In Aid of Memory. Some Remarks on the Diary and Memoirs of Mieczysław Marcinkowski

Abstract

Mieczysław Marcinkowski’s diary entitled Wbrew losowi. Z partyzantki i tułaczki 1939–1945 was created in two periods of the author’s life and two geographical and cultural areas (Subcarpathia during wartime in Poland and California in the 1990s). Developed by a group of Rzeszów scientists, the diary of a Home Army fighter in Subcarpathia, later a refugee, now living in Pasadena, USA, is a record of events, experiences and reflections from wartime occupation and postwar exile. It is a convincing record of facts, which makes it a valuable source text for historians. It is also a work of some literary quality, written in spontaneous and sincere language that triggers empathy in the reader, and it is fairly original at the composition level.