Ostashkov, 25 November 1939
Beloved Wife and children!
Some 12 weeks have passed since our parting in Bielsko but only today am I able to inform you that I am alright and that I am currently in Ostashkov in the USSR, where I work as a machinist at the power station. You have been in my thoughts the whole time. I miss you so much and worry about your fortunes, whether you are in good health, if you are still in Bielsko, and what your material situation is. My poor family, you too are sharing the difficulties and dangers brought on by the hardship of war, risking your very lives. Józek told me that he met up with you in Włodzimierz Wołyński and saw that you were in a sorry state, and this saddened me greatly.
My lot is good, the food is sufficient, and the only aching that I feel, in my heart, is for a speedy reunion with you all. I am here together with my brother Józef and we both work at the power station. Józek, too, worries about the fate of his family, about whom he knows nothing, [not even] where they are.
I am writing my first letter, but I do not know whether it will reach you in Bielsko. In any event please write back to the address below, and tell me if and when you returned home, if you are in good health and in what state you found our apartment, whether the children go to school, if you have means of sustenance, and everything else [concerning] familial and neighborly matters.
Once you receive this letter, please write back as quickly as possible, because I await news from you impatiently and anxiously. Do not worry about me, for there will come a time, maybe soon, that we shall meet.
Ending this letter, I send you my love and kisses. I think of you without pause, and you are frequent guests in my dreams.
Your husband and father
Jan Szarowicz
[A note on the margin]: We are all from Bielsko.
My address:
Jan Szarowicz
Ostashkov post office
mail box no. 37
Kalinin Oblast
USSR
[Written on the reverse of the envelope]:
Sender Jan Szarowicz
Ostashkov post office
mail box no. 37
Kalinin Oblast
USSR
[A scrap of paper with his brother-in-law’s address, handwritten by Father]:
Brother-in-law: Franciszek Balcar, Szopienice, Szkolna Street 4, behind the post office, first floor to the left – from Janek from Bielsko
[Obverse of the envelope]:
Two stamps with a value of 15 kopecks, stamped with the date 23 November 1939, Ostashkov (in Russian).
[and data of the addressee]:
Dear Madam
Zuzanna Szarowicz
post office Bielsko/Bielitz
Wojewody Grażyńskiego Street 74
at Mr Jüttner’s
Silesian Voivodeship
HELENA SZAROWICZ, BRONISŁAWA KLIMEK
Bielsko-Biała, 11 August 1989
Editorial Office of the “Zorza” weekly
Mr Jędrzej Tucholski
List of persons reported missing –
Ostashkov
In connection with the publication of Mr Jędrzej Tucholski’s appeal in the “Zorza” periodical, which calls upon readers to come forward with the names and surnames of Polish prisoners of war interned in the USSR in 1939, we hereby report our Father, who was held captive at the camp in Ostashkov.
Point 1. Jan Szarowicz, son of Stanisław and Wiktoria née Gąsior, born on 2 December 1895 in Lovis [sic!] (Transylvania), Hungary-Romania [sic!], until 31 August 1939 resident in Bielsko, Wojewody Grażyńskiego Street 74 (Silesia), taken into Soviet captivity on 17 September 1939 in Tarnopol together with all other personnel of the State Police Station in Bielsko, and also with his brother Józef, the Commandant of the State Police Station in Żory near Rybnik (Silesia).
Point 4. A Senior Sergeant of the State Police (he was to be promoted to the rank of Warrant Officer (Aspirant) with effect from September 1939) at the Police Station in Bielsko, Silesian Voivodeship.
Point 5. He and his comrades were taken prisoner on 17 September 1939 in Tarnopol – according to the eye-witness account of the late Mr Aleksy Głowacki from Bielsko, who had been called up on the basis of a mobilization order to perform auxiliary police service, and who encouraged Father to escape, which however turned out to be impossible. Thus, we were aware of his fate even before we received his sole letter.
