee Oderlander,
a woman who liked to dress up ... He
gave his life and health for the country where he was born. She was a
citizen of the world and decided to enjoy life.
She
decided that it was better to stay in a rich country than work for a
country that started almost from scratch.
She
made this decision for herself and their school-aged son. Oskar
Lange realized that 18 years of his life, his marriage is about to be
wretched.
By making a terrible sacrifice, he remained faithful to his fight for
a better tomorrow for his homeland and left for Warsaw.
The
poor boy did not understand
in the name of what false and cruel gods bad people separated him
from the
wise and good father. He literally howled in despair! He
remained faithful to him. After 1956, he met with him many times in
Warsaw and London. Christopher
Lange
became a journalist in Detroit. He followed in his father's footsteps
and put his talent to good use. He wrote and published five books
about his father, about his merits for America, for Poland, and for
the whole world.
Professor
Dr. Lange was neither a traitor nor a careerist. As it was possible
to demonstrate, he played a crucial role in providing his home
country with humanitarian and development aid of strategic
importance.
He
paid for it with another stage of loss of health as well as a
deprivement of personal happiness.
Nevertheless,
he did not turn back on the path he had chosen — to help his
countrymen at home. After return to Poland, this time permanently, he
made a serious contribution, inter alia, to the reconstruction of
higher education system.
The
period of the
worst crimes and distortions related to Stalinism began, which Oskar
Lange did not approve
of but on the contrary, as a young man he heavily criticized Stalin's
rule.
When
he went to Moscow in April 1944, in an attempt to keep Vilnius and
Lemberg (Lviv) within the borders of the motherland, he risked his
life. Fortunately, Stalin decided that it was not worth being
unforgiving towards this man.
Since
the year 1949 he had to grin and bear it and work for such a Poland
as was possible and permitted in the international situation of that
time. At the same time, he was developing an economic reform plan
Oskar
Lange was not only one of the most ardent but also the most effective
Polish patriots as well as an outstanding, world-renowned scientist.
The
destruction of the general benefactor's tomb would be a disgrace to
the Polish State and a crime that cries out to heaven for vengeance.
It is imperative to launch a nationwide and international campaign to
defend common sense and a minimum of human decency. Also the right to
freedom of expression
on 20th century figures and events, an exchange of views on social
and economic issues as well. It’s necessray to stop the hate
campaign and the revolving only around the notions of neoliberalism.
Strong and wise shall be free!
