User:Kpalion/Evacuation of Polish National Treasures during World War II

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Noah's Conversation with God, a Flemish tapestry from King Sigismund Augustus's collection

Between 280[1] and 300[2] objects of fine and decorative art deemed to be of exceptional artistic or historical value, which became known collectively as Polish National Treasures or Polish Art Treasures (Polish: Skarby Narodowe,[2] French: trésors polonais), were evacuated out of Poland at the onset of World War II in Septemer 1939 and transported via Romania, France, and Britain to Canada. The bulk of the treasures came from the Wawel Castle in Kraków and included a rich collection of Jagiellonian tapestries, as well as Szczerbiec, the medieval coronation sword of Polish kings. Most of the rest of the evacuated objects were manuscripts from the National Library in Warsaw, including the earliest documents in the Polish language and Fréderic Chopin's autograph sheet music. The treasures were complemented by works of art from the Royal Castle of Warsaw and a Gutenberg Bible from the library of the Catholic Higher Seminary of Pelplin.

Evacuation[edit]

Treasures[edit]

Wawel[edit]

251 objects belonging to the Wawel Royal Castle National Art Collection plus several objects on loan from third parties[3]

Textiles
Knight of the Swan tapestry
Military objects
Szczerbiec, coronation sword of Polish kings
Goldsmithery
  • Enameled gold chain from King Sigismund III Vasa's coffin (Gdańsk, 1621)[6]
  • Golden cup decorated with enamel and cameos (Netherlands, second half of 17th century)[4]
  • Golden coffee service studded with turquoises and jadeite, a diplomatic gift from Sultan Mustafa II to the Polish envoy Stanisław Małachowski[4]
  • Ottoman silver coffee service[4]
  • Nielloed silver spoon with the coat of arms of the Pac family (17th century)[4]
  • Silver plaque with a portrait of Jerzy Ossoliński (1st half of the 17th century)[4]
  • Silver miniature ship (Nuremberg, c. 1625)[8]
  • Owl-shaped cup made of a coconut shell inlaid with partly gilded silver (17th century)[9]
  • Cup made of a nautilus shell inlaid with gilded silver and with a base in the form of a nereid riding a dolphin (17th century)[10]
  • Gilded silver mug with allegories of April, May and June (Toruń, 2nd half of the 17th century)[11]
  • Ivory mug inlaid with gilded silver (Gdańsk, 2nd half of the 17th century)[12]
  • Two ivory plaques with bas-relief mythological scenes (2nd half of the 16th century)[4]
Other
Paintings
Christoph Amberger, Portrait of a Man

National Library[edit]

A page of the Sankt Florian Psalter

Royal Castle of Warsaw[edit]

Collar of the Order of Saint Stanislaus

Library of the Diocesan Seminary of Pelplin[edit]

  • Manuscript psalter (16th century)[13]
  • a Gutenberg Bible in two volumes, in 15th-century binding, unique for one type printed sideways (Mainz, 1453–55)[13]

Kórnik Castle[edit]

The Polish National Treasures constisted of objects which prior to their evacuation from Poland were located in the country's two major cities: Warsaw and Kraków, the nation's current and former capitals, respectively. The bulk of them – 264 items out of about 300 – were from Kraków. All of these were located in the Wawel Castle, once a residence of Polish kings, and were either owned or loaned by the Wawel branch of the National Art Collection. They became known as "Wawel Treasures", a name sometimes incorrectly extended to all of the evacuated objects.[2]

The Wawel Treasures included the few preserved royal insignia and other souvenirs connected with Polish kings and other historical figures, as well as works of arts, such as paintings, textiles, goldsmiths' work, and ornate armor and horse tack. The insignia and memorabilia included:

