Our treasures

Recently our collections were enriched by special mementos. They were donated to us by Halina Stachurka, the daughter of Jan Kubicki, who during World War II was held as an orderly in Oflag VII A Murnau. Jan Kubicki came from Kielce, before the war he served in the Border Protection Corps in the Nowe Troki. Here, most likely on September 18, 1939, he was taken into the Soviet captivity. Presumably after 24 October 1939, in an exchange of prisoners-of-war, he was handed over to the German authorities and was taken to Oflag VII A Murnau, where he stayed until the liberation of the camp on 29 April 1945. He came back to Poland in September 1945. He died in 1988.

Among the memorabilia there are personal belongings and items of military equipment (military canteen, cup), military and prisoner-of-war documents, numerous photographs from the camp in Murnau and the surrounding area, and finally objects which represent the activity of Jan Kubicki in captivity, both in terms of self-education (records and notes of courses and lectures), as well as documenting the reality of the camp. It also came to us an extremely poignant camp correspondence of Jan Kubicki with his family, which include a particularly moving letter written by J. Kubicki’s children, including a few years old daughter Theodora who had not lived to see the return of the father – she died as a result of serious illness.

Halina Stachurska,  togehter with her husband, came to us on the eve of the opening of the exhibition Murnau, 1945. The Forgotten Photographs from the collection of Olivier and Alain Rempferd/. Thanks to that we could present some of the memorabilia in company of these extraordinary photos. A very warm thank you to Halina and George Stachurkom for this precious gift!