Exile
He was evacuated to Iran where he headed the Polish Soldier's Theater. He was with the Polish Second Corps until it was transported to Britain and demobilized. In the autumn of 1946, he went to London where he organized and conducted the Ref-Ren Theater. Together with his wife and other exiled Polish actors, the theater traveled around the world providing humor and sentimental songs to war scattered Poles. In the 1950s, and 1960s, he recorded several dozen of these broadcasts for Radio Free Europe, the Polish section of Radio Paris, and the Polish section of the BBC in London.
In 1965, Konarski settled permanently in Chicago. He organized Polish cultural activities and had a radio show called Czerwone maki (Red Poppies) for over twenty years that was also broadcast in New York City. He also continued to sing and perform on many stages in England, France, and the U.S.
Although he is best known for writing the "Red Poppies on Monte Cassino" song, Konarski was also an author and composer of hundreds of other poems, songs, monologues, skits, musical comedies (including "December" in 1981), as well as special programs to commemorate Polish veterans and national holidays.
Settling with his wife in Chicago in the 1960s, they travelled to many U.S. cities entertaining Polish emigrants with his stage shows. His entertainers met with and entertained his fellow soldiers of the Polish II Corps who fought with at Monte Cassino. During the 1960s, he and his wife taughts summer courses of Polish language, song and poetry at Alliance College in Pennsylvania, having a passionate influence on first and second generation Polish teens.
He added a fourth verse to his Czerwone maki na Monte Cassino song in 1969, on the twenty-fifth anniversary of the battle. It is less known than the original version.
His dream was to see an independent Poland. Konarski witnessed when Poland returned to a free nation after undergoing political and structural reforms. He was to visit his homeland, but died in Chicago the day before he was to arrive in Poland.
Konarski was always a Pole and patriot, who preached Poland's unbending right to freedom and self determination. For his attitude for the nation's independence and for cultivating Polish culture in exile, he was twice awarded the Order of Polonia Restituta (Knight's Cross and Commander's Cross), first by the President of Poland in exile, and then posthumously.
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Famous quotes containing the word exile:
“Public employment contributes neither to advantage nor happiness. It is but honorable exile from one’s family and affairs.”
—Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826)
“The exile is a singular, whereas refugees tend to be thought of in the mass. Armenian refugees, Jewish refugees, refugees from Franco Spain. But a political leader or artistic figure is an exile. Thomas Mann yesterday, Theodorakis today. Exile is the noble and dignified term, while a refugee is more hapless.... What is implied in these nuances of social standing is the respect we pay to choice. The exile appears to have made a decision, while the refugee is the very image of helplessness.”
—Mary McCarthy (1912–1989)
“No exile at the South Pole or on the summit of Mont Blanc separates us more effectively from others than the practice of a hidden vice.”
—Marcel Proust (1871–1922)