http://www.polish-translation.net/
Here are two Polish - English computer translators to help you:
Permanent Mission of Poland to the United Nations
Halychyna/ Galician vital records website http://www.halgal.com/vitalrecords.html
Polish Losses in World War II compiled by Witold J. Lukaszewski http://www.ruf.rice.edu/~sarmatia/498/losses.html
Poland Under Soviet Occupation
Excerpts from: Revolution from Abroad: the Soviet Conquest of Poland, Western Ukraine and Western Belorusssia by Jan T. Gross, Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. 2002. xxiv + 396 pp. Notes, bibliography, and index. $44.89 (cloth). ISBN 0-691-09603-1, H-Net Book Review, Reviewed for H-Russia by Johanna Granville
Monument to the Murdered Polish Populace of the Kresy Regions http://www.kresy.co.uk/kresy_monument.html
Stalin's Ethnic Cleansing in Eastern Poland http://www.stalinsethniccleansing.com/main.htm
Timewitnesses.org The lost child from Siberia http://timewitnesses.org/english/~magda.html
Poland Under German Occupation
Speaking Polish in public was prohibited in the incorporated provinces during German occupation. On August 22, 1939, a week before his attack on Poland, Hitler exhorted his nation: "Kill without pity or mercy all men, women and children of Polish descent or language. Only in this way can we obtain the living space we need." As many as 200,000 Polish children, deemed to have "Germanic" (Aryan) features, were forcibly taken to Germany to be raised as Germans, and had their birth records falsified. Very few of these children were reunited with their families after the war. The Polish Righteous - those who risked their lives, by Anna Poray http://www.savingjews.org/
The Forgotten Holocaust - How could five million human beings have been killed and forgotten? About Polish holocaust, Richard C. Lukas writes that Poland lost 22 percent of its total population during the six years of war, or 6,028,000 people, and that about 50 percent of these victims were Polish Christians and 50 percent were Polish Jews (p. 39). http://www.holocaustforgotten.com/
Reflections on Richard Lukas' The Forgotten Holocaust by Ewa
M. Thompson
http://www.ruf.rice.edu/~sarmatia/498/thompson.html
Chapter 10 of the book The Last Sunrise by Harold Gordon
Born in Poland and deported for slave-labour to Germany, Harold Gordon lost his
family in the concentration camps.
POLES: Victims of the Nazi Era http://www.holocaust-trc.org/poles.htm
Eye witness account of suffering of non-Jewish people Wallace Witkowski: movie http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/oi_fset.jsp?ModuleId=10005473&ArticleId=72&MediaId=1238
Poland displaced and kidnapped children http://histclo.hispeed.com/essay/war/ww2/leb/leb-occpol.html
Forced workers and the Catholic Church website in German http://www.akademie-rs.de/70.htmOverlooked Millions: Non-Jewish Victims of the Holocaust by Karen Silverstrim, MA
"Another method, used with older children, was to separate them from their families and send them off for forced labour in the Reich. It was mainly girls between the ages of fourteen to twenty who fell within the scope of this action; they were usually sent to the Reich as domestic help and there subjected to a process of Germanization. The areas round Poznan and Lódz were the main source. The girls had most often been picked up in street round-ups or supplied by labour and social welfare offices or the Central Resettlement Office. In this way the Nazis managed to combine exploitation of slave labour with Germanization." "The Slavic territories lying to the east of Germany were particularly enticing as the Nazis considered their primarily Slavic inhabitants to be subhuman (Untermensch). The Nazis rationalized that the Germans, being a super human race, had a biological right to displace, eliminate and enslave inferiors.
Poland's Ukrainian conflicts:
Operation Vistula - Akcja Wisla
Akcja Wisla (Vistula Action) was a Polish government operation conducted in 1947 to depopulate southeastern Poland's "Ukrainian" population. All Rusyns|Ukrainians residing in southeastern Poland at that time were resettled into places in western and northern Poland. It was done to solve what the Poles call the persistent Ukrainian bandit problem, but in reality it was an attempt of ethnic cleansing.
Lavrentiy
Operation Vistula & the Lemkos - on this site.
Book: Concentration Camps - Poland, Ukrainians in Poland
Author: MiSYLO, Levhen. Iavozhno.
Title: Nashe Slovo (our word), 1990, 28 sichnia, ch.4, located in Press File
2; Znymky (photos).
Language--Ukrainian. Varshava (warsawa), 1990.
In 1931, Gareth Jones writes about POLAND'S FOREIGN RELATIONS, about the Pole as conqueror, landowner over Ukrainian peasant, who looked at the Pole as the oppressor. "Troops were sent to villages in Easern Galicia. Peasants were flayed; there were burnings and searchings, and deeds of cruelty and brutality were committed."