The largest part of the Wawel treasures was a collection of high-quality Flemish tapestries known as arrases commissioned by King Sigismund Augustus to decorate the interior of the Wawel Castle. They are closely woven, using wool, silk and large amounts of silver and golden thread, and are characterized by their elaborate and subtly executed design.[15] The 132 arrases that were held in the castle in 1939 included 19 large tapestries with Biblical scenes, smaller tapestries, called verdures, with real-life and fantastic animals among lush forest scenery, as well as grotesque arrases with the king's monogram and the coats of arms of Poland and Lithuania. In addition to Sigismund Augustus's collection, the Wawel treasures included other tapestries of comparable quality, among them an arras with the White Eagle of Poland and the Korczak coat of arms, a gift from Krzysztof Komorowski to Sigismund Augustus;[2] and an tapestry depicting the legend of the Knight of the Swan loaned to the Wawel Castle by the Augustinian monks of Kraków.[1]

Custodians[edit]

  • Józef Krzywda-Polkowski (1888-1981) born in Płock; graduated in Architecture from the Moscow Academy of Architecture, Painting and Sculpture in 1911; began restoration work at Wawel in 1924;[16] Russian conservation school (restore original look, even using modern materials and techniques)[17]
  • Dr. Stanisław Świerz-Zaleski (1886-1951); PhD in Art History at Jagiellonian University; curator at the Wawel Castle since 1929, chief curator since 1939;[18] Austrian conservation school (use historical materials and techniques)[17]


Itinerary[edit]

class=notpageimage|
Itinerary of the evacuation of the Wawel Treasures (in Europe)

First leg: Kraków — Bucharest (September 1939)
Second leg: Bucharest — Aubusson (November 1939 – January 1940)
Third leg: Aubusson — London (June 1940)

Fourth leg: London — Ottawa (July 1940)

Preparation[edit]

  • Evauation plan for Wawel finalized in March 1939
  • 20 metal trunks, seven metal cylinders[19]
  • Plan called for treasures to transported by the army to Jarosław for safekeeping[20]
  • 16 August 1939, Wawel Castle closed to the public, packing began[21]

Poland to Canada[edit]

  • 3 September 1939, Kraków, barge
  • 7 September 1939, Sandomierz
  • 9 September 1939, Kazimierz Dolny, wagons
  • 13 September 1939, Tomaszowice, buses and truck
  • Lublin, Piaski, Zamość, Hrubieszów, Volodymyr-Volynskyi
  • 14 September 1939, Lutsk
  • Vyshnivets, Zbarazh, Tarnopil
  • 18 September 1939, Kuty (Polish-Romanian border)
  • Gura Humorului, Focșani
  • Bucharest
  • 18 November 1939, left Bucharest
  • 22 November 1939, Constanța, SS Ardeal
  • Athens
  • Malta
  • Genoa
  • 8 January 1940, Marseille, rail
  • 12 January, Aubusson
  • 17 June 1941, Sikorski to Estreicher in Libourne: "Ratuj pan skarbiec wawelski – ratuj pan, ja ratuję Rząd" (p. 187) or "Ratuj Pan sam [skarbiec wawelski;] ja muszę ratować Rząd Rzeczypospolitej." (p. 189) or "ratować Rząd i wojsko" (p. 191)
  • 18 June 1940, Bordeaux, SS Chorzów
  • 21 June 1940, Falmouth, rail
  • 25 June 1940, London
  • 3 July 1940, Greenock, MS Batory ship (part of Operation Fish; other ships in the convoy: HMS Revenge, HMS Bonaventure, SS Monarch of Bermuda, MS Sobieski)
  • 11 July, 3/4 of the way across the Atlantic, one of the Polish ships suffers engine trouble, leaves convoy escorted by the Bonaventure and heads for St. John's; they are stopped on the way by dense fog and floating ice. Switky, citing Leland Stowe, The Secret Voyage of Britain's Treasure, identifies the damaged ship as the Batory, but also notes that W.S. Crawford, Journal for the Use of Mishipmen, "incorrectly" notes the Sobieski as the damaged ship, while Swoger, who based his information on Polkowski's account, claimes the damaged ship was the Piłsudski, which did not, in fact, participate in the convoy. Switky, p.214, notes 29–30.
  • 13 July 1940, Halifax
  • 15 July 1940, Ottawa

