“I have only good experience with Ukraine and I say more than once that in Volhynia there were those terrible murders because the Ukrainians... wrong word Ukrainians, the UPA [Ukrainian Insurgent Army] and poor, limited Ukrainian peasants pounced on Polish families and killed them. And I say to the Poles: And why was that Ukrainian peasant poor and limited when he lived in the Polish state? Why? Isn't it our fault? What does a limited peasant take? Pitchforks, axes and kills. You have to look at it differently. They did not kill the Czechs in Volhynia. The Czechs protected the Poles. The Ukrainians thought that the Czechs were innocent, that the Polish government was to blame. I think that must reach the Poles. Otherwise, it will never be resolved. We even sent a letter from Kudowa to Ukrainian families in 2021. 21 Polish families signed it. We wrote that we apologize to them for what was happening in the eastern borderland at that time. We Poles apologize to you, because it was our nobility's fault that they took Ukrainians lightly, that they did not give them the opportunity for cultural development, that there was no university in the Ukrainian language, why? Why? Ukrainians begged in Lviv in 1918 for a university with the Ukrainian language, the Polish government did not allow it, but they opened a university with the Ukrainian language in Prague. I say: Compare it. I think that the war will contribute to that, and it is already visible today that the Poles will understand a little more. The crimes in Volhynia are not even mentioned now. Maybe the Poles have finally understood that they have to look at it differently."
"As the end of the 20th century approached, we decided to close the turbulent history of Kudowa with a symbolic peace monument. We came to the conclusion that those several centuries of wars, because Kudowa was once in Bohemia, in Germany, in Austria and now in Poland, that those centuries of wars were like a flood. We compared it to the biblical flood and remembered that in the Bible, after the flood, a rainbow of peace appeared in the sky. And we decided to use this symbol and started building a monument in the shape of a big rainbow with three commemorative plaques on three columns, which symbolize three nations, three cultures, and therefore it is a monument of three cultures."
"The university library of the Jagiellonian University in Krakow had everything. Katyn documents obtained by the International Red Cross that the crime was committed by the Russians. Very precisely. I then took the Ribbentop-Molotov Pact there with secret amendments. I wrote it down and then I read it at a meeting to others, they tapped their foreheads and said: Where did you get that, that's not possible. And I said: it's in the library. And now I want to explain to you how it was possible to read it. In the university libraries at that time there were copies of books with limited access called RES. If you wanted to read something in them, they wrote against Russia, Stalin, our communists and so on, you had to come with your ID card or student ID, the library worker registered you in such a special book - from hour to hour and what you read, what you ordered, and they were not allowed in the student reading room, but directed you to the professor reading room. And so, I went to the professor's reading room and read those RESs. One day I was reading the book New Class by Djilas. It was not possible to get it anywhere back then. I started copying a chapter from it, and a worker came up to me and carefully asked me: 'Why are you rewriting it?' I said: 'For colleagues.' And he said: 'Then write.' And he left. I had no problems. One just had to be brave and not be afraid."
He was born on August 18, 1938 in the former Polish eastern borderland in the village Wicyń (today Smerekiwka in Ukraine), which was mainly inhabited by Poles. During the war, Wicyń was first occupied by the Soviets and later by the Germans. His father, Jósef Kamiński, joined the Wicyński men who resisted the occupiers and the Ukrainian Insurgent Army. Wicyń therefore became a refuge for hundreds of Poles fleeing from Volhynia. At the end of May 1945, all the Polish inhabitants of Wicyń had to be displaced, because the eastern territory of Poland was occupied by the Soviet Union. The family of the witness settled in the village of Lusina in Lower Silesia. The witness studied history at the Jagiellonian University in Kraków, lost his job as a history teacher in Legnica for political reasons, and since 1965 worked in the health sector in leading positions - he was the head of the College Hospital in Wroclaw and the sanatorium for children in the spa town of Kudowa-Zdrój. He is interested in local history and he was involved in the creation of the Three Cultures Monument (1999), the Queen Anna Svídnická monument (2004) and several commemorative plaques in Kudówa. For five years he ran an open-air museum in the village of Pstrążna, where he met the descendants of the Czechs from Kladská. In 2022 he lived in Kudów-Zdrój.
