We have already forgotten about it, yet no other historical event was as fraught for our region as the years 1914-1918.

The aim of the exhibition’s creators is to recall, month by month, sometimes day by day, these tragic events for our region – the hostilities carried out on the line of the lower and middle San in the autumn of 1914, as part of the counteroffensive of the Austro-Hungarian army (the Vistula-San operation), and in the late spring and early summer of 1915, during the so-called reconquest of Galicia by the Central Powers. These operations brought, in addition to huge casualties on both warring sides, enormous destruction, material losses and suffering to the civilian population residing in the areas of the ongoing fighting. The greatest damage was reported in Nisk, Rudnik, Ulanow, Rozwadow and minor towns: Majdan Zbydniowski, Chwałowice, Antoniów, Pniów and many others, which belonged to the Tarnobrzeg and Nisko districts before WWI. At present, these are the areas of Nisko and Stalowa Wola districts.

We show the history of these events not only through the prism of rulers, commanders and strategists. Our heroes are ordinary soldiers and civilians cruelly experienced by fate.

The exhibition presents the image of the war captured in photographs taken by frontline soldiers, as well as by so-called ordinary people. For the first time we will present the photographic output of Ryszard Poisl, a forester in Groblach (Nizan district), who immortalized on hundreds of glass plates the wartime devastation and life of the residents of the Rudnik, Groblach, Lętownia and Jeżowy areas.

Thanks to the stored memorabilia, we can learn about the realities of war not only in the immediate area. Two later mayors, Adolf Stauffer (Rozwadów) and Jozef Krzewicki (Rudnik), and a veterinarian from Ulanow, Klemens Wójcik, spent many years at the front. Hundreds of photographs have been left behind, transporting us to the Carpathian Mountains, the Italian and Balkan fronts and many other places.

The variety of photographs presented allows us to approach the soldier’s wartime daily life both “from the back” and “from the front.” Thanks to them we learn what the battle stations, trenches, field hospitals looked like, but also the preparation of a meal or frontline entertainment.

The picture is complemented by private correspondence, including that of Wladyslaw Lesniak, a resident of Ore Mountains, who in numerous letters to friends describes life in the trenches, captivity and fear of death.

Aneta Garanty

Zofia Poisel-Łysiak

Place: square in front of the Inter-University Library in Stalowa Wola