Kraków, 17 April 1989
[…]
Editorial Board
of the “Zorza” weekly for Catholic families
Mokotowska Street 43
00-551 Warsaw
Re: completion of the Katyń list.
With regard to the appeal of engineer Jędrzej Tucholski made in “Gazeta Krakowska”, I decided not to wait for further installments of the alphabetical list published in “Zorza” and immediately send all the data concerning my father and his stay in Kozelsk. Unfortunately, I cannot provide detailed information about my father, especially since all our belongings in Warsaw were burned and the Second World War took our entire family. During the occupation, it was impossible for our mother to pass all of it on to us. All we have are our IDs, and the youngest sister also has the ID of our mother. All the photographs of father that I have, I received from our friends. I couldn’t use official channels to search for father, for as daughters of an officer who fought in 1939, we were second-class citizens after the occupation. We suffered great difficulties on account of that, both at school and at work. Anyway, facts pertaining to that horrible period of Polish history are widely known, and we had to survive this.
It appears from what an officer said on a TV broadcast “Dawniej niż wczoraj”, that the Institute of History of the Polish Army [Military Historical Institute?] is in possession of documents that could supplement my knowledge about father.
Personal data of father:
Aleksander Nosarzewski, major of the Polish Army, born on 15 July 1898 in Kamianske, son of Franciszek Nosarzewski (an exile) and Julianna n ée Skalska, husband of Jadwiga Nosarzewska n ée Nowakowska, in 1939 resident of Warsaw, Lisa-Kuli Street 10.
He was an officer in active service and a lecturer at the Central Institute of Physical Education. I know neither what he studied nor what he taught at the Institute. I know that he was fluent in three languages: Russian, German, and French. When I came to see my father at the Institute, they would tell me whether he was absent or present at work referring to him as “Professor”. I attached a note which my father left us – it contains some surnames that may prove of use.
Military service:
Officer in active service, major of the Polish Army, lately in the 32nd Infantry Regiment (such data are on two identification cards: my mother’s and mine). As far as I remember, he was sent to the front to the border with East Prussia, to the 74th or 7[?]th Infantry Regiment.
On 4 September 1939, he was passing through Warsaw and came home for an hour. He was vexed because he was being moved to what he believed was the rear of the front, to Biała Podlaska. This is all I remember. It was there, in Biała Podlaska, that he was taken into Russian captivity. During the First World War, as a soldier of the Legions, he was also taken prisoner by the Russians.
My evidence:
An oral message given to the Polish Red Cross on 12 November 1939 by an American citizen whose surname I don’t remember and who was imprisoned together with my father, but got released as a holder of American citizenship (I heard what he said because I was with mother at the Polish Red Cross). On 29 October 1939, father was at a camp for Polish prisoners of war: Putivlsky camp, Tiotkino station, pochtovyj jaschik [mailbox] no. 5, Kursk Oblast (attachment from the Polish Red Cross, no. 1642/39, a copy). This man told us not to worry in case we didn’t receive any message from father, as he and a few other officers planned to escape from the camp. The escape must have failed, as my mother’s parents received a postcard from father sent from Kozelsk on 26 February 1940 (copy attached) – it was made from a pink notebook cover, and this is why the copy is so poor.
I attached three photographs of father: as a soldier of the Legions in the 32nd Infantry Regiment; his last photograph from Warsaw, also from the 32nd Infantry Regiment; and a photograph of father standing in front of the Central Institute of Physical Education, with the plaque with the name visible over his head.
The photographs my father might have had on his person: an original small photograph with the three of us (daughters), which I gave him; a copy of this photograph with the three of us (I’m not sure which of these two I gave him); a photograph of our mother, the same as in her ID.
Should my father be among the unidentified, he might have had on him also some letters written in Polish and Russian – signed by my mother as “Dziuna” or written in Russian by my mother’s mother, Stanisław Nowakowska, or by Kazimierz [?]. The address on the envelope might be: post office in Skalbmierz, Małoszów village.
Maybe some of these are among the documents uncovered in Kozelsk. I would like to know that very much. I don’t believe in the good will of Russia, and I don’t believe that documents concerning the Katyń massacre and Kozelsk will be made available. I know that families have evidence of this crime, but they are wary and don’t make it available out of fear that they might lose it.
I am severely disabled (with a certificate of disability issued by the Commission for Disability and Employment), a pensioner, and a childless widow, so I couldn’t care less for the tribulations that I might have to suffer, but I know that many people are still distrustful. I am a member of the generation that trod the road of thorns, without rose-colored glasses. I wish for this campaign to succeed, so that the officers who died a martyr’s death in defense of their homeland and freedom, will finally be honored.
I am happy to be able to show evidence concerning my father to all Poles – thus partially filling this huge blank spot – and not merely pass it on to the next generation of my immediate family.
Katarzyna Zachara
n ée Nosarzewska
the oldest daughter of Major
Aleksander Nosarzewski,
murdered in Kozelsk
A list of evidence – attachments to the present letter:
| 1. | a notice from the Polish Red Cross in Warsaw of 29 October 1939 about father’s stay in captivity; |
| 2. | A postcard from Kozelsk from 26 February 1940, sent to Nowakowskis, post office in Skalbmierz, Małoszów village; |
| 3. | a letter from the Polish Red Cross, dated 3 February 1959, about the search for the prisoner in Russia; |
| 4. | a letter from the Polish Red Cross, dated 17 April 1961 – notice of failure to find him; |
| 5. | an ID of the prisoner’s wife, Jadwiga Nosarzewska; |
| 6. | an ID of the prisoner’s daughter, Krystyna Nosarzewska; |
| 7. | an original photograph of his daughters from 1939, which the prisoner had on him; |
| 8. | a copy of a photograph of his daughters, the size of [the photograph] listed under item 7 – the prisoner could have had it on him; |
| 9. | a photograph of father, prisoner from Kozelsk, in front of the Central Institute of Physical Education in Warsaw; |
10. a photograph of father, prisoner from Kozelsk, as soldier of the 32nd Infantry Regiment;
11. the last photograph of father from 1939 – Major Aleksander Nosarzewski, 32nd Infantry Regiment;
12. a note handwritten by father in pencil before he left for the front.