When they left their hometown of Drohobych (as well as Truskavets, Boryslav and the surrounding area) in early September 1945, they did not yet know that their final destination would be a Lower Silesian town on the Bóbr.
They travelled for almost a month in a freight train, with several families in each wagon. At stops, they obtained water and bread, washed their clothes and attended to their personal hygiene. Finally, the transport reached its destination, and several dozen families left the wagons, anxiously looking at the deserted and devastated houses of an unknown town where they had to start life anew. In the square in front of the railway station stood a battered piano, propped up by a crate where one of its legs had broken off.
As Mr Adam Kowalski recalls today, the displaced people began gathering around the instrument, drawn by the sounds produced from the piano by Mrs Anna Okoń (a teacher) as she checked the condition of the keyboard. “Please play something Polish, something patriotic,” someone among those gathered asked, and after several trial chords, Dąbrowski’s Mazurka rang out. This was undoubtedly the first performance of the Polish anthem in a city that not long before had still been called Bunzlau. Tears welled in the eyes of those gathered, and they wept openly as they sang, accompanied by Mrs Okoń, the song “Boże, coś Polskę”. After all, their hometown of Drohobych was hundreds of kilometres behind them—and what awaited them in this new, foreign city?
Forty-seven years have passed. Many did not live to see these new days, when associations of supporters of hometowns located in the former eastern Polish territories could be formed. In the case of the people of Drohobych, it turned out that fate had scattered the former residents of this beautiful city across almost the whole of Poland. People from Drohobych settled in Warsaw, Przemyśl, Kraków, Wrocław, Wałbrzych, Zielona Góra, Legnica and Bolesławiec. Branches or local circles of the Society of Friends of Drohobych are already active in all these cities, and Legnica became the seat of the Main Board. In Bolesławiec, the local circle was established on 8 June this year. The initiator of this undertaking was Mr Adam Kowalski. The circle has more than 40 members, and the following people were elected to its board: Mr Tadeusz Wodas (chairman), Aleksandra Krawczyk (secretary) and Alina Ćwik (treasurer).
The aims set by the association are to integrate former residents of Drohobych, as well as to maintain contacts with and provide assistance to Poles living in Drohobych (more than 6,000 Poles remain there), organise trips to their family places, and help restore religious buildings, monuments to Polish identity and the like.
It is worth knowing that Poles from both Drohobych and those living in Poland are currently preparing to celebrate the 600th anniversary of the laying of the cornerstone for the construction of St Bartholomew’s Church in Drohobych by King Władysław Jagiełło. This religious monument, heavily devastated in recent years, is regaining its former splendour thanks to the joint efforts of all the people of Drohobych: for example, those from Kraków are restoring the altars, while those from Warsaw have funded chandeliers. The people of Drohobych living in Lower Silesia will also contribute to the restoration of the church (as well as the Grunwald Monument).
In August, representatives of all the cities mentioned, among others, travelled to Drohobych with donations. Seven people went from Bolesławiec. The trip’s programme included meetings with the Polish community, laying wreaths at the monument to A. Mickiewicz, visits to Truskavets and Boryslav, and participation in church ceremonies. One of the participants, Mr Adam Kowalski, promised to share detailed impressions from the trip with us in the next issue of “Głos”.