Gołębiewko, 16 September 1989
“Zorza” weekly
“The list of the missing”
Mokotowska Street 43
00-551 Warsaw
Jan Staszak, son of Ludwik and Antonina, born on 28 November 1898 [in] Mościska, Krasnystaw district. Last place of residence: Kostopol. He was interned and deported to the USSR, to Ostashkov in Kalinin Oblast, pochtovyj jaschik [mailbox] no. 37, married, secondary education, senior constable, employed at the Polish State Police station in Kostopol. On 18 September 1939, he was arrested at the police station in Kostopol together with other employees present there.
The first letter that I received from my husband Jan Staszak was sent on 29 November 1939 from the camp in Ostashkov. The second letter didn’t have a postage date, but it contained the following statement: “On 21 December I got your postcard” – and it was sent from Ostashkov. The third letter also didn’t have a postage date, but it contained the following statement: “I wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year” – and it was sent from Ostashkov. I didn’t receive any more letters from my husband.
On 13 April 1940, together with my two underage sons, Tadeusz and Ludwik, I was deported to a township in Kostanay Oblast, Ordzenikidzewski [?] region, farm no. 3 – nobody provided any justification for our deportation into the USSR. We stayed there until April 1946.
I would like to emphasize that apart from these three letters, I didn’t receive any other communication from my husband Jan Staszak and I don’t know what happened to him afterwards. I tried to find my husband Jan Staszak through the Polish Red Cross and other institutions. On 7 August 1967, I received a letter from the Registrar’s Office in the Śródmieście district of Warsaw (file no. I/5597/50) – it was an excerpt from a death certificate, stating that Jan Staszak, born on 28 November 1898, died on 9 May 1946, however, no place of death was specified.
In 1977, I remarried and changed my name from Staszak to Bulska.