After the Brexit, the number of Britons enquiring about Polish passports has sky-rocketed by 10,000 according to the Polish Embassy.

Fearing that the Brexit might halt their free movement in Europe, many Brits have been inquiring the Polish Embassy for citizenship status.

The Polish Embassy in the UK reported that they have been receiving an overwhelming number of calls and emails from Brits seeking information about ways to get Polish passports.

New reports show that Warsaw is the best place to travel for a cheap holiday

”We’re had a lot of calls and email enquiries from people enquiring about the possibilities of getting Polish citizenship. Since the reference, we’ve had 280 emails and around 700 phone calls so it’s been a big number. Before, we were only getting 10 enquiries in total each month,” said the embassy spokeswoman.

Under Polish laws, anyone born to at least on Polish parent is automatically eligible to get Polish citizenship that can also be claimed by people with Polish grandparents. However, it is not granted to the spouse of a Polish citizen.

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According to the Polish Embassy, the most enquires for Polish passport and citizenship come from British citizens who have Polish spouse and children.

”The other people who inquire are usually related to Poland because they have Polish relatives or Polish grandparents who are eligible to apply,” said the spokeswoman.

Recently some private companies have been advertising Polish citizenship and selling passports on social media. But the Polish Embassy has urged people not to fall prey to such companies as they could be selling fake passports and robbing people.

The spokeswoman explained, ” We do not support these type of companies that are trying to help get people get passports. Anyone interested to apply for Polish citizenship or passports must be eligible and apply through the official channels.”

Although it will take a minimum of two years for Britain to completely separate from the EU, the Irish minister for foreign affairs has reported last month that, ” the demand for Irish passports is on the rise since the Brexit.”

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According to the Post Office Travel Money study, the pound stretches further for art galleries, museums, and shows in the Polish capital than 16 other cultural destinations.

A poll of 2,099 UK adults revealed that more than 46% of city break tourists look for cultural attractions when making their travel plans.

Even though sterling buys nearly 16% fewer Polish zloty than a year ago, tickets to cultural sites in Warsaw cost 40% less than in 2015. You can go to the city’s top museum, art gallery, cultural heritage site, and also catch the Polish National Opera, National Ballet, and a symphony concert for just £65. It is nearly four times cheaper to visit Warsaw than other expensive cities such as New York (£304) and Barcelona (£277). London is the third most costly destination at £256, followed by Madrid (£239) and Rome (£237).

A ticket to see Otello by the Madrid Opera at the Teatro Real in the Spanish capital is £ 156, which is more expensive than the total cost of two UK holidaymakers’ tickets to see all the six important cultural attractions of Warsaw.

The search for the Nazi gold train is back on!

Budapest is the second cheapest city after Warsaw at £78. Dublin ranks third at £120 followed by Prague at £126.
Andrew Brown from the Post Office Travel Money said, ”It is encouraging to see that prices have actually fallen in several of the cultural capitals surveyed this year. This means that art lovers can get to see a world-renowned orchestra or a top opera or dance company at very reasonable prices, despite the falling value of sterling.”

”Bear in mind, though, the prices can vary dramatically from one city to another so do some homework before booking a cultural break.”

Below is the ranking of 17 cities according to the ticket prices for live performances, galleries, and museums for UK visitors:

1. Warsaw, Poland (£65)
2. Budapest, Hungary (£78)
3. Dublin, Ireland (£120)
4. Prague, Czech Republic (£126)
5. Stockholm, Sweden (£147)
6. Moscow, Russia (£155)
7. Brussels, Belgium (£160)
8. Berlin, Germany (£199)
9. Paris, France (£228)
10. Vienna, Austria (£228)
11. Copenhagen, Denmark (£232)
12. Amsterdam, Netherlands (£236)
13. Rome, Italy (£237)
14. Madrid, Spain (£239)
15. London, UK (£256)
16. Barcelona, Spain (£277)
17. New York, USA (£304)

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Poland passes bill to jail people who use the term ”polish death camp”

Polish middle distance runner, Joanna Jozwik finished fifth in the women’s 800 final at Rio Olymics but she has claimed that she feels like a silver medallist.

After Caster Semenya from South Africa won the race, followed by Francine Niyonasaba from Burundi and Margarent Wambui from Kenya as the first and second runner-ups respectively, Jozwik remarked that she was proud to have finished as the ”first European” and the ”second white” in the race.

