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Family of POW makes historic donation

  • Published
  • By Senior Airman Chad Warren
  • 2d Bomb Wing Public Affairs
BARKSDALE AIR FORCE BASE, La. --  The Eighth Air Force Museum received a significant donation of World War II history June 9 when Joy Bolesta, wife of the late Stanley Bolesta, donated the journal her husband kept while held captive in a German prisoner-of-war camp.

Second Lt. Bolesta was captured after his B-26 Marauder was shot down over France in November 1943. He evaded capture for several months and was hidden by a French family who owned a bakery, but was eventually turned into the Gestapo by a mole in the French underground. The journal, which has stayed in the Bolesta family since his liberation in 1945, contains a detailed, hand-written account of life as a POW in a camp known as Stalag Luft 1 during World War II.

"The greatest impact of this kind of history is that it makes the person writing it and the time period seem real to the reader," said Maj. Harry Dyson, 2d Bomb Wing director of staff. "This is not just a story about a World War II prison camp; it is the day-to-day memoirs of a U.S. Airman who lived through the experience of being a prisoner of war in a German Stalag."

Lieutenant Bolesta was engaged to Joy at the time he was captured, and they were married after his liberation in 1945.

It is never easy for a family to part with such a close and personal family artifact, but the Bolesta family believes it will have a greater impact if displayed for younger generations of Airmen to see.

"I didn't want it sitting in a box on a shelf," Ms. Bolesta said.

The museum understands the personal and historical importance of this artifact and plans to take the proper steps to preserve the journal and prevent any damage.

"Like all fragile pieces of history, the goal is to make it accessible while still preserving it," Major Dyson said. "We are going to transcribe and copy the pages of the journal and have them on display, while the actual journal will be preserved under glass so that people visiting the museum can read the pages and then see the journal itself."

Stanley Bolesta was liberated from Stalag Luft 1 by the Russians in 1945, and held the rank of major at the time of his retirement from Barksdale Air Force Base in 1964.