Jan Józef Fitzke

One of the most outstanding researchers of Lutsk’s distant past, an archaeologist, the organizer of museum work in the city and in Volhynia, and a man with a tragic fate, Jan Józef Fitzke, was born in the town of Gdów, Kraków Voivodeship (Poland), on January 20, 1909. In 1929–1933 he studied at the Jagiellonian University (Kraków), studying ancient history. From 1930, Fitzke was a member of the Polish Archaeological Society and a contributor to two of its publications: “Archaeological Review” and “From the Depths of the Ages.” In August 1936, Jan Fitzke came to work as an archaeologist at the Volhynian Museum in Lutsk, and from the beginning of 1937 he became its chief curator (at that time the museum was located at 35 Sienkiewicz Street; the current address of this premises is 12 Khmelnytskyi Street; now the Volhynian Museum of Local Lore is located at 20 Chopin Street). On the streets of Lutsk one could often see this short man, with light tousled hair, always smiling and talkative. He was full of enthusiasm for archaeology and museum work. The impressions of Lutsk and the new workplace were reflected in J. Fitzke’s first letter to Professor T. Reyman of the Jagiellonian University dated August 17, 1936: “On Sunday afternoon, together with Nycz, I visited the museum. I got down to work at once; much can and must be done here. I began by arranging my workplace... On Wednesday I am starting field research at the site And today, a significant place in the exposition of the Volyn Museum of Local Lore is occupied by finds from the urban-type settlement of Torchyn, the village of Baiv (now Lutsk district), and the city of Lutsk, made back during Fitzke’s expeditions; there is also a 15th-century steel sword from Lutsk, which, according to J. Fitzke, is connected with the historic congress of European monarchs in the city in 1429. To a significant extent, J. Fitzke was involved in organizing museum affairs in the Volhynian Voivodeship. It was he, together with J. Niecz — director of the Lutsk Public Library in the 1930s — who participated in arranging the collections of the Museum of the Ostroh Princes; collected materials related to J. I. Kraszewski’s stay in Volhynia; organized the numismatic collection of the Volhynian Museum (and also published a catalogue of coins); and contributed to the creation of regional museums in Dubno and Kremenets. Work on the editorial committee of the monthly Volyn Land—a publication of the Volyn branch of the Polish Society of Culture devoted to the cultural and local history affairs of the region—was also of great importance to the young researcher. The work of a young and promising researcher was interrupted by World War II. The day before it began, as a reserve second lieutenant, Jan Fitzke was called up to the Polish Army. Together with his unit he leaves for Nowy Sącz, and then for Berezhany. From there he writes his only letter to Lutsk: "Berezhany. 14.10.1939. Volyn Museum. How are you? I am sitting in Berezhany... I think that things are calm in Lutsk. I fear for the museum, lest some sabotage group steal something. Mr. Patron Leszczyński knows which exhibits are the most valuable. They can be packed accordingly and hidden in the basement, but only in a dry place. I cordially greet everyone and ask you to send news." A few days later, the infantry unit in which Jan Fitzke served is taken prisoner by Red Army subunits. Together with thousands of other Polish officers, he ends up in a prisoner-of-war camp in Kozelsk in the Smolensk region, from where in November 1939 he wrote his last letter to his family in Kraków. At the end of April 1940, during the liquidation of the camp in the Katyn Forest, Jan Fitzke was shot by the NKVD. The tragic fate also touched his best friend and colleague Yulian Niech, who was taken into German captivity and also died in the camp. Master Jan Fitzke left behind in Volhynia much valuable scientific research and archaeological material he had collected, which is still far from being studied and to which archaeologists and local historians repeatedly turn. But the most important work and, perhaps, the culmination of the young scholar’s life was the Volhynian Museum of Local Lore, which he turned into a genuine center of local history in Volhynia. Jan Fitzke is commemorated on a memorial plaque at Jagiellonian University in Kraków. Valerii Dmytruk, Hryhorii Okhrimenko, Oleksii Zlatohorskyi