– photographs of the Kwiatkowski family (some of them framed and signed): images of Jerzy's grandparents: Tadeusz and Julia née Mielnicka; maiden photograph of Jerzy’s mother Julia née Ceglecka; two photographs of teenage Jerzy together with his parents, brothers and ministerial commission approving in 1913 the construction of a railway line connecting Bukovina with Lesser Poland and the construction of the Onuth stop, against the background of the Kwiatkowski family residence – the Onuth court in Chernivitsi; a post-war photograph of Kwiatkowski as captain and a photograph of his colleague Stanisław Strzetelski;
– "Congresional Record" from 1969, a diary containing the speech of Senator Roman Puciński on 485 Days at Majdanek on the forum of the House of Representatives in the US Congress;
– 28 books from the Kwiatkowski library, among them memories of concentration camps, such as: Kolczasty trakt [The Barbed Tract] by Stanisław Chwiejczak, Pole śmierci [The Field of Death] by Andrzej Stanisławski, Wspomnienia z Sachsenhausen [Memories of Sachsenhausen] by Jan Gwiazdomorski, Ravensbrück by Wanda Kiedrzyńska, Pięć lat kacetu [Five Years in Concentration Camps] by Stanisław Grzesiuk.
Some publications contain dedications. It is worth quoting several of them:
"To dear dr. Jerzy Kwiatkowski, thanking him for his warmth in N. York – always full of admiration for his esprit – Danuta Brzosko-Mędryk, New York 1972, Warsaw 1973" (Niebo bez ptaków [The Sky Without Birds], Warsaw 1969).
"To my colleague from Majdanek, dear dr. Jerzy Kwiatkowski – the author of a valuable book about our camp life – I present my reportage from the stay in New York – Danuta Brzosko-Mędryk, Warsaw July 1976 ”( Czy świadek szuka zemsty [Is a witness looking for revenge], Warsaw 1976).
"The author of this book offers it to its patron, dr. Jerzy Kwiatkowski, a distinguished Pole and Bukovinian, as a proof of friendship, Kraków, March 13, 1973" (Emil Biedrzycki, Historia Polaków na Bukowinie [The History of Poles in Bukovina], Warsaw 1973).
"To the author of 485 Days at Majdanek, Doctor Jerzy Jerzy Kwiatkowski, I send my humble work with gratitude for his great contribution to the history of Majdanek – author Z. Pawlak, Radom, July 30, 1969" (Przeżyłem [I Survived], Warsaw 1969).
"To dear Jerzy Kwiatkowski as a proof of friendship, Juliusz Szygowski, December 20, 1972" (Tak się zaczynało [This Is How It Began], Chicago-Lwów 1972).
The dedications testify to the lively relations the author of 485 Days at Majdanek had with former prisoners, including KL Lublin. Kwiatkowski came to Poland in the 1960s and participated in the Majdanek Days several times. During the work on editing the camp memories, in the years 1961–1966, he maintained close contacts with the environment of the Society for the Protection of Majdanek. Many friendships lasted longer.
We are very grateful to our donor, Erich Schiele. The collection and obtained information will enrich our Department of Collections as well as Archives and will enable further detailed examination of the story of this prisoner. They will also be used in the exhibition "Jerzy Kwiatkowski. Gardener from field III," which we plan to open in July 2020.