Overview of the Sklenarz-Bokota family papers, 1913-2010

Finding aid prepared by Hoover Institution Library and Archives Staff
Hoover Institution Library and Archives
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Title: Sklenarz-Bokota family papers
Date (inclusive): 1913-2010
Collection Number: 2011C54
Contributing Institution: Hoover Institution Library and Archives
Language of Material: In Polish and English
Physical Description: 1 manuscript box (0.4 Linear Feet)
Abstract: Memoirs, genealogical data, printed matter, personal documents, and photographs, relating to conditions in Poland during World War II and to immigration to the United States. Includes papers of Józef Bokota, his son Stanislaw Bokota, and Krystyna Maria Sklenarz Bokota, wife of Stanislaw Bokota.
Creator: Sklenarz-Bokota family
Creator: Bokota, Józef, 1897-1978
Creator: Bokota, Stanisław, 1928-
Creator: Bokota, Krystyna Maria Sklenarz, 1933-2010
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 2011.

Preferred Citation

[Identification of item], Sklenarz-Bokota family papers, [Box no., Folder no. or title], Hoover Institution Library & Archives.

Biographical Note

Polish-American family.
Krystyna M. Sklenarz and Stanislaw Bokota, who would become husband and wife, were both from middle-class families in southeast Poland when the war started in September of 1939. Their families were divided by the war, with some members living under German occupation, others under Soviet, and several able to escape to the West. Both children experienced the brutal conditions of being deported to Soviet Kazakhstan; Krystyna lost a younger sister to hunger and disease. In the end they were the lucky ones, surviving the horrors and able to leave the USSR in 1942 because of "amnesty" for Polish citizens and the evacuation of some of the survivors to Iran. They were both educated in the West, and eventually met and married in the United States. Krystyna, a psychiatrist, died in 2010; Stanislaw, a retired US Department of Commerce economist, lives in Indiana.
Stanislaw's father, Colonel Jozef Bokota, was a decorated cavalry veteran of the 1920 Polish-Soviet war, the September 1939 campaign, and the clandestine Home Army.

Scope and Content of Collection

The collection includes personal documents, photographs, and reminiscences of both Krystyna and Stanislaw. Additionally, the papers contain the photographs, documents, clippings, and memoirs of Józef Bokota.

Subjects and Indexing Terms

Poland -- History -- Occupation, 1939-1945
Polish people -- United States

box 1

Material not yet described