Kazimierz (Togo) Falat Art for Sale and Sold Prices

b. 1904 - d. 1981

Before the war Ben’s father, Togo, also an accomplished painter, lived in Bielsko Biala in Upper Silesia. When the Germans occupied Poland in 1939, they considered him politically suspect and he was sent to Auschwitz concentration camp. He was released 6 months later only to be conscripted into the German army two years later (the Germans considered Silesia and Pomerania to be German territory and everyone living there was subject to conscription). His skill as an artist, and fluency in Italian (his mother was Italian) meant that he was designated “for special use” and in that capacity he found himself in Italy as a cartographer/interpreter in the defensive perimeter around Salerno during the allied invasion. A near by shell burst landed him in hospital for a week suffering from shock and loss of hearing

Soon after returning into the line the Germans were forced to withdraw but Togo managed to stay behind to surrender to the allies, complete with his satchel of immensely valuable maps showing the disposition of German defences. While a PoW he volunteered to join the Polish 2nd Corps and, after an English language course, was deployed again for special duties as an interpreter.

As a PoW, Togo had made brief contact with his family in Poland through the services of the Red Cross, but it soon became clear that his position as one of the ‘landed gentry’ made it impossible for him to return safely to Poland after the war. Even maintaining contact would have risked repercussions against his family by the pathologically suspicious communist government, so he made a conscious decision not contact his family again. Having arrived in England in 1946 he was posted to Blackshaw Moor camp and after demobilisation found work at the Royal Doulton ceramic factory in nearby Stoke-on-Trent. As a skilled artist he was employed painting the famous Doulton figurines prior to firing. He hated the work which allowed no freedom of expression and was just basic craft rather than the art that he enjoyed so much before the war.

Ben (Benvenuto) Falat, was born in Stoke-on-Trent and, in 1975, married Veronica Dunbar the daughter of Captain R.E.C. Dunbar RN, in Lowestoft. Ben learned that during the war Cpt. Dunbar had been in command of a Monitor-class vessel, HMS ROBERTS, and he recounted supporting the Allied Landings at Salerno with fire from over-the-horizon using two chimneys as aiming-points. Although we shall never know, it would be remarkable if the exploding shell that landed Ben’s father in hospital had been fired by Ben’s grandfather in law.