Entitled Polish Radio. September 1939, the publication came about as a joint project with the state-run Institute for National Remembrance (IPN), Polish Radio’s IAR news agency reported.
The comic book portrays the defiant stand of Polish Radio staff, who continued to broadcast to the nation and lift its spirits even as bombs fell on Warsaw and the brutal Nazi German invasion rocked Poland in September 1939, executives said.
“It’s definitely a story, but the format of a comic book helps convey it in a more attractive way, as a narrative,” said Anna Piekarska, deputy director of IPN Press. “The publication is jam-packed with illustrations, and so it has much educational value, especially for the young generation.”
The mystery of Polish Radio's wartime recordings
Polish Radio. September 1939 also highlights the mystery surrounding audio footage made by Polish Radio staff during the Nazi German attack, which was originally stored on steel-made records, according to officials.
When the Nazi Germans captured Warsaw in late September 1939, they were determined to destroy the recordings, which included speeches by Polish leaders including Foreign Minister Józef Beck, public announcements and other sounds of a city under bombardment.
200 records hidden from Germans
Yet Polish Radio workers managed to smuggle some 200 of these steel-made master records out of the broadcaster’s premises and hide them away, the IAR news agency reported.
In 1979, ninety-three of these were found and their content, cleaned and digitised, was released in May 2022 as a five-part album, entitled A Collection of Polish Radio’s Gramophone Records From September 1939.
The search for the remaining steel-made master records from 1939 continues under a joint public-awareness campaign by Polish Radio and the IPN, entitled Where is the Black Suitcase?, officials told reporters.
Meanwhile, the new comic book is also part of the Polish government’s #bezprzedawNIEnia [No statute of limitations] campaign, raising public knowledge about the losses suffered by Poland as a result of Nazi German aggression that began on September 1, 1939, Polish Radio executives said.
(pm/gs)
Source: IAR, polskieradio24.pl, ipn.gov.pl