Paderewski’s Burial

You reported that the federal court had dismissed Mark Seidenberg’s lawsuit to prevent the removal of the body of Ignace Jan Paderewski, the Polish concert pianist, composer and statesman, from Arlington Cemetery to Poland (June 20).

Your article reported that “Seidenberg said he opposed the move in part because Paderewski . . . is to be buried alongside two notorious anti-Semites: Marshal Joseph Pilsudski, who was dictator of Poland in the 1920s and 1930s, and Roman Dmowski, a far-right-wing politician and nationalist leader.” Seidenberg is quite wrong. Pilsudski (a founder of the post-World War I restored Polish state) was not anti-Semitic.

Paderewski will not be buried between Pilsudski and Dmowski. Pilsudski’s body is in the royal burial crypt of St. Stanislaus Cathedral on the Wawel in Krakow. The remains of Dmowski (concededly an anti-Semite besides having been Pilsudski’s political enemy) are in the Brudno Cemetery in Warsaw. Paderewski’s body will be interred in St. John’s Cathedral in Warsaw on July 5. I should just add that, although Pilsudski was Poland’s virtual dictator from 1926 until his death in 1935, his regime was authoritarian rather than totalitarian.

ARNOLD T. GUMINSKI

Glendale