Please welcome Eugeniusz Pozniak to the group!
Regards, Stefan Wisniowski
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From: "Eugeniusz Pozniak" <epoz@...>
Czesc Stefan
Umiem czytac po Polsku ale ledwo pisze po Polsku, to reszta napisze po
angielsku...:-)
I came across your group via a Google search and it has quite excited me! I
have spent the past few years researching my family and thought I was nearly
alone in this kind of pursuit, but it looks like you have a thriving
community of like-minded people all looking for similar answers.
I was born in London, UK and now live near Manchester (the wp.pl address
isn't meant to confuse, it's just a bit more interesting than a hotmail
account).
My father's family come from Jankowicze, woj. Nowogrodzkie, they avoided the
NKWD in 1939 but were taken west by the Germans after Operation Barbarossa.
Some family managed to stay in place (still there now in Bialorus), some
were resettled in Wroclaw and my immediate family, following German camps
(ending up in 'Maczkow' as Oldenburg was renamed), came to the UK eventually
settling in London. (My uncle moved to Sydney with his family in 1984).
My maternal grandfather was from Bochnia and was a Superintendant in the
Police in Krakow in 1939 (previosly he was in the Austro-Hungarian army in
the 12 Dragoons stationed mostly in the Ukraine between Woloczyska and
Kherson. He then fought with 8 Pulk Ulanow in 1919-1921 including the
advance on Kiev and Battle of Komarow) -- In 1939, following orders to
disband and regroup on 17 September he travelled east to avoid the Germans
by attempting to get to Rumania. He was arrested by the NKWD and was sent to
Dniepropetrovsk. Then moved to Komi (a place called Mizok--?) and was
released with the Amnesty (he was then in Talica, nr. Moscow) whereapon he
made his way to Tatiszczewo to join with Anders' army. He was in 13PP
'Rysiow' then transferred to Lacznosz 5KDP (while in Khanaquin) and
continued the route through the Middle East and the Italian campaign ending
up in Bologna.
My maternal grandmother came from Lubartow woj. Lubelskie and was also sent
east. I know she was in registered in Novosibirsk, then the story picks up
again on the road from Jalal-Abad to Krasnowodsk where she was found by my
grandfather on the side of the road left for dead. He and his colleagues
helped to get her on the boat--apparently it was very strict and she would
have had to have been left behind if found out. She ended up in Tehran where
she joined PSK then followed the route of 5DP--my grandfather kept looking
after her--there was obviously a love story there somewhere but it has been
lost in the mists of time. She was there all the way to Italy, fell
pregnant, and had my mother in a Polish hospital back in Tel Aviv in 1945.
In 1946 my grandfather joined them for good following the demob of Polish
units in Bologna and they left for the UK in October 1947. Eventually to
settle in London.
I am still looking for many answers and am saddened that my family are
losing their story as recollection is so painful--and the people who could
have remembered best have long since passed away.
So on the basis that it's never too late I am trying to piece together what
I can before it really is too late.
With kind regards
Genio Pozniak
