Stowarzyszenie Weteranów Armii Polskiej w Ameryce (SWAP)
SaveThe oldest continuously operating organization of Polish veterans in the world. Founded in 1921, headquarters in New York since 1934.
What are they
The Association of Polish Army Veterans in America, known in English as Polish Army Veterans Association of America, was established in May 1921 at a meeting in Cleveland, Ohio. It was founded by returning volunteers of General Józef Haller's Blue Army – the Polish Army in France, to which over twenty thousand people from the United States and Canada signed up between 1917-1919. Around fourteen and a half thousand of them returned to America later.
This is the oldest continuously operating independent self-help organization for former Polish soldiers in the world. The first president was Dr. Teofil Starzyński. The headquarters traveled from Cleveland through Chicago and Detroit until it settled in New York in 1934.
Polish Veteran House
The Association is located in a tenement building at the corner of Irving Place and 15th Street on Manhattan. The SWAP archive and – since 1996 – the Museum of the Tradition of the Polish Arms operate under the same address.
The collections include over fifty linear meters of records from 1917-2000, a personal file covering several thousand veterans, a list of over thirty-eight thousand volunteers to the Polish Army in France, correspondence with General Haller and Ignacy Jan Paderewski, banners, uniforms, decorations, and weapons from both world wars. Visits and queries are by prior appointment via phone or email.
Since 1921, the association has been continuously publishing a monthly magazine called "Weteran" – the oldest Polish publication of its kind in the world. In 2017, the Institute of National Remembrance awarded SWAP the "Guardian of National Memory" award.
Pulaski Parade
SWAP marches in the Pulaski Parade in the second position in the entire column – right behind the marshals and authorities, before the scouts and consulate. District 2 of the association is one of the parade sponsors.
Contact
119 East 15th Street, New York, NY 10003 Phone: (212) 358-0306 Email: info@pava-swap.org Website: pava-swap.org
Chief Commander: Tadeusz Antoniak.
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