“Aid book” from the Priest Prelate Henryk Jankowski’s collection
This April we would like to show you the “aid book” from 1982, a part of the Priest Prelate Henryk Jankowski’s legacy. Henryk Jankowski was a parish priest of the St. Bridget’s Church in Gdańsk. In the historical Archives of the Solidarity National Commission there is some documentation of his rich activity. In these holdings there are the documents of the First National Congress of Delegates of the Solidarity Trade Union, and of the Martial Law, as well as of the 1988 May and August strikes. Among the most valuable items are registers of the interned, arrested and convicted, petitions, protest letters, documents of dismissals and of judgments in political trials, refusals to issue passports, church aid posts for interned people. You can also find a collection of photographs and poetry there.
Well known is the Priest Henryk Jankowski’s charitable work involving the distribution of donated gifts with the help of numerous volunteers. It is worth mentioning that the parish of St. Bridget in Gdańsk was a logistic and information centre for a wide variety of aid operations. The “aid book”, which was placed in the Archives of the Solidarity National Commisson, is a great documentation of this activity. The book is in the A4 format and contains information about the aid granted to the needy between January the 1st and June the 30th, 1982. What is very helpful, the names in this book are written down in an alphabetical order.
The list of places and parishes, as well as of donated items provides a very interesting material to review. The aid was granted to people living in such places as Gdańsk, Gdynia, Grabowo Kościerskie, Kościerzyna, Lębork, Lubiana, Lublewo, Malbork, Pruszcz Gdański, Pszczółki, Reda, Rumia, Sopot, Starogard Gdański, Tczew, Zajączkowo. The most frequently mentioned forms of aid were food packages, vouchers, parcels with clothing. Less typical are records of the delivery of shoes, tights, cigarettes, laundry detergents, baby foods and diapers. Sometimes it is also mentioned to whom the aid was directed: children, parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles, spouses, siblings, custodians.
To protect personal data which may be found in the „aid book” (the Personal Data Protection Act of 29.08.1997), the access to it is provided after prior consultations and archival search completed by the archivists of Archives of the Solidarity National Commission.
Visit us at the Archives of the National Commission of NSZZ „Solidarność”.
Those interested in our archival materials are kindly invited to make use of our holdings in our Reading Room. They are accessible from Monday to Friday between 9:00 and 15:30. Please let us know in advance about your planned visit either by phone +48 (58) 308-43-92 or at .
/Łukasz Grochowski, The Archives of the Solidarity National Commission,
Iwona Flis, Stanislaw Flis Foundation “Pomerania Archives”/
More scans from the holdings of the Archives of the Solidarity National Commission may be seen here.