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Background history
A typical postcard sent during World War II from a Wehrmacht-run prisoner-of-war camp to an addressee living in the United States. At first sight there is nothing exceptional about it. However, it is the signature put by General Roman Abraham that makes it deserve paying special attention to. Mementos relating to generals in captivity are very rarely available. The card which is displayed on the exhibition represents one of merely a few items of the type remaining in the collections of the Museum. It was sent in October 1941 by Gen. R. Abraham from Oflag VIII E Johannisbrunn to Aleksander Dubiński, the General’s friend from the time of fighting for Poland’s independence, who was living in Chicago and who acted as a go-between in the correspondence between the General and his sister. In the card, the General gives thanks, among others, for the food packets sent to him. He also has hopes for the war to come to the end soon. Apart from this, he informs his addressee that the generals in the camp keep themselves busy with tending garden plots (!), counting on that the next year’s crops will be the last to see them in the camp. We do possess in our collections a photograph which shows generals at work in the camp garden. During World War II there were altogether 52 Polish generals (including one rear-admiral) who found themselves in captivity: 12 in the Soviet captivity and 40 in the German. Among them there was one of the most outstanding Polish cavalry commanders – Brigadier General Roman Abraham (1891-1976). He was a Lvovite by birth and a lawyer by education (a Doctor of Law). From 1918 he served in the reborn Polish Army, being a merited defender of Lvov against Ukrainians in November 1918. The famous detachment of the so-called Desperados, operating under his command, placed the Polish standard on the Lvov Town Hall on 22 November, symbolically finishing the fights for the city. For the second time he was defending his beloved city during the Polish-Bolshevik War in the summer of 1920. When he was seriously wounded, he continued to perform his duties and commanded the detachment, being carried on the stretchers. Later, he was sent on a mission to Upper Silesia. As a plenipotentiary of Wojeciech Korfanty, the Plebiscite Commissioner, he fought in the Third Silesian Uprising. The Greater Poland Cavalry Brigade, which was commanded by him during the Polish Campaign in 1939, was one of the most combative Polish military units. It was among very few ones which were able to carry out successful offensive actions, even attacking targets on the territory of the Third Reich! Part of the detachments commanded by the badly wounded General managed to break through and reach Warsaw, where they participated in defending the city until the capitulation of the capital on 28 September 1939. The General was taken captive there on 1 October. As a seriously wounded officer, he was placed in Ujzadowski Hospital and then arrested by the Germans and transported to the Gestapo investigation prison sited in Aleje Szucha. Charged with formal approving death sentences for German saboteurs in Śrem, he was imprisoned in Cytadela in Poznań. Successive months of the war saw him transferred to a few POW camps. He was interned in the following oflags in turn: IV B Königstein, VIII E Johannisbrunn and VII A Murnau. Bursting with energy and brilliance, the cavalryman tried to flee twice, however unsuccessfully. He was freed by the American Army on 30 April 1945. After the end of the war he returned to Poland, yet the communist authorities did not allow him to serve in the new army. He worked, among others, for the Red Cross and was engaged in the cooperative activity then. Because of the persecution which he suffered from the Department of Security, he retired in 1950. He actively engaged in social actions to commemorate heroic fight of Polish soldiers, including the restoration of the Cemetery of the Defenders of Lvov in Łyczaków. General Roman Abraham died in 1976. In the wake of the sociopolitical transformations in Poland his merits were duly appreciated: a number of streets were named after him, he is a patron of several schools all over the country. In the Interwar period, he was decorated with medals and distinctions, among others: the Gold Cross of the War Order of Virtuti Militari, the Cross of Independence with Swords, the Knight’s Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta, the Cross of Defense of Lvov and the Cross of Valor (five times).
Prepared by: Piotr Stanek
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Card sent from captivity by General Roman Abraham
Source of acquisition
The item was presented to the Museum, acquired by the author of this note as a gift in return for the historical consultation.
Description of the item
A postcard bearing a handwritten message on a standardized German correspondence form, with a stamp of the camp censor and a stamp of the POW Post Office in Oflag VIII E Johannisbrunn, dated 4 October 1939.
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