Map of partitions of Poland download gif
Polish costumes http://www.icbleu.org/artur/polcostumes.htm
Poland today http://www.poloniatoday.com/
The Post-War Years, 1945-1990 http://www.poloniatoday.com/history13.htm
Polish Migration to Australiahttp://www.geocities.com/terranova_au/
Associated Polish Home of Philadelphia http://www.balchinstitute.org/manuscript_guide/html/assoc_polish_home.html
Poland GenWeb, refugee page http://www.rootsweb.com/~polpomor/refugees.htm
History of the Polish Army http://www.angelfire.com/ok2/polisharmy/chapter3.html
Polish roots http://www.polishroots.com/history.htm
Polish Border Surnames http://www.maxpages.com/poland
Archives of Europe: http://www.uidaho.edu/special-collections/euro1.html
12/13/05
Dear Olga! Here is a christian Church in the Masuren in Poland, near Border
to Kaliningrad and White Russia. Thank you. All the best from Austria!
Gerhard, oe2ril@barcelona.com
Dear Olga Kaczmar,
I'm looking for a person, Mr K.L.H. van der Putt. He was born in Eindhoven, Netherlands and held in concentration camp in Sachsenhausen, Germany, in December 1944. After Sachsenhausen, he arrived in Bergen-Belsen in February 1945. In June 1945, Mr Van der Putt was in Gorodishche, Ukraine in a hospital. In July 1945, Mr. Van der Putt was in Grucele, Poland. He was there seen maybe with Mr. Theodore Serraris. In August 1945, he should have been in Wittstock, Germany. Somewhere in 1946 (maybe January), Mr. Van der Putt was hold as prisoner of war in Feodosija, Ukraine. Could you give me a help, how to find this person? Kind regards Jan Burgers /Netherlands
Polish - German names / localities
Hello!
My name is Maria Pilkington and I would like to say thank you for creating this website that highlights the plights and heroism the Polish people went through. My mother is Polish although she wasn't around during the war. My grandparents and great-grandparents were though and my great-grandfather was actually the local councillor for the village that they lived in. So they were forced out of their house at gunpoint by the Russians and taken to work-camps in Russia. Even though they had political influence, they fortunately were not killed although it is unbelievable that they were so lucky when others were being so tragically dealt with. My second cousin was also put in the work-camp next to Auschwitz, which was an awful experience as him and the rest of the inhabitants could smell the dead bodies next door and the workers were forced to bury the people who the Nazis killed. An awful and tragic experience in our history, but thank you for highlighting their experiences and pointing out that a lot of the Polish people died as heroes protecting many Jews (which I didn't know and I'm sure many more still don't). Yours Sincerely, Maria Pilkington, Great Britain.
In the DZOK we have also a branch working on Zwangsarbeiter from Poland; one of our members (Ilona Waloscyk) speaks Polish and has a very good access. The e-mail of the DZOK is dzok@gmx.de. I work for the DZOK as a freelancer for the DP-Project and my main subject is Judaism/ Jewish history of the area. Yours Christof Maihoefer
"I am not far from the forests that once protected our Ukrainian partisans; indeed, not far from where the Ukrainians and Poles finally, after fighting one another for so long, combined their efforts to rid of the Nazis once and for all. As I rode the train from Radom to Warsaw and passed the forests and the small villages, shadows and faces appeared among the green bushes, and peeked from behind the white-paper branches of birch trees. I could see them in their farmer's garb, watching me. Today, the old men and women who walk along the paths must be filled with stories. Did they feed partisans? Did they risk their lives to help those forest people? Or perhaps they helped to detonate a stick of dynamite or two to derail these very tracks to Warsaw; to sabotage the cars that carried stolen food to the Wehrmacht." Copyright 2001, email Chrystyna K. Lucyk
Thank you for putting together such a wonderful, heartfelt site. What horrors our relatives lived through - they were BRAVE and compassionate people. My father was born in LWOW, Poland. The family was from MAGIEROW - not too far from Lwow. They were heard from the last time in 1939. I have searched for years for relatives. My father was Kasimier Stanilaus Blaszczak; his father was Ludwik Blaszczak and his mother Anna. My father had a sister named OLGA. A cousin found a postcard from her to my father. My one wish is to see what they looked like. I have one picture of my grandfather and, of course, some of my father. My father and his brother, Frank, came to the US in 1913. My grandfather brought them here and then returned to Poland. Thank you again for providing insight into that time that I have a hard time believing even existed. Patty Blaszczak Cole Charleston, SC
Dear Olga,
I enjoyed reading the informatrion on Polish displacement during the second world war. However, my attempts to find detailed information about imigrants who lived in Masindi and Koja in Uganda all incomplete. Is there a way you could help me? Could I find someone whose family lived there? I will be glad to hear from you on this. Sincerely, Essie Sande UK
