Welcome to Iwacewicze

Hello everyone. Welcome to the "Back To Iwacewicze" blog.

The history of the West has been one of severe turbulence. While we think of Europe as a peaceful and somewhat unextreme place, this has only been true for the last few decades. The unbridled slaughterfest that we know as the two World Wars was the culmination of centuries of increasingly vicious and widespread tribal combat. The nations involved could be considered civilized only by the measure of the convoluted justifications, and technological prowess, put into the effort to grab land and resources on a crowded continent. In the ebb and flow of borders, the movement of populations, and the devastation/reconstruction of cities and counties, many stories of ordinary people, the ones who ultimately pay the price of military adventures and political demagogy, are lost.

One of these stories is that of my father, Konstanty Monclair. His official story begins in March 1942, when testimony given to a United Nations Relief and Rehabiliation Administration intake officer states that he was handed over to the care of a Mrs. Proniewicz in a Polish town called Iwacewicze. His birthdate was estimated at May 1941, making him about 9-10 months old at the time. There are no hard details between that time and March 1947, when he was given over to the care of UNRRA. As he was a small child, he remembers very little about that time. When he came to the United States in late 1950-early 1951, the only records that he has (that he knows of) were his UNRRA registration form and his First Communion photo taken while living at the IRO Children's Village in Bad Aibling, Bavaria. I definitely have my work cut out for me.

So why am I taking on this seemingly hopeless project? In the past, my father had said that he tried to look into this, and about 5 years ago, my mother had tried to research this, without much luck. Several things have given me hope that I might make headway where they could not. An increasing amount of information has been made available on the internet. With a few hours' Google searches, I've been able to find the beginings of info trails that may lead me somewhere. Also, the establishment of Dr. James Watson's DNA Shoah project (http://www.dnashoah.info) may give some leads past the dead end of the paper trail. Other second generation of displaced persons may be out there looking for their past.

I am undertaking this project in three stages:
1. Research on whereabouts and details of the pre-UNRRA custody period of May 1941-March 1947.
2. Research on any records of his time under UNRRA custody, March 1947-the end of 1950.
3. Research on details of his life from entry into the USA up to his intake into Boys Town in the late 1950s.

In addition to information on my search, please feel free to post any thoughts or information on any other displaced person info search. While the focus of this blog is on my father's past, I'd also like to hear from anyone else who is engaged in a similar hunt for their past.