The controversial debate whether or not hyper-androgenic female athletics should be allowed to participate in the Olympics has resurfaced again. Hyperandrogenism is a condition which leads to the excessive production of testosterone.

Semenya is the best-known hyper-androgenic athlete to compete at Rio Olympics, but the runner-ups, Niyonsaba or Wambui aren’t identified as hyper-androgenic – however, Jozwik has echoed the sentiment of Great Britain’s Lynsey Sharp who finished in the sixth place and questioned the fairness of the including females athletes with high levels of testosterone in the contests.

The 25-year old runner completed the race with a time of 1:57.37, behind Canada’s Melissa Bishop.

Jozwik said, ”This season I had a lot of health complications and injuries, which is why I am very pleased with the result. I feel like the silver medallist. The three athletes who were on the podium raise a lot of controversy. I must admit for me it is a little that the authorities do nothing about this. These colleagues have a very high testosterone level, similar to male’s, which is why they look how they look and run like they run.”

She added, ”It hurts a bit. I saw Melissa Bishop who was very disappointed, she improved her personal best and was the 4th. It’s sad and I think she should be the gold medallist. But I am glad I’m the first European and the second white.”

Great Britain’s runner, Sharp, expressed similar disappointment as she said: ”I have tried to avoid the issue all year. You can see how emotional it all was. We know how each others feels. It is out of our control and how much we reply on people at the top sorting it out. The public can see how difficult it is with the change of rule but all we can do is give it our best.”

Following a successful case by the Indian sprinter Dutee Chand, the Court of Arbitration for Sport last year changed the rules that no longer required hyper-androgenic athletes to limit their testosterones.

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”I can’t imagine they will seriously try to implement this law” – said Dr. Efraim Zuroff, the Simon Wiesenthal Center’s top Nazi-hunter. He mentioned that the demand was based on facts as to correct what has been written in the history.

”They were not Polish death camps. They didn’t run them. There weren’t any Polish guards there, they are 100 percent right – they were Nazi death camps in Poland. But I can’t imagine they would actually put people in jail for using the term. Even US President Barack Obama could be jailed under the law for having used the term 'Polish Death Camp in 2012″ – Zuroff explained. „It’s a declarative statement, an educational issue that combines with wider phenomenon of laws in various countries to criminalize certain statements about history” – said Zuroff.

The Polish government put forward the bill on Tuesday and hopes that it will eliminate Poland from being accused for the actions of Nazi Germany. The Justice Ministry drafted the bill as a measure correct the history and to end the false accusations that Poland gets for international war crimes against peace and humanity. The punishment for those who violate the law would be a heavy fine or three years in prison. However, many people fear that the bill could exempt historians and artists from work.

Karen Pollock, chief executive of the Holocaust Education Trust said, ” The history of the Holocaust is a complex one and the Nazi occupation of Poland is no different. Accuracy when talking about this period of history is essential but the emphasis and priority should be to reach universal understanding and recognition of the facts through education.” Some Holocaust experts have expressed concern over the implementation of the bill. Yad Vashem Holocoust Remembrance Center said, ”While it was dedicated to providing accurate historical information, it questioned the effectiveness of Poland’s campaign to educate the public.”

”Their basic demand to call the former concentration camps, German-Nazi camps operated on Polish German-occupied soil is nevertheless an appropriate demand.” Prof. Dina Porat, chief historian at Yad Vashem said, ”When you call them Polish camps, you accuse Polish of establishing and operating them.” She noted that Yad Vashem supported the Polish government’s request in 2006 to clear the reference of the official name of Auschwitz-Birkenau for the UNESCO registry and to refer to it as ”the former German-Nazi Concentration and Extermination Camp.”

She said, ” But the way they [the Poles] would like to enforce the bill is more than extreme.” “A law that would put you in prison for up to three years is unheard of, especially when you take into account that this is just one item of a law according to which whoever defames Poland and say Polish people, officials or institutions were involved in war crimes and crimes against the Jews, is defaming Poland and should be punished.

This is like an attempt to smother research and freedom of speech.” ”Polish historians like Jan Gross and Jan Grabowski have been been criminally investigated for their work on Polish crimes against Jews.” Recently, a petition signed by a host of scholars was sent to Poland by Yad Vashem to stand in solidarity with their fellow historians. Porat said, ”here is fear of the Polish government rewriting history to whitewash Second World War Poland and present it to the world as a nation that was pure victim that should be pitied and compensated.”

