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Background history
A gray woolen blanket – a witness to historical events, happy love, apprehensions, and also longing for home and the mother country. This particular element of each soldier’s equipment used to belong to Władysław Kocot – a participant of Poland’s Defensive War in 1939 and a prisoner-of-war in Oflag VII A Murnau. The blanket accompanied him during 6 years of captivity and, as its owner maintained himself, many a time saved him from illnesses, or maybe even from death. Władysław Kocot was born in the Village of Szczeglim (Masovian Voivodeship) in 1900. As a volunteer, he took part in the Polish-Bolshevik War and, afterwards, he worked as a teacher in an elementary school. In 1939, he was mobilized. As a captain in the 13th Infantry Regiment of “Modlin” Army, he fought and got seriously wounded in combat. Following the capitulation of Modlin Fortress, he was released to go home. However, after several days, on 30 October 1939, he was arrested and sent to a POW camp. Before he reported at the German gendarmerie station, where he received the summon, his wife Genowefa had persuaded him to take a blanket, some items of underwear and food with him. Like his wife had sensed, Cpt. Kocot did not return home. As an officer of the Polish Army, he was acknowledged to be a threat to the German authorities. The blanket turned out to be his greatest treasure in captivity. In the transition camp located in Działdowo, where the POWs were accommodated on a bare concrete floor, it protected him from cold. A similar situation occurred in the camps of Prenzlau and Kreuzburg (Kluczbork). The blanket proved the most useful in Oflag VII A Murnau, where Cpt. Kocot was detained from 15 June 1940 until the end of the war. That camp was designed for officers of the Polish Army in Bavaria, at the foot of the Alps. Despite the fact that 25 generals and one rear-admiral were interned there, the living conditions were not good. The officers who were staying in the camp were oppressed by the uncertainty. They were continually troubled by hunger, cold, lice, fleas and bugs. Each cold night the blanket warmed the captain and reminded him of his family. Most likely thanks to it he avoided many illnesses. Fortunately, returning home after regaining freedom, Władysław Kocot did not forget to take his woolen blanket with him. The “service” of the blanket in the Kocot Family lasted on after the end of the war. The soldier’s cover offered good protection from cold also to the next generation of the Kocots. It accompanied Cezary – the eldest son of Władysław and Genowefa Kocot – throughout the years of his studies: together they went through the time of his stay in rented accommodation, boarding school and students’ residence hall. When, in the 1960s, the service of the old blanket ended, it became an important memento, carefully cherished in the family home of the Kocots. After Władysław Kocot’s death in September 2000, the family made their common decision to donate the blanket, along with other keepsakes, to the Museum. In 2014, the blanket was renovated and underwent a conservation treatment.
Prepared by: Beata Madej
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