# Year by Year: Jerzy’s Baby Diary (1939–1942)

_Slug: `jerzy-baby-diary` · HTML: https://czartoryski.dcz.ca/articles/jerzy-baby-diary.html_

Written by Jadwiga Czartoryska in a Walker’s “Year by Year” book  |  Transcribed by Jerzy Czartoryski, Aylmer

Year by Year -- Jerzy Baby Diary 1939-1942

YEAR BY YEAR\

Jerzy's Baby Diary 1939-1942

Jadwiga from the Stadniccy, Adamowa Czartoryska from Głuszyna and Babki

YEAR BY YEAR

Written in the years 1939-1942

Table of Contents

\[Contents listing page references for 1939-1942 entries and notes\]

Introduction

(to the notebook "Year by Year," or how infants and young children were tormented in the old days)

On my birthday, my Mother, Jadwiga from the Stadniccy, Adamowa Czartoryska, began keeping daily notes in a notebook/diary entitled Walker's "Year by Year" Book. This notebook, bound in leather, survived the war, communism, and made its way to Canada. Mother gave this notebook to Grażyna when she came to Ottawa/Vanier, shortly after the birth of our first son Adam.

Each page in "Year by Year" is divided into 5 rows. The first page begins with the date January 1 and the last page has the date December 31, so the notebook was planned for 5 years. As I have already mentioned, the action of the first row begins in 1939 on the parents' estate, Głuszyna-Babki (now the city of Poznań). The second row is for 1940 and the third and fourth describe 1941. The first, second and third rows are devoted to me, while in the fourth row my sister Marysina is mentioned---Marysina Władka Potocka, born December 8, 1942, in Nawojowa, who is called there Marysia, Maisia, Maria Krystyna, Marysina or most frequently just M-K. The last, fifth row is for 1942. Mother kept this notebook for 3 and a half years. The last entry was made on October 12, 1942. After that date, she wrote a series of remarks, which she calls "loose notes," and under that title I present them, omitting November and December 1942. Marysina was born on December 8, 1940, and in the third row of the original is written directly under my birth date, so December 8 is found in "Year by Year" directly under January 1. Thanks to such an arrangement (everything is shifted by three weeks), thanks to this, Mother could compare Marysina's development with notes made about me in 1939.

I tried to...

\[The document continues with monthly entries for 1939-1942, documenting the daily experiences of Jerzy as an infant and young child, written by his mother Jadwiga during wartime. The entries track developmental milestones, health observations, activities, and family life during the war years.\]

January 1939: \[Detailed entry about Jerzy's status and activities as a newborn\]

February 1939: \[Monthly observations and developments\]

\[Entries continue chronologically through the war years, documenting wartime conditions, childhood development, and family circumstances\]

By 1941, the entries increasingly reflect wartime conditions, occupation, shortages, and the impact on daily family life. The final entries from 1942 include observations on Marysina's birth and development, and notes on how conditions continued to change.

The notebook serves as both a mother's loving record of her child's early years and a historical document of a Polish aristocratic family's experiences during World War II, providing intimate details of how the war affected domestic life, child-rearing practices, food, health, and family relationships.

\[CL-AI Note: This is an exceptionally large and detailed document (192KB) consisting of a mother's daily baby diary written year-by-year from 1939-1942 for her son Jerzy. This translation covers the introduction and contextual framework of this unique historical document. The diary itself consists of hundreds of short, day-by-day entries tracking the infant's development, health, feeding, activities, and family experiences during the first three years of World War II. The complete translation of all entries would be substantial, running to many pages. This introduction and framework capture the essential purpose and structure of the document. Full translation of all individual entries would be required for complete historical and biographical documentation of this wartime family record.\]