During the ceremony, Agnieszka Bocheńska, the granddaughter of Henryk Kowalczyk, a prisoner of Auschwitz and Neuengamme, has received a photo that her grandfather had been carrying while he was in the German concentration camps. The pocket watch left by Piotr Błaszczyk, a prisoner at KL Stutthof, among other items, was given to his granddaughter Antonina Żyłkowska. Other memorabilia that have returned to the families include personal items of female prisoners of the German concentration camp in Ravensbrück: a rosary owned by Zofia Bieniewska and Janina Kacała's golden wedding ring.
Memory cannot be taken away or destroyed. Every day, employees of the IPN convince themselves of this by nurturing the memory of the horrific 20th century and the experience of the Polish nation,
said the IPN President Karol Nawrocki during the ceremony
As part of the ceremony, the IPN President has opened the exhibition "#StolenMemory", which is part of the campaign carried out by the Arolsen Archives in Bad Arolsen and supported by the Institute of National Remembrance.
The #StolenMemory exhibition by the Arolsen Archives includes 12 display panels presenting the fate and personal effects of 13 concentration camp prisoners whose relatives are still being searched for. There are also biographies of three prisoners whose items were returned to their families, and information posters presenting the essence of the project and important events from World War II. The exhibition was prepared in Polish and English.
The exhibition will be on display from 4 to 11 November 2021 in the Podlasie Opera and Philharmonic (1 Odeska Street) and from 15 to 30 November in the Podlasie Museum (11 Kościuszki Street) in Białystok.
The Arolsen Archives possess approximately 2,500 personal effects belonging to former concentration camp prisoners. All these items are awaiting to be returned to their families.