Post by kaima on Aug 13, 2012 0:04:38 GMT -7
The full list of archival documents available online at:
www.pism.co.uk/archive/archive-documents.html
WWII Polish archival lists online
The Polish Institute and Sikorski Museum have now made available online some very interesting documents for those looking for information concerning their family members who were in the Polish
Provinces under Soviet Occupation between 1939-1941.
A. The File KOL. 138/files 283-287 in the Sikorksi Archives contains the list of families with members serving in the Polish
Armed Forces and who (the families) were deported to the USSR between 1939-1941 by the Soviets. From a quick look, it seems that
"serving in the Polish Armed Forces" in this context, covers all those who served (a) in the Polish Army in Poland during the September 1939 campaign against the German and Soviet Armies and were subsequently reported as wounded, dead in battle, missing or taken POW (b) soldiers of all ranks and civilians who managed to cross the
Polish-Hungarian or Polish-Romanian border and joined the Polish Government in Exile in France and created (together with volunteers from France and other west- European countries) the Polish Army in France (some 80,000) (c) those who were evacuated from France in Dunkerk (20,000) and other Polish soldiers and civilians who followed the Polish Government in Exile to London or joined the Polish Army directly in London by other means, and finally, (d) the some 70,000 recruited to the Anders Army between December 1941 and March 1943 from among the Polish citizens from the Polish Provinces of Bialystok, Nowogrodek (so-called west-Belorussian SSR), Wilno, Polesie, Wolyn, Lwow, Stanislawow and Tarnopol (so-called west-Ukrainian SSR) and that
were deported or
exiled to the Soviet hinterlands between 1939 and
June 14, 1941.
All these different sub-categories of servicemen in the Polish Armed forces included Jews. Likewise, there were Jews in each of the 4 great mass deportations from the above mentioned Polish Provinces, although their precise number is not always known, as
follows:
1. February 10, 1940: Deportation of Settlers and of
employees of Polish Forest Administration and families - total
number of deportees according to Soviet documents: about
140,000. Ethnic breakdown known in scholarly research: ethnic Poles- 81.68% (109,233 persons);
Ukrainians - 8.76% (or about 11,720 persons);
Belorussians - 8.08% (10,802 persons);
Germans - 0.11% (152 persons);
others - 1.37% (1,835 persons).
While it is highly unlikely that there were any Jews among the so called Settlers, it is not at all unlikely that there were some - be it at a percentage as low as that of the Germans - among the
Forestry Administration, mainly in east-Galicia (where the percentage of Jews in the Polish State administration was 3 times
higher than in the rest of the country together). Moreover, it is not
excluded that they had their men included in either sub-category (a) or (c) above.
2. April 1940: Deportation of family members of "the families of former officers of the Polish Army, policemen, prison guards, gendarmes, intelligence personnel, former landowners, manufacturers and high functionaries of the former Polish State" as per resolution No. 298-127 of USSR Sovnarkom of March 2, 1940. These are the family members of the militaries included in sub-category (a) above and of civilians who were all already imprisoned during September-October 1939 (and who were ultimately, the victims of the Katyn massacres). NKVD Directive 892/B, dated March 7, signed by Beria, further detailed that were to be deported also the "registered members of families [...] whose heads of family at some point fled over the border, are in hiding or are also wanted," i.e., the families of those included in sub-categories (b) and (c) above.
Total number of persons deported estimated at 60,667, ethnic breakdown (of main groups only):
Poles - 41,000 (68.3%);
Ukrainians - 8,100 (13.5%);
Bielorussians - 6,900 (11.5%) and
Jews - 2,500 (4.17%).
3. June 29-30, 1940 - deportation known as 'deportation of refugees'. Total number of deportees accordng to Soviet documents: 92,863 refugees, both in whole families and odinochki (single persons).
Ethnic breakdown (main groups only):
Jews - 78,562 (84.6%),
Poles - 9,983 (10.8%),
Ukrainians - 2,062 (2.2%).
The regional split stood at 33% from west-Belorussia (Polish Provinces of Bialystok and Nowgrodek) against 67% from west-Ukraine (Wolyn, Polesie, Lwow, Stanislawow and
Tarnopol) and, in west-Ukraine itself, 48% of the
refugees deported
came from the single oblast of Lwow. Testimonies in
the east-Galician Yizkor Books prove that the substantial part of
these deported refugees did not at all originate in western and central Poland, but were members of the communities from the Districts of the very Province of Lwow itself that, according to the final Soviet-German Agreement concerning the Soviet-German border (September 28, 1939), were included in the German Zone of Occupation.
