The album depicts the vicissitudes of this aristocratic clan against the background of tumultuous change that swept across Eastern Europe throughout the past two centuries. There are echoes of global transformations, with the industrial revolution, two World Wars and a complete change of regime, wherein, all of a sudden, there was absolutely no place for cultivating the aristocratic tradition. The heirs of the Czartoryski clan were forced to live within the absurdities of the post-war reality of Poland, which condemned their class to non-existence.
The granddaughter of Adam and Jadwiga came across real treasures in her ancestors' chest of drawers . There were documents, photo albums, unique photographs, boxes of film negatives , diaries and memoirs written by Adam and Jadwiga. Some of the photographs included in the publication were also retrieved from the Czartoryski Museum. Barbara Caillot-Dubus, herself a photographer, admitted that making the selection was no easy choice. Caillot-Dubus commented:
I began developing my passion for photography when Granny was already a very old person. I was surprise with how modern her mind was and what a fresh perspective she had on things. When we looked at photographs, she spoke to me not about the content of the picture, but instead of what she felt, what the meaning of it was in broader context, and what message the image carried. She told me that a photographic camera kept her company throughout her youth and that she loved taking pictures.
Jadwiga Czartoryska herself was a bit of a journalistic spirit. Apart from documenting family events, she also frequently captured chance events, such as a forest that caught fire, or random car accidents. Marcin Brzeziński says
The Adam Czartoryski family didn't hold any public positions. They didn't participate in political life, nor did they make great history - apart from their own small, and private one. Still, they left behind a unique testimony, in the form of photographs and memoirs. A very precious collection of documents for all researchers and historians of 19th and 20th century customs.
The book is dedicated to the fourteen great-grandchildren of Jadwiga and Adam Czartoryski. The official book launch is accompanied by an exhibition of photographs from the album, which is to travel across Poland following the display at the Dom Spotkań z Historią in Warsaw.
Both the husband and wife had many siblings. Adam Czartoryski recalled:
I had eight brothers and two sisters. After my parent's marriage, two daughters were born - Maria and Anna, and then, nine sons in a row, three of whom later became friars. The age difference between my oldest sister and my youngest brother was 20 years. So, in total, there were children in the house for a period of 40 years. The youngest of my brothers didn't remember, for example, the wedding of his sister, because he was only two or three years old at the time.
In 1914 when the Moscovites arrived in Pełkinie, we had to leave the place. With the whole family, we headed to Vienna. Together with my mother, we enter the hotel. And there, some young couple suddenly greets us – they were my future mother and father-in-law, who arrived there from the city of Frain. Frain was located about a hundred kilometres from Vienna, and they travelled to Vienna in search of new residents for their castle, as the Austro-Hungarian authorities wanted to create housing for some 100 extra families in this castle. (...) My future wife was one and a half years old then, and she was as bald as a knee. Stadnickis had two children at the time, and then a third one arrived, up to eight children in total.
The house was solid, with very thick walls, it was built in the 17th century. The ground floor had halls with ceilings, and extra compartments were added on by a couple of generations. My parents also played a part in this expansion. (...) One of the wings of the palace hosted a chapel, which was accessed through the salon. The chapel was large, it could fit 300 people. As there was no church in the village, the local people would come here for services.
Jadwiga Czartoryska:
(...) A sun clock with a little cannon was mounted on the southern balustrade [of the terrace] . Sometimes a bit of gunpowder was sprinkled in there, and the mechanism was set so that a magnifying glass lit the powder at noon and the cannon would shoot. From I remember, there was one time like this. The terrace was constantly used by our family, it's where one would drink coffee or tea with the guests, it's also where our hair was washed, so that it could dry out in the sun.
Jadwiga Czartoryska:
Daddy really likes our performances and he made us perform in front of guests, which I didn't like because I was really shy. It also cost me a lot to recite poems whenever someone in the family was celebrating their name-day. We would also give theatre shows at Christmas. Mom was the director and she was great at it, she had a beautiful voice, she sang really well and was a good actress. First we did Little Red Riding Hood, then Jaś and Małgosia, and I think our last show was Małgosia in the Mountains (I played the fairy).
Jadwiga Czartoryska:
Father enjoyed explaining, especially to the boys, the life of the forest, they way is should be governed and loved. It was the same with animals. Only weak or sick ones were shot. Father was familiar with each of the best deer individually, and he would only kill the first of them when he was sure that enough were living in the woods to sustain a reasonable level. It was different with the boars in the winter, every boar was aimed at when they went hunting, and at times also in the summertime they would set traps in the night to fight off those causing damage to the crops. During the time of hunting, breakfast was served at noon. Bigos, usually, but father cut the vodka off, because it took the men's spirits away, and they couldn't climb up the hills.
