At the Bolesławiec City Council session scheduled for the end of November, a vote is planned on draft resolutions concerning the conferment of the title “Distinguished Citizen of Bolesławiec”.

Below are the people who will soon bear this title (because it can be assumed that the vote itself will be merely a formality):

  • Mr Alfred Kwarciak, born on 30 November 1932 in Dubno, has lived in Bolesławiec since 1947. JUSTIFICATION: He is a witness to History, with a capital H, and a custodian of memory. On 22 February 1989, he and his parents and two brothers were honoured by Yad Vashem (the World Holocaust Remembrance Center) in Jerusalem with the title Righteous Among the Nations for saving Jews from extermination during World War II. On 27 January 2010, Alfred Kwarciak was granted the title of honorary citizen of Israel, which was ceremonially presented to him on 7 May 2010 by Israel’s ambassador, Zvi Rav-Ner. Mr Alfred Kwarciak was awarded the Commander’s Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta (2013). On his initiative, a memorial plaque was unveiled on 1 September 2015 at Kubika Street, bearing the inscription: “Never again! In memory of the Polish Righteous Among the Nations who, in the inhuman times of the Holocaust from 1939 to 1945, saving their neighbours—the Jews—sacrificed their own lives and those of their loved ones.” His vitality and commitment find expression in his cooperation with the Society of Lviv and South-Eastern Borderlands Enthusiasts—Bolesławiec Branch, and above all in his contacts with young people, with whom he travelled to the Borderlands in May 2018 as part of the “Save Your Great-Grandfather’s Grave from Oblivion” campaign and gave the most important history lesson, because it was based on his own experiences and personal ordeals. Alfred Kwarciak’s story has been described, among other places, on the websites of the Yad Vashem Institute in Jerusalem and the POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews in Warsaw, on the Polish Righteous website, and in local publications: in the “Bolesławiec Yearbook”, vols. 3:2010 and 11:2018, as well as in the publications “Saving from Oblivion. Memories of the Bolesławiec Residents of the Borderlands” and “The Jubilee of the Bolesławiec Residents of the Borderlands 1989–2019. 30 Years of the Society of Lviv and South-Eastern Borderlands Enthusiasts, Bolesławiec Branch, and the Association of Siberians, Bolesławiec Circle”. The history of Alfred Kwarciak and his family was also presented in Przemysław Kania’s documentary film “The Righteous. The Story of Kwarciak”, made in 2018. In October 2019, Mr Alfred Kwarciak took part in an official state delegation organised by the Office for War Veterans and Victims of Oppression, during which Polish Righteous Among the Nations visited the Yad Vashem Institute in Jerusalem, took part in the 4th National Gathering of Poles Who Saved Jews, and met with the President of Israel, Reuven Rivlin. At the same time, Mr Alfred Kwarciak was honoured with the “Pro Patria” medal awarded by the head of the Office for War Veterans and Victims of Oppression
  • Mr Grzegorz Menet, PhD in economics, financial director and member of the Management Board of Bader Polska sp. z o.o. in Bolesławiec, tied his professional life to Bolesławiec in 1996. It was then that, inspired by him, the German family-owned company Bader from Göppingen in Baden-Württemberg purchased the property of the bankrupt Vacuum Equipment Plant at 1 Mostowa Street. Over 23 years, through the construction of successive halls and the development of production, Bader Polska sp. z o.o. in Bolesławiec grew from a largely service-oriented company into a key producer in the European part of the Bader Group. The group has plants on five continents and employs more than 12,000 people. As managing director, Mr Grzegorz Menet ensured the company’s continued development, which helped mitigate the effects of massive unemployment in the city and region. It should be recalled that at the end of 1996, the unemployment rate in the former Jelenia Góra Voivodeship was 18.2%, while Bader hired more and more people year after year; during the company’s best contract periods, approximately 2,000 employees found work at Bader. The implementation of modern technologies and management methods also deserves emphasis, and thanks to Mr Grzegorz Menet, our city also gained excellent promotion over the years—not only because Bader Polska sp. z o.o. in Bolesławiec was listed in the so-called “Rzeczpospolita 500”, but also, for example, through a seminar organised on his initiative in our city for managers from Bader Group branches in Mexico, South Africa, Uruguay, Thailand, Ukraine and Germany. In his private life, Mr Grzegorz Menet is married and has a daughter; they live in Wrocław.

What do you think? We invite you to join the discussion.