Poland

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Poland Bars Gay People From Adopting

Nation is closing a loophole

(Newser) - Poland is doubling down on its anti-gay policies despite pushback from the European Union. The government said Thursday that it would close a loophole and ensure that no gay people will be allowed to adopt a child, reports Reuters . Current Polish law prohibits gay couples from adopting, but some homosexuals...

2 Holocaust Researchers Ordered to Apologize

Polish court sides with woman who accused them of slandering her uncle

(Newser) - A court in Warsaw ruled Tuesday that two prominent Holocaust researchers must apologize to a woman who claimed her deceased uncle had been slandered in a historical work that suggested he helped kill Jews during World War II. Lawyers for 81-year-old Filomena Leszczynska argued that her uncle was a Polish...

95-Year-Old German Woman Might Be Tried in 10K Killings

Prosecutors say she worked as the commandant's secretary at Stutthof concentration camp

(Newser) - A 95-year-old woman who worked as a secretary and typist at a German concentration camp during World War II has been charged in the killings of more than 10,000 people. The senior prosecutor said she helped carry out "the systematic killing of Jewish prisoners," as well as...

Expert's 'Toughest Day' at Nazi Death Camp Involved This Find

Children's identity tags, some burned with their bodies, found at Sobibor

(Newser) - Four children from Amsterdam stepped off a train in Nazi-occupied eastern Poland and into the death camp of Sobibor, the last place they'd ever know. Killed in 1943, 6-year-old Lea Judith De La Penha, 8-year-old Deddie Zak, 11-year-old David Juda Van der Velde, and 12-year-old Annie Kapper left behind...

Poland Confirms Harsh Anti-Abortion Law

Thousands of protesters gathered in Warsaw

(Newser) - New anti-government protests broke out in Polish cities Wednesday, shortly after the country's top court confirmed its highly divisive ruling that will further tighten the predominantly Catholic nation’s strict anti-abortion law. The move by the Constitutional Tribunal, which means the ruling will come into effect as soon as...

A Life Bookended By the Holocaust and a Pandemic

A survivor says she is losing time to tell her story

(Newser) - Toby Levy lost her teenage years to the Holocaust, hiding in a barn in what was then Chodorow, Poland. Nine people lived in a 4-by-5 space, not knowing if each day was their last, unable to make any noise, often unable to even look outside. Now, at 87, Levy is...

Pastor Finds 500-Year-Old Church Bell Taken by Nazis

BBC reports it will be returned to its former home in Poland

(Newser) - A 500-year-old church bell will be returned to its former home in Poland some 77 years after it was stolen by the Nazis. Nazis made off with an estimated 80,000 bells, most of which were melted down for their metal and used to make weapons and ammunition during World...

Polish Government Responds to Biggest Protests in Decades

Implementation of harsh abortion ruling delayed

(Newser) - After two weeks of the biggest protests since the fall of the country's Communist government in 1989, the Polish government appears to be ready to change course on a ruling that would have resulted in a near-total ban on abortions. The country's government has indefinitely delayed the publishing...

Abortion Ruling Protests Disrupt Mass in Poland

Court's decision prohibits abortion in the case of congenital defects

(Newser) - Women's rights activists in Poland staged protests during Sunday church services in the predominantly Roman Catholic nation against further restrictions in the nation's abortion law. In the fourth straight day of protests, activists held up banners during Mass in some churches, according to Polish media and social media...

Another World Leader Comes Down With COVID

Poland President Andrzej Duda is latest to be stricken with disease in nation seeing a spike

(Newser) - Poland has entered the "red zone" for COVID-19, with a new nationwide lockdown due to a spike in cases, and infections are starting right at the top. The AP reports President Andrzej Duda tested positive for the coronavirus on Friday, though the 48-year-old says he feels OK so far,...

Giant WWII Bomb Explodes During Defusing

It was under water, and no injuries were reported near Swinoujscie, Poland

(Newser) - A plan to safely defuse an enormous World War II bomb found in Poland didn't go according to plan on Tuesday. The six-ton British "Tallboy," found under water last year in a canal in the city of Swinoujscie, instead detonated, reports the BBC . Luckily, nobody was hurt,...

'It's Crazy': History Is Made at the French Open

Iga Swiatek is the first Polish player to win a Grand Slam singles trophy

(Newser) - With the poise of a veteran and the shots of a champion, 19-year-old Iga Swiatek picked the perfect place for her first tour-level title: the French Open, the AP reports. Unseeded and ranked merely 54th, Swiatek grabbed the last six games to beat Sofia Kenin 6-4, 6-1 in the final...

It Turns Out a British Spy Named James Bond Did Exist

But Ian Fleming's 007 came first

(Newser) - Ian Fleming apparently forgot to tell us about the time James Bond went behind the Iron Curtain in an attempt to infiltrate Polish military facilities. Poland's Institute of National Remembrance has uncovered the secret mission of James Albert Bond, a British civil servant sent to the Soviet satellite state...

Putin Has a Force Ready for Belarus Ruler

Poland calls Russian offer to help its neighbor's president illegal

(Newser) - During his weekslong standoff with demonstrators, it hasn't been clear what Alexander Lukashenko plans to do to resolve the situation . Vladimir Putin raised one possibility Thursday, Reuters reports. The president of Belarus asked Putin "to create a reserve police force, and I have done that," the Russian...

LGBTQ Stances Cost 6 Cities in Poland

Grant applications are rejected over hostile declarations by communities

(Newser) - The European Union promised to reconsider where its money goes last year after 80 municipalities in Poland declared they were "free of LGBT ideology." That shoe began to fall this week when the EU rejected grants for six of the cities, Euronews reports, and clearly said why. "...

Domestic Violence Decision Brings Protests in Poland

Government intends to withdraw from convention establishing rights and protections

(Newser) - Thousands of people in Warsaw and some other cities in Poland protested Friday against plans by the conservative government to withdraw from Europe’s Istanbul Convention against domestic violence and violence against women and children. Carrying signs of the "Women’s Strike" rights movement, they chanted "Fight against...

Trump: Troops to Be Moved From Germany to Poland

Others now in Germany will be going home, he says

(Newser) - President Trump said Wednesday that some of the 10,000 American troops he’s pulling out of Germany will be moved to Poland on NATO's eastern flank against Russian aggression, the AP reports. "We’re going to be reducing our forces in Germany," Trump said in the...

Poland Invades Czech Republic 'by Mistake'

Oops.

(Newser) - Poland invaded the Czech Republic last month in what one official has called a "misunderstanding," the BBC reports. Polish troops were apparently guarding a closed border to keep up coronavirus measures when they crossed a road, putting them in Czech territory—where they stayed a few days and...

SS Officer's Diary Points to Billions in Looted Gold

Owners of Polish palace plan to search for buried well

(Newser) - Rumors of a Nazi gold train in Poland resulted in nothing . But a new gold rush could be coming with the airing of a 75-year-old diary written by an SS officer in charge of transport, who describes 11 locations where Nazis hid gold, jewels, priceless paintings, and religious artifacts. The...

High Court Warning: Poland May Be Forced Out of EU

Ruling party's judicial reform proposals could lead to issues with European Union law

(Newser) - Poland's ruling party is attempting to overhaul how its judiciary functions, but the country's supreme court is warning those reform proposals could force Poland out of the European Union. Per the BBC and Euronews , the reforms put forth by the conservative Law and Justice (PiS) party would allow...

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