A brief history of the Polish Militaria Collector’s Association

Polish Militaria Collector’s Association members have been concentrating on locating, identifying, studying, describing and collecting of antique Polish arms and armor, documents, uniforms, decorations, paintings, prints, books, etc.

On October 26th 1986 in the home of Andrzej Zaremba in N.Y., 9 people were invited to the first meeting. Those invited were Jan Czas, Tomasz Jankun, Marek Kaleniecki, Tadeusz Kwiatkowski, Jozef Malejka, Wiktor Sasadeusz, Zbigniew Tazbir and Witold Wegorzewski. The guests had become acquainted at various auctions of Polonica and exhibits of Polish culture in the New York metro area. They all shared a passion for Polish Military history and all collectable objects relating to this history. Many already had substantial collections in this field. The initiator and host of the first meeting was Mr. Andrzej Zaremba. In the early 80’s he had thoughts of reactivating “Bron & Barwa” ( Arms and Colors ), but for various reasons this never came to fruition. Undaunted, a few years later he gave life to our organization which brought together connoisseur’s and collector’s of Polish Militaria. This idea was introduced at the meeting and received the full support of all the guests. A set of 7 points were introduced and became the guiding statutes of the club, which was named "Polish Military Collector’s Association - Arms and Colors Abroad". Andrzej Zaremba was nominated as the coordinator and Tadeusz Kwiatkowski was nominated as the assistant coordinator.

Once a month, a meeting is held at the residence of one regular member, which gives everyone an equal opportunity to show and discuss his collection. The meetings consist of an official part during which club issues are discussed and decisions are made regarding club matters. The host member has the responsibility of preparing a lecture on a topic of his choice. Also, the host must serve appetizers, a full dinner and desert. Using this format, the club has been in existence for the past seventeen years. Meetings are generally held on weekends in order to assure that as many people as possible will attend. The club is not political and therefore does not associate with nor endorse any political party.

On November 22nd 1987 the club changed its name to “Arms and Colors Abroad” and after the death of its founder Andrzej Zaremba (Oct. 31st 1989), the name was changed again to the current “ Polish Militaria Collector’s Association in memory of Andrzej Zaremba”. The club wished to honor the memory of this outstanding connoisseur of Polish Militaria. Along with the name, the statutes of the organization were also modified. These new statutes (19 paragraphs) were created and a four member regulatory panel was elected to settle any disputes between members. A club badge was designed and manufactured along with a membership document.

The club badge is a Polish Lancers cap from the 1st Regiment of the Polish Light Horse Lancers of Napoleon’s Imperial Guard.

The clubs activities include concentrating on locating, identifying, studying, collecting and accurately describing Polish Arms and Armor, documents, uniforms, decorations, paintings and prints. One of the main goals is to perpetuate close cooperation between club members and others who have similar interests. This is accomplished by exchanging information and leads which help individual members locate Polish Military items. Since the inception of the club in 1986 to December of 2001, a total of 170 meetings have taken place during which the host members have given over 100 lectures. The club has had the honor of many distinguished guests who are well known historians, veterans, museum curator’s, and military authors, such as; Prof. Dr. Zdzislaw Zygulski jr., Dr. Ryszard Swietek, Wojciech Grochowalski, Henry Wielicki, Andrzej Krzystof Kunert, Renata Wilewska, and Kazimierz Doboszewski.