Exile[edit]

Cat-and-mouse in Canada[edit]

  • Wooden Polish church at Wilno, Ontario, considered, but rejected because of fire hazard
  • 2 March 1945, smaller objects (inc. Szczerbiec and other regalia, books and manuscripts, coffee service and vessels) in two steamer trunks deposited at Bank of Montreal in Ottawa
  • 21 May 1945, 23 trunks and one wooden case hidden at the Redemptorist monastery in Sainte-Anne-de-Beaupré, Quebec (with Cardinal Jean-Marie-Rodrigue Villeneuve's approval)
  • June 1945, eight trunks (mostly military objects and a clock) hidden at the Convent of the Precious Blood in Ottawa (password: "Holy Virgin of Częstochowa")
  • A few less valuable objects left at the Experimental Farm
  • 6 July 1945, Canadian recognition of the Communist government of Poland
  • 23 May 1946, objects from Sainte-Anne-de-Beaupré moved to the Augustinian convent at the Hôtel-Dieu de Québec in Quebec City
  • May 1946, treasures from Convent of the Precious Blood moved to St. Mary's Church in Wilno, Ontario
  • 20 August 1946, Zaleski and Prof. Edmund Semil (cultural attache at the Polish legation) write an inventory of objects at BoM
  • 7 November 1946, Fiderkiewicz's press conference at BoM
  • 29 January 1948, RCMP locates the treasures at Hôtel-Dieu de Québec
  • 14 February 1948, Polish legation's formal request to the Augistinian convent to surrender the treasures
  • 25 February 1948, treasures from the Hôtel-Dieu transfered to the Provincial Museum of Quebec by the order of Maurice Duplessis
  • 15 November 1948, treasures from Wilno moved also to the Provincial Museum of Quebec (via Hull, Quebec)
  • 7 September 1959, Duplessis dies from cerebral hemorrhage.

Return[edit]

  • 19 September 1948, Świerz-Zaleski returns to Poland with some of the treasures (incl. Oriental and Polish carpets; tapestries not part of SA's collection; Ottoman banner from Vienna)[22]
  • 23-24 December 1956, review of the treasures at BoM
  • 18 January 1959, treasures leave Ottawa, rail
  • Fort Erie and Buffalo
  • 19 January 1959, New York
  • 21 January 1959, New York, MS Stockholm
  • 31 January 1959, Copenhagen, rail, ferry
  • Warnemünde
  • East Berlin
  • 3 February 1959, Kraków
  • 2 January 1961, treasures from the Provincial Museum leave Quebec
  • 3 January 1961, Boston
  • 16 January 1961, Warsaw

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b Matelski (2011), p. 77.
  2. ^ a b c d e Szablowski (1960)
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Matelski (2011), p. 77, footnote 68
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Szablowski (1960), p. 7
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i Szablowski (1960), p. 8
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h Szablowski (1960), p. 6
  7. ^ Szablowski (1960), pp. 7, 45
  8. ^ Szablowski (1960), p. 66
  9. ^ Szablowski (1960), p. 5
  10. ^ Szablowski (1960), p. 19
  11. ^ Szablowski (1960), p. 28
  12. ^ Szablowski (1960), p. 29
  13. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Szablowski (1960), p. 9
  14. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Tchórzewska-Kabata (2003)
  15. ^ Holc (2012), pp. 171–172
  16. ^ Swoger 2004, pp. 25–26.
  17. ^ a b Swoger 2004, p. 45.
  18. ^ Swoger 2004, p. 28.
  19. ^ Swoger 2004, p. 17.
  20. ^ Swoger 2004, p. 24.
  21. ^ Swoger 2004, p. 21.
  22. ^ Swoger (2004), p. 117.

Sources[edit]

External links[edit]

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