Warsaw Rotary Club before World War II

Warsaw Rotary Club was officially registered February 17, 1931, with a total of twenty-two charter members.  During a ceremony taking place on May 10, 1932, the club received its charter card and number 3427.  In the following two years, the number of club members increased to sixty and in 1936, to eighty.  At that time, there were 220 Rotarians in the entire district of Poland.

The club’s first president was Piotr Drzewiecki, engineer and chairman of a locomotive factory.  The club met in the Hotel Europejski on Tuesday evenings at eight o’clock.  The district of Poland, number 85, was created March 1, 1936.  The first district governor was charter member and past president of the Warsaw Rotary Club, Piotr Drzewiecki.  Later, Witold Sągajłło and Professor Jerzy Loth, both members of the Warsaw club, also became district governors. 

On May 15 and 16, 1936 the first conference of Polish Rotary clubs was held in the Hotel Europejski in Warsaw.  The second such conference was held in Łódź on April 17 and 18, 1937.  The Warsaw Rotary Club helped to found Rotary clubs in Łódź (1933), Cracow (1933), Katowice (1933), and later in Gdynia, Vilnius, Lvov, and Poznań.  The club also took part in translating many Rotary documents into Polish and beginning in 1934, printed its own monthly newsletter, which was sent to over eighty foreign clubs around the world. 

During its eight-year existence, the club often hosted Rotarians from other Polish and foreign clubs, as well as people not associated with the Rotary movement, including plenipotentiary envoys from Argentina, Brazil, China, Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia, Romania, Switzerland, and others countries.  During meetings, reports accompanied by discussions were given, generally focused on social and economic matters, but also including topics such as, “Emotional Foundations for Polish-German Understanding,” “Impressions from the Journey of the Batory to America,” “Women in China,” “The Role of the Postage Stamp,” “The Polish Saber,” and “Should We Be Sad?”  The club assisted social organizations such as the Polish Education Society, the Polish Red Cross, YMCA, and many other initiatives, including help for flood victims, care for children from poor families, cleaning the Warsaw area, and assistance for poor students and alumni of higher-level vocational schools.           

Through rich correspondence with foreign clubs as well as the individual activities of its members, the Warsaw Rotary Club lead a campaign to inform those beyond the borders of Poland of the internal situation and Rotary movement in Poland.  In 1939, due to efforts made by the Warsaw Rotary Club, “Rotary in Poland,” on Polish economy and culture in 1920’s, was printed.  The brochure, sent to foreign clubs, met with enthusiastic response from Rotarians around the world. 

The Warsaw Rotary Club played an active role in public life in prewar Poland.  The club wrote articles and letters protesting Rotary’s presumed ties with Masonry, sent congratulatory telegrams to President Ignacy Mościcki on his birthday, and expressed its condolences in the press after the death of Marshal Józef Piłsudski. 

The last documented meeting of the prewar club took place on September 5, 1939.  Six club members were present.  The absence of some members was excused due to their presence in the army.  During the meeting, current events were discussed.