Announcing the winner of this year’s Ludwik Krzyzanowski Award for the best article published in The Polish Review: Dr. Colin P. Neufeldt (Concordia University of Edmonton) and Dr. Wojciech Marchlewski (Masovian Museum in Plock) for “Escape to Freedom and Return to Bondage: A Case Study of the Flight of Mennonites from Deutsch Wymyschle and Gabin, Poland, in Early 1945,” published in Vol. 69, Iss. 3, 2024.

This article is free to access in March 2026 in recognition of this honor.

Citation by the Editorial Board of The Polish Review

This article was selected for the Krzyzanowski Award as the best article published in The Polish Review in 2024 for its exceptional originality, depth of research, and bringing attention to the human aspect of the topic. By focusing on the largely overlooked experience of Mennonite communities in Deutsch Wymyschle and Gabin during the Vistula–Oder offensive, the authors bring to light a neglected dimension of wartime Poland, illuminating the human consequences of rapid military advance, forced evacuation, and civilian vulnerability in the final months of World War II.

Drawing on extensive archival records, memoirs, and survivor interviews, the article offers a rigorously documented and analytically sophisticated account of Mennonite flight, capture, and forced return in early 1945. It carefully examines the rationale and consequences of Nazi evacuation policies, demonstrating how administrative decisions by German authorities shaped evacuation routes, limited civilian agency, and often ensured capture by Red Army and Polish forces, with deadly consequences for some Mennonites. The authors’ clear conceptual framework—distinguishing between “evacuees,” “trekkers,” “returnees,” and “refugees”—adds analytical precision and allows for a nuanced comparison of wartime experiences. Balanced, empathetic, and critically engaged, the article transcends national and ideological narratives, making a significant contribution to Polish, East-Central European, and migration history, and exemplifying the scholarly excellence recognized by the Krzyzanowski Award.

Biographical Note

Colin Neufeldt is a professor of history at Concordia University in Edmonton, Canada. His publications include a contribution to European Mennonites and the Holocaust (2020), edited by Mark Jantzen and John D. Thiesen—a chapter entitled “Mennonite Collaboration with Nazism: A Case Study of the Responses of Mennonites in Deutsch Wymyschle, Poland to the Plight of Local Jews during the Early Nazi Occupation Period (1939–1942).”

Wojciech Marchlewski is an author and educator based in Warsaw. He was involved in the creation of the Mennonite Museum, which is a branch of the Masovian Museum in Plock. He is the author of Mennonici na Mazowszu w XVIII–XX wieku (2022) and coauthor, with Colin P. Neufeldt, of “Divided Loyalties: The Political Radicalization of Wymysle Niemieckie Mennonites in Interwar Poland (1918–1939),” published in the Mennonite Quarterly Review in October 2022.

Honorable Mention

“The Polish Diaspora in Belarus: Functioning under the Lukashenko Regime” by Dr. Andrzej Pieczewski (University of Lodz) and Aliksandra Sidarava (Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw)

The committee recognizes the article for its timeliness, analytical rigor, and significant contribution to understanding the contemporary condition of the Polish diaspora in Eastern Europe, particularly amid the escalating geopolitical crisis following the 2020 presidential election and the continued consolidation of authoritarian rule under Alexander Lukashenko. Andrzej Pieczewski is an associate professor in the Department of the History of Economics at the University of Lodz, Poland.

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The Polish Review, a multidisciplinary, peer-reviewed scholarly quarterly devoted to Polish topics, is the official journal of The Polish Institute of Arts and Sciences of America. Launched in 1956, The Polish Review has established itself as one of the most distinguished journals in the various fields of Polish studies, a publication that encourages lively scholarly exchange and cutting-edge innovation. The Review publishes research articles on Polish history, literature, art, architecture, sociology, political science, and other related topics, along with review essays, book reviews, and annotated translations of documents and literary works.

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