The exhibition Mission: Poland is the story of Poland's 20th century, based on the lives of Jan Nowak-Jeziorański and Władysław Bartoszewski. Their experiences form a key part of a generation's history, having both been raised in a Poland liberated after 123 years of partitions, and yet which in 1939 was once again forced to battle for its own freedom.
Władysław Bartoszewski was imprisoned in Nazi-run Auschwitz and by Stalinist forces, then fought for several decades to uphold the memory of the Home Army and the Polish Underground State. Nowak-Jeziorański made three trips across occupied Europe in order to reach the Polish Government in Exile, then headed up Radio Free Europe for a quarter of a century afterwards.
The year 1989 was not the end of the struggles for Poland. Nowak-Jeziorański, as the advisor to the US National Security Council, campaigned for Poland to become a member of the North Atlantic Treaty, while Bartoszewski was twice elected as minister of foreign affairs. Their life-long missions successfully ended only once Poland had joined NATO and the European Union. Towards the end of their lives, they bequeathed vast collections of personal memorabilia to the Ossolineum, items which chart their fates, adventures and the work they dedicated their lives to. The general archives they collected during their lifetimes are equally as important.
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