These whole communities, (totalling some 40,000) who either followed the Soviets into the Soviet Zone or were expelled into it by the Germans between September 22 and October 5-8, 1939 (when the border was sealed) were legally defined as refugees (bezhentsy), by the Sovnarkom resolution No. 298-127 of March 2, 1940 defining refugees as "all persons who arrived in the western Oblasts of Ukraine and Belorussia after the beginning of military actions in Poland," more precisely, as further detailed in Directive No. 2372/B, "after the date of 1 September 1939". Among these, a certain number valid males of age of military service are probably included in sub-category (d) above, i.e., those recruited to Anders Army in the Soviet hinterland.
4. The last mass deportation, that began on June 14, 1941, included all the territories incorporated into the Soviet Union (including also the Baltic States, Bessarabia, Bukovina, etc), included local Populations mixed with Polish citizens (Jews and non-Jews alike) and mainly, was interrupted by the invading Germans.(consequently the deportees trains were later represented by Soviet propaganda as trains of evacuees). There is no breakdown available of the precise number of Polish citizens among the total of deportees and even less of the number of Polish Jews among them. Actual estimate of total global number of Polish citizens deported stand at 30,000-40,000, all ethnic groups combined. Nonetheless, there were, according to the testimonies in the east-Galician Yizkor Books, Jews among them and it is not excluded that they volunteered to the Anders Army.
The listings are typed so are easy to read. List available at:
pism.co.uk/Docs/SpisRodzin.pdf
B. The files KOL. 138/296 and 138/297 are lists of
Polish families
(civilians) evacuated from the USSR in August 1942, respectively A-E and F-M. These are civilian family members of the soldiers of the Anders Army recruited in the Soviet hinterlands and who accompanied the some 70,000 servicemen of the Anders Army
leaving the USSR at the end of 1942. According to the Polish sources
there were 5,000 Jewish servicemen. Jewish scholars tended to
downsize the number to 3,500-4,000 (but never actually proved their
downsized numbers with listings of draftees). They announced, however, between 1,800 and 2,100 accompanying civilians, of whom about 870 orphans. Meaning that, concerning the Polish Jewish civilians evacuated from the USSR by the Anders Army, not all were necessarily linked to servicemen.
The listing are typed, easy to read. They contain surname, name, year of birth and destination of evacuation from the USSR
(A - Africa, T - Teheran, I - Ispahan).
List of A-E at :
pism.co.uk/Docs/KOL%20138_296.pdf
List of F-M at :
pism.co.uk/Docs/KOL%20138_297.pdf
Unfortunately it seems that no list is available for
N-Z.
Warning for all listings above: the spelling is Polish spelling; take this
into consideration when searching surnames you are used to spell the German or American way.
The full list of archival documents available online at:
www.pism.co.uk/archive/archive-documents.html
www.pism.co.uk/archive/archive-documents.html
WWII Polish archival lists online
The Polish Institute and Sikorski Museum have now made available online some very interesting documents for those looking for information concerning their family members who were in the Polish
Provinces under Soviet Occupation between 1939-1941.
A. The File KOL. 138/files 283-287 in the Sikorksi Archives contains the list of families with members serving in the Polish
Armed Forces and who (the families) were deported to the USSR between 1939-1941 by the Soviets. From a quick look, it seems that
"serving in the Polish Armed Forces" in this context, covers all those who served (a) in the Polish Army in Poland during the September 1939 campaign against the German and Soviet Armies and were subsequently reported as wounded, dead in battle, missing or taken POW (b) soldiers of all ranks and civilians who managed to cross the
Polish-Hungarian or Polish-Romanian border and joined the Polish Government in Exile in France and created (together with volunteers from France and other west- European countries) the Polish Army in France (some 80,000) (c) those who were evacuated from France in Dunkerk (20,000) and other Polish soldiers and civilians who followed the Polish Government in Exile to London or joined the Polish Army directly in London by other means, and finally, (d) the some 70,000 recruited to the Anders Army between December 1941 and March 1943 from among the Polish citizens from the Polish Provinces of Bialystok, Nowogrodek (so-called west-Belorussian SSR), Wilno, Polesie, Wolyn, Lwow, Stanislawow and Tarnopol (so-called west-Ukrainian SSR) and that
were deported or
exiled to the Soviet hinterlands between 1939 and
June 14, 1941.
All these different sub-categories of servicemen in the Polish Armed forces included Jews. Likewise, there were Jews in each of the 4 great mass deportations from the above mentioned Polish Provinces, although their precise number is not always known, as
follows:
1. February 10, 1940: Deportation of Settlers and of
employees of Polish Forest Administration and families - total
number of deportees according to Soviet documents: about
140,000. Ethnic breakdown known in scholarly research: ethnic Poles- 81.68% (109,233 persons);
Ukrainians - 8.76% (or about 11,720 persons);
Belorussians - 8.08% (10,802 persons);
Germans - 0.11% (152 persons);
others - 1.37% (1,835 persons).
While it is highly unlikely that there were any Jews among the so called Settlers, it is not at all unlikely that there were some - be it at a percentage as low as that of the Germans - among the
Forestry Administration, mainly in east-Galicia (where the percentage of Jews in the Polish State administration was 3 times
higher than in the rest of the country together). Moreover, it is not
excluded that they had their men included in either sub-category (a) or (c) above.
