Bartniczak, Mieczysław
Mieczysław Bartniczak (May 23, 1935 - May 27, 1999) was a Polish historian, educator, and researcher on the local history of the city of Ostrów Mazowiecka and the surrounding region. He was born in Drozdowo and attended the State Pedagogical High School in Radzymin and then the Teacher Training College (Studium Nauczycielskie) in Toruń. Bartniczak taught at primary and high schools in Ostrów Mazowiecka and was active in the local Polish United Workers' Party. When he was 34, Bartniczak retired from teaching and devoted himself full-time to researching and writing about local history, especially focusing on uprisings and periods of foreign occupation. In particular, he was an expert on the German occupation during the Second World War and the prisoner of war camps for captured Soviet soldiers in the region. Bartniczak was successful in reaching a wider public audience than most historians, publishing in magazines and popular journals. He was a founding member of the local history organization Towarzystwa Przyjaciół Ziemi Ostrowskiej (Friends of the Ostrów Land Society) and received several prestigious historical and educational awards.
One of the Largest Prisoner of War Camps on the Eastern Front.
This is Mieczysław Bartniczak's c. 1975 diazo and manuscript map of Stalag 324, a WWII prisoner of war camp near Grądy, Poland. A chilling example of the horrors of the Second World War, especially on the Eastern Front, the camp was a site of work, starvation, and death for the vast majority of those who entered it. (more details)