Bolesław Bork (1923–2017). Kaszubski pedagog, którego nie złamała okupacja

• Authors: Jaros Kinga

Title variants

DE

Bolesław Bork (1923–2017). Ein kaschubischer Pädagoge, der von der Besatzung nicht gebrochen wurde

EN

Bolesław Bork (1923–2017). A Kashubian educator who was not broken by the occupation

• Languages of publication: PL

Abstracts

EN

Bolesław Bork was born in 1924 in a Kashubian village of Zbychowo. When the Second World War began, he was still a very young person, so the experience he collected during that time significantly influenced the formation of his life attitude. His war experiences began with building fortifications against the approaching German army in September 1939. Then Bork stayed in Gdynia, which was defending itself, and later he became the organizor of secret teaching in his family village. He also experienced forced labor, being entered in the German national list as well as compulsory service in Wehrmacht. However, these events did not make him feel grief, but motivated him to undertake teaching and social work in the local community. During his lifetime, he tried to show the youth the image of the past as if it was not colored by communist propaganda, he created regional memorials and developed local culture and art. He experienced so much and yet he did not give up. He died in 2017 in Wejherowo. The article presents the topic from the field of social history, which concerns Bolesław Borek’s experiences from the Second World War and his later social work. The source material, which the article is to a large extent based on, are Borek’s memoirs published as Ścieżki, bezdroża i drogi (Paths, roadless tracks and roads) and archival materials regarding him, which are located in the Archives and Pomeraniam Museum of the Home Army (Muzeum Pomorskie Armii Krajowej) and the Military Service of Polish women (Wojskowa Służba Polek) in Toruń. Bolesław Bork’s memoirs were created with a special message – for the youth, whom he tried to motivate to work on the reconstruction of a free Polish state. Their special significance lies in the fact that they show the life of an individual in the Reich territory Danzig-West Prussia (both the mundane problems of every day life and the horror of the occupation) as well as the post-war reality in Kashubia – as seen through the eyes of a specific person. Although including the memoirs into the research carries many risks related to subjectivization or distorting certain facts, it constitutes an irreplaceable source in research on social history and cultural issues. After making the analysis based on the available source materials, Bork’s memoirs seem to be consistent with the generally accepted historical narrative, and therefeore they appear to be a rich source of information concerning the life of an individual in the territories incorporated into the Reich, both during and after the Second World War.

• Publisher: Muzeum w Grudziądzu
• Journal: Rocznik Grudziądzki
• Year: 2021
• Volume: 29
• Pages: 275-294

Dates

published

2021

Contributors

author

Jaros Kinga