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Background history
The collections of our Museum include an exceptional document which testifies to the journalistic activity of Polish prisoners-of-war. This is one of a few copies of Za drutami (Behind the Wires) – the magazine which was issued in Oflag II B Arnswalde (Choszczno) in the years 1940 and 1941. The POW press played a vital role in everyday camp life of the interned. It was in oflags, in particular, where both legal and illegal papers appeared, bringing important information from the world and the camp, containing specialist articles, self-help sections, comics, or drawings. The press exerted an influence on POWs’ morale, kept up the spirits, was the source of knowledge and information. The first legal paper appeared in Oflag II B Arnswalde and was entitled Gazetka Obozowa (The Camp Gazette). However, after a few issues had come out, the German camp authorities prohibited editing it. The follower of The Camp Gazette was the bi-weekly Behind the Wires, the year’s edition of which we present on our jubilee exhibition. The paper was launched upon the initiative of the camp seniors and itself did not serve any political option: it was an element of cultural and educational work besides activities relating to theater, courses and lectures. The editor-in-chief was Second Lieutenant Marian Sadzewicz and the editorial staff consisted of 19 members, 10 of whom were professional journalists. However, there were altogether nearly 50 POWs taking part in the process of editing Behind the Wires. The bi-weekly appeared from 1 August 1940 to 1 April 1942, with 38 edited issues in total. The circulation of each issue amounted to between 200 and 500 copies, which is an impressive result. The distribution was also arranged on the professional level, thanks to which the paper reached other POW camps, where Polish POWs were interned, among others, Oflag II C Woldenberg (Dobiegniew). In the paper, one could find articles of the journalistic nature, reportages, interviews, reviews, reports on various cultural events, quite a few literary pieces apart from humor, rebuses and puzzles. The section headlined “Camp news” was also run, from which POWs could get acquainted with current issues of Oflag II B Arnswalde. In the columns of this POW magazine, the Polish September Campaign of 1939 was frequently commented on. The third issue which came out on 1 September 1940, that is on the occasion of the first anniversary of the Campaign, contained the article by Major Henryk Sucharski – the Commander of the Military Base of Transshipment of Arms and Ammunition in Westerplatte. He wrote about the fights in defense of the repository and the route to captivity. In his text, he described events in which he had taken part, finishing the article with the following sentence: “The tragedy of that moment was not sweetened, of course, by congratulations from the German commanders or the fact that General Eberhardt – the commanding officer in Gdańsk, allowed me to keep my sabre as an expression of his recognition of the brave defense […].” The two-page article by Major Sucharski was one of the last reports dealing with the fights in defense of Westerplatte.
Prepared by: Bartosz Janczak
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Behind the Wires – the paper of Polish POWs
Source of acquisition
Presented by Józef Kobylański’s family.
Description of the item
The POW-edited magazine Za drtami, the 1940 edition, consists of 10 issues bound together. Hardcover of 30cm x 42 cm. The front page features the logo of the paper – a sword stuck in a tree trunk, surrounded by olive twigs. The typewritten texts are enriched with drawings.
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