OWCZARSKI

Catholic Family Weekly
“Zorza”

In response to the appeal of your Editorial Board in connection with the publication of the list of Polish POWs reported missing while interned on the territory of the USSR in 1939, I would like to submit data concerning my Father, Colonel Józef Owczarski.

Point 1. Józef Owczarski, son of Marcin, born on 19 March 1893 in Padniewo near Mogilno, Poznań Voivodeship.

Point 2. Dubno in Volhynia.

Point 3. Higher Trade School, a trader.

Point 4. A Colonel (professional officer) of the 43. Infantry Regiment of the Bajon Legion in Dubno, in which he served as Quartermaster.

Point 5. Captured by the Soviets in 1939.

Point 6. His final letter was sent from the camp in Kozelsk, dated 24 January 1940.

[…]

Point 8. My father fought in the Greater Poland Uprising.

Although he was an invalid – he had lost his right arm – he fought in the Polish–Bolshevik War of 1920 and was awarded the Virtuti Militari Cross (medal no. 72) in recognition of his exceptional bravery.

He was identified during the exhumation carried out in Katyn in 1943 by the International Red Cross and entered in the book listing the victims of Katyn, which was published by the Germans in the same year. A medallion, the Virtuti Militari award document, and four letters from his wife were found on his body.

I have also attached a photocopy of [his] photograph and of other extant documents.

Yours sincerely,
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