Stanisław Lorentz i Vladas Drėma - przyjaźń ponad podziałami

ENUsually Polish-Lithuanian antagonisms, occurring since the end of the 19th century, are emphasized. They overshadow the quite numerous examples of collaboration both within one family (with some representatives retaining their Lithuanian identity and others perceiving Poland as their historical fatherland) and among strangers. In both the scientific and general sense, human relations became their superior ideal. A meaningful example is provided by Stanisław Lorentz (1899-1991), a director of the National Museum in Warsaw for many years, and district conservator of historical monuments in Vilnius before 1939, and Vladas Drėma (1910-1995), a historian of art as well, who devoted all his life to evoking Vilnius in its original form, at present recorded only in documents. The sources for the considerations are provided by extensive correspondence between the two of them, dating from the end of 1958 to March 1991, that is to the death of the Polish scholar. It comprises more than (but mainly) the exchange of specialist opinions, but touches upon matters of interest for both nations as well as private life. It confirms that it is possible to be attached to the same traditions and the same town: Vilnius did not separate both sets of humanists, on the contrary it bound them forever.