Summary Information
Leon Zietara Papers
1936-1937
1946-1980
Milwaukee Mss 29
0.8 c.f. (2 archives boxes)
UW-Milwaukee Libraries, Archives / Milwaukee Area Research Ctr. (Map)
Papers, mostly in Polish, of Zietara, a Polish native who served in the Polish underground army (Armia Krajowa) prior to immigrating to Milwaukee in 1948. Included are letters to Leon and Irene Zietara from family and friends in Poland, England, France, and Canada; his notebooks from classes taken at a Scotland refugee camp following World War II; identification, military, and travel papers, some issued by the Polish Government in Exile; and other items.
Polish, English
http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/wiarchives.uw-whs-mil00029 ↑ Bookmark this ↑
Biography/History
Leon Tadeusz Zietara was born January 25, 1917 at Medrzechow in the Dabrowa Tarnowska district of Poland. His father was a member of the Austrian police. Leon Zietara graduated from the Kazimerz Brodzinski Gymnasium in Tarnow in 1937, and was attending the Szkola Podchorazych Piechoty at Ostrow-Komorow near Ostroleka when World War II broke out. During the war Zietara played an active role in the underground army (Armia Krajowa) in Tarnow, using the pseudonym Lukasz. Following the war Zietara left Poland, residing first in Italy, then after 1945 in Great Britain, where he studied forestry and woodwork at an officer refugee camp in Scotland. In 1948 Zietara departed for the United States and settled in Milwaukee, where three years later he married Irene Wolosiewicz (1931-). Zietara received on-the-job training in cabinetry at Allen-Bradley in Milwaukee, where he worked as a cabinet maker. Zietara has also been an active member of the Polish Army Veterans' Association of America (Stowarzyszenie Weteranow Armii Polskiej w Ameryce), Post 94.
Leon Zietara was intended to be baptized Tadeusz Leon, but was mistakenly named Leon Tadeusz; relatives and Polish friends refer to him as Tadeusz, or its diminutives, Tadzio, Tadziu. Since entering the army, Zietara used Leon as his first name.
Scope and Content Note
About half of the collection consists of letters, most in Polish, addressed to Leon and Irene Zietara from Leon's brothers and sisters and from friends.
Among the family members are:
- Leon's brother Stansilsaw Zietara (born 1902 or 1903) living in Krakow with his wife Julia
- Leon's brother Jozef Zietara (born 1907 or 1908) living in France with his wife Gertuda (a Frenchwoman of Polish descent) and their children, Jan, Michal, and Laurent
- Leon's sister Lucja (Zietara) Satke (born 1911), a widow living in Rzeszow, Poland and her daughter Elzbieta Zgoda
- Leon's brother Eugeniusz Zietara (born 1914), living in a village near Medrzechow, Poland
- Irene's brother Piotr Wolosewicz, his daughter Joanna Zdonowicz, and her son Jon Zdonowicz
Friends include the Eugene M. Jasinski family in Hamilton, Ontario, and Genowefa Orlowski of Birmingham, England, formerly a Polish refugee living in the Middle East, with whom Irene Zietara began a correspondence in 1942. Most of the letters concern family and personal matters.
Noteworthy attachments to the letters from Stanislaw Zietara are:
- a Polish newspaper clipping regarding the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, attached to a letter dated December 6, 1963
- a clipping concerning Polish politics and quoting a relative from the community of Medrzechowa, with a letter dated April 1974
- a clipping giving the official Polish viewpoint of the SALT talks, attached to a letter of November 3, 1974
- a Polish clipping reporting on American neo-Nazis, March 14, 1977
- a picture of Pope John Paul II, December 2, 1978
- a Polish newspaper editorial on the development of the American neutron bomb, August 3, 1979
- an article speculating on President Reagan's new style of government, with a letter of November 9, 1980
The remainder of the collection consists of Zietara's class notebooks and lessons from the period following World War II when he studied forestry, woodworking, and English in Scotland. The notebooks are in both English and Polish. Among the personal documents are Zietara's military identification and travel papers, some issued by the Polish Government in Exile, used both in England and for his departure to the United States. Several photographs of Zietara are attached to his identification cards and passes. There are also a few grade reports and other papers from Zietara's schooling in Poland prior to World War II.
Administrative/Restriction Information
Presented by Leon Zietara, Milwaukee, Wis., 1980-1981. Accession Number: M81-049, M81-116
Processed by Menzi Behrnd-Klodt and Mark Thiel, September 1981.
Contents List
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Series: Personal Correspondence
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Box
1
Folder
1
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From Friends and Relatives, 1949-1981
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Box
1
Folder
2
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From Eugene M. Jasinski, 1971, 1976-1979
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Box
1
Folder
3
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From Genowefa Orlowski, 1975, 1977-1980
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Box
1
Folder
4
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From Lucja Satke, 1955-1963, 1965-1980
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Box
1
Folder
5
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From Elzbieta (Satke) Zgoda (Daughter of Lucja Satke), 1957, 1959, 1963, 1968, 1977
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Box
1
Folder
6
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From Leon Zietara's Father, 1951, 1953
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Box
1
Folder
7
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From Eugeniusz Zietara, 1976, 1979
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Box
1
Folder
8-9
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From Jozef Zietara and Jan Zietara (Son of Jozef), 1955-1980
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Box
1
Folder
10-11
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From Stanislaw Zietara, 1954-1980
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Box
1
Folder
12
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From Piotr Wolosewicz, Joanna (Wolosewicz) Zdonowicz, and Jon Zdonowicz, 1974-1980
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Series: Other Papers
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Box
1
Folder
13
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English Notebook
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Box
1
Folder
14-15
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Forestry Notebooks
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Box
2
Folder
1
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Zoology and Botany Notebooks
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Box
2
Folder
2
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Forestry Manuals
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Box
2
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Personal Documents
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Box
2
Folder
3
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Immigration and Naturalization, 1946-1949
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Box
2
Folder
4
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Travel Papers, 1946, 1948
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Box
2
Folder
5
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Education, 1936-1937, 1948
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Box
2
Folder
6
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Military, 1946-1948
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Box
2
Folder
7
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Correspondence with the American Embassy in London, 1947-1948
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