Boleslaw Boreysza papers, 1939-2008

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Summary

Creators:
Boreysza, Bolesław, 1921-2002
Abstract:
Personal and military documents, correspondence, and photographs relating to Polish military activities during World War II, and to Polish émigré affairs.
Extent:
6 manuscript boxes, 1 small object box (2.7 Linear Feet)
Language:
In Polish and English
Preferred citation:

[Identification of item], Boleslaw Boreysza papers, [Box no., Folder no. or title], Hoover Institution Library & Archives.

Background

Scope and content:

Boreysza's papers consist of his military service documents, photographs, and correspondence. Also in the collection is a photocopy of his extensive NKVD arrest and interrogation file, sent from the former KGB archives in Vilnius.

The majority of the materials connected to his war-time activities are in the first half of the Biographical File and the beginning of the Photographs series. The second half of both of these series and the majority of the Correspondence series is largely personal in nature, capturing components of the life of a wounded war veteran and single émigré man building a new life in North America while also interacting with his European past and enduring Polish family connections.

Biographical / historical:

Boleslaw "William" Boreysza (1921-2002), a librarian-cataloger, served in the Hoover Institution Library for more than thirty years until his retirement in 1990. Boreysza known as Bolek to his Polish friends and as Bill to his coworkers, was a well-known figure in the Polish émigré community of Northern California. He participated in and was a witness to the events in Poland, Soviet Russia, the Middle East, and Italy in World War II.

A native of Eastern Poland, Boreysza fought in the anti-Soviet underground during 1939 and 1940, was arrested by the NKVD, and spent time in Soviet prisons and camps. His release certificate from a prison near Arkhangelsk in the Russian North is among 13,000 such documents preserved in the Poland Ministerstwo Informacji i Dokumentacji Collection. As a cadet-officer in General Wladyslaw Anders' Polish II Corps, 3rd Carpathian Infantry Division, made up mostly of former GULAG prisoners and deportees, Boreysza fought with distinction on the Italian front, participating in the battles of Monte Cassino and Ancona, where he suffered a serious head wound, resulting in the loss of his left eye. The bullet that caused the injury, and miraculously did not kill him, would remain lodged in the back of his skull for the rest of his life, as shown on X-rays and doctors' reports in the collection.

After the war, Boreysza immigrated to England and later to Canada, where he received degrees in Slavic studies, political science, and library science. He was recruited for the Hoover Library by Witold Sworakowski, the chief builder of Hoover library and archival collections after the Second World War. In addition to cataloging, thanks to his excellent émigré contacts, Boreysza helped Sworakowski expand Hoover's Polish collections.

Acquisition information:
Acquired by the Hoover Institution Library Archives in 2008.
Physical location:
Hoover Institution Library & Archives
Rules or conventions:
Describing Archives: A Content Standard

Access and use

Restrictions:

Box 7 may not be used without permission of the Archivist. The remainder of 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.

Terms of access:

For copyright status, please contact the Hoover Institution Library & Archives.

Preferred citation:

[Identification of item], Boleslaw Boreysza papers, [Box no., Folder no. or title], Hoover Institution Library & Archives.

Location of this collection:
Hoover Institution Library & Archives, Stanford University
Stanford, CA 94305-6003, US
Contact:
(650) 723-3563
hooverarchives@stanford.edu
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