“Zorza” Weekly Editorial Office
Mokotowska Street 43
00-551 Warsaw
“Missing persons list”
In response to the call for completing the Katyn list, published in the press, I’m sending the data regarding my father along with several attachments (photocopies), which I’m still in possession with, as most of them had remained in the file on the case of death recognition from 1948. At that time, the materials filed were irretrievable.
QUESTIONNAIRE
| 1. | Stanisław Leon Okoński, son of Aleksander and Pelagia née Rzepkowska, born 6 April 1911 in Sulejów (presently Piotrków Trybunalski Voivodeship), lately resident in Sulejów. An internee in the Kozelsk camp. |
| 2. | Secondary diploma and a year of law studies. Before the war employed as a post office clerk in Sulejów. |
| 3. | Ensign – reservist, infantry. Lack of other data. |
| 4. | Doesn’t concern. |
| 5. | According to the available information he got into custody in village Mamoty [Momoty] Górne, Zamość district. |
| 6. | Letters came from the camp in Kozelsk – a photocopy of one of them enclosed along with a photocopy of the envelope. Cousin Bronisław Okoński is mentioned in the letter, who escaped the transport and managed to get back to Sulejów. I spoke with him. A month after his return, he was arrested by the Gestapo and died in Auschwitz camp. The occupation press listed the surname and my husband’s data as a person murdered in Katyń. The issue of the newspaper (probably “ Gazeta Krakowska” or “ Gazeta |
Częstochowska ”) remained in the court file.
7. Find attached the photocopies of the preserved documents, including the court’s decision of declaring dead (it appears from the reasons for judgement that the death in Katyń was sufficiently documented; ruling issued in 1948). Attached is a statement from PCK from 1944 about the exhumation, where Stanisław Leon Okoński, ensign, is listed under registration number 0786. An officer’s book and identification card was found by him.
8. Data: [...]
P.S. I don’t recall the year it happened, but I received a form from my husband while he was in Kozelsk, where I was allowed to write 25 words. After the message was accepted by the Gestapo, I sent it.
Kozelsk, 20 November 1939.
My Dearly Beloved Haniusiuńka and my Lovely Michaś! The Dearest!
I am currently in the USSR in Kozelsk, don’t you be worried about me, I’m well, doing fine, I would really like to be able to find out the same from you. I’m not going to elaborate on my situation. The fact I’m doing well and things are fine – these are the most important things. I miss you very much and I’m really worried about your health. It is beyond description, my beloved Hanusiuńka, how much I miss you all and how much I am worried about you. You will just feel that, Hanusiuńka.
As soon as you get my letter, please write if you, Mummy, Daddy, Irka, Henryka, Kazik are well. Please hug our lovely Michaś, kiss him, tell him that daddy loves him very much and please tell me much about Him. But I beg you, Hanuśka, to tell me the whole truth, because whether the truth is more or less fortunate or unfortunate, it is our common fate and has to be shared between us. I know you reached as far as Kozienice, where you were supposed to return home from, I found it out from Bronka Okonók [?], I met him and gave him a hundred zlotys for you.
I have to leave the space for writing the address information clearly, so I’m kissing you and Michaś a million times, I love you wholeheartedly. Kisses for Mamusia, Tatusia, Irka, Henryka, Kazio, and everybody close to you who you are sharing your fate with. Please tell me in detail about everyone’s health and how everybody is doing. I just ask you to write the truth and soon. I am hoping to return to you soon.
Many hugs and kisses again, please give hugs to Mom and Daddy. Last hugs for you and Michaś.
Forever Yours, Staś
[PS.] Whoever from the family gets the letter, please reply promptly, I am listing my address in the margin.
Turn to daddy, because I’ll write the address in Russian. You will get oriented about the demands concerning the address on the spot, it has to be in Russian anyway. Kisses.
Staś
Станислав Александрович Оконский
Г. Козельск Смоленская область
Почтовый Ящик № 12.