Another important feature of the club is the idea of popularizing the collecting and maintaining of Polish Commemorative cultural items in the United States in order to bring about awareness of our Polish Heritage. This activity is addressed towards Americans of polish descent in particular. Many of our members; Dr. Witold Lawrynowicz, Krzystof Langowski, Mieczyslaw Rudek, Piotr Kumelowski, Dr. Jan Koniarek and Wojciech Budzynski, publish articles about collecting and the history of Polish Arms in various newspapers and magazines in the United States and Canada. The most visible and effective activities of the club are the exhibitions of our members collections. August 18th 1991 was the clubs first exhibition, which took place in Doylestown, Pennsylvania, at the church of Our Lady of Czestochowa under the title “ Days of glory of Polish Arms” from Pskow to Wilhemshaven (1581 - 1945). At this exhibition the club presented a wide variety of Polish Arms characteristic of the 400-year history of polish arms during this period. The next exhibition took place at the Polish Consulate in New York City on November 11th 1992. This exhibition was dedicated to the 200-year history of Poland’s highest military award, the “Virtuti Militari”. During this exhibit over 40 original examples of the Virtuti Militari were displayed and described along with many other items tied to the history of this military decoration. The third exhibition was held in Clark, New Jersey organized by Polish Airmen from around the globe during which the club participated by presenting items related to the Polish Air Force. The fourth exhibit took place at the Polish Veterans hall in NYC, New York from November 15th to December 01st 1996, to commemorate the 75th Anniversary of the hall. The club organized an exhibition titled “ Arms and Colors of the Polish Army 1914 - 1945. The fifth exhibit took place on June 03rd 2001 in Homdell, New Jersey during Polish Heritage Day. This exhibition was limited to examples of Polish Arms from the 18th to the 20th century.

Since February of 1991, the club has been publishing an annual magazine. Our beloved ex-president Tadeusz Kwiatkowski produced the first three volumes. Volume four was written and published by Wojciech Budzynski. In May of 1993, Hetman magazine was published with new graphics, which were designed and formatted by Mieczyslaw Rudek. This issue contains many articles written by our founding member ( Andrzej Zaremba ), which had never been published. Many well-known authors from Poland also participated in this issue as did our club members. The club cooperates with many organizations like the Intrepid Museum in NYC, the Polish Military Society in Chicago, the London based Museum and Institute of General Sikorski, the Association of Polish Veterans in NYC, the Polish Army Museum in Warsaw, Poland, and various private collectors of antique arms and armor from around the globe.

Another goal of the club is to present an accurate history of the Polish Army and Poland to the general American public. An exhibition entitled “ Polish Armed Forces 1939-1945”, organized by the nyc based Intrepid museum in conjunction with the Polish Army museum in Warsaw, Poland was one in which the club played a role. On the 50th Anniversary of World War II, the American media presented various articles, film documentaries and programs dedicated to the events of WWII. In most instances, the information relating to Poland was completely inaccurate or purposely falsified. One example of media misinformation was the claim that Poland surrendered in three days and the ever-popular myth of Polish cavalry charges against German tanks during the September 1939 campaign in Poland. The other major fallacy of the media was the reconstruction or shifting of Poland’s eastern border during the campaign to coincide with the current border. The events, which took place in the eastern half of the country, have never been told to the American public by any form of media in the USA. Another major blunder during 1989 was the mixing up of the Polish Warsaw Uprising with the Warsaw Ghetto uprising. However, the worst example of media revisionist history has to be the labeling of concentration camps in Nazi occupied Poland as Polish concentration camps. This is truly an outrage because the first victims of the nazi reign of terror were catholic poles, mainly priests, nuns, elected officials, professors, soldiers, etc... This led to the club writing many letters of protest to the various newspapers, which published this misinformation, however no response has ever been received.

In 1993 a book was published titled “ Poles and Saxons of the Napoleonic Wars”. One of the authors was a member of our club, Mariusz Wesolowski . Two years later another book appears titled “ Polish Air Force 1939-1945” which was written by our dear friend and current member Dr.Jan Koniarek along with a monograph “PZL Fighters P1 thru P8”. Although the main focus of the majority of our members is Polish Militaria and Polish History, we do have members who’s interests are much broader. Some collect Polish Art, Silver, Porcelain, Antique Maps and Prints, books, etc.. On many occasions our members have been called upon to give their expert opinion to many reputable institutions in the United States and abroad. Marek Kalenecki is a consultant to several auction houses specializing in European numismatics and is associated with the American Numismatic Society. Thomas Jankun has an Honorary position with the “ Nippon Bijutsu Token Hozon Kyokai”, an exclusive society for collector’s of Japanese side arms.

From 1995 to 1999 the club maintained a Website, which was created by Mieczyslaw Rudek. Due to unforeseen circumstances we no longer have that site. In 2002 the site address was changed to http://www.hetmanusa.org and will be rebuilt by its current members.

Officers of the club: