“The Lebanese” and their fate in biographical perspective

The text is about Poles who in 1941, as a result of the so-called amnesty, left the Soviet Union and wandered the earth to end up in Lebanon. Their presence in this country was a phenomenon unprecedented in the Middle East region. The biggest wave of Polish refugees came to Lebanon in the years 1943–1946 and had ca. 6000 people for whom Lebanon became a truly safe haven. This continued till the beginning of the 1950s, when the last group off Poles left the country. Most of them never came back to their home country, settling mostly in Great Britain and beyond the Ocean, while only a handful of them remained in Lebanon.  The text discusses the accounts given by the so-called “Lebanese”, as those Poles who at some point of their lives found refuge in Lebanon call themselves. The accounts were recorded in Poland, Great Britain and Lebanon. “The Lebanese” explained the motives that drove people or their families forced to leave their place of stay when taking decisions regarding new destination. Also, the text describes in detail the impressions of the narrators from the new places they found themselves in and how they coped in new reality (on the example of Great Britain and Poland which was a Communist-ruled country at that time). The text aims to familiarize the audience with this subject, about which not much has been said so far.The text is about Poles who in 1941, as a result of the so-called amnesty, left the Soviet Union and wandered the earth to end up in Lebanon. Their presence in this country was a phenomenon unprecedented in the Middle East region. The biggest wave of Polish refugees came to Lebanon in the years 1943–1946 and had ca. 6000 people for whom Lebanon became a truly safe haven. This continued till the beginning of the 1950s, when the last group off Poles left the country. Most of them never came back to their home country, settling mostly in Great Britain and beyond the Ocean, while only a handful of them remained in Lebanon. The text discusses the accounts given by the so-called “Lebanese”, as those Poles who at some point of their lives found refuge in Lebanon call themselves. The accounts were recorded in Poland, Great Britain and Lebanon. “The Lebanese” explained the motives that drove people or their families forced to leave their place of stay when taking decisions regarding new destination. Also, the text describes in detail the impressions of the narrators from the new places they found themselves in and how they coped in new reality (on the example of Great Britain and Poland which was a Communist-ruled country at that time). The text aims to familiarize the audience with this subject, about which not much has been said so far

The Gone World Memoires of Barbara Gołajewska-Chudzikiewicz

The biographical account of Barbara Gołajewska-Chudzikiewicz was recorded in 2007 as a part of the documentary project “The Forgotten Witnesses to the 20th century” run by the KARTA Centre and the History Meeting House. The narrator tells the story of her life, as well as the story of her family, starting in 1918. As the material is very extensive, in this publication only the fragments regarding the years 1918–1945 are presented. The narrative, in a manner typical for landed gentry of the Kielce region, contains a description of Ms Gołajewska-Chudzikiewicz’s childhood and family life in a small landed estate of Bieganów in the times of the Second Polish Republic. It gives insight into the course of her education, upbringing of children and young people in a landowning family, relations between the servants and the landowners, everyday life in the manor house, along with civilization difficulties, celebrating of holidays, the manor-village relations, and finally the general way the landed family functioned between the countryside and the city. The next important part of the narrative starts with the outbreak of WWII and conveys the everyday life of the manor under German occupation in the General-Government. The narrator describes the functions of the Polish manor in occupation conditions: helping and giving shelter to those displaced from the territories incorporated to the Third Reich, helping the Warsaw Uprising fugitive fighters, active participation in the Home Army structures, and relations with the German invader, as well as food and clothes extortions run by armed groups of unknown provenance, and confrontation with the Soviet army entering from the East

Historia mówiona a metoda biograficzna. Wspólne ramy i różnice wynikające z odmienności perspektyw badawczych

Reflections undertaken in this article are a direct result of the research into the fate of Children Born of War (CBOW) in Poland and relate to the methodological, epistemological and ethical tension experienced while working with the interview partners and analyzing their biographical accounts. The encountered difficulties became a root cause of the critical reflection and an impulse to an attempt to systematize the knowledge about the mutual relations of two research traditions: oral history and biographical method which have coexisted over the past few decades, interfering and penetrating each other to such an extent that many researchers began to equate them or consider one of them as a part of the other and vice versa. The chaos of terms and concepts was of great importance in this process. The text also presents similarities and differences of the two approaches both in an epistemological and ethical sense. The attitude towards the narrator, which is mainly the result of different scientific goals that researchers aim at in both research fields was recognized as the fundamental difference. However, underscoring the differences has no purpose of setting boundaries, but it is a postulate to be more careful and bear theoretical and methodological self-awareness of researchers, it is also meant to foster mutual learning and inspiration, which can positively affect the quality of research and analysis.Rozważania podjęte w tym artykule bezpośrednio wynikają z badań nad losami dzieci urodzonych z powodu wojny w Polsce (Children Born of War) i wiążą się z metodologicznym, epistemologicznym i etycznym napięciem doświadczanym w pracy z rozmówcami oraz podczas analizy ich relacji. Napotkane trudności stały się źródłem do krytycznej refleksji oraz impulsem do podjęcia próby usystematyzowania wiedzy o wzajemnych relacjach dwóch tradycji badawczych: historii mówionej i metody biograficznej, które na przestrzeni kilku dekad współistniały, wzajemnie na siebie wpływając i przenikając się do tego stopnia, że z czasem wielu badaczy zaczęło je ze sobą utożsamiać lub uważać jedną za część drugiej i na odwrót. Istotny w tym procesie był chaos dotyczący terminów i pojęć. W tekście przedstawione zostały także podobieństwa i różnice obu podejść, zarówno w wymiarze epistemologicznym, jak i etycznym. Za fundamentalną różnicę uznany został stosunek do badanego, który wynika przede wszystkim z odmiennych celów naukowych, jakie stawiają sobie badacze poruszający się w obu polach badawczych. Podkreślenie różnic nie ma jednak celu stawiania granic, ale stanowi postulat zachowania większej uważności i samoświadomości teoretycznej i metodologicznej badaczy, ma także sprzyjać wzajemnemu poznawaniu się i inspirowaniu, co może pozytywnie wpłynąć na jakość badań i analiz

Parameters identification and selection in various mechatronic vibrating structures

425-430In this paper, the detailed constrains related with designing of the mechatronic discrete vibrating systems has been examined. The design process is considered as a synthesis that has been done with regard to defined requirements in form of the poles and zeros. The main focus of the paper is given to the optimization and verification of selection of the major parameters, orientated for physical realization and widening the possible applications. Parameters of the presented systems have been divided and detailed for the ones that describe the piezoelectric actuator, known ones related to synthesis, and the ones that comes from dimensionless transformation and retransformation algorithm. The study has been performed based on various configurations of example cascade mechatronic system with one degree of freedom that contains piezo stack actuator connected to external electric circuit LRC, and has been directed for the best vibration isolation effectiveness

Zadanie odwrotne dyskretnych drgających układów mechatronicznych ze sztywnością i pojemnością ujemną

By the use of different distribution methods of dynamical characteristics in the form of slowness function, mechatronic discrete systems have been synthesized. Each model consists of mechanical discrete part and a piezostack actuator connected to LxRxCx external network that has to comply with dynamical requirements in the form of poles and zeros. External network can work within different configurations. In this paper, one investigates the influence of negative parameters of stiffness in mechanical replacement models and capacitance in final mechatronic structures, after dimensionless transformations and retransformations.Korzystając z wybranych metod rozkładu funkcji charakterystycznej w postaci powolności zsyntezowano mechatroniczne dyskretne układy drgające. W każdym przypadku układ zbudowano z mechanicznego modelu dyskretnego oraz piezo aktuatora typu „stack” połączonego z zewnętrznym obwodem elektrycznym LxRxCx . Układy zaprojektowano ze względu na wymagania dynamiczne w postaci biegunów i zer. Zewnętrzny układ elektryczny może występować w różnych konfiguracjach. W pracy, po bezwymiarowych transformacjach i retransformacjach, zbadano wpływ ujemnych parametrów: sztywności w mechanicznym modelu zastępczym oraz pojemności w finalnym układzie mechatronicznym LxCx , na charakterystyki rozważanych układów