“Three valuable pictures were removed from the galleries of the
Czartoryski in Sieniawa. Frank seized and kept them until 17
January 1945, and then transferred them to Silesia, and thence,
as his personal property, to Bavaria.”
National monuments:
“In the process of destroying everything that was connected with
Polish history and culture, many monuments and works of art were
destroyed and demolished.
“The monument of the eminent Polish King, Boleslaw, the Valiant,
in Gniezno, was first wound round with ropes and chains with a
view to throwing it off its pedestal. After an unsuccessful
attempt, acetylene was used: the head was cut off and the
pedestal broken in pieces. The same fate befell the monument of
the Sacred Heart in Posen, the monuments to Chopin, the poet
Slowacki, the composer Moniuszko, the Polish national hero
Kósciuszko, President Wilson, the greatest Polish poet
Mickiewicz, and many others.”
To the report of the Polish Government is attached a list of public
libraries, museums, books and other collections sacrificed to plunder
and looting. These lists of objects are available on Pages 254 and 255
of the document book. In the first list we find the names of 30
libraries and in the second 21 museums and collections of works of art
which were plundered and destroyed. I shall not read these lists in
full, but shall mention only some of the museums and collections which
were a subject of national pride and constituted the treasure of the
Polish State.
The following objects became the booty of the fascist vandals: The
treasure house of the Wawelski Cathedral in Kraków, the Potocki
Collection in Jablonna, the Czartoryski Museum in Kraków, the National
Museum in Kraków, the Museum of Religious Art in Warsaw, the State
Numismatic Collections in Warsaw, the Palace of King Stanislaw-August in
the Lazienkowski Park, the Palace of King Jan Sobieski in Willanow, the
collection of Count Tarnowski in Sukhaya, the Religious Museum in Posen,
and many others.
The Hitlerite invaders also plundered monasteries, churches, and
cathedrals. On Page 43 of the report of the Polish Government,
corresponding to Page 223 of the document book, there are final notes by
the Polish Primate, Cardinal Hlond. They concern a written communication
from Cardinal Hlond to Pope Pius XII. I shall read into the record only
two paragraphs of these concluding notes. I quote:
“Monasteries have been methodically suppressed, as well as their
flourishing institutions for education, press, social welfare,
charity, and care of the sick. Their houses and institutions
have been seized by the army of the Nazi Party.
“Then the invaders confiscated or sequestrated the patrimony of
the Church, considering themselves the owners of this property.
The cathedrals, the episcopal palaces, the seminaries, the
canons’ residence, the revenues and endowments of episcopates
and chapters, the funds of the seminaries, all were pillaged by
the invaders.”