Point 6. From the camp in Ostashkov – written and posted on 25 November 1939 (with a return address given) to the address of our Mother, Zuzanna Szarowicz: Bielsko, Wojewody Grażyńskiego Street 74, which letter, having first been censored by the Oberkommando der Wehrmacht (so reads the seal), was delivered by two Gestapo men against confirmation of receipt on 27 December 1939. The return address of the sender, in Polish, was: Jan Szarowicz, Ostashkov post office, mail box no. 37, Kalinin Oblast, USSR.
We never received any response to the letters and postcards which we immediately sent in reply, nor were they returned to us. In a letter sent to us on 13 January 1949 from Szopienice (presently a district of Katowice) our cousin, Karol Balcar, a member of the Home Army, murdered at the age of 28 in Auschwitz in 1943, informed us that on the last day of the year 1939 they were contacted by a certain lady, the wife of a policeman from Piasek near Lubliniec (unfortunately, her name has not been recorded). She had been in Ostashkov, as a nurse, together with her husband, and returned with a strip of paper, obviously a fragment torn off from a larger sheet, with the address of Father’s brother-in-law jotted down in Father’s handwriting. This lady had been separated from her husband and sent back home on 20 November 1939. Before her departure she had managed to collect a dozen or so addresses, among them that of my Father’s brother-in-law in Szopienice.
The above materials are only a part of those still extant. The remainder are documents concerning my Father’s service in the Polish Legions, beginning in August 1914.
Point 7. We attach the following:
| a. | a photograph of Father in uniform, the reverse of which carries the original stamp of the State Police Station in Bielsko and the personal signature of its chief – at the time a Deputy Commissioner – Herlig (it is highly probable that he has been included in your list twice, as Commissioner Herlik and Herling), whose real name, surname and rank are as follows: Józef Herlig, Commissioner; |
| b. | a photocopy of Father’s letter from Ostashkov together with the original envelope (the obverse of the envelope is more legible on the original); |
| c. | a fragment of a letter written by our cousin, this concerning the visit (and the delivery of the scrap of paper with the address, handwritten by Father) of the aforementioned lady who had returned from Ostashkov and had with her a dozen or so other addresses to hand over. |
[A fragment of my cousin’s letter from Szopienice, dated 13 January 1940]:
I would now like to write about just one more matter, that is to provide some details concerning uncle “Szary”.
Namely, on the final day of the preceding year we were visited by a certain lady, the wife of a policeman from Piasek near Lubliniec, who had been in Ostashkov (some 450 km from Moscow) together with her husband. By the time she left the camp, uncle had already returned to health (this was on 20 November). She worked there as a cook and a cleaner – generally speaking, she helped nurse the sick. Well, this lady stated that the situation of those persons, the sick, was not that bad. The place where she found herself was a monastery or convent located on a lake-bound island, fortified, [or] rather surrounded by a barbed wire fence, with numerous guard posts equipped with machine guns. For a week they would give you [?] a pack of tea; hot water was rationed out in the morning and evening, while at noon the prisoners received hot food.
This lady wanted to remain there with her husband, however they did not let her, so finally, by way of an exchange, she ended up in a cottage. She managed to get home just before Christmas, after a month of arduous travel, while later, having arranged to stay with her in- laws in Szopienice for New Year’s Eve, she decided to drop by our house.
But please do not blame me or indeed any of us for the fact that I am writing about this only now. My Mother wanted to go over and tell you everything in person, but the sharp frost got in the way [?], and she did not leave home. Each of us looked at the other, hoping that someone else would write the letter, but no one was in the mood to do so [?], and [so] the task fell to me, although I only got round to it today. And because of all this we even forgot to ask the lady either her name or address.
Attached please find the slip of paper with the address, but I do not know whether this is uncle’s handwriting, or perhaps hers, for she had more of these addresses and tore this piece from a larger sheet.