Harry Warner

Harry Morris Warner (December 12, 1881 – July 25, 1958) was a Polish-born American studio executive, one of the founders of Warner Bros., and a major contributor to the development of the film industry. Along with his three brothers (Albert, Sam and Jack) Warner played a crucial role in the film business and played a key role in establishing Warner Bros. Pictures, Inc, serving as the company president until 1956.

Early life

Warner was born Hirsch Moses "Wonsal" or "Wonskolaser" to a family of Jewish Poles from the village of Krasnosielc. The village was a short distance from Warsaw in the part of Poland that had been subjugated to the Russian Empire following the 18th-century partitions of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. He was the son of Benjamin Wonsal, a shoemaker born in Krasnosielc, and Pearl Leah Eichelbaum. His given name was Moses but he was called Hirsch in the United States. In October 1889, he came to Baltimore, Maryland with his mother and siblings on the steamship Hermann from Bremen, Germany. Their father had preceded them, immigrating to Baltimore in 1883 or 1885 in order to pursue his trade in shoes and shoe repair. It was at that time that he changed the family name to Warner which was used thereafter. As in many Jewish immigrant families, some of the children gradually acquired anglicized versions of their Yiddish-sounding names. Hirsch became Harry, and his middle name Morris was likely a version of Moses.

Polish Americans

The Polish American ethnic group consists of Americans who have total or partial Polish heritage. There are an estimated 9.5 million Polish Americans, representing about 3% of the U.S. population.

Polish Americans are the largest European ethnic group of Slavic origin in the United States, second largest Central and Eastern European group and the eighth largest immigrant group overall.

Polish immigration began in 1608, when the first Polish settlers arrived at the Virginia Colony as skilled craftsmen. From the beginning of Polish immigration to the United States to the mid-20th century, Poles were victims of anti-Polish sentiment in American society. This was partially based on ethnic prejudice against Poles and Slavs in general, and additionally caused by their majority non-Protestant, Catholic religion. At the time ethnic Poles in America were viewed as a non-white racial group. Two early immigrants, Kazimierz Pułaski and Tadeusz Kościuszko, led armies in the Revolutionary War and are remembered as national heroes. Overall, more than one million Poles and Polish subjects have immigrated to the United States, primarily during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Exact immigration numbers are unknown. Many immigrants were classified as "Russian", "German", and "Austrian" by the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service because the Polish state did not exist from 1795 to 1918, and its borders had been dismantled through World War I and World War II. Complicating the U.S. Census figures further are the high proportion of Polish Americans who marry outside their ethnicity; in 1940, about 50 percent married other American ethnics, and a study in 1988 found that 54 percent of Polish Americans three generations or higher had been of mixed ancestry. The Polish American Cultural Center places a figure of Americans who have some Polish ancestry at 19-20 million.