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Background history
The first entry dated 24 August 1939: “6 o’clock in the morning, I was delivered a call-up to the Army, the 8th District Hospital, Toruń,” and further “The train was beating the rhythm with its wheels: going to war, going to war … and we were going past one station after another …” It is the beginning of a unique diary kept in school notebooks, which makes one of the more valuable archival memorabilia in possession of the Central Museum of Prisoners-of-War in Łambinowice-Opole. Its author, Franciszek Brzeziński, born in Brodnica on 14 January 1898, was an officer called up to the Army to participate in the September Campaign as a member of medical service. Upon being taken captive by Germans, he first was sent to Oflag VII B Eichestätt, and next, on 22 May 1940, to Oflag VII Murnau, where he stayed until the end of the captivity. This very personal document written in the chronicle-like form, whose concise information contains not only news relating to the then current events, but also the author’s thoughts which are the more valuable as they were put down in the determined reality of a POW camp, offers us a possibility of making an insight into the camp life, its state and rhythm. We learn from the document how almost every day and holidays spent with companions in distress looked like; we even get firsthand information about weather conditions. The value of the diary is also heightened by very personal motifs present in it, such as: “28 July 1942. This morning I received a very sad message (a telegram). Yesterday, my beloved Dad died. The funeral is on Saturday, 1 Aug., 1942. I had always been full of hopes that he would survive until I come back and I would be able to thank him and kiss his labor-worn hands, for all he did for me.” All the records in the diary make an unusually important source of knowledge which cannot pass underestimated as a historical value. Appreciating its exceptional significance, the Central Museum of Prisoners-of-War in Łambinowice-Opole published the book under the title W Oflagu VII A Murnau Dzienniki polskiego oficera [In Oflag VII A Murnau. A Diary of a Polish Officer] (Opole 2013). It is yet another interesting publication offered by our Museum.
Prepared by: Wojciech Kwieciński
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