Janina Bielska aka"Gurta Jaquar" Chrismas 70 years ago

[Piwo2]

Years ago this is one of my very first finds at a militaria/gun show. I bought a small RG Dunn cigar box containing a number of articles attributable to one person including these documents. Research at the Ealing Institute in London confirmed she was an active member in the Ak and was captured in Warsaw and interned at Oberlangen.

The traditional Polish wood cut Christmas card..so pure and innocent and full a good will......only to have a Nazi censor mark on the reverse and her barracks assignment slip signed by an SS officer.........Christmas 1944 for her and millions of others under the Nazi's seems so incomprehensible.

Janina served in the "Kilinski" HOme Army Battalion serving as sargeant. After liberation she served in the II Battalion Polish Army Womens Auxillary Corps. probably with the 1st Armored Division. From 1947-49 she was in the Polish Resettlement Corps. From the documents I have she graduated from Warsaw Gymnasium was accepted at University and after the war was married and immigrated to the USA in 1952. I bought the grouping in 1992-93. I hold 20 years of her life with these and other documents.......I know here story.how many of these treasures were discarded and lost by family's? I have a 1939 annual calendar of hers that I need tog et all the entries translated......I'm hopeful I can learn more about our hero then.

[harryamb2]

she could be still alive.

[Piwo2]

Sadly, I do not believe it so. Other articles in the box indicate that this was a house/ estate sale item.

[Piwo2]

The amazing ending to this discovery was to occur years after I bought it. It was on the occasion of a visit to England and a tour of the Sikorski Institute. The docent was one of General Anders Children, a lovely retired woman who volunteered at the Institute. She was very interested in my collecting and interest even though I was an 2nd generation Polish-American and did not sepak or read Polish. She was an excellent guide and we finished at closing time. I offered to take her for tea or coffee to chat more baout here experieinces during the war. She suggested Daquis Cafe close by the Institute. It was originally operated by the former Commander of the Women Polish AK forces interned in Oberlangen after the Warsaw Uprising.
As we sat and chatted I explained about the Bielska collection. With that she replied that one of the other docents was interned there also and she was siting across fromus at another table with some ladies. We invited her over and I recounted my story of the documents and she replied instantly. " Oh, yes I remember her..very beautiful dark hair and she was older in the barracks next to her.......heard she married and moved to America" all this spoken and as if it occurred yesterday.....I cannot describe our exchange and how I felt other than totally amazed.
I have 20 years of her life in that little cigar box...1932-1952. never met here but I know a world about our Polish heroine.....how many of Polish treasure boxes get thrown out my unknowing family members when grandpa or babcha dies? We are the keepers of our rich Polish history and it is our responsibility to share it with everyone...no just ourselves.
Piwo