Introduction
Although we have
heard in the past that some members of the
Wajszczuk family participated during the 19th
and 20th century in the resistance and fighting
against the occupants, including Russia and then
the Soviet Union, we do not know their precise
number, their identities or full stories. As far
as we know, nobody from the Podlasie branch of
the family - in particular from the immediate
Wajszczuk family in Siedlce – died in the course
of the last war in a Soviet POW camp, althought
Zbigniew (0062) was a prisoner-of-war there (see
») -
or in GULAG.
We know about
one member of the Zamosc branch, Antoni
Wajszczuk (1591), who was fighting the Russians
at the beginning of the 20th century, was
captured and sent to Siberia in 1906, where he
perished and no trace of him was ever found
(see
») There were, though, several members of a family
from Podlasie, (see
»),
who were expelled at the onset od World War II
from the eastern polish territories (”Kresy”),
spend the war years in exile in the Soviet Union
(Kazakhstan), but were able to return to Poland
after the war in 1946 – except one, Kazimierz
(0423) who died in a tank battle as a soldier in
the Polsh Army, which was formed in the Soviet
Union (see
»).
However, several
members of other families from Siedlce, who were
related to the Wajszczuks by marriage, were less
lucky and they were killed in the spring of 1940
in the Soviet Union, in the ”Katyn” massacre. My
childhood memory retained only the names –
during the war and for many years afterwards,
there were no loud conversations about their
fates, they could result in an involuntary trip
to Siberia or worse. Only recently the
information could be gathered, with difficulty,
from their families, who were scattered around
Poland and the World. They belonged to the
Olszewski, Skolimowski, Radoniewicz, Le(h)man
and Wierzejski families – (see
») or (see
») – see below: