Revisiting A Polish Son in the Motherland

An American's Journey Home, by Leonard Kniffel

It has been a couple of years since I had read Leonard Kniffel’s book, “A Polish Son in the Motherland - An American’s Journey Home”.  I recently encountered Mr. Kniffel at an event in the Polish Museum of America, where we briefly discussed his book.  I pulled it off the bookshelf and decided to read it again in advance of my upcoming trip to  Poland.

Mr. Kniffel left Chicago and moved to Poland in 2000 to search for his Polish roots and to experience Poland.  He did not find the Poland of his parents, but what sounded like a Poland recovering from Communism.   Even though it has only been 12 years since he lived there, my experience is that the Poland he lived in and experienced is no longer there.

The influx of EU money and sound economic policies are causing tremendous changes in the country.  It seems every time you turn a corner there's a new road being built or an old one being renovated.  Construction cranes are scattered across the skyline of Warsaw.  The economy is clearly doing well, and that is changing the look and feel of Poland, down to what is going on in small towns like the one that Mr. Kniffel lived in.  

Fortunately, Poles have a strong sense of the importance of their history, and they are preserving it in museums and “skansens” - re-creations of historic buildings and villages.  Every large city has an ethnographic museum, and I think those are often the best museum in town!  If you drive around enough to small villages, you'll still find wooden churches, and a rare thatched roof.  And if you have family on a farm, ask to see the inside of the barn and you'll probably see an old, beat up woven willow basket handed down a few generations.  But don't wait too long to see it!