Jan Karski

Jan Karski (1914-2000), lawyer and diplomat, hero of the Polish underground in the Second World War, is being memorialized recently.

Commentator Deroy Murdock was a history student of Karski's at Georgetown, and was eventually able to hear some of the story from the man himself. Murdock's essay is a good introduction to the subject.

Karski's book, Story of a Secret State, is widely available, for example at  ABE Books.          

Give a single click on the image, and you can read the text just fine.

The memoir concludes with an account of his visit to Washington, D.C. and meeting with FDR and his advisors to inform them of the nature, scope, and immediacy of the "Final Solution."  Since he could see that they, too, thought he was exaggerating, he wrote and published his memoir immediately. 

Clara in Her Late Teens

Clara Adamina graduated high school in 1947.  Hence she was an entering freshman in the fall of 1943.

This first print is hand-cut on heavy stock.  My supposition is that someone in a camera club at her school made the print.  Or perhaps someone in her youth group at church, the St. Luke's chapter of the Catholic Youth Organization, produced the photos.  The group did publish a newspaper, of which I have a copy or two up in the Trove.

Our gal CAMZ liked to put her hair in pincurls on retiring to her bed, in preparation for the next day's glamour.  Her mother, CHM, forbad it, but she did it anyway.  The only trouble came when Gertrude told.

Looks like the pincurls made it safely through the evening prior to this photo portrait.

What?  You don't know what pincurls are?  All right, here's a pic from The Bobby Pin Blog:

Clara was a Girl Scout, as well.  How much you want to bet she made her own uniform by sketching and copying an official one?

Going for the Jean Harlow look, Ma?

Here's older sister Gertrude.  Looks like Easter Sunday: see her corsage, and the crocuses in bloom in the little garden behind her.

The Trove includes snapshots in nifty little albums.  They feature "Carhart's High-Hat Finish."  Indeed the prints are highly glossy, so the top hat is an excellent motif.

"Exclusive in Buffalo and Rochester."  Looks like Gertrude was a bridesmaid, and her Dad, Adam Matynka, took photographs of his family on the day of the wedding of a friend of his family. 

I've no idea who the bride is; no nor groom nor groomsman either.

What kind of car is this?  And check out the older car across the street, in the background.  I wish we had a Lytro camera shot of this; we could focus on the other car. Notice also the elm tree, alive, big, and healthy.

Check out the gorgeous tailored jacket!  Look how the bottom front corners are folded up and buttoned!  The fitted jacket has perfect sleeve length.  You can see that the skirt is hand-hemmed.  I like the length.  It's definitely more intriguing, more alluring, than a miniskirt, especially when the lady sits and slowly crosses her legs.  Of course, this depends on the sort of allure one wishes to project, doesn't it.

This last shot is a peek ahead to another wedding, a bit later.  CAMZ is bridesmaid this time;  Gertrude is annoyed about something, although one cannot imagine what it is; her permanent wave came out okay.

School Days Autograph Book, 2 of 2

School Days Autograph Book

Clara Matynka, our CAMZ, attended a multi-grade primary school in South Wales, New York.  In 1937 she was eight years old.

By 1940, she had an autograph book, 4 1/2 by 6 inches.

"Davy St." is a good and proper address for a village called South Wales.

Mom said that Miss Crowley taught her class never to use the word "get" in an English composition.  They should think of something better, more apt, less hackneyed.  And they should get used to doing so.  (I added that last part.)

See the "Miss Whalen" 8th-grade teacher?  There was a Connie Whalen in my class at Iroquois, 25 years later.

New and different address, "Goethe Street."  Hard to imagine that in South Wales, New York.  So perhaps they had moved back to Buffalo by 1940.  CAMZ packed this book and took it with her in the move.

Who are cousin Ray and cousin Gerrie?  I remember a fabulous "Uncle Ray Lipinski."  Could that be "Cousin Ray?"

"Your cousin Mary Lipinska."  Who are these cousins?

More gems of the autographic art to follow - Julie

Clara and Pearl Haremska

This photo was just part of the landscape in the Marilla house; it was just there.  My parents told me that these were my Aunt Pearl and my grandmother Matynka.

Those would be the two daughters of Haremski/Zientarska, immortalized in the Haremski Iconograph:

Pearl was the elder, if I remember correctly.  So the younger infant is Clara Haremska.  The buildings could easily be part of the farm in the Iconograph.

So this photo that I've been casually shifting about is 106 years old.

So the Haremski-Zientarska marriage took place around 1900.  Where?  Poland or America?  When did they come to America?  I would happily delegate the search of the Ellis Island records to somebody else right now; there is a trove of artifacts to go through here at HQ of the Coot Hill Family Historical Preservation Society. Crowdsourcing: let's go!

Julie

Adam and Clara and Gertrude and Clara

Here are Adam and Clara at a park somewhere.

Their daughter Gertrude was born in the early 1920s.  Clara Adamina was born November 1929.  Here is the earliest photo of her so far found; the year is 1937. Nine-year-old Clara Adamina is in the second row, far right.

Notice that it says "1936-37" and "Lower Grades South Wales School."  South Wales is in southern Erie County.  In my own high school, there were kids from the elementary schools of Elma, Marilla, and Wales.

This next one must be two or three years later, around 1940, perhaps.  Gertrude, unknown baby, and Clara.

It's kind of a sparse collection of baby pics!  Once CAMZ hit high school, she discovered the camera and made up for lost time.  Stay tuned.

Julie