Painting

Painting

The collection of paintings in the Central Museum of Prisoners-of-War comprises POWs’ artistic works which were created in German camps during World War 2. The most of the preserved paintings come from oflags, in which there were more favorable conditions to pursue this kind of activity than in stalags. There was no obligation for POWs-officers interned in oflags to work physically: they had more spare time and enjoyed the permission on the part of the German camp authorities to develop their artistic skills. Moreover, it was fairly common to meet a POW there who would hold artistic education and would even organize a course in painting and drawing for the interested companions. Some of the preserved works were created just in such courses. They are of a great historical value, even though they do not always present a high artistic quality. Still, they testify to the POWs’ intensive self-educational activity and register the successive stages of their mastering difficult workshops.

Part of the objects in the collection come from the internment camps in Romania. They are watercolors by Tadeusz Kowalczyk, who continued to paint also in the subsequent places of his stay, that is in Oflags: VI E Dorsten and VI B Dössel, already after the transfer of the Polish soldiers to the German authorities and – later – in the camp for the former POWs based in Fölsen shortly after the end of the War. The works by Kowalczyk, which were painted after his regaining freedom, belong to the group of museum items created after World War 2. Apart from them, it is worth paying attention to, among others, six paintings in oils made by Edward Solski, which show Warsaw insurgents in captivity.

The authorship of the majority of paintings which form the Museum’s collection is known. Their makers signed them legibly with their names and surnames or with their initials, which researchers managed to decipher. The Museum’s collection contains works made with the use of many painting techniques: from watercolors and pastels to oils and compilations of different techniques. Watercolors are represented in the largest number, since this painting technique was the most popular with POWs and therefore most frequently applied by them. Watercolors made by POWs show landscapes, still life and also small portraits. They were painted on any piece of paper available in the camp – usually on the backside of different letters or on packaging paper regained from parcels sent to the POWs. As regards the pictures executed in pastels, they are portraits of POWs, still life, as well as portraits of women, which were painted from memory or photographs. A scanty group of paintings are pictures in oils, generally portraits of POWs and copies of masterpieces by well-known painters. This painting technique  was rarely used in camps due to the difficulty in obtaining the necessary materials. POWs applied it while executing orders from members of the German personnel (e.g., camp guards) or from employers in labor detachments (the so-called work squads - Arbeitskommandos), who delivered necessary materials to the POWs.