DUDZIŃSKI

Warsaw, 30 January 1989

Editor, Engineer Jędrzej Tucholski
Catholic Family Weekly “Zorza”
Mokotowska Street 43
00-551 Warsaw

With kind regards and utmost respect, I am sending you the information concerning two officers murdered during the Katyń operation.

1. My father:

–Władysław Dudziński (according to “Lista Katyńska” by A. Moszyński, London 1949: no. AW-2884 and WO-2884);


Second Lieutenant (Dziennik Personalny [Personnel Journal] 11/28, decree from 1 July 1925, location 439) transferred to the reserve of the administrative officer corps (or already a lieutenant), born on 9 February 1899 in Warsaw, son of Władysław and Marianna, née Soporek, Roman Catholic, married to Jadwiga, née Smolińska; an official of the Polish Bank, residing in Warsaw at Czerwonego Krzyża Street 21/23 (now Jaracza Street 3, flat 3) until August 1939;
erroneously listed as “Dudyński” in the Amtliches Material, and erroneously labeled as a “non-commissioned officer” in the Kozelsk list of persons reported missing;
he was detained in the USSR, in the town of Kozelsk, Smolensk Oblast, post office box no. 12, from where he sent:

a) the letter from 24 November 1939 – in my possession,

b) the letter or postcard from 9 January 1940 – which he mentioned in the next postcard from 10 February 1940 – but which ultimately did not reach the addressees!,

c) the postcard from 10 February 1940 to the Search for Families Office [the Polish Red Cross’ Office for Information and Search?] in Warsaw, Wiejska Street 9 – in my possession.

I also have two letters from the Polish Red Cross addressed to my mother, from 14 September 1943 and 11 May 1946, informing that my father is on the list of the persons exhumed in Katyń near Smoleńsk.

2. My Uncle (husband of my mother’s sister)

–Wilhelm Tokarzewski, cavalry captain, born in 1888 in the estate of Szepinki, Kamieniec Voivodeship, son of Wilhelm and Eleonora, née Smolińska. He worked at the Polish General Staff, from where he retired and then worked as an official at the PKO [Powszechna Kasa Oszczędności – General Savings Bank] until 1939, and resided in Warsaw at Narbutta Street 42, flat 3, until August 1939.

–he was detained in the Soviet camp in the town of Starobelsk, Volgograd Oblast, post office box no. 15, from where he sent:

a) the postcard from 28 November 1939 – in my possession

b) the postcard from 20 December 1939 – in my possession

I also have a postcard from the Polish Red Cross to wife Irena Tokarzewska, from 8 May 1940, informing that on 6 January 1940 Wilhelm Tokarzewski was a detainee of the prisoners of war camp in Starobelsk.

I wish you good health