Polska Walczaca

This modest plaque adorns the former Nazi H.Q. building in Katowice to honor those who lost their lives fighting for Poland during W.W. ll . The Polska Walczaca (pronounced Valchohntsa or thereabouts) is the symbol of the Polish Home army or A.K.

Polish Skull

If you look very carefully you can find Pirates everywhere. This is a shot from Wawel cathedral in Krakow.

The name "Kruk"

I am looking out the balcony window a light pelting of ice rain coats the streets and trees below. As a young polish-american lad i I believed the meaning of my simple polish name to be "Crow" I thought it was cool, until much later a friend pointed out to me that my name translated to English was "Jim Crow". Which kind of stinks, even later when i moved to Poland i found out much to my relief that my name did not actually mean crow at all but Raven. "Crow" in polish is Wrona (Vrona) and Raven is "Kruk". This gave me back my former respect for my surname. I have tried tracing the name but only got as far as "One who dwells near or at the sign of the crow" from a geneology website. And from Disneyland I bought my heraldric symbol a crow with a ring in its beak. Somehow I don't believe disneyland to be a reliable bastion of true genealogy study but the t-shirt looked cool. But to make this story even more boring i will continue, I will tell you the real story of Kruk. Here in poland one can witness vast storytellings of ravens forming sometimes, such as before storms, a super unkindness of more than 600 ravens. In the large tree just outside my window I am spying over 30 ravens taking what little refuge they can from the light icing outside. The Polish raven is a regal bird, large and shiny as if someone smothered it with Vitalis (my fathers favorite pomade) they have dark black beaks and tower over their cousins the Crow which are smaller and yellow- beaked. So ancestors of the family Kruk this is the origin of your name the mighty raven which rules the skies of Poland all winter long.

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