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Background history
A worn-out notebook with yellowed sheets of pages filled with small handwriting, folded in half so that it could fit into a simple case (a pocket) made of an army blanket, is the most recent item acquired by the Museum. Along with the prisoner-of-war dog tag of the Lamsdorf camp it made its way – by very happy coincidence – into our collections just on 23 October 2015, that is shortly before the opening of this jubilee exhibition, but has already altered its final shape. Its extraordinarily interesting history, the personage of the owner, and also our knowing that the collections of the Museum would expand by unique objects in the near future made us decide not only to present the gift on the jubilee exhibition, but also to highlight the fact in the very title of the exhibition itself with the intriguing number "51/50" (instead of the initial "50/50"). We want, thus, the 51st item of treasure celebrating the 50th anniversary of the existence of the Central Museum of Prisoners-of-War in Łambinowice-Opole to communicate the following message: we shall keep on realizing our statutory goals, that is collect POWs’ artefacts, take care of them and protect them, make scholarly elaborations on them and render them available, with due perseverance, care and efficiency not weaker than those to date. The notebook in its shabby case holding also the dog tag belonged to Roman Bratny (the proper name: Roman Mularczyk), born in 1921, a prose writer, poet, publicist, a representative of the generation which, in the time of World War II, made not only the main potential and recruitment basis for the Polish resistance movement, but also took on themselves to support the continuity of the cultural life and proved to be extremely active both intellectually and artistically. The author of Kolumbowie. Rocznik 20 (The Columbuses. Generation 1920) – the novel that made him famous and fixed the title notion as the Roman Bratny generation – the one of outcasts, whose young years fell on the time of occupation, conspiracy, tragic destruction caused by war, as well as numerous dramas in the reality of their post-war lives – the generation of people who reached the destination they had never intended to see. Following the fall of the Warsaw Uprising, as a POW, Bratny, a lieutenant of the Home Army, was brought to Stalag 344 Lamsdorf (Łambinowice) on 8 October 1944. In the German captivity, he continued with diligence to put down notes, which he commenced doing in Warsaw, the same that have enlarged our Museum’s collection recently. He used to keep his notebook – as he himself described it in his memoirs later – in a small case sewn of a piece of an army blanket, which he carried with himself hanging inside a leg of his trousers. On 20 January 1945, by the last rail transport of Warsaw insurgents which was organized before the evacuation of the POWs, he was directed to Oflag II D Gross Born (Borne Sulinowo). However, he did not reach the destination, since because of the front line coming closer, the transport he was on was re-directed to go to Stalag X B Sandbostel. From there, Bratny was sent to Oflag X C Lübeck, where he regained his freedom, all the time keeping the notebook filled with his notes safely in the case. It accompanied him also in France, where he stayed for a short time soon after being liberated and on his return journey to Poland. The notebook survived the writer’s moving houses after the war, the time of his fame and retreat. We came to know about the existence of the notes from the published memoirs of Roman Bratny. It was very fortunate coincidence that led to finding the right trace and making a successful contact with the writer’s wife, who, in turn, decided to hand them over to our Museum.
Prepared by: Violetta Rezler-Wasielewska
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Notes by Roman Bratny – POW No. 102580
Source of acquisition
The memento was presented to the Museum by Ewa Bratny-Młynarska, wife to Roman Bratny.
Description of the item
A notebook bound in a soft, seriously damaged beige cover of 15cm x 21cm, dating from the years 1944-1945. It contains 54 sheets, 49 of which were numbered by the author himself and covered with small barely legible handwriting. The notebook is folded in half so that it could be put into a case sewn by hand of a piece of an old military dark grey blanket of 13cm x 17cm. The state of preservation of the material: bad, numerous defects on the edges. The case serves also to keep in it the POW’s dog tag – a rectangular blade of 6cm x 4cm and 1mm thick, divided into two equal parts with a perforation line, bearing the impressed mirror inscription "Stalag 318 VIII F Nr: 102580". The blade is threaded through with a cord (possibly a shoelace) in a light color; it is heavily soiled.
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