In our articles, we have written many times that the scouting community wanted the park on Tyrankiewiczów Street, which was never officially Waryński Park, to be named after harcmistrz Hubert Bonin.
The councillors adopted the resolution unanimously. H. Bonin’s granddaughter – Izabela Dolecka – thanked the city councillors for honouring the harcmistrz.
She also added that her grandfather loved… tea with lemon and that he was drawn to young people, while they were drawn to him. The justification for the resolution adopted by the councillors states:
The Headquarters of the Polish Scouting and Guiding Association’s Bolesławiec District, named after the Gray Ranks, submitted a request to Bolesławiec City Council to name the park located between Parkowa, Podgórna and H.W. Tyrankiewiczów streets after HARCMISTRZ HUBERT BONIN. The request received a positive opinion from the Infrastructure and Construction Committee of Bolesławiec City Council.
Harcmistrz Hubert Bonin was born on 13 September 1912 in Bydgoszcz. In 1929, he graduated from the School of Commerce and then continued his education at a school of pharmacy and chemistry. That same year, he joined the 7th Bydgoszcz Scout Troop named after Jan Karol Chodkiewicz, making a promise to which he remained faithful throughout his life.
In 1934–1935, he completed his compulsory military service; because of his profession, he was assigned to the medical company of the Military Hospital in Toruń. He later worked in a Bydgoszcz drugstore while also leading his home scout troop.
In 1938, the troop under his leadership received the Banner’s Master Troop diploma. In March 1939, he was appointed to the rank of podharcmistrz.
From 1 September 1939, he fought in the ranks of the “Pomerania” Army. As a soldier, he was taken prisoner by the Germans and held in prisoner-of-war camps in Łowicz and later in Łódź.
Released from the camp, he returned to Bydgoszcz, where on 19 May 1940, after taking an oath, he became a member of the Gray Ranks and the Union of Armed Struggle. From March 1943, he was forced to work at a plant producing explosives. This was punishment for his entire family’s refusal to sign the Volksliste.
He passed information about the factory to the underground resistance, as a result of which it was blown up in August 1943 as part of sabotage activities.
On 8 August 1944, he and his brother were arrested. During the investigation, both were tortured by the Bydgoszcz Gestapo and, a month later, placed in Stutthoff concentration camp. In the final period of the war, during the evacuation of the camp, he and other prisoners were placed below the deck of a barge that was to be sunk in the Baltic Sea. His brother met that fate, but he managed to survive.
He continued the evacuation on foot, in a column of emaciated prisoners, until the day of liberation.
After convalescing and staying in a transit camp until November 1945, he returned to Bydgoszcz. On 17 February 1946, he arrived in Bolesławiec with his future wife, Jadwiga. On 1 April 1946, he opened a drugstore there and soon afterwards founded the first scout troop in Bolesławiec. The troop founded by Brother Bonin chose Prince Józef Poniatowski as its patron.
Unfortunately, the patron’s identity proved ideologically too unacceptable for the political authorities in the new post-war reality. Hubert Bonin was therefore emphatically and unambiguously advised that the patron should be changed to Gustaw Morcinek.
Agreeing to the change did not protect the troop leader from being quickly removed from work with young people. He himself did not identify with the Scout Organization operating within the Union of Polish Youth. That organization imitated the Soviet pioneer movement and used symbols foreign to Polish scouting, and he did not want to submit to such indoctrination.
Brother Bonin returned to leading his beloved “Jedynka” only after Stalin’s death and the subsequent political and social changes, which led to the National Congress of Scout Activists being held in Łódź in December 1956. The congress restored much of the scouting programme as well as traditional scout badges and symbols.
Pre-war instructors were also permitted to maintain official contact with young people. He was a delegate to scout congresses.
Until 1978, he worked at the Bolesławiec Vials and Ampoules Factory “Polfa”, after which he retired. As soon as circumstances became favourable, he returned to active instructional work, organizing camps for the 1st Bolesławiec Scout Troop even in the 1990s and independently leading the unit.
Many older residents of Bolesławiec clearly remember the troop’s parade marches, which it always held before setting out for camps and hikes. During Easter, scouts in full regulation uniform also stood an honour guard at the Lord’s Tomb. Harcmistrz Hubert Bonin held various positions in the district, even serving as deputy commander of the entire ZHP organizational unit.
He always devoted himself to the city’s social affairs, especially scouting. As a former member of the Gray Ranks, a soldier of the September Campaign and the Home Army, he was always ready to serve Poland with his knowledge, experience and commitment. He was a great and, at the same time, exceptionally modest man.
By resolution no. XLIII/430/05 of 28 December 2005, Bolesławiec City Council recognized Hubert Bonin as an honorary citizen of Bolesławiec.
Hubert Bonin died on 26 March 2008.
(Compiled on the basis of the Bolesławiec Yearbook).
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