Adam Skałkowski (1877-1951) i jego wojenne losy
Adam Skałkowski (1877-1951) and his wartime fate

Summary/Abstract: Adam Skałkowski, a historian and professor at the Univeristy of Poznań, was one of the key signatories to the foundation act of the Institute for Western Affairs in 1945. In 1919, he was invited to Poznań from the Jan Kazimierz University in Lviv and together with Kazimierz Tymieniecki created theso-called „historical seminar” at the University of Poznań in the same year. On Prof. Edward Taylor’s incentive, Skałkowski undertook work on the biography of Aleksander Wielopolski. He even signed a printing contract with the Książnica-Atlas publishing house, where it was agreed that the book would deal with the margrave’s private life. The article aims to highlight Adam Skałkowski’s exceptional and heroic history of scientific work during wartime (1939-1945) under the threat of death. His research was based on sources made up of handwritten correspondence and memoires. At the beginning of the war, Professor Skałkowski was among the refugees in Warsaw besieged by the Germans, then he was invited to the Wielopolski palace in Chrobrze to continue his work begun in 1937, when he was researching sources for Aleksander Wielopolski’s legacy. The article discusses the problem of how scientists of that time (Skałkowski, Handelsman, Konopczyński )understood the importance of their research and educational work, which was conducted under the conditions of Nazi occupation without remuneration or fees. The author hypothesizes that scientists perceived the German threat and undertook efforts to preserve Polish cultural legacy and Polish archival resources,in which task they were able to garner major assistance from the landed nobility.The author mainly used materials from the archives.

• Details
• Contents