To commemorate the 100th anniversary of the 1st Silesian Uprising, with the support of the long-term program Niepodległa, the Ślązacy.pl Foundation organized an exhibition devoted to selected participants of the Silesian Uprisings.
Thirty boards show the profiles of the most famous Silesian insurgents and activists such as Wojciech Korfanty, Michał Grażyński or Henryk Sławik, as well as less known ones such as Wiktor Polewka or Nikodem Sobik. In addition to the biographies of the heroes, the exhibition also presents the historical context covering the socio-political situation in Upper Silesia after World War I – the consequences of the Versailles Treaty, regaining independence, Silesian Uprisings, the Plebiscite in Upper Silesia and the return of part of Upper Silesia to Poland in 1922.
Its uniqueness lies in the presentation for the first time of the profiles of selected Silesian Insurgents and people involved in the pro-Polish plebiscite activity in their “human” dimension, including family threads, their activities in the interwar period and very often their further tragic fate after the outbreak of World War II. For the first time, photographs and documents from the family collections of the descendants of the exhibition heroes were presented. The extensive set of illustrations is complemented by materials from, among others from the Silesian Library, the Central Military Archives, the Institute of National Remembrance and the National Digital Archives.
The premiere of the exhibition took place in the vestibule of the Silesian Sejm in Katowice in November 2019, and then it was presented in Piekary Śląskie, the State Archives in Katowice and the Institute of Polish Thought in Katowice. Wojciech Korfanty.
The exhibition was created on the initiative of the historian and journalist Dr Andrzej Krzystyniak, while its author is Łukasz Kobiela. The exhibition is accompanied by a richly illustrated catalogue of 72 pages.