Deported journalist decorated by President Komorowski
PR dla Zagranicy
John Beauchamp
23.09.2011 10:22
Ruth Ellen Gruber, an award-winning American journalist who was deported from Poland in 1983 during the Martial Law era has been decorated with one of the country’s highest honours.
President Komorowski addresses guests at the Polish Consulate in New York, 22.09.2011. Photo: PAP/Jacek Turczyk
Ruth Ellen Gruber, who remains an active commentator on Central European affairs, was awarded the Knight’s Cross of the Order of Merit by President Bronislaw Komorowski on Thursday at a ceremony at the Polish Consulate in New York.
Poland’s head of state is currently attending the UN General Assembly in New York, where he gave an address calling for solidarity among nations.
Gruber, who covered the Solidarity surge in Poland as a bureau-chief of United Press International, was deported from the country for “crimes against the state.”
As it was, Mr Komorowski was himself arrested by the Polish authorities during that period. As a Solidarity activist, he was interned after the declaration of Martial Law in December 1981.
Gruber was granted the award both for her coverage of the Polish bid for democracy, as well as her more recent work furthering Polish-Jewish understanding.
Letters from Europe (and Elsewhere), a collection of her articles, was recently published, as well as her work on the so-called Jewish revival in Poland – Virtually Jewish: Reinventing Jewish Culture in Central Europe. (nh/jb)
Source: USA Today