On the occasion of anniversary reminiscences, it is worth recalling the figure of Professor Tadeusz Szafran, who arrived from Kraków in Bolesławiec as early as June 1945 to take charge of the devastated ceramic industry, having already worked before the war on creating and revitalizing ceramic centers in various parts of the country. A graduate of the Kraków Academy of Fine Arts and the German higher ceramic school in Hohl near Koblenz, as early as 1913 he lectured in ceramics at the Kraków School of Artistic Industry in Waimar and served as head of the ceramics department. Fascinated by the idea of combining pottery with artistic education for workers employed as ceramic craftsmen, he traveled among various ceramic centers so that he could best serve the cultivation of local traditions with his knowledge and experience. He worked in Krosno, Drohobych and Kraków, where he created a school educating excellent specialists who later found fulfillment in the well-known ceramic centers of Ćmielów, Chodzież, Łysa Góra and Zakopane. In Raków, he conducted artistic ceramics courses for craft potters from the Vilnius and Nowogródek voivodeships. In Strumień Cieszyński, he established a model pottery-and-tile workshop and a ceramics school in order to save the forgotten traditions of folk pottery in the region.
The projects of the Professor and his students were recognized and appreciated, including at the pre-war Paris exhibition.
He described his arrival in Bolesławiec in a letter to his family dated July 7, 1945: "I traveled to Legnica for nearly a week in a cattle car—you can easily imagine it. I spent two days in Legnica and reached Bolesławiec by car. Silesia is very beautiful here. Bolesławiec would be lovely if not for the destruction. (...). For a ceramist, this is—or will be—a true paradise. There are small workshops, large and enormous factories, all shut down, partly burned, with machinery dismantled and taken away."
After conducting chemical analyses of the Bolesławiec clays, he prepared a plan for organizing the ceramic industry, taking into account the product categories (fine ceramics—white tableware, brown ceramics, white sanitary ceramics and decorative ceramics), a plan for rebuilding and launching clay extraction in Bolesławiec and Lwówek counties, and a plan for organizing a ceramic training center at the level of a secondary vocational school. He wrote down his memories of our town in Kraków on February 5, 1955, and died on December 2, 1955. He stayed in Bolesławiec from 1945 to 1950, and in recognition of his services to Bolesławiec, the Professor was appointed chairman of the Municipal National Council. Unfortunately, his deteriorating health limited the activity of this ceramics enthusiast.