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Treasure hunters have resumed their mission to find the gold train buried somewhere in south-western Poland during the Nazi period. Although there is no scientific evidence that it exists, the project spokesman, Andrzej Gaik explains that – the train isn’t a needle in a haystack. If it’s there, we we’ll find it.

The gold train sparked many treasure hunters’ interest after two men – Piotr Koper from Poland and Andreas Richter from Germany – discovered an armoured train from the Nazi-era in Walbryzch. According to them, a number of train carriages measuring a total of 98 metres were buried about eight to nice metres underground. However, they just contained weapon prototypes instead of gold and other valuables that were stolen by the Nazis from the locals.

The locals believe that Nazi prisoners were forced to dig a network of tunnels in Walbryzch in order to hide their gold from the Russia’s Red Army. However, geologists from Krakow’s prestigious AGH University of Science and Technology assert that no solid evidence was found to support such claims during their tests last December.

Auschwitz families furious! Tour firm uses bus with images of real victims

Professor Janusz Madej said, ”I am 100% sure there is no such train…maybe just a tunnel.”Despite the lack of evidence for the gold train, the treasure hunters have showed no sign of giving up their mission. Gaik exclaimed that, ”Even if we find a tunnel, that’ll also be a success. The train could be hidden in it somewhere.”

On the other hand, Koper is curious to find the answers within a weeks. He spoke to the Poland’s TVP public news channel and said, ”It should all be clear by Thursday.”

Koper and his team will have diggers start the work as soon as they sweep the area with geo-radar on Monday. They plan to dig down six metres deep in three areas along a 100-metre stretch of the old railway tracks.

Since the discovery of the armoured train last year, many treasure hunters have been searching for the alleged secret tunnels built by Nazis, some of which are believed to be around Ksiaz castle where the Third Reich hid many looted valuables.

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A tourist bus with disturbing images of real victims of Nazi death camp Auschwitz has caused outrage among the victims’ families and Jewish leaders. Apparently, it has been carrying many tourists to promote the camp as a holiday destination.

With the images of real victims of the horrific Nazi death camp and a giant Star of David over the train tracks that took 1.1 million lives, the flanks of the bus display the horror of Auschwitz.

'Come to Auschwitz-A journey through emotions. Our guides can speak Czech’ is what the lettering on the coach says in bold letters.

Although the bus was used as a film prop by Czech director Vit Klusak, he believes it was designed to promote Auschwitz and invite more people to visit the camp. Klusak added that his satirical art movie targets the real-life tourist industry that feeds off the World War II German death camp in Poland.

The bus was sold to a Czech tour bus company. With some tweaking, it began operating in Auschwitz gathering many people’s attention and condemnation at the same time.

An Auschwitz victim, Erika Bezdickova, who lost her entire family when she was just 13 was furious when asked about the bus. She said: I was absolutely appalled when I spotted the bus offering the tours to Auschwitz as a happy tourist destination.

She mentioned that the bus is advertising Auschwitz, not as an event for the people who are interested in the history, bus as entertainment. 'I think only a person with no moral decency could make a business out of the Auschwitz catastrophe. Not only is it abominable, but those responsible should be punished too.’

Prague Jewish Museum Director Leo Pavlat spoke to the local media and said: 'It advertises a trip to the former death camp as Auschwitz-style adventure tourism. We have sent a letter to them perhaps they did not realize the context, but the images have to be removed as soon as possible.’
However, the owner of the bus, Svatopluk Strava Auto Xaver, in Blucina, Czech Republic has refused to remove the images as he cannot afford a new paint job that is likely to cost around £1,300. He mentioned: 'I use the bus to somehow earn money. Removing the stickers will destroy the paint finish.’

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Over 80 percent of Poles do not intend to take part in World Youth Days, but nearly 70 percent intend to keep track of the event via media broadcasts, a survey by pollster CBOS shows.

No more than four percent of the respondents say they will take part in Holy Masses said by Pope Francis.
An overwhelming majority of those questioned, almost 90 percent, consider next week’s World Youth Days an important event for Poland, while a little over 10 percent think otherwise.

Nearly 90 percent of Poles say World Youth Days will help promote Poland abroad. Many, however, fear the event poses a terrorist threat. One in four, meanwhile, does not share such concerns. The survey was run on a sample of 983 adults between 30 and 7 July.