– We are interested in all material traces of our presence on the Lusatian Neisse: photographs, including private ones, showing the city, documents, letters, diaries and so on. All items submitted will be copied and archived; the originals will be returned at the owners’ request. The culmination of this campaign is to be an exhibition under the working title “70 Years of Zgorzelec,” say the organizers.
The history of Polish Zgorzelec is, after all, precisely 70 years old. On 8 May 1945, the Third Reich, which had unleashed the largest and most brutal armed conflict in human history, unconditionally capitulated. From the first days of freedom, Polish state-building efforts began in the right-bank part of what had until then been German Goerlitz; this part was awarded to Poland by the victorious Allies—the USSR, the United States and Great Britain.
Probably few pioneers and witnesses of those days have survived to this day, but material traces of Zgorzelec’s formation and functioning have certainly survived in home albums, envelopes and boxes. They are often belongings of deceased members of our families—mementos whose significance and emotional potential are sometimes already fading. Subsequent generations live in their own time and lead their own lives, after all, and this is an entirely natural process.
All the more important, however, is preserving and safeguarding the material fragments of our recent history. Unfortunately, it happens that such documents, letters, photographs and postcards literally end up in the trash. Even in such a case, it is better to pass them on to librarians. Following verification, the MBP will add them to its regional collections and its “documents of social life.”
The campaign to collect these mementos, which has just begun, and the planned organization of the “70 Years of Zgorzelec” exhibition are another stage of the program
“WE SAW IT – 20th-Century Polish History Viewed Through the Prism of Human Lives.”
Other interesting initiatives are also planned במסגרת the program; we will inform you about them soon. For matters concerning the submission of materials, please contact the Zgorzelec Municipal Public Library, ul. Bohaterów Getta 1
- by phone – (75) 77 52 557
- by email – mbpzgorzelec@post.pl.
Marek Żytomirski/MBP Zgorzelec/ii