Janusz Walkuski
born 3.01.1934 in Ciechanów
The insurgent accounts of witness
Janusz Walkuski was born on the third of January 1934. In Ciechanow. Since childhood to the present moment he has been living in Warsaw.
His father, Stanislaw, an officer of Polish secret intelligence, died in 1938 during undertaking the mission in the East Prussia. Mother forced to manage to provide for her son, took up a job as a milliner designing and selling hats.
When the war broke up Janusz was 5 years old and during the Warsaw Uprising he was 10.
Like many of his peers he marched into "the war youth" of his childhood.
Some of the episodes, that were given to him by an occupation reality, got etched on his memory, they became established in spite of the flow of time.
After many years he decided to describe them bearing witness to those awful times.
Maciej Janaszek-Seydlitz
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Janusz Walkuski |
From the author
The memoirs I have been writing for many years, wanting to keep them for those for whom the idea of war, as the time passes by, is getting more and more distant history. I was writing them long, as some of them were a fiery hot piece of metal from which one gets away. Time had to cool them down so that I could speak about them. These are events remembered by an adolescent (born in 1939) boy.
I used such a language as it had been used then- a street slang. Terms like "stukas," "schmaiser," "cow" refer to the terminology of German military equipment. For example "stukas" is a diving bomber Junker 87 "Stuka." The description of experienced events is an attempt to throw them out of me, at a very mature age, a bedeviling nightmare of war, especially of the Warsaw Uprising.
I wanted at the same time, to celebrate the heroic defenders of Warsaw and its residents who- betrayed by everyone fought for honour and freedom for the sake of which they sacrificed their biggest treasure that a man could get from God - LIFE!
Sometimes the question, referring to the present times, is asked - was it worth it?
The question itself is sad, because we pose it at all.
My sketches illustrating the tales came from the beginning of fifties and reflect the after-war condition of my soul. While the presented photographs show places "where it was happening"- this is the way they look now when I visit them.
My war 1939-1945
Such was the beginning... A double portion of riceA bumpy road of education Dear SirFroimLittle CarolHoleRainbowA mysterious episodeWinged antsPigs and lice"Bialy" - BialoszewskiThe death of father and sonA shop window at Senatorska StreetThe UprisingUnder the debris at Ciepla StreetWine, wineA shot at shitA trophy death A ballooning password CudnaI was almost hit A doggy I minded cows in Zychorzyn At the partisan route
Red stars over Cracow The first day of freedom A girl with cornflower blue eyesThey weren't humans Awaiting Family impressionsHow I became a scoutThe afterword
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Janusz Walkuski in our times |
We request the pleasure of your company in the gallery of Janusz Wałkuski's paintings entitled : "Czarna seria" ("A black series") available on our website as well. drawn up by: Maciej Janaszek-Seydlitz
translation: Małgorzata Szyszkowska
Copyright © 2011 SPPW1944. All rights reserved.