News

The Museum has been on good terms with Serbian diplomats for some time now, and with good results. This time, on 30 May, we hosted Ranko Tomović, Honorary Consul of the Republic of Serbia in Katowice, based in Czeladź, and Nenad Lajbenŝperger, a historian and conservator from Institute for the Protection of Cultural Monuments of Serbia.

Let us remind you that the relation between the Museum and the Balkans is grounded in historical facts: there were Serbian prisoners-of-war held in the Lamsdrof POW camps during both War World Wars. Physical traces of their presence in the modern day Łambinowice consist not only the artefacts gathered in the CMJW’s collections, but above all the 273 gravestones in the Old Prisoners-of-War Cemetery and the beautiful figural monument from 1917, the so-called "Weeping Niobe" – it was erected thanks to the POWs themselves, who honoured in that way the memory of their countrymen who had perished here.

The visit provided also the opportunity to visit the museum exhibitions and the “Place with a Scar” exposition on the site of Stalag 318/VIII F (344) Lamsdorf. Nevertheless, the most important place for our guests was the aforementioned Old POWs in Łambinowice, where they got acquainted with the current state of restoration of the graves of Serbian prisoners-of-war and the monument dedicated to them, and talked about the needs and visions of further cooperation in the field of preserving this heritage. The culminating moment was the lighting of candles at of the Serbian POWs Monument.

Let us also mention that the good cooperation of the Serbian Consulate with the Łambinowice community Office, our Museum and the Association of Friends of the CMJW, initiated in 2012, has led to the restoration of the monument and all crosses on the graves of Serbian POWs.