"Pioneering Years of Polish Szczecin". They opened an exhibition

On Friday, May 16, the Presidential Gallery in the City Hall in Szczecin hosted the opening of the exhibition entitled "Pioneering Years of Polish Szczecin". The exhibition featured city plans, posters, first issues of the local press and other documents relating to the takeover of Szczecin by the Polish administration after World War II. The opening was performed by Piotr Krzystek - the mayor of Szczecin, dr hab. Krzysztof Kowalczyk - director of the State Archives in Szczecin and Bartosz Sitarz - curator of the exhibition.

The exhibition prepared by the State Archive in Szczecin is a story about the first post-war years of Polishness in the capital of Western Pomerania. Visitors will find originals and copies of materials from the Archive's resources, including photographs showing the reality just after the war.

- On April 26, we entered the period of celebrations of the 80th anniversary of Polish administration in Szczecin - said Piotr Krzystek, the mayor of Szczecin, during the opening of the exhibition. - New Szczecin residents came to the city from different parts - from the east, from the west, from the south of Poland. My parents from Kielce and from near Grodno. Many people came from labor camps, often from concentration camps as well. History united us all in Szczecin. At first, it was an abandoned city that was scary, dangerous. The first days here were certainly very, very difficult. There was no food, there were no regular deliveries. Let me remind you that the train to Poznań took two days. Our honorary citizen Krystyna Łyczywek, of late memory, who was one of the first residents to come here, to Szczecin, told us about it.

Dr. hab. Krzysztof Kowalczyk, director of the State Archives in Szczecin, noted that the Polish future of Szczecin was initially uncertain.

- 80 years ago, Poland took over one third of its current territory - the western and northern lands, then called the Recovered Territories. At first, the future of Szczecin was not at all clear - said Dr. Kowalczyk. - It was not until July 5, 1945 that the Polish authorities finally took over the city (acting, of course, in conditions of limited sovereignty, because Poland found itself in the Soviet zone of influence).

Bartosz Sitarz, curator of the exhibition, emphasised that the preservation of many memorabilia is due to the special archival passion of the first mayor of Szczecin, Piotr Zaremba.

- Documents testifying to the beginnings of Polish settlement in our lands constitute a very important part of the collections of the State Archives in Szczecin - explained Bartosz Sitarz. - We have presented a small selection of them at this exhibition. It is worth mentioning that we owe a lot to the special passion of the first president Piotr Zaremba for archiving memorabilia and documents. President Zaremba also left behind memories. He often wrote down various events as they happened, and provided documents with handwritten notes. ©℗

Text and photos by Karol CIEPLIŃSKI