WOJCIECH PACZYŃSKI

Inowrocław, 4 October 1989

Editorial Board
of the “Zorza” weekly for Catholic families

Having read in “Gazeta Pomorska” an interview with Mr. Jędrzej Tucholski about the persons murdered in Katyń, I hasten to submit information about my father.

Since my mother died six weeks after my birth in 1936, and my father was murdered in Katyń, I was raised by my mother’s family, without any contact with the family of my father. All family documents went missing during the hostilities, and for this reason the data presented below are incomplete.

1. My father, Władysław Paczyński, son of Józef and Julianna née Makowska, was born on

5 September 1908 in Opożdżew (presently the commune of Warka, Palczew district, Radomskie Voivodeship) and baptized in the Roman Catholic parish of Wrociszew.

2. Last place of residence: Białystok.

3. Education:


[in] 1927 he graduated from secondary school and passed his school-leaving exam (it was probably a secondary school in the Ursynów district of Warsaw);
[in] 1928 he took part in a State Summer Course of Physical Education in Wągrowiec;
in the years 1929–1930 he received military training in the School for Infantry Cadet Officers in the Reserve in Zambrów, which he completed in the rank of cadet platoon leader;
in 1930 he commenced studies at the Central Institute of Physical Education in Warsaw, and obtained an MA in physical education;
last place of work: secondary school in Białystok.

4. Military service:

infantry second lieutenant, occupational specialty: probably medium machine guns,
in 1939 in the reserve, Poznań Army.
5. A friend from Opole has a letter from my father dated March or April 1940. The letter was sent from the camp in Kozelsk; a few years back I had the opportunity to read it.

6. I have a photograph of my father in uniform with second lieutenant insignia, but unfortunately I can make a copy of it neither in Bydgoszcz nor in Inowrocław (due to lack of paper). Since it is the only photograph of my father in my possession, I am not sending it for fear of losing it.