Jadwiga Czartoryska:
The most fun evenings were when Granny and Uncle Bishop (who later became a cardinal) would play teli with us. It was a card game, everyone had their own deck of cards and had to get rid of it as quickly as possible. Heated emotions were raised, everybody was yelling, both the young and the older generation, and it was great fun.
(...) Andrzej, whom we called Jędrek, was passionate about horseback riding. He liked to show off riding standing up in the saddle , and he once fell off in this way and broke his arm. Jędrek caught tuberculosis and then, the constant hideouts in the woods that the war forced upon us, with sleeping in clay huts or straight on the ground as a partisan, caused his state to deteriorate. Jędrek died on the 4th of January, 1945.
Jadwiga Czartoryska:
We would ride to Rimini and from Rimini to Vienna in three train compartments, and, as we were a very large family, young Italian fascists in uniforms and forage caps chaperoned us to and from the Italian border. When one of the brothers' balloons flew out the window, this chaperone would jump out and get it, and on the corridor, he played with us and the newly bought wound-up bunny toy of Hela.
We really liked miss Cela Antoniewicz, who taught us to develop and make photographs in the sun. The ladies were somewhat different. They often fought, especially for our mom's favours, because they loved her so much, and each wanted to be distinguished by her. We really liked the Belgian Lucie Andre, a very young woman, whose recklessness brought on a lot of trouble. For example, she would play football with a clot in her leg, and once she swallowed a needle.
Adam Czartoryski:
I was worried that they would postpone my military service, because I was skinny. It would have been the worst for me if I got the B category - postponement of service due to health conditions. I couldn't live through such humiliation. We were all in the artillery, us seven of eight brothers. The cavalry was more elegant, so it was thought that the youth of the gentry should serve there, but it was also said that it's thoughtless and the artillery is better.
I got married in 1937. Why with this one and not another? – apart from personal values what mattered was that our families were raised in similar ways. Since childhood I was taught to consider the countryside superior to the city. The city was a necessity, but only outside of it the pleasant countryside would begin. It was nice to go to the city for three days, for some kind of a test, to see someone, to go to the theatre. But to live in the city – no.
In the spring of 1942 we arrived in Szczawnica. My arrival there from Nadwojowa was actually directed by the AK - The Home Army. We were sworn in together, my wife and I. She had the pseudonym Tuja, I was called Szpak - somebody invented it and I didn't mind. I didn't have the function of a commander but that of a commandant. The commander is in charge of military affairs only, and a commandant takes on an administrative function. My main task (...) was to defend people from transport into Germany and during my stay not a single inhabitant of Szczawiany was sent to compulsory labour.
At some point a newspaper published an article wherein a certain Count Czartoryski, the owner of Wir, lost a significant sum while playing cards in Monte Carlo, and then turned to a servant who stood right by his side all dressed in livery, and he said: "Get me the money so I can pay off my debt, don't pay the workers, just make sure I can pay it off here". And all sorts of nonsense. I went to make a complaint at the newspaper's editorial office, to say it's a lie and that I never went to Monte Carlo and didn't play cards. In other words, I wanted to write a fiery note and say that I don't wish for such accusations. The advice was God forbid I write anything, because I would go straight to jail. They told me to just keep quiet.
When I retired at the age of 65 in 1971, we moved to the mountains, because I am a mountaineer by heart. We bought some land with the money of our daughter and son-in-law, all made out of wood, from pieces that were to fit each other, and moss that went in the cracks, so that no wind would get through. The whole was cool in the summer and warm in the winter. A brick wall would have to be twice as thick to have such insulation. A landowner who came to visit us said 'That – I understand, this is nice, and not city-like at all. It's our góralski [mountaineer] style, you have a pretty house.'
Adam Czartoryski, born on the 16th of January, 1906 in Pełkinie, died on the 11th of June, 2008 in Warsaw. Jadwiga Czartoryska, nee Stadnicka, was born on the 26th of May, 2013 in Nawojowa, and died on the 28th of December, 2009 in Warsaw.
Marcin Brzeziński, Barbara Caillot-Dubus
Adam i Jadwiga Czartoryscy. Fotografie i wspomnienia published by W.A.B., Warsaw, 2013
ISBN: 978-83-7747-962-9
Author: Janusz R. Kowalczyk, translated with edits by Paulina Schlosser, 12/02/2014.