Bronisław Kamiński in front of the open-air museum in Pstrążna, which was established in Pstrążna in 1984. According to female witnesses, Pstrążna survived because the tourists from the Kudowa spa go there. Mr. Kamiński led it for five years (2005-2010)
Bronisław Kamiński in front of the open-air museum in Pstrążna, which was established in Pstrążna in 1984. According to female witnesses, Pstrążna survived because the tourists from the Kudowa spa go there. Mr. Kamiński led it for five years (2005-2010)
In the open-air museum there are examples of the art of architecture from the Sudetes - Lower Silesia region and the Ludowej Pogórza Sudeckiego Culture Museum - the Museum of Folk Culture of the Sudeten Foothills
In the open-air museum there are examples of the art of architecture from the Sudetes - Lower Silesia region and the Ludowej Pogórza Sudeckiego Culture Museum - the Museum of Folk Culture of the Sudeten Foothills
Pstrążna in the days when it belonged to Germany and was called Straußeney in a painting by Ukrainian painter Ivan Maliński, commissioned for the museum by Bronislaw Kamiński when he was its director
Pstrążna in the days when it belonged to Germany and was called Straußeney in a painting by Ukrainian painter Ivan Maliński, commissioned for the museum by Bronislaw Kamiński when he was its director
The arrival of Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk in Pstrążná (Straußeney in German, Strouzné in Czech) in 1903 with his wife Charlotte in a picture painted by the Ukrainian painter Ivan Maliński at the request of the director Bronislaw Kamiński
The arrival of Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk in Pstrążná (Straußeney in German, Strouzné in Czech) in 1903 with his wife Charlotte in a picture painted by the Ukrainian painter Ivan Maliński at the request of the director Bronislaw Kamiński
Memorial plaque to Albert Schweitzer, unveiled by Bronislaw Kamiński at the opening of the reconstructed hospital for children. The French Protestant missionary and doctor inspired the witness with his idea of brotherhood between people and nations, for which Albert Schweitzer received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1952. Albert Schweitzer's prayer for children is on the plaque
Memorial plaque to Albert Schweitzer, unveiled by Bronislaw Kamiński at the opening of the reconstructed hospital for children. The French Protestant missionary and doctor inspired the witness with his idea of brotherhood between people and nations, for which Albert Schweitzer received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1952. Albert Schweitzer's prayer for children is on the plaque
Head of the Wrocław Clinic of Pediatric Hematology Prof. Dr. Janina Bogusławska-Jaworska (1930-2002), who developed a treatment program for the future rehabilitation clinic, is commemorated by a portrait in the building of the Orlik hospital
Head of the Wrocław Clinic of Pediatric Hematology Prof. Dr. Janina Bogusławska-Jaworska (1930-2002), who developed a treatment program for the future rehabilitation clinic, is commemorated by a portrait in the building of the Orlik hospital
Three Cultures Monument (Pomnik Trzech Kultur) in Czermna, the oldest part of Kudowa (near the ossuary, on the way to Pstrążne), the highest column is Czech, because the Czechs lived in Kladsko the longest, Poles the middle and the Germans the shortest, there are stones in Czech, Polish and German under the memorial plaques - from Prague Hradčany, Wawel Castle in Krakow and Aachen, the ancient capital of Germany
Three Cultures Monument (Pomnik Trzech Kultur) in Czermna, the oldest part of Kudowa (near the ossuary, on the way to Pstrążne), the highest column is Czech, because the Czechs lived in Kladsko the longest, Poles the middle and the Germans the shortest, there are stones in Czech, Polish and German under the memorial plaques - from Prague Hradčany, Wawel Castle in Krakow and Aachen, the ancient capital of Germany
A column dedicated to the Czechs with the inscription TO CZECHS POLES GERMANS // WHO CONTRIBUTED TO THE MATERIAL AND CULTURAL DEVELOPMENT OF CZERMNA SINCE 1354 // GRATEFUL CITIZENS OF CZERMNA IN 1999
A column dedicated to the Czechs with the inscription TO CZECHS POLES GERMANS // WHO CONTRIBUTED TO THE MATERIAL AND CULTURAL DEVELOPMENT OF CZERMNA SINCE 1354 // GRATEFUL CITIZENS OF CZERMNA IN 1999
The Three Cultures Monument (Pomnik Trzech Kultur) was unveiled with a large turnout of guests on August 17, 1999, it was financed by contributions from individuals who donated 30,000 zlotys for its construction
The Three Cultures Monument (Pomnik Trzech Kultur) was unveiled with a large turnout of guests on August 17, 1999, it was financed by contributions from individuals who donated 30,000 zlotys for its construction
The Three Cultures Monument (Pomnik Trzech Kultur) stands on the plot of Mrs. Zosia's garden, who donated part of it for the construction of the monument. She herself installed plaques next to it with the memory of the German residents of the house in which she lives
The Three Cultures Monument (Pomnik Trzech Kultur) stands on the plot of Mrs. Zosia's garden, who donated part of it for the construction of the monument. She herself installed plaques next to it with the memory of the German residents of the house in which she lives
The place where the subsidiary labor camp of the Gross Rosen Nazi camp stood in Kudowa (Sackisch, today part of Zakrze) - 4,000 prisoners worked there, according to Mr. Kaminski - local people do not want a monument at this place
The place where the subsidiary labor camp of the Gross Rosen Nazi camp stood in Kudowa (Sackisch, today part of Zakrze) - 4,000 prisoners worked there, according to Mr. Kaminski - local people do not want a monument at this place
The place where the subsidiary labor camp of the Gross Rosen Nazi camp stood in Kudowa (Sackisch, today part of Zakrze) - 4,000 prisoners worked there, hostels resembling of camp buildings were built in its place
The place where the subsidiary labor camp of the Gross Rosen Nazi camp stood in Kudowa (Sackisch, today part of Zakrze) - 4,000 prisoners worked there, hostels resembling of camp buildings were built in its place
The houseof the labor camp in Kudowa-Sackisch, in which 4,000 male and female prisoners from all over Europe worked, one of them was Italian Luigi Baldan, who helped Jewish female prisoners, escaped a few weeks before the end of the war and found refuge with a Czech family in Dvůr Králové
The houseof the labor camp in Kudowa-Sackisch, in which 4,000 male and female prisoners from all over Europe worked, one of them was Italian Luigi Baldan, who helped Jewish female prisoners, escaped a few weeks before the end of the war and found refuge with a Czech family in Dvůr Králové
photo: A shot from a film by Italian students about the Italian prisoner Luigi Baldani
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Female prisoners of the labor camp in Kudowa-Sackisch
Female prisoners of the labor camp in Kudowa-Sackisch
photo: A shot from a film by Italian students about the Italian prisoner Luigi Baldan (Per non dimenticare Luigi Baldan un uomo semplice e giusto)
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The grave of the victims of the labor camp in Kudowa (female prisoners), among whom was Helena Grinbergerová
The grave of the victims of the labor camp in Kudowa (female prisoners), among whom was Helena Grinbergerová
The Kladská rose on a book - a proposal for a monument commemorating the prisoners of the labor camp in Kudowa, the creation of which the witness strives
The Kladská rose on a book - a proposal for a monument commemorating the prisoners of the labor camp in Kudowa, the creation of which the witness strives
