People

(Sydney, Australia)
Stefan.Wisniowski@Kresy-Siberia.org

Foundation President
Kresy-Siberia Group Moderator
Kresy-Siberia Virtual Museum Administrator

Stefan was born in Montreal, Canada as the eldest child of Zbigniew and Maria (Żytkowicz) Wiśniowski. His father was deported from “osada Warszawka”, Brody, to Soviet captivity in Archangel on 10 February 1940, was evacuated with General Anders Army to Iran, where he attended the Polish cadet school in Nazareth and Barbara in Palestine, and then to England.

Stefan’s maternal grandfather, Władysław Żytkowicz, was a member of the 1928 and 1936 Polish Olympic Ski Teams and an officer in the Polish Army that evacuated through Romania in September 1939, regrouped in Lebanon as the Polish Third Carpathian Rifles, defended Tobruk against Nazi German forces, and helped push the German army out of Italy as part of the Second Polish Corps under General Anders. Stefan’s mother survived the war in German-occupied Warsaw and was smuggled out to join Władysław in Italy and then to England.

Stefan founded the Kresy-Siberia Group in 2001 as an internet discussion group, concerned with research, remembrance, and recognition of the Polish Citizens of all faiths and ethnicities that were persecuted by the Soviet Union during the Second World War. He also established the Kresy-Siberia Foundation, headquartered in Warsaw, in 2008 and still serves as its Foundation President. He officially opened the Kresy-Siberia Virtual Museum in the Senate of the Republic of Poland on 17 September 2009. In recognition of his service, Stefan was decorated with the Eastern Borderlands Heritage Medal (“Dziedzictwo Kresów Wschodnich”) and received Poland’s Gold Cross Service Medal (“Złoty Krzyż Zasługi”) from the President of Poland.

Stefan started his career as a professional architect, has worked as a strategic management consultant, as a corporate executive, and as a director of corporate and non-profit boards, where he currently serves as a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Company Directors. He has Polish, Canadian, and Australian citizenship, is remarried and has two daughters 30 and 27.

Foundation Executive Committee Member

Iwona Krason was born in London to Ryszard and Zdzislawa Magiera (nee Snuszka).

Her father Ryszard was deported from Lwow to Kazakhstan in April 1940. He joined ‘Anders Army’ in April 1942, served throughout the Italian campaign and was demobilised in the UK.

Zdzislawa was the youngest of 3 daughters born to an osadnik and his wife in Chorow nad Horyniem, Wolyn. The whole family were deported to Wologoda in February 1940. Zdzislawa came to the UK via Teheran, India and the Koja camp in Uganda.

Iwona became a member of the Kresy-Siberia Yahoo Group in 2012. Her involvement has evolved from helping and later organising UK events to Foundation level where she has been part of global team which organises the Kresy-Siberia September Conference in Warsaw.

(Warsaw, Poland)
Stanley.Urban@Kresy-Siberia.org

Foundation Executive Committee Member
Kresy-Siberia Group Moderator

Stanley Urban was born in Hamtramck, Michigan to Waclaw and Janina Urban (Kulczycka). Janina’s father, Augustyn was a Legionaire veteran of the Bolshevik war who obtained a military land grant in Korsuny, Polesie. His wife and 7 children (aged 3-13) were deported to Archangelsk in 1940 and all escaped with Anders’ Army.

Stan was active in Polish Scouting, Polish-American Congress and the Orchard Lake Schools in the Detroit area before moving to Warsaw in 1991 to restructure and manage previously state-owned enterprises.

(London, UK)
Mark.Krasoń@Kresy-Siberia.org

Privacy Commissioner
Kresy-Siberia Group Moderator

Marek Krason was born in London. His father was born in Tarnobrzeg and before the war lived in Drohobycz, where he was the trainer for Junak Drohobycz. He was interned in Hungry, escaped and joined the Carpathian Brigade and then the 3DSK. He was a veteran of Tobruk and the battles of the Italian campaign. After the war, he settled in London working for the SPK, Dziennik Polski and Radio Free Europe. My mother was born in Riga, in a Polish emigre family. She was deported to Siberia in 1940, but escaped and was able to join the Polish armed forces in Persia. She served as a nurse and then as a Ward Sister in the Italian Campaign. She settled initially in Scotland, in Inverary but moved to London where she met my father and they married. Marek is active in the ZHP, and he and his wife Iwona support this group in London. They have organised events in London and have helped plan and put together this Groups conferences and re-unions in Warszawa. They have represented this group in official events in London, Cannock, the National Arboretum, Warszawa and Bialystock.

(Las Cruces, New Mexico, USA)
Kris.Nietubyć@Kresy-Siberia.org

Kresy-Siberia Group Moderator

Kris was born in Chicago, Illinois, USA, to Zygmunt and Wiesława Nietubyc (née Puchta). Wiesława was born in Warsaw, Poland, and lived there with her family when WWII began. They lived under German occupation until the Warsaw Uprising ended in October 1944. Her family, along with thousands of other civilians were then deported to forced labor camps in Germany. When the war in Europe ended in May 1945 they spent another five years in various Displaced Persons Camps in Germany until finally emigrating to the United States in 1950. Zygmunt was born in Wilno, Poland, and lived with his family in Smorgonie, then located on the Eastern Borderlands of Poland, the Kresy. Shortly after the Russian invasion of Eastern Poland Zygmunt’s father, Aleksander, the Postmaster in Smorgonie and Polish-Bolshevik War Veteran, was arrested by the NKVD and spent months in various prisons until being deported to a GULAG in Vladivostok, Russia, where he worked in a quarry for almost a year. Aleksander was able to join the Polish Army In Russia in early 1942, and served until the end of the war. The rest of the family was arrested by the NKVD and deported to a collective farm in Northern Kazakhstan on 13 April 1940. When “amnesty” was granted the family made their way to Persia. Zygmunt’s sister, Jadwiga, joined the Pomocnicza Służba Kobiet (PSK) in Tashkent in 1942 and served until the end of the war. Zygmunt and his mother Kazimiera ended up being sent to Colonia Santa Rosa in Leon, Mexico, after evacuation from Russia and lived there for three years before emigrating to the United States in 1946. Zygmunt’s family finally reunited in the United States in 1951.

Kris joined the Kresy-Siberia Yahoo Group in 2009 but was not very active, instead relying on his brother Mark to brief the rest of the family. In 2017 Kris participated in a video interview where he was able to talk more about his family’s experiences in Poland during the war years. Realizing how little he actually knew about his family he joined the Kresy-Siberia Facebook Group in late 2017 and has made many discoveries in a short time. His main goal now is to tell his family’s story as part of history classes in the local school district where he lives.