Dear Michelle,
In the spring of 1941 I, and some 200,000 Polish citizens living in Eastern
Poland,were conscripted into the Russian Red Army. I was transported from Lwow
(Lviv) to Voroshylovsk (Stavropol)in the Northern Caucasus. In July 1942 I escaped
and travelled from Krasnodar to Guzar (Uzbekistan) where I joined Polish Army
commanded by Gen. W. Anders. In August we left for Persia. You can find more
details by visiting my website Poland & WW II 1939-1945 at http://members.shaw.ca/rskulski/,
or visiting Kresy-Siberia site "A Forgotten Odyssey" - > Links > Poland in
World War 2-General > Poland and World War II 1939-1945. You may find the last
section of my website "War Time Diary / Memoir / Pamietnik" of
special interest. Good luck with your project. Best regards, Roman Skulski /
West Vancouver, Canada
Wolin
Reply: Wolin or Wollin is an island located in the Baltic Sea located just off the Polish coast. It is nearly connected to the island of Usedom. Water from the Oder river (Odra) flows into the Szczecin Bay (in Polish Zalew Szczeci?ski; in German Stettiner Haff), through the strait into Pomeranian Bay (in Polish Zatoka Pomorska; in German Pommersche Bucht), which is a part of the Baltic Sea. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wolin
Hi. I am Karnak Eugen. Iam looking for my uncle Karnak Ivan Vasiliyevich, borned in 1925, village Hopky, Lublin region, Poland. He disappeared in 1944 from Poland, when our family was emigrated from Poland to Ukraine. My email: ka65@mail.ru Thanks.
1/26/05 Dear Olga,
I am trying to trace my mother's escape from the Russians during January 1945. Here is the story she told me:
I found this information online:
Dear Olga !
Here is a picture from STEZNICA / Stezhnytsja / Styzhnycja (Galicia) in Poland from May 2004.
Kind regards. G.Rieck Barcelona, Spain
3/22/05 Dear Olga,
I am trying to research the years after the war and why my husband's parents were sent to the camp in Lusaka. Also anything about the camp as my husband left there in 1948 to come to the United States. Is there a web site that has more information ? Thank you Amy S. Rokoszak
7/16/06 Hello:
I am conducting research into post-War Polish refugees and their children. There is information on my website http://www.polishdiaspora.net/ about the archive I am building.
My original intention was to record the stories of the original DPs, but so many of their children have come forward with memories of life in the camps that I am now adding them to the archives. The immediate post-war period is a period that requires a lot of study and I am hoping to give those that lived through it a voice.
If you have an interesting story to tell and I would very much like to hear from you. Perhaps you would agree to a telephone interview? I look forward to hearing from you. Sincerely, Bogusia Wojciechowska
Monument
to the Blessed Mother, 1850.
5/9/05 RE: Confiscated property in Galicia:
The story in my family is that my Grandmother, Anna Pograniczna, had a
brother Hryc. He was the eldest brother, and would have inherited substantial
property in Wankowa, Galicia. He and his parents were was relocated
to Strij, Ukraine. He tried to return, was captured, and sent to Siberia.
He escaped after 8 years, finally made his way back to Wankowa. His
large home, in which many generations of Pograniczna's were married
and lived, had been destroyed. He died very shortly after finally making
it back. I walked the site last year, with my mother's first cousin.
My mother's grandfather Wasyli Pograniczna's pear tree still stands
at the site. Wasyl
Olga's reply: This is similar to our ancesteral lands in Galicia. After WW II in a forced evacuation my grandfather had to leave the huge farmlands of his forefathers and was relocated to the bombed out areas of Prussia, now Northeast Poland.
9/27/05 Hello Mrs Olga,
Here is my father's DP identification card. He died 6 years ago. I don't know if you can use these pictures in your great web page. Carlos Matecki, Venezuela |
Submitted by: Alan Newark, Leeds, UK braveheart562002@yahoo.com Source: http:groups.yahoo.com/group/Kresy-Siberia/message/27861
Reply to: do you know anyone who was in the Polish airforce in Britain
Regarding: Polish Anti-tank gunners in North Africa.
1) It is quite possible that your father was in the Polish Carpathian Brigade which formed in 1939 - 40 in Syria , then under French. That Polish
Brigade after the surrender of France in 1940 to Germany and creation of the pro German Vichy Government, crossed over to Palestine and Egypt, then under Britain. This Polish Brigade with British Armed Forces in 1941 was sent to Libya and for a few months defended Tombruk against renewed German - Italian advances. In my film "For Your Freedom and Ours" composed of archval material, there are even some pictures of the soldiers of the Brigade manning the guns in North Africa. Few weeks before the Fall of Tombruk to Germans in 1942 famous 'Karpacka Brigada' was withdrawn from fortress Tombruk and transferred to Palestine and Iraq where it was rejoined with the Polish Anders' Army coming out of Russia and reorganized into Third Carpathian Divission.
