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List: Military families deported to USSR

List of families of Polish military service personnel who were deported to the USSR, prepared by the Polish Army in 1943.

Full document scans can be viewed online at www.pism.co.uk/page5_documents.htm (KOL 138/283-287)

The original documents (reference: KOL 138/283-287) are located in the Polish Institute and Sikorski Museum, 20 Prince’s Gate, London, England SW7 1PT. Tel +44 (0)207 589 9249.

DETAILS:
This list was put together by Lt. Col. Rudnicki, the past Military Attaché of the Republic of Poland to the USSR and his staff. It includes those Polish exiles whose family members (parents, siblings, or children) served or are still in active service of the Polish armed forces during the time of this present war. More distant relatives have been included in this list only in the case that they live together at the same address with their closest kin.

This list is based on direct registration of the exiles with the local delegates or representatives, and in accordance with records and searches received by the Military Families Branch of the Ministry of Defense from the Office for Assistance to Military Families and POW’s of the Polish Army in the East and from the Polish Red Cross.

This list was completed on January 1, 1943, but it must be taken into account the records were gathered considerably before this date. Because of this there may be cases, where the name of a family may appear on this list giving the impression that they were still in the U.S.S.R. as at January 1, 1943, when in fact they had already been evacuated to the Middle East. It is also possible that that addresses given may not be accurate in cases of some families on this list who were resettled elsewhere after their registration, about which the Attachés office was not informed.

The first list was by area – listing names of military families living in various areas of exile. An alphabetical list was complied on this basis of this list. Any errors emanate from the general challenges of compiling such a list, such as the size of the project, the inaccuracy and often illegibility of the registrations submitted.

This list may not include a certain number of the families of those soldiers who were enlisted in the Polish Army in the USSR during 1942 and were shortly transferred to the Middle East. As these enlistments are recorded, their families were taken into consideration in an additional list which will be a supplement to Register No. II. A supplemental list will also be completed of families deported to the USSR whose addresses have not yet been confirmed or are incomplete.

This list was published for the following reasons:
1. To make available the registration data to as large a number of the members of the Armed forces;
2. To allow separated member so families to contact each other who, on the basis of the addresses included, will be able to send information about themselves to exiles still remaining in the USSR;
3. To provide accurate addresses to those interested who cannot make contact with their families in the USSR because wrong or inaccurate addresses;
4. To allow soldiers of the Polish Armed Forces whose families remained in the USSR and were not included on the list to register their families so that their names are included on the supplemental list;
5. To allow anyone who finds out that the family of a soldier who has died, is missing in action or a prisoner of war is not on the list, to register for them;
6. To allow for the submission of corrections by those interested of all basic omissions and errors that are found in the list;
7. To assist authorities and their agents interested in conducting assistance and evacuation operations for the exiles.
All comments on the subject of adding to and correcting this list by interested soldiers or civilians were to be directed as follows:
• In Great Britain: MINISTRY OF DEFENSE, MILITARY FAMILIES BRANCH, 1 Vandon Street, London, S.W.1.
• In the Middle East: THE OFFICE OF ASSISTANCE TO THE FAMILIES OF MILITARY FAMILIES AND PRISONERS OF WAR, Polish Forces 505. M.E., who sent these letters collectively to the Ministry of Defense, Military Families Branch for the purpose of having the corrections to appears in the next list.

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