The Strange Odyssey of Poland's National Treasures, 1939–1961: A Polish-Canadian Story

John Stanley is a senior policy advisor in the Corporate Policy Branch
Management Board Secretariat, Government of Ontario. He is co-editor of
Nation and History: Polish Historians from the Enlightenment to the
Second World War.

The story of the Polish treasures from Cracow’s Wawel Castle that were
kept in Canada from 1940 to 1960 has been told before, but never so
exhaustively. Swoger, a retired high-school history teacher, has based
his treatment on broad archival research, using English, French, and
Polish primary and secondary sources: it is doubtful that there is more
to be added to this intriguing tale.

During the German invasion of Poland in September 1939, the Wawel’s
curators packed up the most important items from the castle—Flemish
tapestries, parchment documents, and historical objects—and smuggled
them first to Romania, then to France, and finally to Canada. At the end
of World War II, the treasures were caught in a tug of war between the
Communist and anti-Communist Poles, with the Canadian government in the
middle. Finally, in 1961 the treasures were returned to Poland, to the
relief of Ottawa and External Affairs, which appeared neither competent
nor principled during this awkward dispute.

The tale is told in straightforward language but with some lengthy side
trips into Quebec politics and an outline of World War II.
Unfortunately, the text is marred by the inability of Dundurn Press to
reproduce Polish names with any accuracy: diacritical marks and special
Polish letters are usually ignored, and when the effort has been made to
reflect the correct spelling, Dundurn has without exception gotten it
wrong There are also numerous typos (“Wraclaw” instead of Waclaw,
“Wraclaw” instead of Wroclaw), and for some bizarre reason, Polish
first names are rendered in their French versions (“Frédéric”
Chopin, “Ignace” Paderewski) while Wit Stworz is presented in German
guise. Just to ensure complete inconsistency, the choice has been made
to use the Polish variant “Wojciech” instead of the English
“Adalbert.” A result of all this is that the book may sometimes come
across as amateurish. However, it is based on solid research and will no
doubt remain the standard account of the most important incident in
Polish–Canadian relations.