Page 9 - Narcyz Witczak - Witaczyński

“On the burning stake we threw our life’s fate, photographs – pre-war Poland and its army, a great
on the stake, on the stake”. Those words from the
Polish Legions song come to mind as I attempt to present to you the character of my grandfather, Narcyz Witczak-Witaczyński. And although he didn’t serve in Piłsudski’s Legions, he belonged to that gen- eration, which won Poland’s independence, and spent all his adult life in military service at the side of the Marshal and his beloved cavalry. As a boy of just under seventeen, he joined the Puławski Legion, following in the footsteps of his older brothers, to fight for the independence of the homeland. What ideals must have been instilled in him in the family home, the home of a Warsaw craftsman! And it may be added that he dared take such a step despite the discomfort and dangers that awaited him! And when twenty-five years later, he had to defend Poland against invaders a second time, not in a fit of youthful romanticism this time, but from a sense of soldierly duty, he did not abandon the homeland in its hour of need, but follo- wing the defeat of the September campaign, under- took the organization of underground structures in the county of Garwolin. For this, he paid the ultimate price – being “denounced”, arrested by the Gestapo, imprisoned in Pawiak prison, tortured in the Majdanek concentration camp and died, probably on March 27th 1943.
For us he was a legend. From early childhood I listened to the family reminisce about him, and saw numerous photographs and portraits, of which the one I remembered best was of him dressed in civilian clothes, with a large black beard. It was said that he promised to shave his beard off only after his release. And that though he had been warned, in order to save his wife and daughter, he did not evade arrest. So it is perhaps thanks to that heroism that I am here at all... Photography was my grandfather’s passion. Grand- mother’s apartment was full of them: in frames on the walls, in albums and boxes. And also mysterious packages containing glass negatives, which could only be looked at from a distance, no touching. And in the
lesson in history, about which little was said in the communist era.
We know today that he took thousands of pho- tos. And began doing so as a young soldier a hundred years ago, when photography was none too common or simple. That modernity may impress today’s youth, but can we, in the era of smartphones, fully appreciate his passion and skills? This entire photographic archive survived, because in 1939, he saved it, transferring his works from the barracks to his home, just as others at that time saved the nation’s most precious goods. The twenty-year interwar period, mostly recorded on glass negatives, survived and waited for its moment to arrive, apprehensive whether the emulsion would stand such a test of time.
That time came not only when hobbyists and cav- alry enthusiasts became interested in old photographs, but as the era of digitization of the national heritage dawned and the National Digital Archives was estab- lished. It then became possible to safeguard collec- tions and at the same time disseminate them widely. For this reason, in 2014 Narcyz Witczak-Witaczyński’s heirs decided to hand over their father’s entire photo- graphic legacy to the National Digital Archives.
ks. dr. Jerzy Witczak
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