The author of the present article, a historian, Piotr Świątczak, presents an edition of the letters from Marian Gieszczykiewicz (1889–1942) to his fiancée and a wifie-to-be, Elżbieta Schreyer (1890–1983). He also presents the history of the collection and emphasised its historical and sentimental value.

The author of the letters was a graduate from St. Anne’s Grammar School in Kraków and then Medical Department of the Jagiellonian University. After finishing his studies, he started his career as a scientist, researcher and lecturer at this University, and in 1924 he became a full professor. He also held the position of the Dean of the Medical Department of the Jagiellonian University. He was considered to be a distinguished bacteriologist. During WWII he took part in the undergound resitance movement. Due to that fact he was arrested by the Nazis (in 1941). He was a prisoner in the Montelupich Street prison and KL Auschwitz, where he died (in 1942). His life companion, E. Schreyer, graduated from the Queen Jadwiga Private Grammar School for Girls in Kraków and the Philological Department of the Jagiellonian University (Polish and German philology).

The set comes from a private collection of the scientist’s granddaughter, Ann Elizabeth Gieszczykiewicz-Jaron, who lives in England. It is unique in its character as it has never been made available to anyone, studied and published. Thus the present article is of great epistemic value. It consists of four parts. The first one is an extensive preface, in which the author presents the biographical notes about the sender and the recipient of the letters, and provides an analysis of their content, describes what they look like and what is the state of their preservation. The second, third and fourth part provide the editions of the letters: from the years 1917–1918 (to his fiancée from the southern front of WWI), from 1933 (to his wife and children spending their winter holidays in Zakopane) and from 1942 (to his wife and children from KL Auschwitz). The text is followed by the appendix with the reproductions of exemplary letters and photographs.