2.) Regarding: The Expelled Exhibition presently in European Parliament. I am one of thousands and thousands of Polish expellees from the Western Poland in 1939, 1940, 1941 and partly in 1942 thrown from our homes and deported to either the German designated zone for Poles, so called "General Government"at the beginning of German occupation or later mostly to Germany for slave labour. Just after German conquest of Poland, Germany annexed the Polish western lands like "Pomorze "and "Kraj nad Warta - Warthegau" into German Reich. In result of this in 1939 and 1940 hundreds of thousands of Polish inhabitants from Poznan, Bydgoszcz, Torun and Katowice, from those cities and regions were forcefully expelled from they homes and with only small personal belongings deported originally mostly to towns and villages in Generalna Gubernia, central part of Poland. Which supposed to be some holding reservoir for Poles and their homes and properties were turned to the German settlers arriving from Germany or to so called Volksdeuch, Germans from the East. In the following years of German occupation the deliberate expulsion of Poles from officially incorporated Polish Lands into Nazi-Germany reached deeper and deeper into Poland even to cities like Sieradz and Lodz which never before belonged to Germany, but the deportation mostly changed direction instead east to 'General Government' to slave labour to Germany proper..
My family turn came in March 1942. Just few days before Easter. At 5 A.M. waken up with loud knocks to our door by a German soldier and speaking Polish civilian Volkdeuch serving in the German administration were told to pack some personal things which each of us can carry in a suitcase, and within an hour be ready to appear before a military commission held just few hundred meters away on the parking lot of a few weeks earlier expelled Polish restaurateur. The commission composed of few German SS officers glancing at our general physical appearance, looking into our faces and eyes for signs of racial etnicity quickly decided that both my parents in the late fifties, me, 13-year old boy and my two older sisters were fit for labour. Consequently with the so selected group of about a thousand people from the city of Sieradz and vicinity, we were the following night moved to the Lodz assembly camp located in some empty factory hall where, under supervision of strict German military guards and little food, we were kept for about 10 days. Finally we were sent by train loads to slave labour camps in Germany. The other, smaller group of Sieradz inhabitants composed of old people and young children which the SS German officers designated as unfit to work in Germany was transported to Generalnej Guberni.And what happened to our homes, lands and possesions from which we were expelled? Most were taken over by German settlers arriving from bombed out cities in Germany, or Volkdeuch. Some, due to changing changing fortunes in WW II, were left uninhabited till the end of German Third Reich.
I myself only revisited Sieradz and the home of my birth 15 years later on my first visit to Poland from Canada
Michael Adamski www.mdavideo.com
3/26/08
While in Germany during the second world war Mrs. Irene Ozarchuk nee Kowal gave birth to a baby girl, Olga. When Olga was a few weeks old, she got sick and was taken to the hospital. The nurse which admitted the baby said to Mrs. Ozarchuk, "Oh my name is the same Irene Kowal (Canadian Ukrainian). A few days later, the nurse brings the pillow and blanket of the baby and said the baby died.
The mother did not see the baby after her death. As the Russian soldiers were moving the people, she did not leave her barrack. All these years she presumed her daughter was dead until a few years ago she receives this picture stamped at Sydney Australia and at the back it is written in Polish: "Olga is a well and beautiful lady." No other information is given. So we presume Olga was sold as a baby in Germany because at that time they were stealing children and selling them. We presume this is the baby Olga, grown up and somebody knew about Mrs. Ozarchuk because the enveloppe was sent to her to Northam. That is why were are trying to locate her. The hospital was Soltau. The mother was in a displaced person's Camp named Munster. (Click photo to enlarge.)We wrote to Germany and we received Olga's birth certificate but there is no record of her death. The hospital destroyed their records after 30 years so we couldn't get the information of when she was discharged and when they took Olga from the hospital.
We went to the Salvation Army police missing persons unit, but they all say they cannot help us. So we have tried different channels but to no avail. The mother is elderly and not too well, therefore, I would like to see them reunited because I really feel this is her daughter. If not then al least we'll clear the case. So if you have any further suggestion I would appreciate to hear from you. Thank you kindly for your time.
Sr. Muriel Zemliak / Ozarchuk family, mzemliak2@bigpond.com
I. Charsky & Co.
I. Charsky & Co. Law Firm is the largest firm worldwide in the field of Polish citizenships and handles requests from clients from all over the world who, as descendants of former Polish citizens are interested in obtaining Polish citizenship. The firm also specializes in the restitution of property in Poland to the rightful owners. www.icharsky.com
Contact person: Mandy Maor, Advocate, E-mail: mandy@icharsky.com
