(The scheduling of the 2025 tour is meant to accommodate persons who will be attending the 500th anniversary of Anabaptism event in Zurich on May 29 and then wish to travel to Warsaw to join the Poland tour.)
The story of Mennonites in what is today Poland (primarily the Vistula Delta) is one of the less well-known chapters of Mennonite history, especially in English. As one of the longest-lasting European Mennonite communities and the point of origin for the Russian Mennonite experience, which features so prominently in the North and South American Mennonite story, the history of Mennonites along the Vistula river and elsewhere in Poland deserves more intense cultivation.
The Mennonite-Polish Studies Association emerges out of two previous efforts. In 1991, Peter J. Klassen started the Mennonite-Polish Friendship Association to place a historical marker on the former Mennonite church building in Gdansk, at the request of the congregation currently using the building, and to foster other interest in Polish Mennonite commemoration. In about 2002, John D. Thiesen and Mark Jantzen at Bethel College began the Vistula Mennonite Studies Project to collect archival materials and publish translation and research about the Mennonites of the Vistula region.
With the retirement of Peter J. Klassen, these two previous efforts are being merged into a new Mennonite-Polish Studies Association, which will continue to encourage the study and awareness of Mennonites in Poland and the Vistula valley, to foster understanding between Mennonites and Poles, and inform an English-reading audience of activities related to the Polish/Prussian Mennonite story, such as museum exhibits and research projects.
To support our work via annual membership and to be added to our contact list, you may send annual dues of $25 to
Mennonite Library and ArchivesMake checks payable to Bethel College.
Bethel College
300 E 27th St
North Newton KS 67117
You can donate online here. Be sure to put "Mennonite Polish Studies Assocation" in the Gift Destination box.
Mennonite Library and Archives
Bethel College
300 East 27th Street
North Newton, KS 67117-1716
Phone: (316) 284-5304
Fax: (316) 284-5843
mla@bethelks.edu