Our treasures

Oflag VII A Murnau during the Second World War, was one of the largest POW controlled by the Wehrmacht, where they were only Poles. Through the camp, within five years of existence, went more than 5.5 thousand of prisoners-of-war who were captured during the 1939 Defensive War and then after the Warsaw Uprising in October 1944. From this very camp, it comes 11 interesting portraits-sketches depicting Polish officer POWs. They have become the property of the museum in 2013. The author of this set of realistic miniatures is Capitan  Stanislaw Buntner (1898-1976), a participant of the Defensive War of 1939, who came to Murnau and like many of his comrades – against the difficulties of the camp and for the sake of his own sanity – was actively engaged in artistic activity of the POW camp environment. He created mainly miniatures portraying his brothers-in-arms. After the war, he decided to return to Poland, where he kept doing his creative work. He also brought back some of his works, which were presented to the public in 1963 at an exhibition entitled  Plasticity  behind barbed wire in Warsaw. The exhibition was organized with the help of other former POWs from Oflags of Murnau, Woldenberg, Dössel and Gross Born. Over the years eleven portraits of the prisoners-of-war from Oflag VII A Murnau had adorned the walls of the artist’s Opole apartment.

In June 2013, Danuta Gumińska, the daughter of Capitan S. Buntner, decided to donate this unique memorabilia collection  to the museum, in the hope that there will be someone who would  recognize a loved one on the faceless portraits immortalized by her father.