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Background history
In 2013, Maciej Miezian, an art historian from Krakow, whose father was a prisoner-of-war in Oflag II C Woldenberg (Dobiegniew), presented the Museum with a POW’s postcard which had been found quite a long time before while sorting out things left over by the late Adam Siemianowicz, Professor of Krakow Academy of Fine Arts, who died childless in 1970. From a handwritten note made by the donator, we find out that the Professor, who had used the name Adam Ciopcio before, was born in the Russian town of Orenburg, at the foot the Ural Mountains. He was a descendant of an Uniate family exiled to Siberia already in the 19th century and who, after the return to Poland at the beginning of the 20th century, lived in Krakow. Most probably, among other family memorabilia which he had brought along, there was also this card, dated 21 December 1916. Adam Siemianowicz, together with his family, came to Poland soon after the signing of the Treaty of Riga in 1921. The reason why this modest postcard turned out a valuable memento deserving to be saved from destruction is still a mystery. The donator attached the information that the card might have been sent by Prof. Siemianowicz’s father and that it had been sent from the POW camp existing in Orenburg during World War I, designed for soldiers fighting on the side of the Central Powers. These explanations raised numerous doubts among employees of the Museum and fueled a desire to solve the mystery. The result of the undertaken investigation proved surprising: the card was sent from the area of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and its addressee lived in Orenburg. Until the Treaty of Trianon, today’s Croatia had belonged to the Hungarian part of the Imperial-Royal monarchy on the Danube. The traces of the official Hungarian style on the form are very subtle and unclear. Thanks to our analysis of the lettering in the rim of the both stamps we could learn that they had been imprinted at the post office in the place called GJURGJEVAC. The etymology of the name “Gjurgjevac” dates back to the Middle Ages and refers to the figure of its Christian patron saint – Saint George. However, to Croatians “Gjurgjevac” is “Đurđevac”, and it is under this name that the city has been functioning until our times. A visible Slavic manifestation of difference were the inscriptions rendered in two languages and relating to personal data, army rank and military unit, which the POW served in while being taken captive: beside the Croatian language, there was also used the French language, and additionally – in the space designed for the address – the Russian language. The issuant of the Card was Přípomoćní í obavjesní ured za ratne zarobljeníke, Zagreb. The space designed for the sender features the name Jan Miščak (Jan Miszczak), and its receiver is Simnu Čopča (Szymon Ciopcio), Adam Siemianowicz’s father. The repetition of the Russian address in the Cyrillic script allowed the correspondence to finally reach the addressee in Orenburg. Both men, the POW and the Russian addressee of the postcard, were connected with Poland, which manifests itself in the opening words: “In the first words of my letter may Jesus Christ be praised.” Another sign is the use of the salutation Państwo (Mr. and Mrs.), typical of the Polish language, and also the place, where the card was written – podravina paromlin, being the name of a joint-stock company existing till the end of the 19th century – the Steam Mill Podravina with its seat in today’s Đurđevacu. Possibly, this was the workplace of the Polish POW of the Emperor’s Army, who had the correspondence card typewritten by a Croatian office clerk. The clerk must have been filling it just as he heard the words, that is putting down their phonetic transcription. The postcard from the times of World War I shows in what way some inconspicuous personal mementos can lead us along paths of grand history from many years ago.
Prepared by: Anna Wickiewicz
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Postcard from the time of the Great War
Source of acquisition
Donation made by Maciej Miezian from Krakow.
Description of the item
A postcard of standardized form, printed by the Information Bureau in charge of Prisoners-of-War in Zagreb acting under the auspices of the International Committee of the Red Cross. The emblem of this organization is the only distinctive graphic element on the card. In the top right corner, an imprint of the stamp LEVELEZOLAP A HADI SZAMARA, meaning “army postcard” (in free translation from the Hungarian language). It contains the address section, including the information written in the Cyrillic script, relating to the addressee living in Russia. There is also space provided here for the data concerning the sender. The reverse page has the space for the message.
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