Piotr Liedke, who works as a history teacher at VIII King Casimir the Great General Secondary School in Białystok, comes from Bolesławiec. He was born, as he puts it, “on Jeleniogórska Street” and lived on Kubika Street. He spent his childhood at the Bolesławiec Forest District, which at the time was still located on Nowotki Street (today Mikołaja Brody Street).

He left the City of Ceramics when he was five. But he certainly did not lose contact with the city, located 700 km from Białystok. “I come to Bolesławiec for the holidays practically every year,” says the Białystok resident. “I keep up with what is happening in the city, including through the istotne.pl portal. Bolesławiec has made a deep impression on me; I spent the happiest years of my life there,” he adds. (He still has family in our city. His aunt is Maria Starzyk, probably the world’s most famous decorator of Bolesławiec ceramics.)

The City of Ceramics will also feature in his new book, “Życie wśród jurodiwych,” which will be published any day now. (It will be released under a pseudonym derived from the author’s surname: Piotr Pieśniarczyk; the German das Lied means “song.”) “It will be a satirical little book about life,” the writer announces. It will largely concern the capital of Podlasie, but it will also include themes and illustrations connected with Bolesławiec.

According to P. Liedke, the two cities have a great deal in common: “I mean multiculturalism in the positive sense of the word. It is very visible both in Bolesławiec and in Białystok. Perhaps it is even more visible in Bolesławiec, where this multicultural mosaic is even more colorful, because people live there who come not only from Lviv or Vilnius, but also re-emigrants from the countries of the former Yugoslavia.”

It is worth emphasizing that, under Mr. Piotr’s guidance, an 11-volume historical series, “Podlaskie losy,” was created, with approximately one hundred students from Białystok’s “eighth” secondary school taking part. “I would compare their work to bachelor’s theses, except that they were written by 18-year-olds,” the historian says proudly. The books, the result of 15 years of work, covered various issues connected with the history of Podlasie: work during the Polish People’s Republic, the Cursed Soldiers, national minorities and folk customs. It was partly for this contribution to researching the region’s history that Piotr Liedke was awarded the Gold Cross of Merit by President of the Republic of Poland Bronisław Komorowski in 2012.

Unfortunately, there will be no twelfth volume of the series. “This is signum temporis. It is becoming increasingly difficult for me to find students willing to take on such a task. We are talking about a year of intensive research work,” the teacher explains. “Times are changing, and so are students’ needs. I dream of returning to Bolesławiec and carrying out such a historical project there.”

We will return to this subject.