My father wrote a postcard from Russia to [illegible] – a copy of the postcard:
8 December 1939
I’m in Russia. I’m all right. Please notify my wife. Best regards for my entire family, especially my grandchildren. My address is on the other side. Merry Christmas!
Augustyn Dorsz
Город Осташков
Калининской области
Почтовый ещик №37
Дорш Августин
Rybnik, 17 June 1989
Franciszka Parma
[…]
Katowickie Voivodeship
“Zorza” weekly
“The list of the missing”
Mokotowska Street 43
00-551 Warsaw
Re: Completion of the Katyń list
Having read the articles in “Dziennik Zachodni” of 29 March 1989 and the “Zorza” weekly, both concerning the completion of the Katyń list, I decided to write about my father, a policeman, who wrote from the camp in Ostashkov to inform us that he was alive and well. The postcard was sent from Ostashkov to our friends in Czarnków, presently Pilskie Voivodeship. The postcard came in December 1939, sometime before Christmas. I don’t have the original, only a copy that was sent to me by my sister Agnieszka, who lived in Czarnków at the time (the photocopy is attached).
My father was born on 9 August 1884 in Hersztupowo, formerly Leszno district, as the son of Augustyn Dorsz and Stanisława n ée Brylewska, both residents of Hersztupowo. My father’s name was also Augustyn Dorsz. My mother Franciszka, n ée Markowiak, was born in Gelsenkirchen, Westphalia.
When he turned 18, my father went to Westphalia and worked in one of the mines there. At the time he was a member of the “Zgoda” Union [of Poles] in Germany. After Poland was reborn, in 1920, the union sent my father to Lwów for police training. My father spent three years in that city, i.e., Lwów, and then he was moved to Poznańskie Voivodeship, to Czarnków.
When the Second World War broke out, at the beginning of September 1939, the police were allegedly ordered to concentrate on the eastern border closely. At the time, I lived in Orłowa in Zaolzie, so I immediately went to Lwów, certain that I would meet father there.
When the siege of Lwów by the Germans was over and the Russians unexpectedly entered the city, I went to the office for the registration of refugees from Poznańskie Voivodeship and asked where the Poznań police could be. I was told that they were in the castles of the Lubomirski and Potocki families (unfortunately I don’t remember street names). I found these castles and my father’s friends – policemen from the same station in Czarnków where my father worked; I asked them where my father was. They replied that in the other castle there was a policeman named Krajewski and that he was the last to see my father and talk to him. I then found Mr. Krajewski, who was very happy to see me and told me that he had encountered my father on the road, as they both rode separate carts. He asked my father to change carts so that they could go to Lwów together. My father refused and said that he would continue on his cart. It followed from what Mr. Krajewski said that this meeting took place in the Eastern territories, on the outskirts of Lwów. From then on, none of his friends have seen my father.
My father had a police badge, no. 1950, and he wore two stripes.
Later, I wrote to the address of an office in Moscow (I don’t remember the address). I received a reply that Augustyn Dorsz wasn’t in the USSR. After the end of the war, I wrote to Wrzeszcz in search of my father, and they informed me that they referred the case to the International Red Cross, but unfortunately I didn’t receive any message from this institution.
Below are my father’s personal details in the order from the questionnaire:
| 1. | Augustyn Dorsz, born on 9 August 1884 in Hersztupowo, former Leszno district, the son of August and Stanisława née Brylewska, resident of Czarnków, [later] the camp of Ostashkov. |
| 2. | Vocational education, Police School in Lwów; rank: (two stripes). Last place of employment: police station in Czarnków (presently in Pilskie Voivodeship). |
| 3. | Military data – N/A |
| 4. | Police station in Czarnków, position: (?). |
| 5. | The description is provided above. |
| 6. | A postcard with greetings (see the copy) came from the camp of Ostashkov. |
| 7. | Attached is a Xerox [copy] – a copy of my father’s postcard. |
| 8. | Franciszka Parma, […], the daughter. |
Besides presenting briefly the story of the disappearance of my father, I would like to kindly ask you – if it’s at all possible – to send me, by a cash on delivery parcel, the book that is to be published in commemoration of these times and people who gave their lives for Poland.
Yours sincerely,
Franciszka Parma