This whole story begins in a town in Poland. However, proper spelling of Polish place names was not a major concern of the case worker who prepared my father's transfer form. The town from which Mrs. Proniewicz, her two children, and my father were
evacuated in 1944 was alternately spelled Iwaniewicze, Iwaczewicze, and Iwacewicze. After my friend Evan (who had lived briefly in Poland) and I investigated further, we decided that the town in question was Iwacewicze.
Iwacewicze is in the Brest Voblast (province) of current-day Belarus. However, until 1939 it was part of Poland. In 1939 it was ceded to the Belarusian Soviet Socialist Republic (BSSR) under a secret agreement with Nazi Germany. In 1942, the Nazis seized the provincial capital, Brest, decimating the Jewish population. In July, 1944, the Red Army retook the city. In 1945, the province officially became part of the BSSR and the majority of its Polish population was expelled.
According to the testimony given by Mrs. Proniewicz when she turned my father over to UNRRA custody in 1947, she was asked to take care of him in March 1942 by the operators of a children's transport. As mentioned above, they were evacuated from Iwacewicze in 1944 to Weiden, in northern Bavaria.
I have some questions about the reported time frame of the Proniewiczes' departure from Iwacewicze:
1. What military action in the area between May 1941 and March 1942 would have resulted in the necessity to gather orphans into a children's transport?
- The German offensive in the area began in June 1942, completing in August.
2. What agency would have organized this effort? How would an orphan have been assigned to Mrs. Proniewicz? Did she volunteer, or would she have had a soldier or relief worker show up at her door with a baby saying "Here, have an orphan!"?
3. In 1944, they would have been fleeing the Red Army. They ended up in Weiden, which was then under Nazi control
- Why would a Polish family run to Nazi-ruled territory?
- The mass expulsion of Poles from Belarusian territory didn't begin until 1945.
Cross-referencing the testimony with the widely-accepted history of the region in 1941-1944 has given me reason to question a number of details of Mrs. Proniewicz's report. Anyone with any information on the background of these events is encouraged to post a reply to this entry, or contact me via email.
5 comments:
My father was born in Wlasowce, Iwacewicze, in 1926. He was from a Polish Catholic family and deported to Siberia with his family about 1939/1940 as were most Polish families when the USSR occupied the state.
He saw his mother and grandparents die at the camps, his father was killed before they left Poland.
I intend to try to make a visit to belarus some time next year to see the village he was born and lived in.
Thanks for your comment. This is helpful in adding information on the fate of Poles in western Belarus in the days leading up to, as well as after, WW2. Are there any resources on Soviet policy towards non-Belarussian ethnic groups in the Brest region you could point me to? While it likely won't give any clues about my father's background, it would help in understanding the political context of this region that would have shaped his background.
Max,
Sorry this is years later, I am still at a loss to try to find records from this area. I wrote to Polish records in Warsaw to ask if Church records would have stayed with the church and now be in Belarus or would they have been transferred to Poland when the partition took place. I was informed I would have to write in Polish not English and also prove my Polish Residency. Neither of which I can do. So I don't even know where we can find any information on our fathers and families. It's not easy researching in other countries, I wonder if you have got any further?
Max
What a coincidence….my father was Konstanty Wlosowicz ( unfortunately he passed away in 2000)
Hi Gillian,
Thanks for your comment. While I haven't been updating this blog lately, I haven't let my research slide.
I had some really good luck with the International Tracing Service of the Red Cross in Germany. They were able to hook me up with my father's complete file while he was in the IRO's custody, until he was sent to the US. I've also spoken with a historian in Bavaria, who was able to give me some details about the work camp he was interned in with his Polish caretaker. The ITS has indicated that they may be able to connect me with her family, in Poland, should they wish to be contacted. I haven't started the paperwork on that yet, but will in the near future.
If your father spent any time in the care of the IRO, even if only to be repatriated, they might be able to point you in some directions. They took meticulous records of all cases, which are now housed in the ITS's archive in Bad Arolsen. You can find more information at their website: https://www.its-arolsen.org/en/inquiries-by-family-members/application-forms/index.html
The turnaround time on requests can be anywhere from 6 weeks to a year, but if there's anything there, they will let you know first that they have something, and then send copies after you fill out a release form.
Thanks much & good luck!
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