Wojenne losy krakowian na podstawie filateliów Jana Pająka ze zbiorów Muzeum Historycznego Miasta Krakowa

Abstract

WAR LOTS OF CRACOVIANS ON THE BASIS OF JAN PAJĄK’S PHILATELIES FROM THE HISTORICAL MUSEUM OF THE CITY OF KRAKOW COLLECTION

The article introduces the collection of philatelies Pole’s Correspondence in World War II, gathered by the Cracovian philatelist Jan Pająk (1924–1990), which was presented to the Historical Museum of the City of Krakow in 1994. The collection served to present, through an appropriate choice of philatelist sings, the lots of the inhabitants of Krakow and its environs in the years 1939–1945. They are documented by philatelist units grouped in such sections as: September Campaign of 1939, internment camps, prisoner of war and concentration camps, Sonderaktion Krakau, priests in concentration camps, Nazi prisons, Polish Armed Forces in the West, deportations, displacements and Jewish ghettos. Among Jan Pająk’s philatelies, demonstrating the war lots of Cracovians, one can also find units having considerable archive and historical value due to the fact that they relate to people who made a significant contribution to the history of the city and Poland, as, for instance, bishop Adam Stefan Sapieha, professors of the Jagiellonian University, general Bernard S. Mond or the Olympic Games competitor Bronisław Czech. The collection, besides its indubitable philatelist value, is also a magnificent source material for research on history of prisoner of war and concentration camps, lots of Polish clergy during the Nazi occupation or history of the Polish Armed Forces in the West.