Prof. Dr Julian Jańczak, a historian, university professor, long-standing employee of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Wrocław, researcher and enthusiast of the history of Silesia, academic director of the planned monograph on Bolesławiec, and a great friend of our town, has died.
I particularly remember several of my meetings with the professor. I remember the Silesian Studies Conference at Oleśnica Castle, when a group of historians spent a long evening and night discussing many issues that concerned us all in the autumn of 1991, especially what would happen next with the regionalist movement. I remember the professor’s optimism as he argued that in two years the movement would find its place again.
Later, our meetings and conversations about the monograph in Bolesławiec, and how he was able to ease disputes and encourage us to speed up the work. I remember our meetings at the 5th Congress of Regionalists in Wrocław, when we took a joint photograph in front of the historic building of Wrocław University of Technology, the site of the famous 1948 Congress. It will be a fond memento of the professor.
The last time we met was on 3 December 1994, at the Congress of the Lower Silesian Social and Cultural Society. We talked about plans for work on the Bolesławiec monograph in 1995. We arranged to meet in January.
Unfortunately, on 14 January 1995, the professor was buried at the cemetery on Grabiszyńska Street in Wrocław. A man of great heart, kind to people and his surroundings, dependable and possessed of immense culture, has passed away.
The Bolesławiec Enthusiasts’ Society has lost a friend.