The Remembrance Museum of the Land of Oświęcim Residents (MPMZO) invites you to the second “Meeting with History” dedicated to exploring family ties in practice. It will take place on March 20 (Thursday) at 17:30. The speakers will be history enthusiasts – Barbara Daczyńska and Miłosz Molenda. Admission is free.
The first meeting dedicated to genealogy, led by a genealogist Agnieszka Kuś, attracted great interest. So many people attended the meeting and the organizers had to bring in extra chairs.
During the second meeting, Barbara Daczyńska and Miłosz Molenda will give lectures. They will share practical knowledge with the participants, including the details of which sources of information about their ancestors they have used most often so far, what difficulties they have encountered, and which of their genealogical discoveries have been the most interesting or surprising.
Barbara Daczyńska lives in Oświęcim. She is a graduate of the Faculty of Philosophy at the Catholic University of Lublin and has completed postgraduate studies in computer graphics at the University of Science and Technology in Kraków (AGH). For over a dozen years she has been associated with the International Youth Meeting Centre in Oświęcim. Her interests include topics related to Stadt Auschwitz 1939–1945, the resistance movement at KL Auschwitz, and aid provided to the camp’s prisoners. She is a co-author of several films, publications, and exhibitions dedicated to Auschwitz and the city of Oświęcim. She is one of the experts participating in the research project about war losses, co-financed by the Minister of Culture and National Heritage from the Cultural Promotion Fund. In 2020, she was distinguished by the Ambassador of the Federal Republic of Germany to Poland, Dr. Arndt Freytag von Loringhoven, for her contribution to Polish-German reconciliation.
– I started searching for information about my ancestors in parish registers five years ago. I began researching my family’s genealogy with my father because no one in our family had done it before. What I find is sometimes quite surprising. I have the most information about my great-grandfather Julian Daczyński and some about his mother Józefa Daczyńska, who is my great-great-grandmother – says Barabara Daczyńska.
Miłosz Molenda lives in Babice near Oświęcim. He is a student of the Cavalry Captain Witold Pilecki State University of Małopolska in Oświęcim.
– For as long as I can remember, I have been interested in the past. I grew up in a home full of family memorabilia. I loved listening to my grandmother’s stories about her childhood in Oświęcim and family stories. My family’s past has always been close to me—I grew up with it, and it became a part of my life, he reveals.
On Thursday, March 20, in addition to sharing how he searches for information about his ancestors, he will also introduce us to the story of his great-grandmother Helena Smołucha (née Szczurek). She was the principal of the Primary School in Zaborze near Oświęcim, and after moving out of the town in 1957, she continued teaching there until her retirement. During the German occupation, she risked her life by conducting underground teaching. She was the one who began collecting family documents, including copy of entries from church registers. Another story is related to Janina Szczurek, Helena’s sister-in-law. She was from Oświęcim, born in 1909 under the surname Przybyła. During the German occupation, she worked for some time as a seamstress in the home of the commandant of KL Auschwitz-Birkenau. She provided prisoners with food and medicines and also delivering secret correspondence.
The meeting’s program includes a knowledge contest related to the content of the lecture. The speakers will also answer questions from participants.
A Meeting with History
„Genealogy. Examples of searching for family histories”
March 20, 2025 (Thursday), 17:30
The Remembrance Museum of Land of Oświęcim Residents.
Maksymiliana Kolbego 2A in Oświęcim
Admission is free.
