I began the team’s out-of-town trip on the morning of Sunday, June 29, 1914. It was a beautiful, sweltering summer day — “only for joy and life, not for tragedy and death,” as I later wrote in my diary. During the trip, we carried out various assignments in the field of agroscience and only returned to Krakow late at night. I was tired, dusty, in thick boots and with a knapsack over my shoulder, so I slipped through a side street, not paying much attention to the festively dressed Cracovians strolling about. Only near the house where my boarding house was located, I saw two familiar “team boys” across the road. Seeing me, they rushed across the street and shouted merrily: “My friend, there will be war! Archduke Ferdinand is killed!”.

This amazing news made a bit of an impression on me then. I remember very well that instead of asking curiously about the details of this universally significant event, I immediately told my comrades: “Don’t tell me, there will be no war.” And we talk about other things that don’t really matter. After a few minutes I came home, completely not thinking about the Archduke, let alone the war.

The boarding house confirmed this news to me when I asked if the Sarajevo murders had really happened. The roommates sat in the dining room around a table covered with newspapers, discussing heatedly.

[Tu następuje koniec wspomnień, spisanych na maszynie do pisania w 1962 roku; brak dalszych stron, zawierających m. in. przypisy autorki. Dalszy ciąg to dziennik Marii Walewskiej, prowadzony w 1915 r., przepisany z oryginału przez wnuczkę M. Walewskiej w 2014 r. Zachowana została pisownia oryginału – IS].

Mood from the War of 1914/1915

News of the killings in Sarajevo reached Krakow at two o’clock in the afternoon and naturally caused great impression and confusion. Races, performances in theaters and cinemas were stopped. Starting from the state building, barracks, even from the university [Jagiellońskiego] the black flag is hoisted. The newspapers put out a marvelous addition, already adorned with photographs of the slain archduke. Various versions started circulating around town. There is much to read and talk about, but nearly every conversation ends in bickering over whether the murdered archduke was a friend of the Poles or Ruthenians, whether he liked or opposed Kaiser Wilhelm’s policies – or, most importantly – whether his assassination in Sarajevo would spark a European war. , or will it just be an internal tragedy of the Austrian court?

Many people were angry with Austria for not declaring war on Serbia immediately, but the general opinion was that there would be no war because the leader of the battle troupe had been killed. Little did they realize that preparations for war had begun everywhere. Troops in training are still moving through the streets of Krakow. Once I also met a large group of police and police returning from the shooting range in Wola Justowska. But, despite all this, the summer was so beautiful, hot, so sunny July days came that one did not want to think, let alone believe in the possibility of war. It seemed that this threatening cloud would still spread like it had done so many times before…