30 December 1939
My dear Paulcia! [?]
I’m sending another postcard to [?] you, as I suppose [?] you didn’t receive the first.
Up until now I’m safe and sound. I’m in Russia.
Paulcia! Please [fragment missing] Stefcia [illegible, fragments missing] and inform [?] her that I’m alive.
Write me whether you’re all in good health. As for me [?] Paulcia, wait patiently, [fragment missing] these thoughts [fragment missing] and dreams [?] will come true [?] I wish you all the best for the New [Year].
Wait patiently for my return.
Stefania Prędka
[…]
Editorial Board of the “Zorza” weekly
Warsaw
With regard to the article about the persons missing in the USSR, I would like to inform you about my brother Franciszek Gugała, who was incarcerated at the camp in Ostashkov.
My brother Franciszek Gugała was born on 2 November 1909 in Zarzecze, formerly Rzeszów district, as the son of Jan and Waleria n ée Kotula.
At the outbreak of the war he served as the deputy chief constable of the police station in Tarnawatka, formerly Tomaszów Lubelski district.
As the German troops were approaching Tomaszów Lubelski, the station in Tarnawatka received an order to retreat to Volhynia, to the vicinity of Kowel. In the vicinity of Włodzimierz Wołyński, my brother was captured by the Russians and interned.
He wrote about his incarceration at the camp in Ostashkov to his fiancée, Paulina Strzęp. Up to this day, I have a fragment of the postcard which my brother sent to his fiancée. The second part of the postcard, which included his address in Ostashkov, was sent to his father and went missing.
I enclose a Xerox copy of my fragment of the postcard.
Stefania Prędka, n ée Gugała