In our latest episode of Curators Corner, Librarian Vincent Slatt shares the Wojtas Family Collection, which documents his grandparents lives during and immediately after World War II. Seventy-five years ago today, on September 19, 1939, Polish soldier Eugeniusz Wojtas was captured as a prisoner of war by the Soviets, who had invaded eastern Poland two days before. Wojtas was later handed over to Germany as a part of a prisoner exchange and spent the remainder of the war performing forced laborer in Germany as a prisoner of war. After the war ended, he spent several years in displaced persons camps, where he met and married Irena Wójcik, a fellow Polish Catholic who had herself been a forced laborer in Germany. In 1951, Eugeniusz, Irena, and their two young children left Europe for the United States.
Posted on: Fri, 19 Sep 2014 15:36:31 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015