Good Evening to All,
I would like to thank Irena Czernichowska of the Hoover Archive for
sending me a copy of my father's Second Corps debriefing
statement. I am extremely happy that, along with a copy of the
original handwritten statement, Irene sent me a copy of the typed
transcript. I simply cannot read my father's beautiful cursive script.
It turns out that he and his family were deported to a Posiolek
(posio?ek) called Gorna (Go'rna) Kamionka also known by various
spellings of Viechnaya Kamionka. It was about 60 km north of the
railway station called Nowa Zaimka Onieskiej Oblasti, more or less
halfway between Omsk and Sverdlovsk. It belonged to the Yurginsky
region of Omsk Oblast although this does not look correct on a modern
map.
There were 45 families (3 of them Ukrainian) and 4 singles for a total
of 142 deportees from the powiats of Sambor and Dobromil. The specific
places they came from are: " Felsztyn, Gleboka (G?e,boka), Czaple
(kolonis'ci z Zachodu - colonists from the west), dwie rodziny z (2
families from) Laszek Murowanych, 1 family from Szumincy, 1 family
from Bylic, 1 z okolic (1 from the vicinity of) Drohobycza, i reszta z
(and the rest from) Lozow (?ozo'w) powiata dobromilskiego (kolonis'ci
od Krosna - colonists from Krosno)."
That first summer of 1940 they had an epidemic of Typhus and some 20
people died. In total, by August 1942, 32 of the original 142 had died
(not quite 25%). Almost half were children or teenagers.
For some reason, my father wrote down the names of the deceased. Here
are the surnames: Materna, Szajna, Skraba, Dolenko (Do?en'ko), Biskup,
Hawret, Kondziolka (Kondzio?ka), Panek, Bachman, Antosz, Zak,
Czarnota, Domaradzki, Prystoj, Cynkar, Batycka, Kwolek, Rysz,
Horysniak (Horys'niak).
The archives must be a gold mine if there exist thousands of
statements such as this.
Henry Sokolowski
