“Lesson with Antoni Abraham” in Gdynia attracted crowds. “We try to show it in truth”

14 speakers, nine topics and crowds of young people in the hall of the University of Administration and Business in Gdynia – on Thursday, thanks to the Kashubian-Pomeranian Association, the Gdynia university and the Gdynia Teacher Training Centre, a “Lesson with Antoni Abraham” took place. The “King of Kashubians” fought for the incorporation of Pomerania into the reborn Poland, supported the construction of the port in Gdynia and the city itself, and devoted his life to our region.

The symposium was held as part of the year of Antoni Abraham established by the Kashubian-Pomeranian Association on the occasion of the round anniversary of his death. – This June marks the 100th anniversary of the death of Antoni Abraham. He is a man about whom we could talk for hours, about his influence on this region, on regaining independence, on Kashubians, one can mention endlessly. Today we share knowledge about it in a nutshell to ignite curiosity. This is just one of the events organized on the occasion of the year of Antoni Abraham. This lesson is addressed to regionalist teachers, also historians, but we also invited high school classes so that young people would listen together with teachers. We managed to gather a great group of speakers consisting of scientists, researchers, methodologists, regionalists, museologists and creators of tourism and cultural life. We want to reach everyone with the Kashubian language and the story of Antoni Abraham. We also tell you how to follow the trails of Abraham, because it is not only Gdynia, but also Oliwa or Sopot. It is worth for classes to go on such a trip in the pre-holiday period – pointed out Wojciech Jankowski, director of the Gdynia Center for Teacher Training.

– We are not so much disenchanting as trying to show him the truth about what he did; this truth speaks for itself. Some say he is a legend, but it must be said here that there were not many like him at a time when the Polish issue, and for him and the Young Kashubian Kashubians, was important because one had to choose, and he was not an intellectual, but just Kaszëba. He was able to captivate crowds with his speech, adding humor to it all. He had a great following, he traveled like Remus from our Kashubian epic, especially in northern Kashubia, with the idea that you must be with Poland, that it is a chance for us, the Kashubians, to survive. He tried to convey this dream about Poland to all the people he met. He devoted his life, family, health and safety to this, because he was often arrested by Prussians. He also took a huge risk to finally get to Paris with a delegation appointed by the Supreme People’s Council with Tomasz Rogala from Kościerzyna, to tell the world’s greats how it is here and what these Kashubian elections are, that they are clearly for Poland. He had the good fortune to wait for Poland with the sea, but also the bitterness of finding out that the Republic of Poland is not a land dreamed up by us Kashubians. He also had the satisfaction that a month before his death, together with Jan Radtek, the first Polish mayor of Gdynia, a Kashubian village that was growing so quickly and becoming a city, he welcomed the highest authorities of the Republic of Poland, who came to open the emerging port. He saw that the Republic of Poland was taking root here materially and regardless of what people represented it, and sometimes they were very mean people, it would certainly take root here and Poland would be here – reminded Jan Wyrowiński, president of the Kashubian-Pomeranian Association.

EXCEPT THE SYMPOSIUM

The next event with Antoni Abraham is scheduled for June 17. At 10:00 am, the city game begins at the University of Administration and Business. On the same day at 15:00 in the church of Saint Michael the Archangel in Oksywie there will be a holy mass in the intention of Antoni Abraham. On June 23, the Kashubian-Pomeranian Association Branch in Gdynia invites you to lay flowers at the monument of the “King of Kashubians” at 17:00. The most important of the planned events is the grand gala of awarding the “Silver Snuffbox of Abraham” Medals to be held on June 24.

(Photo: Radio Gdańsk/Robert Groth)

Robert Groth/MarWer