Barbara Bojarska began researching German Nazi crimes in Pomerania in 1963 as an employee of the West Institute (Instytut Zachodni) in Poznań. She published the results of her research in 1972 at the Western Institute under the title: “Eksterminacja inteligencji polskiej na Pomorzu Gdańskim (wrzesień – grudzień 1939)” [The Extermination of the Polish Intelligentsia in Pomerelia (September – December 1939)].
In the same year, Dr. Bojarska signed a contract with the Museum of Kashubian-Pomeranian Literature and Music in Wejherowo to publish a monograph on the Nazi crimes in Piaśnica, but in the interests of scientific accuracy, she refused to allow the museum management to influence the data she had compiled, which led to the book being withdrawn from print. Bojarska corrected the number of Poles murdered in the Piaśnica forest, which is still widely circulated today and is not supported by any facts, from 12,000 to 2,000. She also refused to downplay the significance of the blood sacrifice made by representatives of the Polish Roman Catholic clergy. Thanks to the efforts of Jerzy and Wojciech Kiedrowski, the sons of Judge Władysław Kiedrowski, who was murdered in the Piaśnica Forest, the monograph on Piaśnica was finally published in 1978 by the Ossolineum publishing house in Wrocław. Further editions appeared – mainly thanks to the efforts of the local government of Wejherowo and the “Rodzina Piaśnicka” (Piaśnica Family) association in Wejherowo – in 1989, 2001, 2009, 2018, and 2022 (six editions in total). In the first edition of the book, the author published a list of the victims murdered in Piaśnica, including the personal details, occupation, and place of origin of 427 people.
In subsequent editions of the book, published in 2001 and 2009, the list of people murdered in Piaśnica was expanded to include the findings of Rev. Daniel Nowak, pastor of the Christ the King and Blessed Alicja Kotowska Parish in Wejherowo, custodian of the sanctuary in Piaśnica, and chaplain of the “Rodzina Piaśnicka” association, as well as Elżbieta Grot, custodian of the Stutthof Museum in Sztutowo, and now includes 852 names.
Biography Dr. Barbara Bojarska (née Niemczyk)
She was born on July 17, 1920, in Bliżyce in the Poznań Province to a family of teachers of Kashubian-Pomeranian origin. She completed elementary school in Grudziądz and began her education in 1938 at the private girls' high school run by the Resurrectionist Sisters in Wejherowo. The school's principal at the time was Blessed Alicja Kotowska, a sister of the Resurrectionist community and now the most famous victim of the Nazi massacre in Piaśnica, who was murdered by the Germans on November 11, 1939.
During World War II, Bojarska was forced to perform hard labor in Chojnice. After the war, she returned to Wejherowo to complete her interrupted schooling. From 1946 to 1951, she studied economics and graduated from the University of Economics in Poznań. After graduating, she worked as a financial officer and in 1958 took a position at the West Institute in Poznań. From 1963 until her retirement in 1981, Bojarska was a research assistant at the West Institute's research center for the Nazi occupation period. She conducted archival research and field studies, placing particular emphasis on finding witnesses to Nazi crimes. It was she who wrote down the statements of Elżbieta Ellwart, the only direct witness to the executions in the Piaśnica Forest.
Based on research in state archives, materials from the Association of Fighters for Freedom and Democracy (ZBoWiD), the presiding committees of district councils, and the archives of the Main Commission for the Investigation of Nazi Crimes in Poland, with particular reference to the files from the trial of Albert Forster and Richard Hildebrandt, as well as reports from witnesses to Nazi crimes and families of victims, Barbara Bojarska published a series of articles. In recognition of their scientific value, the Council of the Faculty of Philosophy and History at Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań opened her doctoral proceedings at the end of 1966 on the topic: “The extermination of the Polish intelligentsia in Pomerelia between September and December 1939 against the backdrop of the general principles of Nazi policy towards Poland.” In 1971, at the age of 51, Barbara Bojarska obtained a doctorate in humanities in the field of history, and a year later, the West Institute published her doctoral thesis entitled “The extermination of the Polish intelligentsia in Gdańsk-Pomerania (September–December 1939)”. During her professional career, Barbara Bojarska published two monographs, 22 scientific articles, and 13 reviews and discussions. Both monographs deal with the topic of the extermination of the Polish population in Danzig-Pomerania.
Since 2001, Barbara Bojarska had been a resident of the provincial house of the Congregation of the Sisters of the Resurrection of the Lord in Poznań. She died in December 2018 at the age of 98 in Poznań.
In his monograph on Nazi crimes in Pomerania in 1939 (2024 edition), Dr. Tomasz Ceran describes Dr. Barbara Bojarska, together with Prof. Włodzimierz Jastrzębski and Prof. Jan Sziling, as a scientific “giant” in this field.