Stanisław Maciejewski collection
Extent and Medium
boxes
9
Creator(s)
- Stanislaw Maciejewski
Biographical History
Stanisław Maciejewski was born in Smagów, Poland, in Apr. 1919. He was arrested by the Gestapo during the Warsaw Uprising on Aug. 12, 1944, and sent to Buchenwald concentration camp, where he was registered as prisoner number 73207. He was subsequently transferred to Dora-Mittelbau concentration camp and its subcamps Errlich, Harzugen, and Vido, where as a slave laborer, he worked to produce V-1 and V-2 rockets. After liberation, he was interned in Displaced Persons Camp #63 in Braunschweig, Germany. He became an active member of the Association of Polish Former Political Prisoners of Prisons and Concentration Camps in Germany and on Sept. 10, 1948, assumed chairmanship of the Association's Verification Commission, the duty of which was to verify that new members had actually been political prisoners. Maciejewski immigrated to the United States on Oct. 5, 1949, and settled in Lawrence, Massachusetts. He worked in various factories until 1969 when, as a result of an accident, he became an invalid. He became a United States citizen in1968. Maciejewski was active in the Polish St. Michael the Archangel Society and served as Secretary of the Polish Roman Catholic Union of America. He died in Lawrence, Massachusetts, in 1985. The Association of Polish Former Political Prisoners of Prisons and Concentration Camps was founded in 1946 in a Polish displaced persons camp in the British Zone of Occupation of Germany. On Feb. 24, 1947, German authorities issued an order dissolving the Association, however, after numerous appeals it was allowed to continue. In Dec. 1947, at a convention in Göttingen, Germany, the Association had branches in Meppen, Osnabrück, Braunschweig, Göttingen, and Clausthal-Zellerfeld, Germany. Its official publication was Szlak (The Trail)
Archival History
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum - Curatorial Affairs Department
Acquisition
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum collection, gift of Michael Maciejewski
Funding Note: The cataloging of this collection has been supported by a grant from the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany.
Michael Maciejewski donated the Stanisław Maciejewski collection to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 2000.
Scope and Content
Stanisław Maciejewski collection consists of records relating to activities of the Association of Polish Former Political Prisoners of Prisons and Concentration Camps in Germany. These records include prisoner questionnaires containing comprehensive bibliographical information about the prisoners and prospective association members as well as photographs, fingerprints, and Verification Commission notes. The collection also contains correspondence, medical and compensation records, Maciejewski family documents, newspaper clippings, and publications relating to various concentration camp museums and memorials. Of note, the most frequently cited reasons for political incarceration were participation in the Warsaw Uprising, work sabotage, being a Polish priest or university professor, issuing of false birth certificates, membership in the Armia Krajowa (Home Army), helping partisans, and distributing underground leaflets and publications. Also incarcerated by the Gestapo were people arrested during routine round-ups or as retaliation for Polish partisan attacks against Germans.
System of Arrangement
The Stanisław Maciejewski collection is arranged in eight series. Series 1: Maciejewski family documents, 1928-1971, undated Series 2: Correspondence, 1947-1983 Series 3: Medical and compensation records, 1945-1984, undated Series 4: Financial records, 1960-1983 Series 5: Polish Association of Former Political Prisoners (PAFPP) and Concentration Camp Records, 1945-1949, undated Series 6: Questionnaires and Protocols - Forms Series 7: Newspaper clippings, 1963-1982, undated Series 8: Newspapers, Newsletters, and Book of Prisoner’s Memories, 1948-1949, 1980, undated Series 9: Miscellaneous documents, circa 1960s-1970s Series 10: Photographs, undated
Conditions Governing Reproduction
Copyright Holder: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum - Curatorial Affairs Department
People
- Kennedy, Edward M., 1932-2009.
- Maciejewski, Stanisław, 1919-1985.
Subjects
- Poland--History--Occupation, 1939-1945.
- World War, 1939-1945--Prisoners and prisons, Polish--Registers.
- World War, 1939-194--Prisoners and prisons, German.
- World War, 1939-1945--Concentration camps.
- Braunschweig (Germany)
- Polish Refugees--Germany--Braunschweig.
Genre
- Questionnaires.
- Registers.
- Document