Register of the Boleslaw Boreysza papers
Finding aid prepared by Hoover Institution Library and Archives Staff
Hoover Institution Library and Archives
©2008, 2017
434 Galvez Mall
Stanford University
Stanford, CA 94305-6003
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Title: Boleslaw Boreysza papers
Date (inclusive): 1939-2008
Collection Number: 2008C23
Contributing Institution: Hoover Institution Library and Archives
Language of Material: In Polish and English
Physical Description:
6 manuscript boxes
(2.5 Linear Feet)
Abstract: Personal and military documents, correspondence, and photographs relating to Polish military activities during World War II,
and to Polish émigré affairs.
Creator:
Boreysza, Bolesław, 1921-2002
Physical Location: Hoover Institution Library & Archives
Access
The collection is open for research; materials must be requested in advance via our reservation system. If there are audiovisual
or digital media material in the collection, they must be reformatted before providing access.
Use
For copyright status, please contact the Hoover Institution Library & Archives.
Acquisition Information
Acquired by the Hoover Institution Library & Archives in 2008.
Preferred Citation
[Identification of item], Boleslaw Boreysza papers, [Box no., Folder no. or title], Hoover Institution Library & Archives.
Biographical Note
Boleslaw "William" Boreysza (1921-2002), a librarian-cataloger, served in the Hoover Institution Library for more than thirty
years until his retirement in 1990. Boreysza known as Bolek to his Polish friends and as Bill to his coworkers, was a well-known
figure in the Polish émigré community of Northern California. He participated in and was a witness to the events in Poland,
Soviet Russia, the Middle East, and Italy in World War II.
A native of Eastern Poland, Boreysza fought in the anti-Soviet underground during 1939 and 1940, was arrested by the NKVD,
and spent time in Soviet prisons and camps. His release certificate from a prison near Arkhangelsk in the Russian North is
among 13,000 such documents preserved in the Poland Ministerstwo Informacji i Dokumentacji Collection. As a cadet-officer
in General Wladyslaw Anders' Polish II Corps, 3rd Carpathian Infantry Division, made up mostly of former GULAG prisoners and
deportees, Boreysza fought with distinction on the Italian front, participating in the battles of Monte Cassino and Ancona,
where he suffered a serious head wound, resulting in the loss of his left eye. The bullet that caused the injury, and miraculously
did not kill him, would remain lodged in the back of his skull for the rest of his life, as shown on X-rays and doctors' reports
in the collection.
After the war, Boreysza immigrated to England and later to Canada, where he received degrees in Slavic studies, political
science, and library science. He was recruited for the Hoover Library by Witold Sworakowski, the chief builder of Hoover library
and archival collections after the Second World War. In addition to cataloging, thanks to his excellent émigré contacts, Boreysza
helped Sworakowski expand Hoover's Polish collections.
Scope and Content of Collection
Boreysza's papers consist of his military service documents, photographs, and correspondence. Also in the collection is a
photocopy of his extensive NKVD arrest and interrogation file, sent from the former KGB archives in Vilnius.
The majority of the materials connected to his war-time activities are in the first half of the
Biographical File and the beginning of the
Photographs series. The second half of both of these series and the majority of the
Correspondence series is largely personal in nature, capturing components of the life of a wounded war veteran and single émigré man building
a new life in North America while also interacting with his European past and enduring Polish family connections.
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Poland -- History -- Occupation, 1939-1945
Polish people -- United States
World War, 1939-1945 -- Poland
Biographical File
1939-2008
box 1, folder 1
Biographical essays
1954-2008
Scope and Contents note
Two in English (one written by Boreysza in 1954 and one by Maciej Siekierski in 2008) and one in Polish (written by Frank
Topór in 2002).
box 1, folder 2
Personal documents
1941-1954
Scope and Contents note
Identification cards, passports, travel documents, military pension correspondence, and citizenship documents.
box 1, folder 3-5
KGB files (photocopies)
1940-1958
Scope and Contents note
NKVD files on Boreysza and other Poles arrested in Vilnius in 1940.
box 1, folder 8
Head photographs, drawings, x-rays
1942-1983
box 1, folder 9
Education
1939-1956
Scope and Contents note
Diplomas, application materials, and other documentation from his studies in Great Britain, Vancouver, and Seattle.
box 1, folder 10
Personal address books and date books
1948-1980s
box 2, folder 1
Personal documents
1955-1997
Scope and Contents note
Passports and immigration documents; pilot and firearm training documentation; and Polish veterans abroad membership information.
box 2, folder 2
Dissertation, "The Introduction of the Soviet System into Poland,"
1955
box 2, folder 3
Memorabilia and miscellaneous
1950s-1990s
Scope and Contents note
Postcards and other images of war memorials and other structures in Europe, and a partial map of pre-war Vilnius in Polish
and German.
Correspondence
1952-2001
Scope and Contents note
Primarily personal letters and postcards. Boreysza had arranged the personal correspondence he received chronologically, and
this order has been retained as much as possible. Postcards have been put in one progression while letters, which often contain
clippings from Polish publications, are in another. When no date has been discernible on the item itself, it has been left
with the year in which it was found. Many of the correspondents are army and other Polish émigré acquaintances, as well as
personal friends from his student years.
The greatest amount of material is from a relative, Henryk Boreysza, who was living in Sopot on the outskirts of Gdansk. These
relatives are also represented prominently in the
Photographs series. During the peak Solidarity activity years, Henryk Boreysza frequently sent Boreysza packets of newspaper clippings.
When a dated note is included, the chronological filing is based on that, and the clippings included generally are dated within
a week of the personal note. When no note is included, the filing arrangement follows the publication month of the clippings
included in the packet. Postcards from this correspondent, for the Solidarity-intensive period, have generally been kept with
the letters/clippings. This portion results in what is essentially a diary-like eyewitness account to the events unfolding
in the Gdansk area in 1981 through selective press clippings.
Because the many postcards could not be interfiled with the regular correspondence, one needs to look within each time unit,
foldered by year, to be sure to identify the complete correspondence.
Photographs
1942-1998
Scope and Contents note
The photographs have been arranged roughly chronologically, with loose photos gathered in envelopes by theme. The earliest
ones are all war-related, reflecting Boreysza's time in Palestine, Egypt and Italy. The bulk of the material is from after
he immigrated to Canada and can be broadly classed as vacation photos. The North American vacations are of hunting, fishing,
and camping trips he embarked on with other men, mostly to the Canadian Rockies. Most of the European photos are family-related
in nature, with many summer photographs of men and boys swimming or engaging in other recreation activities. A theme running
throughout the European envelopes includes reminiscing about his military and European past and memorializing the war. Of
particular note is a 43-page album at the end of the photographs, which Boreysza created and annotated, reflecting his trips
to Poland and Lithuania in the early 1990s, documenting the physical places of his life prior to and during the war, before
he was deported to the Russian north.
box 6, folder 1
Slides, Poland and Soviet Union
1960s-1970s
box 6, folder 2
Slides, Europe and Boreysza with airplane
1960s
box 6, folder 3
Negatives, Poland and Lithuania
1992