News

Our Museum workers met with extraordinary people - descendants of POWs - to record their stories about German captivity, and to accept valuable memorabilia from oflags VII B Eichstätt and VII A Murnau.

The visit to the Wielkopolska region was organised by workers of the Department of Collections and Conservation. The team, made up of Krzysztof Harupa, Dawid Żak and Sławomir Mielnik, a film-maker who assisted them, began with a meeting in Poznań with Maria Lewandowska-Pijanowska, the daughter of Second Lieutenant Jan Julian Lewandowski. She was the person who had donated her father's collection of memorabilia, including over 600 letters and postcards, to the Museum in February this year. The correspondence, mainly between him and his fiancée Irena Woźniewska, was used by us while we were making the temporary exhibition ‘I love You, see You...’. During the conversation, which was recorded on camera, we heard, among other things, stories about: her father's youth, his stay in captivity and the aforementioned love of her parents. The interviewee also expressed her gratitude for the care of the donated memorabilia and the great interest in her family history.

The other person visited by us was Maria Beczkiewicz from Krzycko Wielkie near Leszno, a relative of a prisoner of Oflag VII A Murnau, Captain Zygmunt Kokociński. A visit to her house was not only an opportunity to record an interesting conversation, but also to accept a donation. Among the artefacts donated were an oil painting of the Captain painted at Murnau, a carved little altarpiece, a collection of programme notes for theatre shows and a notebook with camp notes. These are extraordinary objects that bear witness to the creative activity of Polish officers in Oflags.

We would like to thank Maria Lewandowska-Pijanowska and Maria Beczkiewicz for those interesting meetings and their contribution to the expansion of the museum's collections. Interviews with both ladies will soon be made available on the Museum website.

Photo: S. Mielnik/CMJW.