Museum Calendar 2025 AD
The Museum, together with the Association of Friends of the Central Museum of Prisoners-of-War, has carried on the tradition of the annual joint publication of a calendar. In this way, we also express our gratitude to the persons who collaborate with our institution in various fields, for it is to them that many copies of the calendar are sent. In addition to free distribution, the calendar is also for sale in the museum shop.
The calendar for 2025 differs significantly from its predecessor. It is no longer settle upon a minimalist approach (the so-called tripartite calendar), but actually is a mini-museum catalogue, which has been designed so that each month is illustrated with a different artefact from the Museum's collection. The photographs are accompanied by detailed descriptions, typical of a museum inventory, including, in addition to the date of the object, its dimensions and the name of the maker, information on, among other things, the circumstances in which it was made or its state of preservation and possible conservation treatment.
All the artefacts presented in the calendar belong to one category of objects: they are various decorative boxes made in oflags and stalags during World War II. Why is that? As the calendar's message reads: ‘They [the caskets] were made in the POW camps to express gratitude, love, hope for a better tomorrow. As a remembrance. As proof that a life that always finds a way to last. The twelve caskets represent a unique ensemble in the Museum's collection. We show them as a tribute to the courage, ingenuity, talent and good intentions of their makers’.
The concept of the calendar and the selection and compilation of the museum objects, was conceived by the head of the CMJW’s Department of Collections and Conservation, Elżbieta Góra. The photographs of the artefacts were taken by Sławoj Dubiel, while the calendar was designed by Marek Krajewski.