News

Since its very beginnings, our Museum has particularly been keen on collecting histories of fates of individual POWs, told either by themselves or by their nearest, which has been prevailing in recent years. As a result of a talk we had lately, our collection has expanded with the accounts relating to yet another person, that is Sergeant Major Jakub Worek.

The interview with Wiesław Worecki and Magdalena Drężek – the son and granddaughter of Seargent Major Worek – was conducted by Dawid Żak of the Department of Collections and Conservation. The interview supplied valuable information on the soldier who fought on both fronts of the global conflicts. During World War 2, initially he was interned in the camp in Târgu Jiu in Romania, and in 1941 he stayed in the German POW camps – stalags XVII A Kaisersteinbruch and VIII B Lamsdorf.

This genuine military and POW history has also had its own wider dramatic dimension concerning the family: the wife and the son of Sgt. Maj Worek were transferred to Kazachstan. Despite many attempts at finding them, Sgt. Maj Worek was not able to establish their location either during the war or after it. In 1946, convinced of their deaths, he set up a new family. Unexpectedly, his nearest returned. Thus, the war had left a lasting and cruel mark on himself and his relations.

Sgt. Maj Worek’s granddaughter, Magdalena Drężek, for years has been actively engaged in recreating the family history. In 2023, she turned to the Archive of our Museum with a request for a query and then, in the same year, took part together with her father in the All-Poland Meeting of Families of POWs of World War 2, followed by the recording of this interview.

We want to again thank our interviewees for their trust and sharing the unique history with us. We are glad that we can help save it from oblivion.