2. April 1940: Deportation of family members of "the families of former officers of the Polish Army, policemen, prison guards, gendarmes, intelligence personnel, former landowners, manufacturers and high functionaries of the former Polish State" as per resolution No. 298-127 of USSR Sovnarkom of March 2, 1940. These are the family members of the militaries included in sub-category (a) above and of civilians who were all already imprisoned during September-October 1939 (and who were ultimately, the victims of the Katyn massacres). NKVD Directive 892/B, dated March 7, signed by Beria, further detailed that were to be deported also the "registered members of families [...] whose heads of family at some point fled over the border, are in hiding or are also wanted," i.e., the families of those included in sub-categories (b) and (c) above.
Total number of persons deported estimated at 60,667, ethnic breakdown (of main groups only):
Poles - 41,000 (68.3%);
Ukrainians - 8,100 (13.5%);
Bielorussians - 6,900 (11.5%) and
Jews - 2,500 (4.17%).
3. June 29-30, 1940 - deportation known as 'deportation of refugees'. Total number of deportees accordng to Soviet documents: 92,863 refugees, both in whole families and odinochki (single persons).
Ethnic breakdown (main groups only):
Jews - 78,562 (84.6%),
Poles - 9,983 (10.8%),
Ukrainians - 2,062 (2.2%).
The regional split stood at 33% from west-Belorussia (Polish Provinces of Bialystok and Nowgrodek) against 67% from west-Ukraine (Wolyn, Polesie, Lwow, Stanislawow and
Tarnopol) and, in west-Ukraine itself, 48% of the
refugees deported
came from the single oblast of Lwow. Testimonies in
the east-Galician Yizkor Books prove that the substantial part of
these deported refugees did not at all originate in western and central Poland, but were members of the communities from the Districts of the very Province of Lwow itself that, according to the final Soviet-German Agreement concerning the Soviet-German border (September 28, 1939), were included in the German Zone of Occupation.
These whole communities, (totalling some 40,000) who either followed the Soviets into the Soviet Zone or were expelled into it by the Germans between September 22 and October 5-8, 1939 (when the border was sealed) were legally defined as refugees (bezhentsy), by the Sovnarkom resolution No. 298-127 of March 2, 1940 defining refugees as "all persons who arrived in the western Oblasts of Ukraine and Belorussia after the beginning of military actions in Poland," more precisely, as further detailed in Directive No. 2372/B, "after the date of 1 September 1939". Among these, a certain number valid males of age of military service are probably included in sub-category (d) above, i.e., those recruited to Anders Army in the Soviet hinterland.
4. The last mass deportation, that began on June 14, 1941, included all the territories incorporated into the Soviet Union (including also the Baltic States, Bessarabia, Bukovina, etc), included local Populations mixed with Polish citizens (Jews and non-Jews alike) and mainly, was interrupted by the invading Germans.(consequently the deportees trains were later represented by Soviet propaganda as trains of evacuees). There is no breakdown available of the precise number of Polish citizens among the total of deportees and even less of the number of Polish Jews among them. Actual estimate of total global number of Polish citizens deported stand at 30,000-40,000, all ethnic groups combined. Nonetheless, there were, according to the testimonies in the east-Galician Yizkor Books, Jews among them and it is not excluded that they volunteered to the Anders Army.
The listings are typed so are easy to read. List available at:
pism.co.uk/Docs/SpisRodzin.pdf
B. The files KOL. 138/296 and 138/297 are lists of
Polish families
(civilians) evacuated from the USSR in August 1942, respectively A-E and F-M. These are civilian family members of the soldiers of the Anders Army recruited in the Soviet hinterlands and who accompanied the some 70,000 servicemen of the Anders Army
leaving the USSR at the end of 1942. According to the Polish sources
there were 5,000 Jewish servicemen. Jewish scholars tended to
downsize the number to 3,500-4,000 (but never actually proved their
downsized numbers with listings of draftees). They announced, however, between 1,800 and 2,100 accompanying civilians, of whom about 870 orphans. Meaning that, concerning the Polish Jewish civilians evacuated from the USSR by the Anders Army, not all were necessarily linked to servicemen.
The listing are typed, easy to read. They contain surname, name, year of birth and destination of evacuation from the USSR
(A - Africa, T - Teheran, I - Ispahan).
List of A-E at :
pism.co.uk/Docs/KOL%20138_296.pdf
List of F-M at :
pism.co.uk/Docs/KOL%20138_297.pdf
Unfortunately it seems that no list is available for
N-Z.
Warning for all listings above: the spelling is Polish spelling; take this
into consideration when searching surnames you are used to spell the German or American way.
The full list of archival documents available online at:
www.pism.co.uk/archive/archive-documents.html