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Background history
The medal from Stalag X C Sandbostel is a memento of Corporal Henryk Zieliński (1920–1981), an officer cadet of the Polish Army, who – in the years 1939-1944 – was a prisoner-of-war in four German POW camps. At first he stayed in Oflag XII A Hadamar, and then in the following stalags: VI B Neu-Versen, VI G Bonn-Duisdorf and X B Sandbostel. Corporal Zieliński was awarded the medal for the participation in a sports competition during the official gala on 22 February 1944. An invitation, which is in possession of our Museum, informs about the event. Sports activity, so popular with POWs in the majority of the Wehrmacht-run camps and also the presence – among the international POW community – of many people connected with sport at the time of before the war, could not but influence the remembrance of the Olympic ideas, even if in captivity. It was fairly quickly then, in fact as early as in 1940, that there arose the need to hold at least a substitute of the real Olympic Games. Although the games could not have such a setting as competitions held during the time of peace and were not officially acknowledged by the International Olympic Committee, they did make a form of POWs’ protest against the nonsensicality of the war and military rivalry between nations. The organization of the camp games was an unprecedented phenomenon in the history of sport and the contests proved that despite the armed conflict going on, the noble forms of competing, which were begun by the Ancient Greeks and then – thanks to Baron Pierre de Coubertin – continued from the end of the 19th century until today – had not been forgotten. Despite the extremely hard conditions existing in the German POW camps, the sports competitions held by the POW community on the occasion of the successive Olympic Games falling on the years 1940 and 1944 made the symbolic crowning of sports activity. Before Corporal Henryk Zieliński found himself in the German captivity, he had taken part in the Polish Campaign in September 1939, fighting in the ranks of the 64th Pomeranian Regiment of Murmansk Rifles. During the battle on the Bzura River he was wounded and was taken to the field hospital in Sanniki. During his stay in the German captivity, he undertook to escape twice, without success. His name has entered the pages of Poland’s history not only as that of a soldier of the Polish Army, but also as one of an outstanding historian connected with Wrocław University. In the 1970s, he took part in the works of the bilateral Polish-German Commission for School-books, which acted under the auspices of UNESCO. Its task was to remove from the teaching programs of Polish and German schools, numerous distortions and stereotypes which used to be present in the past. He was also one of the creators of a research plan relating to the history of the Polish political thought in the 19th and the 20th century.
Prepared by: Dorota Musiał
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Medal from Sandbostel
Source of acquisition
The medal was presented to the Museum by the closest relatives of Prof. Henryk Zieliński – Juliusz – in 2011.
Description of the item
A round medal of 5cm in diameter, made of an alloy of non-ferrous metals; on the obverse: two male silhouettes playing basketball; on the reverse, within the rim, a wreath of laurel and oak leaves; inside the lettering: CLUB ATLETIQUE ASSOLANT STALAG X B.
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